The word “Communist” may be used as a sort of evil wand by almost anyone. The afflicted, if he is innocent, can hope for a cure only by entering into a prolonged and complicated course of prescribed incantation. No exception could be made when the charge was leveled, a fortnight ago, at George Marshall’s bright-eyed, energetic new Assistant Secretary of Defense, Anna M. Rosenberg.
Her accuser, one Benjamin Freedman, was a peculiar and disgruntled zealot—a self-styled “excommunicated Jew” who had given financial backing to a wild-eyed, anti-Semitic hate sheet. At his instigation the Senate Armed Services Committee solemnly called a hearing, put an ex-Communist named Ralph De Sola on the witness stand and listened to four hours of hair-raising testimony.
The witness, now an unemployed pressagent, swore that he had seen Anna Rosenberg at meetings of the Communist-front John Reed Club in New York in 1935 and 1936, stuck to his story even when he was led in to confront Mrs. Rosenberg and she denied his charge in every detail. From then on, the committee began to dig up a veritable sea gull’s nest of rotting political fish heads.
De Sola’s testimony began collapsing immediately. Instead of backing him to the hilt, as he had promised, his divorced wife contradicted him completely and added that he was a man of violently unstable emotions. Two New Yorkers, described by De Sola as ex-Communists who could verify his charges, also contradicted him. Fifteen ex-members of the John Reed Club denied ever knowing an Anna Rosenberg. An imposing set of endorsements of Mrs. Rosenberg poured in from George Marshall, Dwight Eisenhower, Bernard Baruch and many others.
Some extremely odd and unpalatable aspects of Benjamin Freedman’s charges began to seep out in testimony. The letter of indictment which he sent the Senate had been drafted with the help of Jew-baiting Gerald L. K. Smith in the offices of Mississippi’s vitriolic Representative John Rankin. Freedman testified that he had been visited by Don Surine (an employee of Wisconsin’s Senator Joe McCarthy) and Edward K. Nellor (an employee of Radio Commentator Fulton Lewis Jr.), who came bearing a letter of introduction from Rabble-Rouser Smith.
With this, Freedman tacked wildly, offered to put up $10,000 to clear Mrs. Rosenberg’s good name. This was unnecessary. The committee cleared her completely and unequivocally, voted 13 to 0 to confirm her for her new job.
More Must-Reads from TIME
- Donald Trump Is TIME's 2024 Person of the Year
- TIME’s Top 10 Photos of 2024
- Why Gen Z Is Drinking Less
- The Best Movies About Cooking
- Why Is Anxiety Worse at Night?
- A Head-to-Toe Guide to Treating Dry Skin
- Why Street Cats Are Taking Over Urban Neighborhoods
- Column: Jimmy Carter’s Global Legacy Was Moral Clarity
Contact us at letters@time.com