Thread: How was Eisenhower able to be silent during the McCarthy hearings?

How could this have happened? Didn't the press ask him about the hearings? After all it was HIS administration that was accused of having communists in it.

too bad the communists weren't all rounded up and hanged.

Some presidents try to assume as much power as possible, and even extend their power beyond the executive branch to that of the House and Senate. Eisenhower was not among them. He did not have a thirst for power and influence and kept rather strictly within the bounds of the executive office. The investigations to which you refer are more accurately the work of the "Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations" created in 1952 and is still a working part of the U.S. Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs. Their tasks included not only investigating infiltration of U.S. government and military branches by agents of the Soviet Union, but also infiltration of media (including the film industry) by same as well as investigations into labor racketeering and Korean Conflict atrocities. In those days, the threat of spying by supporters of the Soviet Union was not an imaginary witch hunt. The cases of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss make this point, as did the trial, conviction and execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as soviet spies in 1953.

Reportedly, Eisenhower was afraid of directly confronting McCarthy. If Ike confronted M. about his methods, this might be seen as defending Communists in his government.