Editing Joseph McCarthy (section)

=== Reconsideration ===
McCarthy remains a controversial figure. [[Arthur L. Herman|Arthur Herman]], popular historian and senior fellow of the [[Hudson Institute]], says that new evidence—in the form of [[Venona project|Venona]]-decrypted Soviet messages, Soviet espionage data now opened to the West, and newly released transcripts of closed hearings before McCarthy's subcommittee—has partially vindicated McCarthy by showing that some of his identifications of Communists were correct and the scale of Soviet espionage activities in the United States during the 1940s and 1950s was larger than many scholars had suspected.<ref>{{cite book|last = Herman
  |first = Arthur
  |title = Joseph McCarthy: Reexamining the Life and Legacy of America's Most Hated Senator
  |publisher = Free Press
  |year = 2000
  |pages = [https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/5 5–6]
  |isbn = 0-684-83625-4
  |url = https://archive.org/details/josephmccarthyre00herm/page/5
  }}</ref>

In [[Blacklisted by History|''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'']], journalist [[M. Stanton Evans]] similarly argued that evidence from the Venona documents shows significant penetration by Soviet agents.<ref name="Evans 2009 p.">{{cite book | last=Evans | first=M. Stanton | authorlink=M. Stanton Evans|title=Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies | publisher=Three Rivers Press | location=New York| year=2009 | isbn=978-1-4000-8106-6 }}</ref>

Historian [[John Earl Haynes]], who studied the Venona decryptions extensively, challenged Herman's efforts to rehabilitate McCarthy, arguing that McCarthy's attempts to "make anti-communism a partisan weapon" actually "threatened [the post-War] anti-Communist consensus", thereby ultimately harming anti-Communist efforts more than helping them.<ref>{{cite web
  |last = Haynes
  |first = John Earl
  |title = Exchange with Arthur Herman and Venona book talk
  |date = February 2000
  |url = http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
  |access-date = July 11, 2007
|archive-date = February 24, 2021
|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20210224175005/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page58.html
  |url-status = live
  }}</ref> Haynes concluded that, of the 159 people who were identified on lists used or referenced by McCarthy, evidence only substantially proved that nine of them had aided Soviet espionage efforts—while several hundred Soviet spies who were actually known based on Venona and other evidence were mostly never named by McCarthy. Haynes' own view was that a number of those accused on McCarthy's lists above, perhaps a majority, likely posed some form of possible security risk, but a significant minority of others likely did not, and several were indisputably no risk at all.<ref name="johnearlhaynes62">{{cite web|url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|title=Senator Joseph McCarthy's Lists and Venona|last=Haynes|first=John Earl|year=2006|access-date=August 31, 2006|archive-date=May 2, 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180502132728/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |first1 = John Earl
 |last1=Haynes
 |first2=Harvey
|last2=Klehr
  |year = 2000
 |title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
 |publisher = [[Yale University Press]]
 |location=New Haven, Connecticut
 |isbn = 0-300-08462-5
}}</ref>