Enemies from Within Speech

“Today we can almost physically hear the mutterings and rumblings of an invigorated god of war. You can see it, feel it, and hear it all the way from the Indochina hills, from the shores of Formosa, right over into the very heart of Europe itself.”

This quote more explicitly gestures to the mythical realm, providing a dramatic backdrop to the otherwise boilerplate good-versus-evil dichotomies. The second sentence continues to engage in hyperbole as McCarthy insists “you can see it, feel it, and hear it” but, importantly, references the material world and the real conflicts going on in China and elsewhere.

“There is still a hope for peace if we finally decide that no longer can we safely blind our eyes and close our ears to those facts which are shaping up more and more clearly…and that is that we are now engaged in a showdown fight…not the usual war between nations for land areas or other material gains, but a war between two diametrically opposed ideologies.”

This quote perfectly illustrates the paranoia of the second Red Scare. For example, the portrayal of facts as shaping up and taking form—almost as if they were living things with their own agency—is suggestive of a conspiratorial mindset. The phrase “showdown fight” is a reference to the Book of Revelation and illustrates McCarthy’s apocalyptic rhetoric.

“This religion of immoralism, if the Red half of the world triumphs—and well it may, gentlemen—this religion of immoralism will more deeply wound and damage mankind than any conceivable economic or political system.”

In this quotation, McCarthy suggests that an ideological system could be more dangerous for humankind than an economic or a political system. While political and economic systems are tangible things, the idea of a “religion of immoralism” is intentionally ambiguous. As a rhetorical flourish, the phrase is effective in that the audience would have been receptive to the idea of a “religion of immoralism.”

“The modern champions of communism have selected this as the time, and ladies and gentlemen, the chips are down—they are truly down.”

This quotation is meant as an apocalyptic warning that the final conflict is imminent. McCarthy is making the argument that Stalin has said within a few years previous that the war between East and West is inevitable.

“Can there be anyone who fails to realize that the communist world has said the time is now?”

This is one in a series of rhetorical questions McCarthy poses to convey the urgency coming conflict between the democratic Christian world and the Communistic atheist world. He reiterates the warning Stalin had given a few years previous about the inevitability of a clash between East and West. The answer to the question is self-evident, as it follows a quotation by Stalin himself.

“Unless we face this fact, we shall pay the price that must be paid by those who wait too long.”

This sentence follows a paragraph of rhetorical questions, all of which refer to an immanent military conflict between nuclear powers and the risk of apathy or appeasement. The ambiguity of the quote lends to its effectiveness in that the audience is forced to consider the answer to the question even if the answer is obvious.

“Now I know it is very easy for anyone to condemn a particular bureau or department in general terms.”

This quote betrays part of McCarthy’s demagogic rhetorical strategy, which is to make stunning claims and accusations followed by a loose assemblage of data to give the claims a veneer of authenticity. In this sentence, he admits that one can’t just make wild claims; one must also provide evidence. In the paragraphs that follow, he offers a variety of inconclusive evidence along with other claims.

“And, ladies and gentlemen, while I cannot take the time to name all the men in the State Department who have been named as active members of the Communist Party and members of a spy ring, I have here in my hand a list of 205…a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party and who nevertheless are still working and shaping policy in the State Department.”

This is the most memorable part of the Wheeling speech, where McCarthy held a handful of papers over his head while he began speaking “I have here in my hand…” The concrete proof of the conspiracy is held literally in his hand, although in historical retrospect we know that he had no such evidence. Even the number of named Communists wouldn’t remain consistent in McCarthy’s remarks.

“We are dealing with a far more sinister type of activity because it permits the enemy to guide and shape our policy.”

This sentence directly follows the allusion to Judas’s betrayal of Christ in exchange for 30 pieces of silver. McCarthy insists that these particular Communist spies are a far greater threat because the spies are actually Americans in positions of power making policy decisions.

“In other words they could not afford to let the whole ring which extended to the State Department, be shown.”

This conclusion follows testimony McCarthy has cited in which an FBI agent is asked questions about a State Department policy that officers must seek approval before making arrests and interning suspects. In response to a question the FBI agent answered, “because if they were arrested that would disclose the whole apparatus.” There are various benign reasons that one would not want to expose the entire apparatus, for example, it may be more efficient to arrest one suspect after another. But McCarthy’s interpretation is that the reason they didn’t want to expose the whole apparatus was that the State Department was part of the apparatus.

“If time permitted, it might be well to go into detail about the fact that Hiss was Roosevelt’s chief advisor at Yalta when Roosevelt was admittedly in ill health and tired physically and mentally…and when, according to the Secretary of State, Hiss and Gromyko drafted the report on the conference.”

The qualifying phrase “if time permitted” is an echo of another famous line in this speech: “while I cannot take the time to name all” (830). In either case McCarthy claims that there is even more evidence in his possession which he would divulge if he only had the time. But he also contradicts himself in this quote because he actually does offer some details about the Yalta Conference, albeit without evidence. He merely suggests that Hiss pushed Roosevelt aside so that he could fulfill his own Communist agenda at Yalta.

“As you hear this story of high treason, I know that you are saying to yourself—well, why doesn’t the Congress do something about it.”

This quote involves an instance of hypophora—when a speaker asks a rhetorical question and then immediately supplies the answer. In this case, the point of the question is to impress upon the audience that there are serious crimes being committed by officials in the State Department, which makes it even more remarkable that Congress hasn’t responded to the crisis. McCarthy suggests that the treason is well known to all and therefore it is incongruous that Congress doesn’t investigate.

“It is the result of an emotional hang-over and a temporary moral lapse which follows every war.”

McCarthy expresses the concern that war has had a deleterious effect on society and that, in the postwar years, the American public has experienced moral turpitude and a slackening of patriotism. This statement makes the audience complicit in the American decline. The quote is strategically placed for dramatic effect because in the sentences that follow McCarthy offers a way to reignite the moral fabric.