The 1950's intelligence community was no joke either. In fact, the CIA probably played a very large role in bringing an end to McCarthyism. See the following f

The 1950's intelligence community was no joke either. In fact, the CIA probably played a very large role in bringing an end to McCarthyism. See the following for an interesting tour through that slice of history: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird#Directorate_for_Plans https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird#Director... http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php http://carlbernstein.com/magazine_cia_and_media.php A couple of representative articles from that time period: http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5MleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=djIMAAAAIBAJ&dq=alsop%20mccarthy&pg=3493%2C1113850 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=5MleAAAAIBAJ&sjid=djIMA... http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I8pNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MYoDAAAAIBAJ&dq=drew%20pearson%20mccarthy&pg=1628%2C6235663 http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I8pNAAAAIBAJ&sjid=MYoDA... Things only got worse for McCarthy through the rest of '53 and into '54.