McCarthyism

A. Three things I found important within the telegram are that:
57 Communists were present in the state department.
Mr. Acheson failed to discharge those who were labeled as dangerous.
A state department spokesman denied that there were 57 Communists in the department and state that there were no Communists at all in the state department.

B. I think this document was written in order to protect the American citizens of the united states from danger that could come from Communists working in our state departments and I think Senator McCarthy was warning President Truman of his whereabouts and what could be a threat to the US.

C. Senator McCarthy states "I would suggest therefore, Mr. president, that you simply pick up your phone and ask Mr. Acheson how many of those whom your board labeled as dangerous he failed to discharge." This quote is evidence of why the document was written. McCarthy clearly wanted the president to become aware of what was going on and he wanted the president to see what Mr. Acheson was up to and to make sure that America was fully protected.

D. This document shows that in life in the U.S. at that time telegrams were still a popular way of communication and they were used more for secrecy and hiding things. Phones were also just starting to get popular for communication at this time in the U.S. back then and they were in the white house at that time. This document also shows that in the life back then, they probably did not have as advanced investigation organizations to do background searches on people as we do today. This could be the reason why they could not directly prove the number of communists that were in the state department or if there were any communists in the state department at all.

E. I would ask the author: Why didn't Senator McCarthy meet with the president in person and ask to have Mr. Acheson there in order to confront him? Is it possible that Mr. Acheson could be covering up and hiding information about the dangerous people in the state department because he was involved with communism as well?