The Method of Senator McCarthy: Its Origins, Its Uses, and Its Prospects

Glazer, Nathan. "The Method of Senator McCarthy: Its Origins, Its Uses, and Its Prospects." Commentary, 1953.

Excerpt: Toward the end of 1948 and beginning of 1949, various reputable American publications reported charges that a number of Germans convicted of war crimes had been subjected to atrocious brutalities by American investigators. One group of German war criminals in particular, SS troops convicted of having massacred hundreds of disarmed American prisoners of war near Malmedy during the Battle of the Bulge, was mentioned.

In July 1946, 73 Germans had been tried for taking part in these massacres; 43 were given death sentences. These verdicts then went through the regular prescribed series of reviews, and by March 1948, the number of death sentences had been reduced to 12. In May 1948 a petition was presented to the Supreme Court of the United States, by Willis M. Everett, Jr., the American defense counsel, charging irregularities in the trial, and brutality in the investigations which had preceded it. There were supporting affidavits by the convicted men, recording in detail the physical abuse they claimed to have undergone at the hands of the army investigators almost two years before.

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