The Tydings committee was official Washington's first attempt to derail Sen. Joseph McCarthy's crusade against the communist infiltration of government. It's stated purpose was to investigate "whether personnel who are disloyal to the United States are or have ever been employed by the Department of State." Its real purpose, in the eyes of its chairman, was to destroy McCarthy's credibility and, hence, protect the Truman administration and the Democrats running in the 1950 election.
The chief counsel for the committee, Edward P. Morgan, is not famous but his career is fascinating -- at least to me. Like Forest Gump he makes an appearance in nearly all the shadowy controversies of midcentury America.
During World War Two Morgan worked at the FBI. He rose through the ranks eventually becoming head of the Inspection Division, aka "The Goon Squad". This was the special unit that J. Edgar Hoover used to enforce his autocratic rule throughout the Bureau. (Later Mark Felt, Watergate's "Deep Throat" would also head the Inspection Division.)
It is a safe bet that no one became head of the FBI's Praetorian Guard unless Hoover had complete confidence in their loyalty.
While at the FBI Morgan served as a staffer to the congressional committee investigating the Pearl Harbor attack. He played a leading role in drafting the majority report as well as questioning witnesses. No surprise, then, that the report followed the Hoover line that total responsibility for the disaster rested with Gen. Short and Adm. Kimmel.
Michael Gannon:
Morgan's report never delved into areas which might embarrass FDR or other democrats: the failed deterrence, the inexplicable shift to an aggressive embargo, the misplaced faith in big bombers-- all this was left unexamined.
Kimmel's and Short's most severe critic in the JCC was staff member Edward P. Morgan, an attorney and investigator from the Federal Bureau of investigation, appointed by Senator Alben W. Barkley, Democrat of Kentucky, upon the recommendation of FBI director J. Edgar Hoover.
Before he left the FBI Morgan was tasked with overseeing the politially sensitive case of Elizabeth Bentley. When she came in from the cold in August 1945 she revealed the details of a vast Soviet espionage network in DC. The FBI debriefed her and then -- did almost nothing. Agent Edward P. Morgan essentially closed the file after noting that the Bureau had no corroborating evidence and that the accused were supported by highly influential people in Washington. Morgan did this even though he knew that the FBI had not interviewed many of those named by Bentley -- including Harry Dexter White.
The FBI under Hoover treated counterintelligence little differently than it did auto theft or bank robbery. What mattered was splashy arrests and quick convictions. When that was not possible, Hoover lost interest. This could prove embarrassing when old leads pointed to dangerous spy rings.
Rebecca West:
Clearly, then, Morgan had good reasons to oppose McCarthy beyond loyalty to his boss, Tydings. His own career had a few episodes that could make for bad headlines.
Elizabeth Bentley, who had repented and made a voluntary confession of all her activities in the autumn of 1945. Had her evidence been followed up it would have led to Fuchs. No fewer than three of the couriers appeared in 1947 before a Federal Grand Jury summoned to investigate espionage, and cleared themselves by what now seem oddly unconvincing stories. In May 1949 Elizabeth Bentley again disclosed particulars of the courier system before a Committee on Immigration and Naturalization which is a subcommittee of the Senate Judiciary Committee.
It is not at all surprising that Morgan was one of those men who gathered at Sen. Tydings apartment to plot anti-McCarthy strategy. Their goal was not to investigate the State department. Instead, they sought, as Newsweek put it, the ""total and eternal destruction"" of the Republican upstart.
The Washington establishment failed that time. McCarthy's continued popularity helped Republicans make big gains in the 1950 election. Tydings himself was up for reelection and lost.
The swamp has been around a long time
Morgan briefly served in the Truman administration after the 1950 election. He then opened a law firm (Welch and Morgan*)in DC.
One of Morgan's legal sidelines was to serve as a cut-out for the CIA to funnel money to favored groups and institutions. This relationship with CIA began within days of the 1950 election.
His firm's main focus was FCC TV and radio licenses. In the 1950s and 1960s a broadcast license was practically a permit to print money. A law firm with ties to permanent Washington had a leg up in the approval process and a great advantage in attracting clients.
Morgan was not done with McCarthy. In 1952 he traveled to Wisconsin to campaign for his opponent in the senator's reelection bid.
Then, in 1954, Morgan was hired by the publisher of the Las Vegas Sun to defend him against charges that an editorial against McCarthy was an incitement to "murder or assassination". Morgan won the case which he handled for free,
Greenspun was eager to expand his holdings in radio and TV. It is probably pure coincidence that Greenspun -- a convicted felon and a former PR flack for gangster Bugsy Siegel -- obtained those licenses and a cable TV monopoly after hiring a DC lawyer with Deep State connections.
By the late 1950s, Morgan, the straight arrow Hoover-man, was representing Jimmy Hoffa and mobsters including Johnny Roselli. When the latter faced deportation, Morgan leaked details of the Kennedy brothers' efforts to use the Mafia to assassinate Fidel Castro.
He chose his old friend and anti-McCarthy ally Drew Pearson as the vehicle for his not-so-subtle pressure campaign on the US government.
*Interestingly enough, Welch and Morgan was the law firm Watergate's John Dean joined after he left law school.
