The Greek Shipping Crisis of 1953

This article is not a defense of Joseph McCarthy. As a Wisconsinite, he is the most embarrassing politician to ever serve my great state and I am in no way making an attempt to soften his image. He deserves every bit of historical criticism he earned, right down to the coinage of the term that bears his name. BUT…it is often interesting to look back at a historical villain and find either moments of real human decency or instances of them standing on the “correct” side of an issue. Of course, McCarthy famously had no sense of decency, but there was an intriguing moment in the year 1953 where his future delusions were still somewhat focused on something tangible. Incredibly enough, another man, still in his relative youth, acted as McCarthy’s right hand during this event. That man’s name was Robert F. Kennedy. He would see his image undergo such a transformation that by his death in 1968, the idea of him previously working alongside Joseph McCarthy would have been as laughable as McCarthyism itself. History is rarely a straight line from point A to B! 

Post World War II, the United States had an opportunity to rebuild the world in its image, at least the portions of the world that it could exert its influence within. Our Cold War rivals, the USSR, were attempting the very same quest wherever the chance arose. By 1948, Congress had enacted legislation officially titled the European Recovery Plan, but the only name we refer to it as today is a reference to the Secretary of State who was in charge of executing said law, George C. Marshall. The Marshall Plan was an enormous package of financial aid, that was for Western European countries to rebuild their countries after the devastation of the war. Of course, it was ultimately an attempt to prove that western ideals, capitalism and democracy, created a far better way of life for the average citizen than that of the Soviet Union. On the ground, the Marshall Plan had effects as varied as the rebuilding of urban centers to providing Missouri bred mules for poor farmers in Greece (yes, really!). It is widely regarded as successful, especially when juxtaposed with the Soviet Union’s answer: the Molotov Plan. Speaking of Greece, our story of McCarthy starts with the Greek shipping industry’s use of American provided ships moving cargo to mainland China. 

Much to the embarrassment of the United States, in 1947 China “fell” to communism (it certainly was not a colony, so was it really ours to lose? Congress sure thought so.). The resulting political finger pointing over our failure to contain communism seeped into the next decade, spawning one of the more tense eras domestically of the Cold War. By 1953, McCarthy was the newly appointed chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, and made its Subcommittee on Investigations his tool to begin peeling back the layers of “the communist plot to destroy America”. Joseph P. Kennedy, patriarch of the famous family, previously made a call to the senator with the request that his freshly minted lawyer son Bobby be hired on McCarthy’s staff. This may seem like an odd request from two historical figures with no obvious connection, but it was the reality that the Kennedy family was staunchly anti communist, and Joseph Kennedy heavily financed McCarthy’s 1952 reelection campaign (some estimated Kennedy was his largest donor).1 The request was more likely a demand, and McCarthy obliged his wealthy benefactor, despite it causing waves amongst McCarthy’s already hired staff, such as a young Roy Cohn (too little time in this article to dive into him, perhaps the subject of an HFD biography in the future). McCarthy had been tipped off that American dollars were being spent aiding the North Korean military, who we happened to be currently at war with. The Korean War had been sparked in 1950, Truman sent in American forces (technically part of a UN coalition) and three years later Eisenhower had inherited the now stalemated conflict. McCarthy, rubbing his hands together like a greasy raccoon, pounced at the opportunity to rev up his investigative machine. 

The Senator set Bobby to work to find the connection between American money and North Korean supplies. What he found was presented to the American public through a series of televised hearings and release of detailed reports. As far as investigations go, RFK did a rather remarkable job in coming through shipping manifests, insurance documents, and other pieces of evidence to weave together what amounted to an accurate story: American ships were being used by Greek shipping agents to deliver goods to the Chinese, who then sold those Greek exported goods to the North Koreans. The North Koreans had of course been killing American soldiers daily for the past three years. I do not think I need to spend more than this sentence mentioning how upset many Americans would have been upon receiving this news. This amounted to our allies funding the deaths of American boys, and in one instance a British company (using an American ship) transported communist soldiers to the Korean peninsula to aid in the fight against the West. McCarthy, as would become a feature of this Republican Party, was blasted by some members, including officials within the Eisenhower administration. After he and Bobby negotiated directly with the Greeks to put some of the practice to a stop, McCarthy was accused of acting as a shadow secretary of state, and was forced to attend a luncheon with John Foster Dulles in order to smooth things over. A series of televised hearings brought the evidence into Americans’ living rooms, with RFK’s investigative work on full display. The full committee report was issued that summer, questioning why the Eisenhower administration did not seem to recognize the reality of the situation or act more decisively to end the practice.2 The accusation amounted to McCarthy accusing the administration of willfully killing American soldiers. Needless to say, this did not win him many new friends within the political sphere, but made his name known to the American people more broadly. McCarthy, now high on the victory, was persuaded to probe deeper. This kicked off the era of the second Red Scare, and made McCarthyism the infamous term it has become today. Kennedy, now uncomfortable with the direction his boss was headed, soon resigned from the office. 

McCarthy’s antics that soon followed have overshadowed this moment in his career. He would go on pursuing communist conspiracies within the federal government until the American people soured on his tactics and behavior. He would be dead by 1957, having been censured by his Senate colleagues and  nationally disgraced, allowing his addictions to alcohol and morphine overcome him. There is very little a historian could do to rehab his image, nor should anyone make the fruitless attempt. However, this story shows us how out of step history can be with the accepted historical narrative. Joseph McCarthy and Bobby Kennedy teaming up to uncover a scandal? Sounds more like historical fan fiction than the truth to me. 

1Tye, Larry. Bobby Kennedy: The Making of a Liberal Icon. Random House, 2016, p. 24.

2Bryan, Ferald J. “Joseph McCarthy, Robert Kennedy, and the Greek Shipping Crisis: A Study of Foreign Policy Rhetoric.” Presidential Studies Quarterly 24, no. 1 (1994): 93–104. http://www.jstor.org/stable/27551196.