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According to an answer on this question on the WorldBuilding StackExchange

There were plenty of communists in the United States in the 1950s and 1960s. It's popular today to laugh at the paranoia of Joe McCarthy et al. But in fact when the Soviet Union fell and westerners were able to access KGB files, it was found that most of the people McCarthy accused of being communists were, in fact, paid spies in contact with the Soviet government. One book I read claimed that literally EVERYONE that McCarthy accused turned out to be either a member of the Communist Party, a paid Soviet agent, or in contact with the Soviet government. I haven't researched it to find out if that's true. But it's clear that the Soviets did have a systematic program to plant agents in the U.S. government, and that even without that, there were plenty of Americans who were communist "true believers". It's not that hard to imagine that if these efforts, by Soviet and by American communists, had just been a little more successful, that communists might have taken over the government -- won a majority in Congress, elected a president, etc -- the U.S. could have turned communist, the two sides declared unity, and the Cold War ended with a communist victory.

I could find no references to the suggestion that many people accused by McCarthy were actually paid spies. However, I could not find any conclusive evidence either way.

I wish to know if the claims of McCarthy's accusee's being actual spies truthful.

Rodrigo de Azevedo
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Fluidized Pigeon Reactor
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    What I've heard is that there were indeed spies in high places but McCarthy's accusations themselves were primarily politically motivated. I thought I'd read more about it here but can't seem to find anything. – JAB Apr 03 '17 at 22:54
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    Is a claim made on another SE a notable claim? I love worldbuilding.SE, but it is hardly notable. Maybe this would best be migrated to history.se. McCarthy's claims themselves are notable. – BobTheAverage Apr 03 '17 at 23:08
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    Hmm, that is a good point. He did claim that there was a book that made the same claim, but didn't give the book, – Fluidized Pigeon Reactor Apr 03 '17 at 23:43
  • Most of the McCarthy victims weren't even accused of being paid spies. McCarthy considered just being a communist sympathizer reason enough to be dismissed or blacklisted. – DJClayworth Apr 04 '17 at 00:27
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    Can we find a better reference - perhaps the book itself - to show anyone but this one Internet random believes the claim? – Oddthinking Apr 04 '17 at 00:31
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    The [New American](https://www.thenewamerican.com/culture/history/item/15223-the-real-mccarthy-record). The [World Net Daily](http://www.wnd.com/2000/02/4020/). [News Max](http://www.newsmax.com/RonaldKessler/mccarthy-conservatives/2008/04/07/id/323380/) acknowledges the existence of a "McCarthy was right!" movement but says it is incorrect. [Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_McCarthy#Arguments_for_vindication) also acknowledges the existence of the movement. – Brythan Apr 04 '17 at 00:51
  • "being a member of the Communist party". Which one? There are several. Not all are dedicated to the destruction of civilisation as we know it. I used to work together with a guy who was a paid-up, card-carrying Communist, but it was no problem for him to work in the defence industry because it was the UK CP, not one of the poisonous ones. Being a member does not automatically make one an enemy of the state. – RedSonja Apr 04 '17 at 08:31
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    Is the claim that **the same people** were spies, or that there were spies in general, whether they were same accused people or not? – user5341 Apr 04 '17 at 18:19

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