James Hagerty Records Eisenhower’s Strategy to Counter Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Attempt to Investigate the CIA (1954)

Date: June 8, 1954

Created By: James C. Hagerty

Original or Replica: Original

Era: McCarthyism and the Red Scare, The Presidency

Collection: Eisenhower Presidential Library

Citations: James C. Hagerty Papers, Box 1, June 1954; NAID #16703041

This June 8, 1954 diary entry by White House Press Secretary James C. Hagerty records discussions with President Dwight D. Eisenhower about administration policy, public messaging, and the continuing confrontation with Senator Joseph McCarthy. Hagerty describes plans for a nationally televised presidential address promoting Eisenhower’s legislative program and efforts to present the administration’s agenda directly to the American public.

Much of the entry focuses on McCarthy’s threat to investigate the Central Intelligence Agency. Eisenhower believed congressional investigations of the CIA could jeopardize intelligence operations and planned to seek bipartisan congressional support for resisting McCarthy. Hagerty records Eisenhower’s hope that McCarthy would publicly repeat his threat, believing this would strengthen public and congressional opposition to him. The administration also discussed creating a commission empowered to investigate allegations of wrongdoing within the executive branch, which Eisenhower viewed as another way to limit McCarthy’s influence. Hagerty notes that Eisenhower expected congressional opposition but was prepared to confront it. The entry provides a behind-the-scenes look at Eisenhower’s strategy for weakening McCarthy while protecting executive authority and the secrecy of American intelligence operations.