I did not know Milo Radulovich, and his name barely registered when I saw it in yesterday's obituary, but he was a true patriot who in the words of his brother in law,
put his finger in the dike against the flood of McCarthyism.
more below
Accoriding to his obituary, Milo Radulovich was a former U.S. Air Force Reserve officer who was accused of being a security risk in McCarthy's anti-communist hysteria of the 1950s.
As with many of McCarthy's targets, he was accused of guilt by association. His association was with family members, his father and his sister.
Their crimes? His father, a Serbian immigrant, still subscribed to Serbian newspapers. One of the newspapers, was supposedly a front for an American communist organization.
His sister was a member of "suspicious liberal groups" and had once picketed a hotel that refused to serve Paul Robeson, the African American singer and athlete.
Radulovich refused to denounce his family, and demanded a hearing. At the hearing,
government prosecutors waved around a sealed manila envelope they said held evidence. The envelope was never opened and the evidence inside never revealed.
Radulovich was then stripped of his commission as an Air Force officer.
Edward R. Murrow, and his producer Fred Friendly found out about Radulovich and show-cased his mistreatment in denouncing McCarthy and his accusatory tactics. Eventually, McCarthy was exposed, Radulovich was cleared and his commission reinstated.
Nonetheless, the stain initially stayed with Radulovich, with many employers refusing him a job. Eventually, he found employment in his field of meteorology.
He died last Monday at the age of 81 from complications of a stroke. His funeral is today in Jackson, California.
One wonders, who will be the next Milo Radulovich, to expose the hysterics and civil rights infringements of the Administration.
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