THE VOYAGE OF PRIVATEER JOE

ON Feb. 9, 1950, an obscure U.S. Senator told a Wheeling (W. Va.) audience that he had a list of 205 Communists employed by the State Department. With that, Joe McCarthy launched one of the most spectacular political voyages in U.S. history. He charged often, proved seldom, never named his 205; in fact, he insisted he had said 57. But, because he had a sensitive issue, he became a big man. His bitterest foes were his best friends; Truman & Co. inflated his sails by exaggerating his importance.

Along his stormy course, Joe McCarthy, a born privateer, converted defeats into victories. When a Senate subcommittee, headed by Maryland's Millard Tydings, said that his charges were a "fraud," McCarthy shifted his course, chased Tydings through Maryland, got questionable credit for Tydings' defeat. When another Senate subcommittee said that the tactics used against Tydings were "despicable," McCarthy brushed it aside. Whenever anyone scored a knockdown, McCarthy took a bow. His deepest: 1) when Foreign Service Officer John Service was fired, after McCarthy had called him "pro-Soviet"; 2) when Owen Lattimore was indicted on a charge of perjury, after McCarthy had called him a "top Russian agent."

Last year, when G.O.P. leaders, including Robert Taft, turned against McCarthy because of his wild charges against Diplomat Charles Bohlen, McCarthy diverted attention by claiming credit for taking Greek ships out of trade with China. In that round, McCarthy knocked down an Eisenhower lieutenant, Harold Stassen. By late 1953, McCarthy was adrift in a lackluster investigation at Fort Monmouth, N.J., but Harry Truman put him back in the headlines by labeling the exposure of the Harry Dexter White case as "McCarthyism." Joe promptly proclaimed that Joe was the issue in the 1954 elections.

Last week McCarthy won what appeared to be a big victory. But all along, McCarthy's ship has been trailed by its own kind of albatross, a bird called "McCarthy's methods." His albatross has brought him big headlines, but it has also brought him bitter criticism. This week, as a result of his methods in his battle with the Army, the G.O.P. high command was plotting ways to take away some of his steam.

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