By Deirdre Dougherty
The Washington Post
Falls Church, Virginia-
John Howard Dougherty: government employee working for the legal division of the United States Maritime Administration. Married with a wife and child in a suburban Virginia had his life and his peaceful world shattered with twelve allegations regarding his disloyalty to the United States of America. Executive order 9835, given March 21,1948 established a Federal Employee Loyalty Program, which in layman terms sought out the 'red' from the 'red, white and blue'. This crusade against Communism infiltrating the government and the citizens of the United States reached its peak when now Republican incumbent candidate Senator Joseph McCarthy began his career in 1950. Mr. Dougherty's long struggle to reclaim his reputation after being blacklisted ended December 13, 1951 when charges of disloyalty brought on by the Loyalty Board were dropped due to the fact that they were unsubstantiated. Many past acquaintances and other witnesses testified on his behalf at Mr. Dougherty's recent hearing, and his witnesses who were not present submitted sworn affidavits.
This victory for Mr. Dougherty was not without many years of preparation and support from his friends, all while he continued to work for the United States under a cloud of suspicion and hostility from his co-workers. The root of Mr. Dougherty's problems began in 1941 when he became a member of the American Youth Congress, a group of young, pro-labor persons who gathered to advocate for worker's rights. This allegiance proved destructive to Mr. Dougherty when, on October 11,1948, he was sent an ominous letter by the Loyalty Board of the United States of America. Suspicions of his loyalty dragged on from 1948 until 1951 while he prepared a defense and continued his work at the Maritime Commission. His rebuttal included a personal statement of his actions and an aggregate of former acquaintances who were deemed fit to give evidence to attest to his fine character and patriotic nature.
In a signed affidavit by Nicholas Blatchford, one of the said "witnesses", Mr. Blatchford, assistant editor of the Washington Daily News, described John Dougherty as being "...honest, good, kind and generous. He has a sound and basic regard for democracy and those principals upon which our democracy is founded." Even with these character statements and a score of affidavits from extremely credible sources, the inquiries continued. The suspicion and public and private humiliation also continued until his recent hearing exonerated him of the charges that had become so detrimental to his reputation. Mr. Dougherty had two major strengths on his side: time and legal experience. It is not every man who can be his own lawyer and prepare a sufficient defense, even in the years given to do so. In these ways, Mr. Dougherty was lucky. In the aforementioned affidavit, Nicholas Blatchford summed up the fear and betrayal Mr. Dougherty and his inner circle of friends felt during the past years, since he received the letter and up until his recent hearing. "To those of us who know him, the fact that a man of his integrity and worth must defend himself against charges of this nature is discouraging and disheartening. It is evidence of a sickness in the land which could prove to be as dangerous to our democracy as communism itself."