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When McCarthy's memos clattered in on the Pentagon news tickers, the Army and Defense Department went into a classic Pentagon flap: nobody had planned on a McCarthy-Cohn counterattack. Stevens rushed through the corridors in a high state of anguish, dodging roaming bands of reporters while he sought the counsel of his public-relations advisers. It was dusk before he and Adams had their full replies drafted. As for urging McCarthy to go after other services, said Stevens, "anyone who knows me would know that such a charge is fantastic." Adams stood unequivocally on the Army report, called the charges of blackmail "fantastic and false," and issued a blanket denial of all other charges (which he would not expand when reporters pressed him on the $25.000 question).
Self-Investigation? As the great hue & cry continued, McCarthy was giving his all to save Cohn. Senator Potter wanted to fire Cohn as soon as the committee could meet, but McCarthy refused to call a meeting. Even McCarthy's old friend Dirksen was outraged when McCarthy broke his agreement to hold a meeting before making any statements.
McCarthy flew off to Manitowoc, Wis. (with a copy of a Western pocketbook, Fight or Run, displayed under his arm) for a weekend speech. There, characteristically, he hinted that he had a ."secret witness" to bear out his charges against Army Secretary Stevens. This week he was back in Washington, blandly offering to testify under oath before his own subcommittee, with Karl Mundt occupying the chair. But one formidable objection to any investigation by McCarthy's subcommittee was spotlighted when Roy Cohn was the guest on NBC's Meet the Press show Sunday. Under questioning, Cohn admitted that somebody on the committee staff (Cohn did not know who) had got the members of the staff to sign loyalty pledges to Cohn (two refused). An investigation in the hands of a prepledged staff could hardly be considered impartial.
Despite the shot & shell bursting around his head, Cohn had not lost his composure. He blinked his eyes and observed to a reporter: "What's Joe got to worry about? He's got about five more years in the Senate, and they sure like him in Wisconsin." As for Cohn himself: "I'll be around Capitol Hill in this job a long time yet."
* Joe's dog. still without a name, is on a diet of a quart of cottage cheese a day.