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Midway in the hearings, McCarthy offered a new description of his purposes. Said he: "We do not feel it is a function of the committee to ... prove espionage beyond a reasonable doubt. We feel it is sufficient to prove espionage—potential espionage—to a sufficient degree so as to convince security officers of various establishments."
Within this limited framework, the Fort Monmouth hearings were a success: espionage was not proved, but evidence of a nature to give security officers the shudders was produced. Even so, bitter doubts were raised that McCarthy's aims were worth the cost. Walter Millis wrote in the New York Herald Tribune that the McCarthy investigation had demoralized the Fort Monmouth scientists to a "truly scandalous" extent. "The process of witch-hunting, bigotry, cowardice, race prejudice and sheer incompetence" has turned "one of our top-level, military-scientific operations into a mare's nest of exasperation, fear and futility," said Millis.
McCarthy, still smarting over Secretary Stevens' remark, adjourned his hearings until after the Christmas holidays—when he will return, determined to enforce a McCarthaginian peace on Fort Monmouth.
* From Suetonius, discussing the reign of Tiberius (14-37 A.D.), freely translated: "The word of no informer was doubted."