By "cannot be doubted" I mean now. I think that even Victor Navasky has given up on believing that Julius Rosenberg was framed. Yes, it was doubted then.

Who did a better job than McCarthy? Quite a few people who did not get any headlines, persons serving in the FBI or in executive departments' security arms.

And I think that one should distinguish between persons who once joined the CPUSA, then later thought better of it, and persons actually engaged in espionage. The US engaged in a certain amount of ritual humiliation of these people, and so won them a degree of sympathy entirely out of proportion to their judgment or character.