The history of anti-communist red-baiting in general and McCarthyism in particular continues to be hotly debated and political divisions this controversy created continue to make themselves felt. Conservative critics contend that revelations such as the Venona project decryptions and the FBI Silvermaster File at least mute if not outright refute the charge that red-baiting in general was unjustified. Historian Nicholas von Hoffman wrote in "The Washington Post" that evidence revealed in the Venona project forced him to admit that McCarthy was "closer to the truth than those who ridiculed him". Liberal critics contend that even if someone could prove that the United States government was infiltrated by Soviet spies, McCarthy was censured by the Senate because he was in fact reckless and politically opportunistic and his red-baiting ruined the lives of countless innocent people. Historian Ellen Schrecker wrote that "McCarthyism did more damage to the constitution than the American Communist Party ever did".