My Review of The House Committee on Un-American Activities

The House Committee on Un-American Activities or HUAC was a committee of the United States House of Representatives. The committee formed in 1938 and lasted in some form until 1975 before being disbanded. The committee is largely known for its members promoting personal agendas and prejudices. Infoplease.com reports, “Critics of the committee contended that it disregarded the civil liberties of its witnesses and that it consistently failed to fulfill its primary purpose of recommending new legislation”. Saying history in general portrays the HUAC in a negative light is an understatement but it wasn’t always like that. The committee enjoyed popular support in the early days as the nations communist paranoia was on the rise after World War II.

Wikipedia.com notes the McCormack-Dickstein Special Committee on Un-American Activities formed in 1934 was a precursor to the HUAC. It was named for its chairman, John McCormack, and its vice chairman, Samuel Dickstein. The committee was organized “to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities”. The committee’s major action was to investigate the fascist plot to overthrow the United States government. In the end, this committee was criticized for failing to sufficiently investigate the attempted coup.

Wikipedia.com also notes the actual HUAC started as a special committee “aimed mostly at German American involvement in Nazi and Ku Klux Klan activity”, it was initially known as the Dies Committee. It was chaired by Martin Dies and co-chaired by Samuel Dickstein previously of the McCormack-Dickstein committee. Although initially charged with investigating Nazis and the Ku Klux Klan, both quickly fell by the wayside in favor of investigating Communism. Several members of the committee such as Martin Dies, John Rankin and John S. Woods supported the Ku Klux Klan. As a result, the committee concluded there wasn’t enough information to launch an investigation into the Klan. (http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm)

In 1946, after the World War II, the HUAC “was made a permanent investigating committee enjoying unique subpoena powers” (www.stud.hum.ku.dk). They were charged with investigating subversion, propaganda and other threats to the United States government. During the war, the US softened its stance on communism because Russia was an ally. After the war, “the USA went back to its old anti-Communism stand, only with much more vigor than ever before”. It was at this point, the HUAC began to focus primarily on communism and its supporters. Americans at this time were trained to hate communism and to live in fear of the atomic bomb.

Here is an interesting paragraph from www.stud.hum.ku.dk, “One thing which was always more or less evident was that the hearings of the HUAC were not so much about establishing criminal guilt but rather a way in which to get people to renounce their past - and in some cases their friends. For the most part the Committee already knew the names that it demanded that the testifiers should name. Ellen Schrecker calls the hearings ‘a symbolic ritual’, Victor Navasky ‘degradation ceremonies’ and Arthur Miller and Lillian Hellman referred to it as ‘an inquisition’.”

Arguably, the most famous hearings early on in the HUAC were about communism in Hollywood. Directors, writers, actors and others were called before the committee. Many refuted or denied being involved with communism but at the insistence of the committee, gave up the names of others that they had heard of or thought may be affiliated with communism. Ten people, later known as the “Hollywood Ten”, were found in contempt of Congress for invoking the First or Fifth Amendments and not answering the committee’s questions. In an effort to show they were against communism, studio bosses refused to hire anyone involved with communism. Wikipedia.com reports that along with the Hollywood Ten, “more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors and particularly screen writers – were boycotted by the studios”.

The HUAC was finally abolished by the House in 1975. Although Truman didn’t or couldn’t stop the HUAC, www.stud.hum.ku.dk repeats his comment to the New York Times after he realized things had been pushed too hard, “This malicious propaganda has gone so far that on the Fourth of July, over in Madison, Wisconsin, People were afraid to say they believed in the Declaration of Independence. A hundred and twelve people were asked to sign a petition that contained nothing except quotations from the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. One hundred and eleven of these people refused to sign that paper – many of them because they were afraid that it was some kind of subversive document and that they would lose their jobs or be called Communists.”

The HUAC failed to do much good but they succeeded in ruining the lives of the many people they called to testify. While only a few were punished through the actually courts, people everywhere were afraid of the committee and lived in fear of being subpoenaed. They were an organization of terror, arguably comparable to the Gestapo or the KGB without the violence. They let their personal interests and prejudices influence their decisions and were constantly looking for headlines. It’s almost comical how the committee was to investigate subversion, propaganda and other threats to the United States government but did it in an Un-American way. It’s amazing the HUAC lasted 35+ years.

In my opinion, the culture after World War II was laid back, people didn’t rock the boat and they maintained the status quo. Times were prosperous, people were content and they believed the government would do the right thing. I think this played a large part in the longevity of the HUAC. Although a result of the Cold War, the HUAC contributed to the counter culture and was a reason for people to rebel. More and more people began to wake up and realize that their Civil Rights were being trampled. While the previous generations tolerated this, the new generation wasn’t happy with the status quo and they realized the government wasn’t perfect and needed to be changed. You can add this to the long list of missteps and tragedies attributed to the Cold War.


References

http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0824313.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Un-American_Activities_Committee
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm
http://www.stud.hum.ku.dk/rikkebj/hu.htm