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TheHouse Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly theHouse Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigativecommittee of theUnited States House of Representatives, created in 1938 to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of havingcommunist ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946, and from 1969 onwards it was known as theHouse Committee on Internal Security. When the House abolished the committee in 1975,[1] its functions were transferred to theHouse Judiciary Committee.
The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated withMcCarthyism, althoughJoseph McCarthy himself (as aU.S. senator) had no direct involvement with the House committee.[2][3] McCarthy was the chairman of theGovernment Operations Committee and itsPermanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House.
TheOverman Committee was a subcommittee of theSenate Judiciary Committee chaired byNorth CarolinaDemocraticSenatorLee Slater Overman that operated from September 1918 to June 1919. The subcommittee investigated German as well as "Bolshevik elements" in the United States.[4]
This subcommittee was initially concerned with investigating pro-German sentiments in the American liquor industry. AfterWorld War I ended in November 1918, and the German threat lessened, the subcommittee began investigating Bolshevism, which had appeared as a threat during theFirst Red Scare after theRussian Revolution in 1917. The subcommittee's hearing into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted from February 11 to March 10, 1919, played a decisive role in constructing an image of a radical threat to the United States during the first Red Scare.[5]
U.S. RepresentativeHamilton Fish III (R-NY), who was a fervent anti-communist, introduced, on May 5, 1930, House Resolution 180, which proposed to establish a committee to investigate communist activities in the United States. The resulting committee, Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States commonly known as the Fish Committee, undertook extensive investigations of people and organizations suspected of being involved with or supporting communist activities in the United States.[6] Among the committee's targets were theAmerican Civil Liberties Union and communist presidential candidateWilliam Z. Foster.[7] The committee recommended granting theUnited States Department of Justice more authority to investigate communists, and strengthening immigration and deportation laws to keep communists out of the United States.[8]
From 1934 to 1937, the committee, now named the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities, chaired byJohn William McCormack (D-Mass.) andSamuel Dickstein (D-NY), held public and private hearings and collected testimony filling 4,300 pages. The Special Committee was widely known as the McCormack–Dickstein committee. Its mandate was to get "information on how foreign subversive propaganda entered the U.S. and the organizations that were spreading it." Its records are held by theNational Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC.[9][10]
In 1934, the Special Committee subpoenaed most of the leaders of the fascist movement in the United States.[11] Beginning in November 1934, the committee investigated allegations of afascist plot to seize theWhite House, known as the "Business Plot". Contemporary newspapers widely reported the plot as a hoax.[12] While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of "wild scheme" was contemplated and discussed.[13]
It has been reported that while Dickstein served on this committee and the subsequent Special Investigation Committee, he was paid $1,250 a month by the SovietNKVD, which hoped to get secret congressional information on anti-communists and pro-fascists. A 1939 NKVD report stated Dickstein handed over "materials on the war budget for 1940, records of conferences of the budget sub commission, reports of the war minister, chief of staff and etc." However the NKVD was dissatisfied with the amount of information provided by Dickstein, after he was not appointed to HUAC to "carry out measures planned by us together with him." Dickstein unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defectorWalter Krivitsky, while the Dies Committee kept him in the country. Dickstein stopped receiving NKVD payments in February 1940.[14]
On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, reorganized from its previous incarnations as the Fish Committee and the McCormack–Dickstein Committee, to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties; however, it concentrated its efforts on communists.[15][16] It was chaired byMartin Dies Jr. (D-Tex.), and therefore known as the Dies Committee. Its records are held by theNational Archives and Records Administration as records related to HUAC.
In 1938,Hallie Flanagan, the head of theFederal Theatre Project, was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge the project was overrun with communists. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while an administrative clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. It was during this investigation that one of the committee members,Joe Starnes (D-Ala.), famously asked Flanagan whether the EnglishElizabethan era playwrightChristopher Marlowe was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that ancient Greek tragedian "Mr. Euripides" preachedclass warfare.[17]
In 1939, the committee investigated people involved with pro-Nazi organizations such asOscar C. Pfaus andGeorge Van Horn Moseley.[18][19] Moseley testified before the committee for five hours about a "Jewish Communist conspiracy" to take control of the U.S. government. Moseley was supported by Donald Shea of theAmerican Gentile League, whose statement was deleted from the public record as the committee found it so objectionable.[20]
The committee also put together an argument for theinternment of Japanese Americans known as the "Yellow Report".[21] Organized in response to rumors of Japanese Americans being coddled by theWar Relocation Authority (WRA) and news that some former inmates would be allowed to leave camp andNisei soldiers to return to the West Coast, the committee investigated charges offifth column activity in the camps. A number of anti-WRA arguments were presented in subsequent hearings, but DirectorDillon Myer debunked the more inflammatory claims.[22] The investigation was presented to the 77th Congress, and alleged that certain cultural traits – Japanese loyalty to the Emperor, the number of Japanese fishermen in the US, and the Buddhist faith – were evidence for Japanese espionage. With the exception of Rep.Herman Eberharter (D-Pa.), the members of the committee seemed to support internment, and its recommendations to expedite the impendingsegregation of "troublemakers", establish a system to investigate applicants for leave clearance, and step up Americanization and assimilation efforts largely coincided with WRA goals.[21][22]
The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945.[23] Democratic RepresentativeEdward J. Hart of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman.[24] Under the mandate of Public Law 600, passed by the79th Congress, the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or propaganda that attacked "the form of government as guaranteed by ourConstitution".[25]
Under this mandate, the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of espionage brought againstAlger Hiss in 1948. This investigation ultimately resulted in Hiss's trial and conviction for perjury, and convinced many of the usefulness of congressional committees for uncovering communist subversion.[26]
The chief investigator wasRobert E. Stripling, senior investigatorLouis J. Russell, and investigatorsAlvin Williams Stokes,Courtney E. Owens, and Donald T. Appell. The director of research wasBenjamin Mandel.
In 1946, the committee considered opening investigations into theKu Klux Klan, but decided against doing so, promptingwhite supremacist committee memberJohn E. Rankin (D-Miss.) to remark, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."[27] Twenty years later, in 1965–1966, however, the committee did conduct an investigation into Klan activities under chairmanEdwin Willis (D-La.).[28]
In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in theHollywood motion picture industry. After conviction oncontempt of Congress charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "The Hollywood Ten" wereblacklisted by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios. Some, likeCharlie Chaplin,Orson Welles,Alan Lomax,Paul Robeson, andYip Harburg, left the U.S. or went underground to find work. Others likeDalton Trumbo wrote underpseudonyms or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry.[citation needed]
In 1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such asMission to Moscow,The North Star, andSong of Russia—could be considered pro-Sovietpropaganda, but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war effort, and that they were made (in the case ofMission to Moscow) at the request of White House officials. In response to the House investigations, most studios produced a number of anti-communist and anti-Soviet propaganda films such asThe Red Menace (August 1949),The Red Danube (October 1949),The Woman on Pier 13 (October 1949),Guilty of Treason (May 1950, about the ordeal and trial ofCardinalJózsef Mindszenty),I Was a Communist for the FBI (May 1951, Academy Award nominated for best documentary 1951, also serialized for radio),Red Planet Mars (May 1952), andJohn Wayne'sBig Jim McLain (August 1952).[29]Universal-International Pictures was the only major studio that did not purposefully produce such a film.
The committee conducted many investigations into the Hollywood film industry. Some people within the industry gave names of people who were allegedly communists to HUAC.[30] In total, 43 people were summoned to testify in front of the Washington hearing.[30] Out of those subpoenaed, only 10 refused to testify, and they were cited for contempt in front of Congress. Those 10 ended up being sentenced; one of them beingAlbert Maltz.[30] Maltz had parents who were Russian immigrants, leading people to believe he was a communist. Once his name was on the Blacklist, he refused to testify in front of the Washington hearings in October. He was then convicted and was sentenced with nine other people. The other nine people includedAlvah Bessie,Herbert Biberman,Lester Cole,Edward Dmytryk,Ring Lardner Jr.,John Howard Lawson,Samuel Ornitz,Adrian Scott, andDalton Trumbo.
As a result of the strict anti-communist agenda of HUAC during the Red Scare, the Labor Movement was targeted by going after prominent union activists and leaders. HUAC found means to go after the unions by attaching a communist stigma to the many organizations and individuals.Harry Bridges, a notable union activist and eventual union president of theInternational Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), was a direct target of such attacks. A campaign led by the committee chairman, at the timeMartin Dies, focused on deporting the Australian American union activist directly based on testimony from John Frey claiming his Communist Party associations, despite his multiple public denials of such claims. Harry Bridges did although share a close intimacy with the Communist Party by aligning himself with certain aspects and ideals commonly targeted by HUAC giving reason for the subpoena and deportations attempts.[31]
Another target of the Dies Committee wasElizabeth Gurley Flynn. Flynn was a cofounder and a part of the board of theAmerican Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). She joined the Communist Party in 1937 and was even included in the party'sCentral Committee the following year. Because of her political associations, she was an easy individual for HUAC to target as they could also attack the ACLU. Martin Dies decided to publicly prosecute the organization in 1939 which forced a response from the ACLU. The response came in the form of shearing any connection with the Communist Party by ridding individuals with communist ties as an attempted plea to Martin Dies. This of course included Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who was expelled from the ACLU, even after being a part of the founding committee.[32]
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On July 31, 1948, the committee heard testimony fromElizabeth Bentley, an American who had been working as a Soviet agent inNew York. Among those whom she named as communists wasHarry Dexter White, a senior U.S. Treasury department official. The committee subpoenaedWhittaker Chambers on August 3, 1948. Chambers, too, was a former Soviet spy, by then a senior editor ofTime magazine.[33]
Chambers named more than a half dozen government officials including White as well asAlger Hiss (and Hiss' brother Donald). Most of these former officials refused to answer committee questions, citing theFifth Amendment. White denied the allegations, and died of a heart attack a few days later. Hiss also denied all charges; doubts about his testimony though, especially those expressed by freshman CongressmanRichard Nixon, led to further investigation that strongly suggested Hiss had made a number of false statements.
Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat his charges outside a Congressional committee, which Chambers did. Hiss then sued for libel, leading Chambers to produce copies of State Department documents which he claimed Hiss had given him in 1938. Hiss denied this before a grand jury, was indicted for perjury, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned.[34][35]The present-day House of Representatives website on HUAC states, "But in the 1990s, Soviet archives conclusively revealed that Hiss had been a spy on the Kremlin's payroll."[36] However, in the 1990s, senior Soviet intelligence officials, after consulting their archive, stated they found nothing to support that theory.[37] In 1995, theNational Security Agency'sVenona papers were alleged to have provided overwhelming evidence that Hiss was a spy, but the same evidence is also judged to be not only not overwhelming but entirely circumstantial.[38] As a result, and also given how many documents remain classified, it is unlikely that a truly conclusive answer will ever be reached.[39]
In 1965, Klan violence prompted PresidentLyndon B. Johnson and Georgia congressmanCharles L. Weltner to call for a congressional probe of the Ku Klux Klan. The resulting investigation resulted in numerous Klansmen remaining silent and giving evasive answers. The House of Representatives voted to cite seven Klan leaders, includingRobert Shelton, for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over Klan records. Shelton was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison plus a $1,000 fine. Following his conviction, three other Klan leaders, Robert Scoggin,Bob Jones, and Calvin Craig, pleaded guilty.[40] Scoggin and Jones were each sentenced to one year in prison, while Craig was fined $1,000. The charges against Marshall Kornegay, Robert Hudgins, and George Dorsett, were later dropped.[41]
Following thecensure of Joseph McCarthy (who never served in the House, nor on HUAC; he was a U.S. Senator), the prestige of HUAC began a gradual decline in the late 1950s. By 1959, the committee was being denounced by former PresidentHarry S. Truman as the "most un-American thing in the country today".[42][43]
In May 1960, the committee held hearings inSan Francisco City Hall which led to a riot on May 13, whencity police officers fire-hosed protesting students from theUC Berkeley,Stanford, and other local colleges, and dragged them down the marble steps beneath the rotunda, leaving some seriously injured.[44][45] Soviet affairs expertWilliam Mandel, who had been subpoenaed to testify, angrily denounced the committee and the police in ablistering statement which was aired repeatedly for years thereafter onPacifica Radio stationKPFA inBerkeley. Ananti-communist propaganda film,Operation Abolition,[46][47][48][49] was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news reports, and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern CaliforniaACLU produced a film calledOperation Correction, which discussed falsehoods in the first film. Scenes from the hearings and protest were later featured in the Academy Award-nominated 1990 documentaryBerkeley in the Sixties.[citation needed]Women Strike for Peace also protested against HUAC at this time.[50]
The committee lost considerable prestige as the 1960s progressed, increasingly becoming the target of political satirists and the defiance of a new generation of political activists. HUAC subpoenaedJerry Rubin andAbbie Hoffman of theYippies in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the1968 Democratic National Convention. The Yippies used the media attention to make a mockery of the proceedings. Rubin came to one session dressed as a Revolutionary War soldier and passed out copies of theUnited States Declaration of Independence to those in attendance. Rubin then "blew giant gum bubbles, while his co-witnesses taunted the committee withNazi salutes".[51] Rubin attended another session dressed asSanta Claus. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing the United States flag. Hoffman quipped to the press, "I regret that I have but one shirt to give for my country", paraphrasing the last words of revolutionary patriotNathan Hale; Rubin, who was wearing a matchingViet Cong flag, shouted that the police were communists for not arresting him as well.[52]
Hearings in August 1966 called to investigate anti-Vietnam War activities were disrupted by hundreds of protesters, many from theProgressive Labor Party. The committee faced witnesses who were openly defiant.[53][54]
According toThe Harvard Crimson:
In the fifties, the most effective sanction was terror. Almost any publicity from HUAC meant the 'blacklist'. Without a chance to clear his name, a witness would suddenly find himself without friends and without a job. But it is not easy to see how in 1969, a HUAC blacklist could terrorize anSDS activist. Witnesses like Jerry Rubin have openly boasted of their contempt for American institutions. A subpoena from HUAC would be unlikely to scandalize Abbie Hoffman or his friends.[55]
In an attempt to reinvent itself, the committee was renamed as the Internal Security Committee in 1969.[56]
The House Committee on Internal Security was formally terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress.[57] The committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary Committee.[57]
Source:[58]
McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee
{{cite web}}:Missing or empty|title= (help){{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)PLP brought 800 people for 3 days of the sharpest struggle that Capital Hill had seen in 30 years. PL members shocked the inquisitors when they openly proclaimed their communist beliefs and then went on into long sharp detailed explanations, which didn't spare the HUAC Congressmen being called every name in the book.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help){{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)→75 Stat. 965{{citation}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)→75 Stat. 961
