Un-American Activities

The late 1940s and early 1950s were a time of growing tension, both abroad and at home. Relations between the United States and the Soviet Union had deteriorated to the point of “cold war,” while domestically the revelation that Soviet spies had infiltrated the U.S. government created a general sense of uneasiness. In 1946 the House Un-American Activities Committee, which had been created as a temporary committee in the 1930s to investigate subversives during World War II, became a permanent standing congressional committee. It quickly took upon itself the responsibility for determining how deeply communists had penetrated into American society.

House Un-American Activities Committee

While this committee was charged with investigating pro-fascist groups, as well as hate organizations like the Ku Klux Klan, they chose to focus instead on suspicions that, thanks to the New Deal, members of the Communist Party had managed to infiltrate a number of federal agencies. They set out to investigate any individual or group that challenged “the form of government guaranteed by our Constitution.” Then, after Republicans won majorities in both houses of Congress in the 1946 elections, the committee began to examine federal employees who were allegedly attracted to communism, and who had promoted policies favorable to the Soviet Union.

One of the most famous episodes in HUAC’s history was its investigation of Hollywood. In this case, the committee looked into the production of certain films during World War II that had created an overly-positive image of life in the Soviet Union. A number of prominent Hollywood figures, including studio executives, movie stars, and screenwriters, were called to testify in 1947. When some of these refused to answer questions about their communist affiliations or refused to identify others who were suspected of being communists, ten of them—soon dubbed the “Hollywood Ten“—were charged and convicted of contempt of Congress.

Eventually, as a result of these hearings, some 300 directors, actors, and screenwriters found that they had been “blacklisted” by the motion picture industry; that is, the studios agreed not to hire them.

If you are interested in learning more about the HUAC, you might do a little research into the story of a man named Alger Hiss and a young Republican congressman named Richard M. Nixon, who was particularly zealous in proving that Hiss was a Soviet agent.

The HUAC continued to exist until 1975, but by the middle of the 1950s, its investigations had ceased to generate much interest. It no doubt contributed in large part to the growing sense of hysteria over communist subversion that swept the country in the late 1940s. Here’s a quick cartoon written by one of the Hollywood Ten, Ring Lardner Jr.

Soviet Espionage

However, it is worth recalling that there was an organized Soviet spy network in America; in other words, this was no mere “witch hunt.” The opening of the Soviet archives in the 1990s, and the declassification of certain intercepted Soviet messages from the late 1940s, indicates that Soviet agents had penetrated the U.S. government before and during World War II, in some cases at very high levels.

Perhaps most ominously, confessions by several spies made it clear that Soviet espionage had, during the Second World War, infiltrated the top-secret Manhattan Project, which developed the atomic bomb. When in 1949 the Soviets successfully tested their own atomic weapon, it did not take long for Americans to conclude that this had been more the work of Russian spies than of scientists.

Coming at a time when relations between the United States and the Soviet Union were already deteriorating to the point of near-war, these revelations had a profound effect on the American public. Perhaps, they wondered, the Soviet strategy might not be to try to conquer the world through traditional military power, but rather by boring from within. If their spies had been able to infiltrate some of the highest levels of the federal government, where else might they be?

Moreover, if these agents were motivated not by greed or ethnic connections, but rather by a belief in communism, what did this suggest about others who professed such a belief—or even those who appeared to be in sympathy with some communist goals?

One particularly noteworthy instance of this involved Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, who were brought to trial by famed FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, and convicted in 1951 of passing information about the atomic bomb to the Kremlin. The resulting death sentence of this young, middle-class couple divided the nation, and kept the issue of Soviet espionage before the American public for years to come.

While this may seem overblown, the opening in the 1990s of the archives of the former Soviet Union and the declassification of the transcripts from the Venona Project showed that the penetration of American institutions was, indeed, significant, and was being directed locally by the Communist Party of the United States. Whatever one might think of the tactics of the House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940s, there is little doubt today that the Soviet spy network in America existed, and that it was extensive.

McCarthy’s Red Scare

The revelations of Soviet spy networks in the United States, and the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee, may have generated big headlines in the late 1940s, but they would pale compared to those that Joseph McCarthy would elicit.

A freshman senator from Wisconsin, McCarthy shocked the country in 1950 when he claimed to possess evidence that significant numbers of communists continued to hold positions of influence in the State Department. This would be the beginning of a dark period in the nation’s history, a time when making even the most mildly controversial statements ran the risk of being accused of disloyalty—or worse.

For the next two years he and other Republicans would use these charges to hammer the Truman administration, and his tenacity accounted, at least in part, for the landslide victory enjoyed by the Republicans and Dwight Eisenhower in the 1952 election. Republican control of Congress in 1953 and 1954 gave McCarthy access to more power than ever.

Some have criticized President Eisenhower for not dealing with McCarthy sooner. McCarthy used hearsay and intimidation to establish himself as a powerful and feared figure in American politics. He leveled charges of disloyalty at celebrities, intellectuals and anyone who disagreed with his political views, costing many of his victims their reputations and jobs. But Eisenhower took a position above the fray choosing not to confront McCarthy directly but instead work behind the curtain to subvert his efforts.

But at the start of 1954, Joe McCarthy turned his investigatory resources on the US Army and on members of the administration itself. That was the last straw, Eisenhower had no choice but to fight back. In May 1954, Eisenhower simply charged any administration officials and all executive branch employees to ignore any call from McCarthy to testify.

It was a bold move, and it worked. McCarthy had lost his credibility and now was starved of witnesses. He hit a brick wall—and his fellow senators turned against him. In early December 1954, the Senate passed a motion of condemnation, in a vote of 67 to 22. Within three years, McCarthy was dead from alcohol abuse. The era of McCarthyism was over. You can read more about Eisenhower’s role in McCarthy’s downfall in this 2001 issue of Prologue Magazine.

What do you think? Was domestic communism a threat? What does it mean to be “un-American?” How did McCarthy use fear to control? Does this still work today? I’d love to hear your thoughts.