HUAC and McCarthyism

1945 World War Two ends USA and USSR had been united in their defeat of Nazi Germany. The Cold War begins.

1945 cont. “Are you now or have you The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) begins conducting investigations into Communists living in the USA. “Are you now or have you ever been a member of the Communist Party?”

1947 As a result of accusations made against government employees, President Truman (Democrat) begins enforcing ‘loyalty reviews’ of all civil servants. These reviews were designed by the Director of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover. Hoover was regarded as the country’s most powerful anti-communist. President Harry Truman

1947 cont. HUAC begins subpoenaing movie industry professionals. Those brought before the committee are expected to ‘name names’ of other people that they had seen at Communist meetings.

The Hollywood Ten Ten of Hollywood’s most well known movie professionals were brought in front of HUAC. They refused to answer any questions asked of them under the First Amendment (The right to freedom of speech). This was not successful and all ten were sentenced to prison for contempt of Congress.

November 1947 Eric Johnston, the President of the Motion Picture Association of America announces that they... “will not knowingly employ a Communist or a member of any party or group which advocates the overthrow of the government of the United States.” This statement confirmed that those seen not to be cooperating with HUAC would be blacklisted from the film industry.

1949 USSR tests an atomic bomb. China becomes a Communist country. Fear and hysteria are spreading throughout the country.

1950 The Korean War begins (U.S., U.N. and S. Korea against Communist N. Korea and China) Communist spies start emerging in U.S.A. and U.K.

McCarthyism

1953 Dwight Eisenhower (Republican) becomes President. He continues the loyalty reviews of government employees. Senator Joseph McCarthy is made chairman of the Senate Committee on Government Operations and begins his own investigations into finding Communists. His approach is aggressive and persistent.

On 9th February, 1950, Joseph McCarthy, a senator from Wisconsin, made a speech claiming to have a list of 57 people in the State Department known to be members of the American Communist Party. The list of names was not a secret and had been in fact published by the Secretary of State in 1946. These people had been identified during a preliminary screening of 3,000 federal employees. Some had been communists but others had been fascists, alcoholics and sexual deviants. If screened, McCarthy's own drinking problems and sexual preferences would have resulted in him being put on the list.

With the war going badly in Korea and communist advances in Eastern Europe and in China, the American public were genuinely frightened about the possibilities of internal subversion. McCarthy, was made chairman of the Government Committee on Operations of the Senate, and this gave him the opportunity to investigate the possibility of communist subversion. For the next two years McCarthy's committee investigated various government departments and questioned a large number of people about their political past. Some lost their jobs after they admitted they had been members of the Communist Party. McCarthy made it clear to the witnesses that the only way of showing that they had abandoned their left-wing views was by naming other members of the party.

McCarthy's next target was what he believed were anti-American books in libraries. His researchers looked into the Overseas Library Program and discovered 30,000 books by "communists, pro-communists, former communists and anti anti-communists." After the publication of this list, these books were removed from the library shelves. “Robin Hood” “Grapes of Wrath”

In October, 1953, McCarthy began investigating communist infiltration into the military. Attempts were made by McCarthy to discredit Robert Stevens, the Secretary of the Army. The president, Dwight Eisenhower, was furious and realised that it was time to bring an end to McCarthy's activities. Eisenhower also instructed his vice president, Richard Nixon, to attack Joseph McCarthy.

1953-54 After investigating the U.S. Army, opinion polls drop and he becomes an object for ridicule. One Senate committee found McCarthy’s behavior as a chairman to be ‘inexcusable’ ‘reprehensible’ ‘vulgar and insulting’ The era is over, Congress votes to condemn his actions