The House Un-American Activities Committee: Case Study

The first major cause of the Red Scare and the fear of communism was WWII. Communism was not a big problem during the war considering that “During the war the United States sent more than $11 billion in aid to the soviet.”(Fitzgerald 27). After the war Russia wanted to punish the germans for attacking their capital, but the U.S along with all the other allied nations did not agree with the Soviet and tension between the two started. Although “The anti communist hysteria of the early 1950s was actually the second Red Scare of the United States.”(Fitzgerald 16), “the first occurred after a revolution in Russia in October of 1917”(Fitzgerald 16), the country reacted in greater fear than the the first time as proved “In New York City, 11,000 police and detectives were kept on twenty-four-hour duty, guarding all federal, state, city, and county buildings, as well as the Stock Exchange and the homes of prominent men.” (Murray 116) showing how much hysteria had invaded the government and the people. All of these events pushed

The House Un-American Activities Committee, also know as HUAC, investigated alleged communist activities in the United States during the early years of the Cold War. The committee called high-profile citizens to testify in hearings before Congress. Gary Cooper, a Hollywood actor, was a “friendly” witness questioned in October of 1947. Cooper was called to appear before HUAC under the false accusation of promoting communism in Philadelphia. Albert Maltz, a movie writer, was an “unfriendly” witness questioned in 1947. Maltz was called to appear before the committee because he was an active member of the Screen Writers Guild and had a large influence in Hollywood. Although Gary Cooper’s and Albert Maltz’s testimonies before HUAC contain different answering methods, the two testimonies compare in that points of view of the person on trial and methods of questioning.

Communism was covering Asia and Europe, striking fear in individuals as country after country fell into communism. As American politicians strengthened the idea of containment, and cabinet members such as John Foster Dulles spread the idea that "if world communism...will increase the danger to the entire free world," Americans were greatly fearing communism. Citizens began believing others when they announced that communism was "endangering the peace of America" (Document B) and when they addressed the problem they had created by making statements such as "we fear the men in the Kremlin." American citizens highly feared this horrific government of communism, and the Eisenhower Administration did nothing to little to prevent these fears. Even though they acknowledged these fears, they used this fear as support for spending on military defense. The Americans fear during this time period was also displayed

The first red scare of the united states paved the way for a long lasting fear of communism and proved to be one of america's longest lasting period of hysteria (Shield52710Cane. | Bartleby. N.p., n.d. Web. 31 Mar. 2017.)The “ Red Scare” is similar to the salem witch trials in a sense that many people were only being accused of being an anarchist without any actual proof, it was just one person's words against another person's words.This was a theme that dominated America during the 1920s. During this era many Americans were fearful of expressing views that were not in sync with the government’s perspective if they attempted to the capitol creates methods that inhibit the citizens ability to voice any opposing views. Most of the time, when controversial opinions were spoken, the punishments put in place were not worthy of the crime, and often time the person being accused would be

of other communist sympathizers, this led to sanctions. This fear of being accused led to the

Fear in control During the 1600s the fear of witches arose in Salem. This made people doubtful about the love of God people with ‘bad reputation’ had. In the 1950s people questioned the loyalty of citizens towards the United States and the uprising accusations of the being communist. The use of an allegory can be used as “a story in which people, things and events have a meaning often instructive (Agnes 17).”

During the 1950’s, Communism was a major fear that Democratic nations such as America were afraid of because of its radical ideas. The actions taken due to the Red Scare and the rise of McCarthyism were necessary and completely justified to protect America’s freedom and government from Communist power. With an increase of Communistic nations invading other countries and forcing their ideas upon them there was an uproar of fear in the United States. The Domino Theory was a legitimate fear of if one nation falling to communism, every nation around it would fall as well. Focusing their attention to VIetnam especially, America increased military control in these regions. Multiple Legislative actions taken by the United States such as the creation of the HAUC and the Espionage and Sedition acts were necessary to stop threats to America’s freedom. The heated tensions between the Soviet Union and the United States during the Cold War contributed to the fear of an attack from the East. Senator McCarthy’s convincing accusations lead to many accurate accusations as well as the rise of McCarthyism. Valid points were brought up about president Roosevelt’s New Deal policies of having capitalistic characteristics. While some actions did take away the civil liberties of some Americans, and were not always accurate, they were necessary to protect American Democracy, as well as the safety of the citizens.

Edward Dymtryk was born in British Columbia, Canada, on 4th September, 1908. Dymtryk became a film editor in 1929. Dmytryk joined the American Communist Party in 1944. He later claimed that the main reason he joined was that he wanted to end world poverty. During this period he made some movies based for public views . Dmytryk appeared before the HUAC on 29th October, 1947. He refused to answer questions based on his involvement of the american communist party and the screen dictators guild. He claimed that the 1st Amendment gave him the right to not have to answer the questions being asked in this meeting. The chairman of the HUAC, J. Parnell Thomas, refused permission for Dmytryk to make a statement about his political views. Why?. Dmytryk

At the end of the 1940’s and the beginning of the 1950’s, the United States were in the midst of the Second Red Scare and a fear that Communism might over throw the American way of life. Cold War tensions were at an all time high, which only fueled the widespread fears of Communist subversion. It was here that Senator Joseph McCarthy became a public face when he began making claims that the U.S. Government, as well as many other areas of the country, including the entertainment industry, had been invaded by Soviet and Communist spies, looking to destroy America from within. Hearings before the House Un-American Activities Committee, Hollywood Blacklisting, and anti-communist activity from the FBI soon followed. McCarthy was under intense analysis

    Would you want to live in a society where you didn’t have any freedom, and were being controlled by your government? Americans in the late 1940’s to late 1950’s certainly didn’t. Their government wanted to control the possessions people had and how they acted politically, economically, and socially in their everyday lives. The Americans worried about this state of having no freedom. This created a fear that spread all over the United States, called the Red Scare. During the Red Scare, people worried about communism becoming part of the U.S. and feared the influencers that fueled it to become a countrywide panic.

The First and Second Red Scare of the United States paved the way for a long standing fear of communism and proved to be one of America’s largest periods of mass hysteria. Throughout the years authors and analysts have studied and formed expository albeit argumentative books and articles in an attempt to further understand this period of time; the mindset held during this period however is shown to be completely different compared to now.

They were afraid because the votes for communists had gone up. Also it was quite likely for the communists to take over because the German communists, sparticists tried in 1919. Communists had also taken over Russia in 1917. The communists appealed to the working class, people who worked in factories with long hours and low pay. They believed each person should work according to their capacity and receive according to their needs.

popular support. It was very common for people to have to take an Anti-Communist oaths when

The Red Scare and McCarthyism had begun Paranoia, disloyalty, people losing jobs. The Red Scare and McCarthyism both made everything else worse. Communism is a political theory derived from Karl Marx, advocating class war and leading to a society in which all property is publicly owned and each person works and is paid according to their abilities and needs. At the end of the month when they get their paychecks they both end up with the same amount of money it is not fair, right? but that is more or less what McCarthyism is. During the 1950s, there was a great amount of paranoia and the government technically speaking did not confide in anyone else and falsely accused other people (Essay). The government was so paranoid that they had

In the United States the main concern of the government was maintain the loyalty of their citizens. This was made even more evident by the second red scare that happened post WWII. The reason behind this scare was that information was leaked that there was espionage going on in the US and this caused Americans to fear that this will eventually lead to the overthrow of the government. Another fear was the rapid spread of communism into countries in Eastern Europe and Asia. As concern of the public grew in regards to the spread of communism the government