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| − | [[Image:Huac.jpg|thumb|300px|HUAC hearings]]
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| − | The '''House Committee on Un-American Activities''' ('''HUAC''' or HCUA 1934–1975) was an investigative [[United States Congressional committee|committee]] of the [[United States House of Representatives]]. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security." When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the [[House Judiciary Committee]].
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| − | While the committee was charged with finding subversive activities of radical groups on both the political left and right, it is best known for its investigations of the [[Motion picture]] industry in the late 1940s and 1950s. It focused on the [[communism|communist]] sympathies of many of the writers, actors and directors within the [[Hollywood]] film community, giving rise to the creation of a [[Hollywood blacklist]] of those who were prohibited from working in the film industry for more than a decade.
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| − | The work of the committee was influenced by the era of [[McCarthyism]] which sought to expose the perceived infiltration of prominent aspects of American society by communists who sought the overthrow and breakdown of American society. However, their work is now generally understood to have exceeded their mandate, punishing people for their political beliefs.
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| − | ==Special Committee on Un-American Activities (1934-1937)==
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| − | From 1934 to 1937, the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate [[Nazi]] Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities, chaired by [[John W. McCormack]] and Lithuanian-born [[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]] (1885–1954), held public and private hearings in six cities, questioned hundreds of witnesses and collected testimony filling 4,300 pages. Its mandate was to get "information on how foreign subversive [[propaganda]] entered the U.S. and the organizations that were spreading it."
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| − | The committee investigated and supported allegations of a [[fascism|fascist]] plot to seize the [[White House]], known as the [[Business Plot]]. It was replaced with a similar committee that focused on pursuing [[Communism|communists]]. Its records are held by the [[NARA|National Archives and Records Administration]] as records related to HUAC.
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| − | ==Special investigation committee (1938–1944)==
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| − | <!-- [[Dies Commitee]] redirects here —>
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| − | In May 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities,
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| − | Although "HCUA" is more technically correct, "HUAC" (for "House Un-American Activities Committee") is the abbreviation most often used.<ref>For HUAC See [http://www.google.com/search?as_q=huac+house+committee&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images this]. versus HCUA see [http://www.google.com/search?as_q=hcua+house+committee&hl=en&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&lr=&as_ft=i&as_filetype=&as_qdr=all&as_nlo=&as_nhi=&as_occt=any&as_dt=i&as_sitesearch=&as_rights=&safe=images this]. or in a book search, [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=huac+house+committee&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_libcat=0&as_brr=0&as_vt=&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_drrb=c&as_miny=&as_maxy=&as_isbn= this]. vs. [http://books.google.com/books?as_q=hcua+house+committee&num=10&btnG=Google+Search&as_epq=&as_oq=&as_eq=&as_libcat=0&as_brr=0&as_vt=&as_auth=&as_pub=&as_drrb=c&as_miny=&as_maxy=&as_isbn= this].</ref> <ref>Don S. Kirschner. ''Cold War Exile: The Unclosed Case of Maurice Halperin.'' (University of Missouri Press, 1995. 0826209890), 7 quote: "The correct [[acronym]] for this committee is thus HCUA, but the committee is commonly known as HUAC… ". </ref>
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| − | Some authors believe that "HUAC" was originally coined as a pejorative term, meant to suggest that the committee itself engaged in "un-American activities," but the abbreviation is used by most current authors without any pejorative sense.<ref>Victor S. Navasky. ''Naming Names.'' (Hill and Wang, 2003. ISBN 0809001837), vii</ref> When the unabbreviated name is used, it is usually given as "House Committee on Un-American Activities".
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| − | Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref> was established as a special investigating committee. It was chaired by the U.S. Congressman from Texas [[Martin Dies Jr.]], and Rep. Samuel Dickstein from New York, and became known as the "Dies Committee". Its work was aimed mostly at [[German American]] involvement in [[Nazism|Nazi]] and [[Ku Klux Klan]] activity. However, little was done in the way of investigations into the activities of the Klan. When the committee's chief counsel Ernest Adamson announced that "The committee has decided that it lacks sufficient data on which to base a probe," committee member [[John E. Rankin]] added: "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."
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| − | HUAC instead concentrated on investigating the possibility that the [[American Communist Party]] had infiltrated the [[Works Progress Administration]], including the [[Federal Theatre Project]].
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| − | The Dies Committee also carried out a brief investigation into the [[Japanese American internment|wartime internment]] of [[Japanese Americans]] living on the West Coast. The investigation primarily concerned security at the camps, youth gangs allegedly operating in the camps, food supply questions, and releases of internees. With the exception of Rep. [[Herman P. Eberharter|Herman Eberharter]], the members of the committee seemed to support internment.
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| − | In 1938, [[Hallie Flanagan]], the head of the Federal Theatre Project, was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge that the project was overrun with [[communism|communists]]. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while a clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. It was during this investigation that one of the committee members, [[Joe Starnes]], famously asked Flanagan whether the [[Elizabethan]] playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]] was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that "[[Euripides|Mr. Euripides]]" preached [[class warfare]].<ref>Benedict Nightingale, September 18, 1988, book review, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DA153DF93BA2575AC0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 "Mr. Euripides Goes To Washington" book review of Hallie Flanagan: ''A Life in the American Theatre,'' by Joanne Bently]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | In 1939, the committee investigated leaders of the [[American Youth Congress]], a [[Comintern]] affiliate organization.
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| − | Ironically, in the 1990s it was revealed that Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]], vice-chairman of the respective committees, was himself named in Soviet [[NKVD]] documents as a paid informant for three years. They dropped him from the payroll when he left the committee in 1940.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev. ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era.'' (New York: Modern Library, ISBN 0375755365), 140–150 </ref>
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| − | ==Standing committee (1945-1975)==
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| − | The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a standing (permanent) committee in 1945. Representative [[Edward J. Hart]] of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman.<ref>Walter Goodman. ''The Committee.'' (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1968)</ref> Under the mandate of Public Law 601, passed by the [[Seventy-ninth United States Congress|79th Congress]], the committee of nine representatives investigated suspected threats of subversion or [[propaganda]] that attacked "the form of government guaranteed by our [[United States Constitution|Constitution]]."
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| − | Under this mandate, the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in American society. The first such investigation looked into allegations of communists in the [[Federal Theatre Project]] in 1938. A significant step for HUAC was its investigation of the charges of [[espionage]] brought against [[Alger 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.<ref>Doug Lindner, ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials - 1949-50], 2003. ''University of Missouri, Kansas City Law Faculty''. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | ===Hollywood blacklist===
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| − | {{main|Hollywood blacklist}}
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| − | [[Image:Mostel HUAC.svg|thumb|420px|Segment of [[Zero Mostel]]’s testimony before HUAC]]
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| − | In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the [[Hollywood]] motion picture industry. After conviction on [[contempt of Congress]] charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, the "[[Hollywood Ten]]" were [[blacklist]]ed by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists—including directors, radio commentators, actors and particularly screenwriters—were boycotted by the studios. [[Charlie Chaplin]] who openly supported the [[Soviet Union]], returned to [[England]] to find work. Others wrote under [[pseudonym]]s or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry.
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| − | In 1947, studio executives told the committee that wartime films—such as ''[[Mission to Moscow]],'' ''[[The North Star (1943 film)|The North Star]],'' and ''[[Song of Russia]]''—could be considered pro-Soviet [[propaganda]], but claimed that the films were valuable in the context of the Allied war effort, and that they were made (in the case of ''Mission 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 as [[John Wayne]]'s ''[[Big Jim McLain]],'' ''[[Guilty of Treason]]'' (about the ordeal and trial of [[József Cardinal Mindszenty]]), ''[[The Red Menace (film)|The Red Menace]],'' ''[[The Red Danube]],'' ''[[I Married a Communist (film)|I Married a Communist]],'' and ''[[Red Planet Mars]].'' ''[[I Was a Communist for the FBI]],''<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043665/ I Was a Communist for the FBI] (1951) ''Imdb.com''. Retrieved January 26, 2009.</ref> was nominated for an Academy Award for the best documentary in 1951 and also serialized for radio.<ref>Dan Georgakas, [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/blacklist.html Hollywood Blacklist], in: ''Encyclopedia Of The American Left.'' 1992. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref> [[Universal-International Pictures]] was the only major studio that did not produce such a film.
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| − | ===Decline===
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| − | In the wake of Senator [[Joseph P. McCarthy|McCarthy]]'s downfall, the prestige of HUAC began a gradual decline beginning in the late 1950s. By 1959, the committee was being denounced by former President [[Harry S. Truman]] as the "most un-American thing in the country today."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield. ''The Culture of the Cold War.'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) </ref>''
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| − | In May 1960, the committee held hearings in [[San Francisco]] that led to the infamous "riot" at City Hall on May 13, 1960, when San Francisco police officers fire-hosed students from [[UC Berkeley|Berkeley]], [[Stanford]], and other local colleges down the steps beneath the rotunda. An anti-communist propaganda film, ''Operation Abolition''<ref> "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894425-1,00.html Operation Abolition]," ''TIME'' Magazine, 1961. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref> was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news station reports and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern California chapter of the [[ACLU]] produced a film called ''Operation Correction,'' which discussed falsehoods in the first film.
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| − | 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 subpoenaed [[Jerry Rubin]] and [[Abbie Hoffman]] of the [[Youth International Party|Yippies]] in 1967, and again in the aftermath of the [[1968 Democratic National Convention]]. The Yippies used the media attention to make a mockery of the proceedings. Rubin came to one session dressed as an [[American Revolutionary War]] soldier and passed out copies of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] to people in attendance. Rubin then "blew giant gum bubbles while his co-witnesses taunted the committee with [[Nazi]] salutes."<ref>[http://www.bookrags.com/Youth_International_Party Youth International Party], 1992. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | Hoffman attended a session dressed as [[Santa Claus]]. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing an American 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 patriot [[Nathan Hale]]; Rubin, who was wearing a matching [[Viet Cong]] flag, shouted that the police were communists for not arresting him also.<ref>Jerry Rubin, ''[http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/yippiemanifesto.html A Yippie Manifesto]''. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>
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| − | According to Thomas Geoghegan writing in ''[[The Harvard Crimson]],'' February 24, 1969:
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| − | {{cquote|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 an [[Students for a Democratic Society (1960 organization)|SDS]] 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.<ref>Thomas Geogheghan, [http://www.thecrimson.com/article.aspx?ref=494601 "By Any Other Name. Brass Tacks"], February 24, 1969, ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]''. Retrieved January 19, 2009.</ref>}}
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| − | ==Legacy==
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| − | The committee's anti-communist investigations are often confused with those of Senator [[Joseph McCarthy]]. McCarthy, as a senator, had no direct involvement with this House committee.<ref>Thomas Patrick Doherty. ''Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture.'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2003), 15-16.</ref>
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| − | Still, the name of the committee is forever linked with the era of [[McCarthyism]] and with the spirit of intolerance that is associated with it. While the opening of the [[KGB]] [[archives]] after the [[collapse of the Soviet Union]] has demonstrated that there were attempts to infiltrate America, the notion that Americans with communist sympathies were not good Americans became unacceptable during the 1960s and beyond. The work of the committee is now generally understood to violate a basic tenant of the [[United States Bill of Rights]]–[[freedom of conscience]].
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| − | ==Notable members==
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| − | During the various phases of its existence, the committee was chaired by:
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| − | *[[John W. McCormack]], chairman 1934-1937 (Special Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | **[[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]], vice-chairman 1934-1937 (Special Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[Martin Dies Jr.]], 1938–1944 (special investigation committee)
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| − | **[[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]], vice-chairman 1938-1944 (special investigation committee)
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| − | *[[Edward J. Hart]], chairman 1945-1946 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[John Parnell Thomas]], chairman 1947–1948 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[John Stephens Wood]], chairman 1949–1953 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[Harold Himmel Velde]], chairman 1953–1955 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[Francis Walter]], chairman 1955–1965 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[Edwin Edward Willis]], chairman 1965–1969 (House Committee on Un-American Activities)
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| − | *[[Richard Howard Ichord Jr.]], chairman 1969–1975 (House Committee on Internal Security)
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| − | Other notable members included:
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| − | * [[Richard Nixon]]
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| − | * [[Gordon H. Scherer]]
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| − | * [[Karl Earl Mundt]]
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| − | * [[Felix Edward Hébert]]
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| − | * [[John Elliott Rankin]]
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| − | * [[Richard B. Vail]]
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| − | * [[Donald L. Jackson]]
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| − | ==See also==
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| − | *[[Cold War]]
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| − | *[[Elia Kazan]]
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| − | *[[J. Edgar Hoover]]
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| − | *[[Loyalty oath]]
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| − | *[[Paul Robeson]]
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| − | *[[Redbaiting]]
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| − | *[[Wilkinson v. United States]]
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| − | *[[Zero Mostel]]
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| − | *[[Film gris|Film Gris]]
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| − | ==Notes==
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| − | <references/>
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| − | ==References==
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| − | *Bentley, Eric & Frank Rich. 2002. ''Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938-1968.'' New York: Nation Books, ISBN 1560253681.
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| − | *Buckley, William F. 1962. ''The Committee and Its Critics; a Calm Review of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.'' Putnam Books, OCLC 457047
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| − | * *Buhle, Mari Jo, Paul Buhle, and Dan Georgakas, eds., ''Encyclopedia of the American Left.'' Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1992.
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| − | *Doherty, Thomas Patrick. ''Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture.'' New York: Columbia University Press, 2003. ISBN 0231129521.
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| − | *Donner, Frank J. 1967. ''The Un-Americans.'' Ballantine Books OCLC 2484217
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| − | *Gladchuk, John Joseph. 2006. ''Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935-1950.'' New York: Routledge, ISBN 0415955688.
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| − | *Goodman, Walter. 1968. ''The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities.'' Farrar Straus & Giroux, ISBN 0374126887.
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| − | * Kirschner, Don S. ''Cold War Exile: The Unclosed Case of Maurice Halperin.'' University of Missouri Press, 1995. ISBN 0826209890.
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| − | * Navasky, Victor S. ''Naming Names.'' Hill and Wang, 2003. ISBN 0809001837.
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| − | *O'Reilly, Kenneth. 1983. ''Hoover and the Unamericans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace.'' Philadelphia: Temple University Press, ISBN 0877223017.
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| − | *Weinstein, Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev. 1998. ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—The Stalin Era.'' New York: Modern Library, ISBN 0375755365.
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| − | *Whitfield, Stephen J. 1996. ''The Culture of the Cold War.'' Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, ISBN 0801851955.
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| − | ==External links==
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| − | All links Retrieved January 17, 2009.
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| − | * [http://caliber.ucpress.net/doi/pdf/10.1525/hsps.2001.32.1.145 The National Laboratories and the Atomic Energy Commission in the Early Cold War]
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| − | * [http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/theoharris.htm ''Political Counterintelligence''] Subversive Activities Control Board (SACB)
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| − | *[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894425-1,00.html "Operation Abolition," 17 Mar 1961] ''TIME'' Magazine
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| − | * Bogart, Humphrey. [http://docs.google.com/View?docid=dg6n6657_103f7bsqj "I'm no communist" Photoplay Magazine, March 1948]
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| − | [[category:Politics and social sciences]]
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| − | [[category:Politics]]
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| − | [[category:Art, music, literature, sports and leisure]]
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