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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.
Remember, I want you to not only post a comment with some substance on each day (an opinion, something you found interesting, questions, ideas) but I also would like you to reply to at least one other comment for that day. Thank you!
putting people against themselves is such a fear tactic. the fact that people would be labeled as a communist because of the art they liked or the people they hung out with or the fact that they didn’t think nuclear war was a good idea is insane. you get what i’m saying right? these things have almost nothing to do with your political standpoint (though i guess i could see a debate on nuclear wars getting political i don’t think it should cause anyone to pin someone as a communist). some people enjoy modern art, some people don’t. that doesn’t have anything to do with communism. this is why stigmas and racial stereotypes are harmful because people put certain traits or attributes with a race and it becomes harmful. just like the stereotype that “Asians are bad drivers” it may be true for some people but when you generalize it, it becomes harmful to everyone in that race.
I definitely get what you are saying. It sounds like the land of the free didn’t really see freedom as that important during this period. Fear became a tool for oppression.
Yeah, I was wondering what happened to certain civil rights during that time. I
It’s crazy to see what fear can do to people. “Would you like to come in our house?” “What did you just say…? OUR HOUSE?! COMMUNIST! ARREST THIS MAN!”
i think that it was crazy that they investigated the Hollywood stars just because they stared in a movie that was about the soviet union
I think the reason for that is because it could have been seen as propaganda.
It was really crazy
I agree with Chloe, fear was a heavily used tactic in McCarthyism. The fact that no could say anything without having to brave the risk of getting blacklisted or incarcerated is scary. It’s ridiculous the things that the government did in the name of “national security.” It’s kind of ironic that in order to protect the nation, the government became the very thing they were trying to protect people from.
That’s true. In an attempt to protect people’s rights, the government completely obliterated them.
I think its pretty scary that you could just randomly get summoned to court and questioned and maybe sent to jail.
Yes that would be scary. I think is crazy that they are just allowed to do that for not really any reason.
What does it mean to be “un-American”? Well, according to the government during that time, it meant to believe in Capitalism and freedom. However, is essentially outlawing the ability to believe in Communism (or to do the things that were branded as traits of Communists) really helping to preserve freedom? America is the land of the free…but is it because we’re Capitalists? Do we have the Bill of Rights to support Capitalism?
Fear is often used to control otherwise innocent people. How do you think tyrants rise to power? Not everyone agrees with them, but the majority of people feign shared beliefs in order to keep themselves and those they love safe. I don’t think this tactic will ever completely lose its power, but we can combat it in a fight for justice. Our government is an example of a system that was put in place to prevent this from happening. Obviously, that system was and is abused, but I would like to think that we’ve learned from our mistakes, setting the laws that allow us to live without fear in stone. Even if that is so, other parts of the world are still under the influence of fear.
You said McCarthy died of alcoholism. Was he an alcoholic while in the Senate? Did that have any effect on all this?
When McCarthy was asked, “Have you no decency?” It would have been great if he just said, “Are you drunk?” instead.
My nana was born around this time i think. She is a bit racist, but not in a joking manner. i feel like if you are wanting to make a joke about a cetain people type, then there is nothing wrong with that as long as if you keep it light hearted. I try to keep things a joke or put another race above my own to show that i am trying to be respectful while making the joke.
I get that what McCarthy did was bold and it was worth it. But how did it work so well if he lost his credibility. To me it doesn’t seem worth it if you lose your credibility.
There were some crazy actions in the cold war, that you would only expect to be fictional. With spies in the Manhattan project and Russians infultrating Hollywood, it is insane to realize that these things actually happened
I really enjoyed this lesson it was interesting learning about Eisenhower and McCarthy