What Was the Un-American Activities Committee?

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), established in 1938, was a pivotal force in US Government investigations into “subversives” and “disloyal” Americans accused of communist sympathies and fascist ties. While it targeted various groups, its main focus was the perceived threat of communism. HUAC’s aggressive investigations ranging from government employees to Hollywood screenwriters, strongly contributed to the red-bating climate of Cold War America. By 1959, President Harry Truman had denounced the committee as “the most un-American thing in the country today” but it wasn’t officially terminated until 1975.

From its inception, HUAC’s mission to root out communist organizations and sympathizers was highly controversial. Its defenders cited national security concerns while its critics decried it as a partisan tool aimed at undermining New Deal programs. Those on the political right were not meted out the same treatment. Suspected communists were regularly subpoenaed and grilled by the committee. Many were subsequently blacklisted by employers and had their reputations destroyed. 

Although the committee considered investigating the Klu Klux Klan in 1946, it ultimately decided against it. A 1965 subcommittee investigation into the Klan focused on petty offenses and bookkeeping irregularities, rather than major crimes. By contrast, the HUAC-sponsored Mundt-Nixon Bill (1948) required federal registration of Communist Party of the USA (CPUSA) members, By the early 1950s, the committee had investigated nearly ⅕ of all government employees as suspected communists. 

Key Figures

California Republic – and future 37th President of the United States – Richard Nixon first came to national prominence for his involvement in the case of Algar Hiss, a government official who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union. Together with South Dakota Republican Karl Munat, he also co-authored the Munat-Nixon Bill which established HUAC as a permanent standing committee. 

Alongside the FBI and Senator McCarthy’s Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Internal Security, HUAC set its sights on Hollywood. Following major film industry strikes in the 1930s, led by the Screen Writers Guild, HUAC initiated investigations between Hollywood and the CPUSA as early as 1938. 

The committee’s scrutiny intensified in 1947 when a group of ten screenwriters, directors, and producers were subpoenaed. These individuals, later known as the “Hollywood Ten,” refused to answer questions about their political affiliations, citing their First Amendment rights. 

The blacklisting of the Hollywood Ten marked the start of a broader campaign that ultimately targeted hundreds of people working in the film industry. The blacklist not only destroyed many careers but also severely restricted the range of “acceptable” movies that could be produced, stifling creativity and free expression in the American film industry. 

The Suppression of Free Thought

HUAC was typical of several US Government initiatives aimed at “neutralizing” perceived subversives, from the FBI’s clandestine counter-intelligence program (COINTELPRO) to Senator Joseph McCarthy’s “Second Red Scare.”  Under the auspices of HUAC, communists (suspected or real) were dehumanized and depicted as a “worldwide organization of gangsters” – “disease-spreading,” “termites,” “snakes,” and “poisonous germs.” Progressive civic organizations, including those agitating for Civil Rights, were quickly labelled as communist fronts (Matsuda, 1999). 

Despite the CPUSA’s constitution explicitly denouncing the overthrow of the US Government, HUAC treated the political left as an insidious “enemy within” intent on destroying America. The efforts and activities of HUAC and similar US Government programs successfully decimated the American Left. In doing so they fostered a climate of fear and recrimination, severely stifling free speech, free expression, and basic civil liberties across the United States.