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HOW IMPORTANT WERE THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE HEARINGS IN…
HOW IMPORTANT WERE THE HOUSE UN-AMERICAN ACTIVITIES COMMITTEE HEARINGS IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF MCCARTHYISM?
HUAC.
The House of Un-American Activities Committee or HUAC was set up in 1938. It was triggered by the tense situation in Europe.
Their job was to monitor the activities of extremist groups and would investigate those suspicious of subversive activities.
HEARINGS
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Witnesses were called before the committee and asked questions about their beliefs and actions of the present and the past. They were questioned on their Communist connections and were expected to ‘name names’.
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TARGETING HOLLYWOOD.
The HUAC targeted Hollywood in fear that Communist properganda may be promoted via films and plays, etc.
One of the most famous trials was Hollywood playwright Aruther Miller.
He was interrogated by the committee about meetings of communist writers he attended nine years ago.
When he refused to ‘name names’ he was given a $500 fine and sentenced to a short time in prison.
After this he went on to write a play about the witch trials in American in 1692 triggered by his experience with the HUAC.
During the targeting of Hollywood many people had their careers ruined and young actor Ronald Regan was even named.
RIGHTS VIOLATED.
Many people believe that they would be protected by the Constitution - The First Amendment that gives the right to freedom of speech and assembly.
But, in 1948 Congress agreed in the case of ‘Dennis versus the United States’ that the First Amendment would be cut off if national security was at risk.
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HIGH PROFILE CASES.
Alger Hiss
- He was a worker at the State Department.
- He was a New Dealer and worked closely with FDR.
- He was sentenced to five years after being suspected of Perjury and being involved with a subversive organisation in the 30s.
Klaus Fuchs
- A month after the Alger Hiss case.
-The British arrested Klaus Fuchs for spying while working on the atomic bomb.
- He named David Greenglass.
David Greenglass.
- David Greenglass who named his own sister and brother-in-law Ethel and Julius Rosenberg
- They were were arrested and executed for their connections with Communism despite having young children and protesting their innocence.
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