{{Short description|American investigative committee (1938–1975)}} {{Use American English|date=January 2026}} {{Use mdy dates|date=November 2025}} [[File:Chairman Dies of House Committee investigating Un-American activities.jpg|thumb|[[Martin Dies Jr.|Chairman Martin Dies]] of the House Un-American Activities Committee proofreads his October 26, 1938, letter replying to [[Franklin D. Roosevelt|President Roosevelt]]'s attack on the committee.]] {{United States House of Representatives}} '''The House Committee on Un-American Activities''' ('''HCUA'''), popularly the '''House Un-American Activities Committee''' ('''HUAC'''), was an investigative [[United States Congressional committee|committee]] of the [[United States House of Representatives]] created in 1938. Their goal was to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having [[communist]] ties. It became a standing (permanent) committee in 1946. Then, from 1969 and onward, it was known as the '''House Committee on Internal Security.''' When the House abolished the committee in 1975, its functions were transferred to the [[House Judiciary Committee]].

The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with [[McCarthyism]], although [[Joseph McCarthy]] himself (as a [[U.S. senator]]) had no direct involvement with the House committee.<ref>For example, see {{cite news |last=Brown |first=Sarah |date=February 5, 2002 |title=Pleading the Fifth |url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1801948.stm |work=BBC News |quote=McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee}}</ref><ref>Patrick Doherty, Thomas. ''Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture''. 2003, pp. 15–16.</ref> McCarthy was the chairman of the [[United States Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs|Government Operations Committee]] and its [[United States Senate Homeland Security Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations|Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations]] of the U.S. Senate, not the House.

==History== ===Precursors to the Committee=== During the mid-20th century, the American public became increasingly concerned about the potential infiltration of foreign ideologies within the United States government. In response to this distress, several congressional committees were established to investigate and prevent possible subversive activities. Among these was the House Un-American Activities Committee, which conducted a series of high-profile investigations. Often characterized as "[[witch hunts]]", they aimed to identify alleged communist sympathizers and spies within American institutions.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Coates |first=Donna |date=Summer 2008 |title=Hot to Cold War |journal=Canadian Literature |issue=197 |pages=153, 154, 201 |id={{ProQuest|218829038}}}}</ref>

====Overman Committee (1918–1919)==== [[File:Lee salter overman.jpg|thumb|[[Lee Slater Overman]] headed the first congressional investigation of American communism in 1919.]] The [[Overman Committee]], chaired by [[North Carolina]] [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] senator [[Lee Slater Overman]], was a subcommittee of the [[Senate Judiciary Committee]] that operated from September 1918 to June 1919. The subcommittee investigated German as well as "[[Bolshevik]] elements" in the United States.<ref name="schmidt136">Schmidt, p. 136</ref>

This subcommittee was initially concerned with investigating pro-German sentiments in the American liquor industry. After [[World War I]] ended in November 1918, and the German threat lessened, the subcommittee began investigating Bolshevism, which had appeared as a threat during the [[First Red Scare]] after the [[Russian Revolution]] in 1917. The subcommittee's hearing into Bolshevik propaganda, conducted from February 11 to March 10, 1919, played a decisive role in constructing an image of a radical threat to the United States during the first Red Scare.<ref name="schmidt144">Schmidt, p. 144</ref>

====Fish Committee (1930)==== Congressman [[Hamilton Fish III]] (R-NY), who was a fervent anti-communist, introduced, on May 5, 1930, House Resolution 180, which proposed to establish a committee to investigate communist activities in the United States. The resulting committee, Special Committee to Investigate Communist Activities in the United States commonly known as the Fish Committee, undertook extensive investigations of people and organizations suspected of being involved with or supporting communist activities in the United States.<ref>{{cite web |title=Complete Digitized Testimonies: The U.S. Congress Special Committee on Communist Activities in Washington State Hearings (1930) |url=http://depts.washington.edu/labhist/cpproject/fish-hearings.shtml |access-date=August 21, 2012 |publisher=Communism in Washington State History and Memory Project}}</ref> Among the committee's targets were the [[American Civil Liberties Union]] and communist presidential candidate [[William Z. Foster]].<ref>''Memoirs'', pp. 41–42</ref> The committee recommended granting the [[United States Department of Justice]] more authority to investigate communists, and strengthening immigration and deportation laws to keep communists out of the United States.<ref>{{cite news |date=November 18, 1930 |title=TO SEEK ADDED LAW FOR CURB ON REDS; Fish Committee Will Propose Strengthening Powers of Justice Department |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1930/11/18/archives/to-seek-added-law-for-curb-on-reds-fish-committee-will-propose.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 4, 2021 |newspaper=The New York Times |page=21}}</ref>

====McCormack–Dickstein Committee (1934–1937)==== From 1934 to 1937, the committee, now named the Special Committee on Un-American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda Activities, chaired by [[John William McCormack]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[Massachusetts|Mass.]]) and [[Samuel Dickstein (congressman)|Samuel Dickstein]] ([[Democratic Party (United States)|D]]-[[New York (state)|NY]]), held public and private hearings and collected testimony filling 4,300 pages. The Special Committee was widely known as the McCormack–Dickstein committee. Its mandate was to get "information on how foreign subversive propaganda entered the U.S. and the organizations that were spreading it." Its records are held by the [[National Archives and Records Administration]] as records related to HUAC.<ref>{{Cite web |title=House Un-American Activities Committee |url=https://www2.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/huac.cfm |access-date=September 14, 2022 |website=www2.gwu.edu}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=McCormack-Dickstein - Facing the Corporate Roots of American Fascism |url=https://coat.ncf.ca/our_magazine/links/53/committee.html |access-date=September 27, 2025 |website=coat.ncf.ca}}</ref>

In 1934, the Special Committee subpoenaed most of the leaders of the fascist movement in the United States.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Berlet |first1=Chip |url=https://archive.org/details/rightwingpopulis00berlrich |title=Right-Wing Populism in America: Too Close for Comfort |last2=Lyons |first2=Matthew Nemiroff |publisher=Guilford Press |year=2000 |isbn=978-1-57230-562-5 |url-access=registration}}</ref> Beginning in November 1934, the committee investigated allegations of a [[fascism|fascist]] plot to seize the [[White House]], known as the "[[Business Plot]]". Contemporary newspapers widely reported the plot as a hoax.<ref name="nyt112234">{{cite news |date=November 22, 1934 |title=Credulity Unlimited |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1934/11/22/archives/credulity-unlimited.html |access-date=March 3, 2009 |work=[[The New York Times]]}}</ref> While historians have questioned whether a coup was actually close to execution, most agree that some sort of "wild scheme" was contemplated and discussed.<ref name="Fox">{{cite book |last1=Fox |url=https://archive.org/details/clarksofcooperst00webe |title=The Clarks of Cooperstown |publisher=Knopf |year=2007 |isbn=978-0-307-26347-6}}</ref>

It has been reported that while Dickstein served on this committee and the subsequent committee, Special Investigation, he was paid $1,250 a month by the Soviet [[NKVD]], which sought to obtain secret congressional information on anti-communists and pro-fascists. A 1939 NKVD report stated Dickstein handed over "materials on the war budget for 1940, records of conferences of the budget sub commission, reports of the war minister, chief of staff and etc." However the NKVD was dissatisfied with the amount of information provided by Dickstein, after he was not appointed to HUAC to "carry out measures planned by us together with him." Dickstein unsuccessfully attempted to expedite the deportation of Soviet defector [[Walter Krivitsky]], while the Dies Committee kept him in the country. Dickstein stopped receiving NKVD payments in February 1940.<ref>{{cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Allen |author-link=Allen Weinstein |title=The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America – The Stalin Era |author2=Vassiliev, Alexander |date=March 14, 2000 |publisher=Modern Library |isbn=978-0-375-75536-1 |location=New York |pages=140–150}}</ref>

====Dies Committee (1938–1944)==== <!-- [[Dies Committee]] redirects here --> [[File:370403-Dies-Martin.jpg|thumb|Texas Democrat [[Martin Dies Jr.]] served as chair of the Special Committee on Un-American Activities, predecessor to the permanent committee, for its entire seven-year duration.]] On May 26, 1938, the House Committee on Un-American Activities was established as a special investigating committee, which was reorganized from its previous incarnations: Fish Committee and the McCormack-Dickstein Committee. The goal of this committee was to investigate alleged disloyalty and subversive activities as part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist or fascist ties. On the contrary, it concentrated its efforts on communists.<ref name="Finkelman2006">{{cite book |last=Finkelman |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YoI14vYA8r0C&pg=PA780 |title=Encyclopedia of American Civil Liberties |date=October 10, 2006 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-415-94342-0 |page=780 |access-date=May 25, 2011}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=House Un-American Activities Committee |url=http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/huac.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100529011543/http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/huac.htm |archive-date=May 29, 2010 |access-date=May 25, 2011 |work=Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site |publisher=National Park Service}}</ref> It was chaired by [[Martin Dies Jr.]] (D-Tex.), and therefore known as the Dies Committee. Its records are held by the [[nara:10459812|National Archives and Records Administration]] as records related to HUAC.

In 1938, [[Hallie Flanagan]], the head of the [[Federal Theatre Project]], was subpoenaed to appear before the committee to answer the charge the project was overrun with communists. Flanagan was called to testify for only a part of one day, while an administrative clerk from the project was called in for two entire days. It was during this investigation that one of the committee's members, [[Joe Starnes]] (D-Ala.), famously asked Flanagan whether the English [[Elizabethan era]] playwright [[Christopher Marlowe]] was a member of the Communist Party, and mused that ancient Greek tragedian "[[Euripides|Mr. Euripides]]" preached [[class conflict|class warfare]].<ref>{{cite news |last1=Nightingale |first1=Benedict |date=September 18, 1988 |title=Mr. Euripides Goes To Washington |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=940DE0DA153DF93BA2575AC0A96E948260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=2 |access-date=May 4, 2010 |work=The New York Times}}</ref>

In 1939, the committee investigated people involved with pro-Nazi organizations such as [[Oscar C. Pfaus]] and [[George Van Horn Moseley]].<ref name="investig6204">{{cite book |title=Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States: Hearings Before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, Seventy-fifth Congress, Third Session-Seventy-eighth Congress, Second Session, on H. Res. 282, &c. |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |year=1939 |location=Washington |page=6204 |chapter=Saturday, October 21, 1939 |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6sJGAQAAMAAJ&pg=PA6204}}</ref><ref name="Levy">{{cite book |title=Antisemitism: A Historical Encyclopedia of Prejudice and Persecution |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2005 |isbn=978-1-85109-439-4 |editor-last=Levy |editor-first=Richard S. |volume=1 A–K |location=Santa Barbara |page=471 |chapter=Moseley, George Van Horn (1874–1960) |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Tdn6FFZklkcC&pg=PA471}}</ref> Moseley testified before the committee for five hours about a "Jewish Communist conspiracy" to take control of the U.S. government. Moseley was supported by Donald Shea of the [[National Gentile League|American Gentile League]], whose statement was deleted from the public record as the committee found it so objectionable.<ref>{{cite news |date=June 4, 1939 |title=The News of the Week in Review |url=https://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=FB0710F83A58127A93C6A9178DD85F4D8385F9& |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 4, 2021 |newspaper=New York Times}}</ref>

The committee also put together an argument for the [[internment of Japanese Americans]] known as the "Yellow Report".<ref name="myer">{{cite book |last=Myer |first=Dillon S. |title=Uprooted Americans |publisher=University of Arizona Press |year=1971 |location=Tucson |page=19}}</ref> Organized in response to rumors of Japanese Americans being coddled by the [[War Relocation Authority]] (WRA) and news that some former inmates would be allowed to leave camp and [[Nisei]] soldiers to return to the West Coast, the committee investigated charges of [[fifth column]] activity in the camps. A number of anti-WRA arguments were presented in subsequent hearings, but Director [[Dillon S. Myer|Dillon Myer]] debunked the more inflammatory claims.<ref name="niiya">{{cite web |last=Niiya |first=Brian |title=Dies Committee |url=http://encyclopedia.densho.org/Dies%20Committee/ |access-date=August 21, 2014 |publisher=Densho Encyclopedia}}</ref> The investigation was presented to the 77th Congress, and alleged that certain cultural traits – Japanese loyalty to the Emperor, the number of Japanese fishermen in the US, and the Buddhist faith – were evidence for Japanese espionage. With the exception of Rep. [[Herman P. Eberharter|Herman Eberharter]] (D-Pa.), the members of the committee seemed to support internment, and its recommendations to expedite the impending [[Internment of Japanese Americans#Loyalty questions and segregation|segregation]] of "troublemakers", establish a system to investigate applicants for leave clearance, and step up Americanization and assimilation efforts largely coincided with WRA goals.<ref name="myer" /><ref name="niiya"/>

===Standing Committee (1945–1975)=== [[File:3909-walter-francis-e.jpg|thumb|right|Democrat [[Francis E. Walter]] of Pennsylvania was chair of HUAC from 1955 until his death in 1963.]] The House Committee on Un-American Activities became a standing (permanent) committee on January 3, 1945.<ref>{{cite web |title=Congressional Record, January 3, 1945, page 10-15 |url=https://www.congress.gov/bound-congressional-record/1945/01/03/house-section}}</ref> Democratic Representative [[Edward J. Hart]] of New Jersey became the committee's first chairman.<ref>{{cite book |last=Goodman |first=Walter |title=The Committee |publisher=Farrar, Straus and Giroux |year=1968 |location=New York}}</ref> Under the mandate of Public Law 600, passed by the [[83rd United States Congress|83th Congress]], the committee could compel testimony " ...relating to any interference with or endangering of, or any plans or attempts to interfere with or endanger the national security or defense of the United States...".<ref>{{cite web |title=S.16 - An Act to amend the immunity provision relating to testimony given by witnesses before either House of Congress or their committees |url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/83rd-congress/senate-bill/16/text?overview=closed |website=Text: S.16 — 83rd Congress (1953-1954) |publisher=Congress.gov |access-date=13 March 2026 |ref=25}}</ref> Under this mandate, the committee focused its investigations on real and suspected communists in positions of actual or supposed influence in the United States society. 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 Linder, ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html The Alger Hiss Trials – 1949–50]'' {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060830171725/http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html |date=August 30, 2006 }}, 2003.</ref>

The chief investigator was [[Robert E. Stripling]], senior investigator [[Louis J. Russell]], and investigators [[Alvin Williams Stokes]], [[Courtney E. Owens]], and Donald T. Appell. The director of research was [[Benjamin Mandel]].

In 1946, the committee considered opening investigations into the [[Ku Klux Klan]], but decided against doing so, prompting [[white supremacist]] committee member [[John E. Rankin]] (D-Miss.) to remark, "After all, the KKK is an old American institution."<ref>{{cite book |last=Newton |first=Michael |title=The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi A History |publisher=McFarland & Co. |year=2010 |location=Jefferson, North Carolina |page=102}}</ref> Twenty years later, in 1965–1966, however, the committee did conduct an investigation into Klan activities under chairman [[Edwin E. Willis|Edwin Willis]] (D-La.).<ref>Newton, p. 162.</ref>

===Hollywood Blacklist=== {{Main|Hollywood blacklist}} In 1947, the committee held nine days of hearings into alleged communist propaganda and influence in the [[Cinema of the United States|Hollywood]] motion picture industry. After conviction on [[contempt of Congress]] charges for refusal to answer some questions posed by committee members, "[[Hollywood blacklist#The Hollywood Ten|The Hollywood Ten]]" were [[Blacklisting|blacklisted]] by the industry. Eventually, more than 300 artists – including directors, radio commentators, actors, and particularly screenwriters – were boycotted by the studios. Some, like [[Charlie Chaplin]], [[Orson Welles]], [[Alan Lomax]], [[Paul Robeson]], and [[Yip Harburg]], left the U.S. or went underground to find work. Others like [[Dalton Trumbo]] wrote under [[Pen name|pseudonyms]] or the names of colleagues. Only about ten percent succeeded in rebuilding careers within the entertainment industry.{{Citation needed|date=February 2008}}

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 ''[[The Red Menace (film)|The Red Menace]]'' (August 1949), ''[[The Red Danube]]'' (October 1949), ''[[The Woman on Pier 13]]'' (October 1949), ''[[Guilty of Treason]]'' (May 1950, about the ordeal and trial of [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[József Mindszenty]]), ''[[I Was a Communist for the FBI]]'' (May 1951, Academy Award nominated for best documentary 1951, also serialized for radio), ''[[Red Planet Mars]]'' (May 1952), and [[John Wayne]]'s ''[[Big Jim McLain]]'' (August 1952).<ref>Dan Georgakas, "[http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/blacklist.html Hollywood Blacklist]", in: ''Encyclopedia Of The American Left'', 1992.</ref> [[Universal-International Pictures]] was the only major studio that did not purposefully produce such a film.

The committee conducted many investigations into the Hollywood film industry. Some people within the industry gave names of people who were allegedly communists to HUAC.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal |last1=Pontikes |first1=Elizabeth |last2=Negro |first2=Giacomo |last3=Rao |first3=Hayagreeva |date=June 1, 2010 |title=Stained Red: A Study of Stigma by Association to Blacklisted Artists during the "Red Scare" in Hollywood, 1945 to 1960 |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0003122410368929 |journal=American Sociological Review |language=EN |volume=75 |issue=3 |pages=456–478 |doi=10.1177/0003122410368929 |issn=0003-1224 |url-access=subscription}}</ref> In total, 43 people were summoned to testify in front of the Washington hearing.<ref name=":0" /> Out of those subpoenaed, only 10 refused to testify, and they were cited for contempt in front of Congress. Those 10 ended up being sentenced; one of them being [[Albert Maltz]].<ref name=":0" /> Maltz had parents who were Russian immigrants, leading people to believe he was a communist. Once his name was on the Blacklist, he refused to testify in front of the Washington hearings in October. He was then convicted and was sentenced with nine other people. The other nine people included [[Alvah Bessie]], [[Herbert Biberman]], [[Lester Cole]], [[Edward Dmytryk]], [[Ring Lardner Jr.]], [[John Howard Lawson]], [[Samuel Ornitz]], [[Adrian Scott]], and [[Dalton Trumbo]]. [[File:High Noon (1952 poster).jpg|thumb|''[[High Noon]]'', featuring [[Gary Cooper]], sparked the longtime debate about Hollywood Blacklisting.]] High Noon (Fred Zinnemann, 1952) was overwhelmingly glorified as a classic based on the situational awareness around the House of Un-American Activities Committee. The writer of the movie, Carl Foreman, sparked controversy regarding his intended political message. High Noon was focused on Marshal Will Kane (Gary Cooper); a retiring sheriff in a small town named Hadleyville. Ultimately, he decides to postpone his retirement to combat a recently released criminal named Frank Miller (Ian MacDonald), who sought revenge over the one that incarcerated him. Kane took it upon himself to recruit help from the Hadleyville citizens for Miller's re-arrest. When the people turned him down, Kane was forced to face Miller's threat by himself. The story was widely perceived as the outward representation of a cowardly community that hides from the government and the HUAC. Concurrently, High Noon encouraged viewers to question the government's frequent speculation of its American people. Soon after the movie was released, Foreman refused to confirm or deny his involvement with the Communist Party and was blacklisted by the major Hollywood studios.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Zinnemann |first=Fred |date=2022 |title=Revisiting the Blacklist Western: A Reception Study of High Noon |journal=Cinema and Media Studies |volume=61 |issue=5}}</ref>

=== Labor Movement === [[File:Harry Bridges 1935 Edit.jpg|thumb|left|[[Harry Bridges]], a labor union activist and founder of the [[International Longshore and Warehouse Union|ILWU]], was among the targets of HUAC.]] The HUAC's strict anti-communist agenda during the Red Scare primarily targeted prominent union activists and leaders within the Labor Movement. HUAC frequently attached a communist stigma to various unions' organizations and individuals, which gave them grounds for pursuit. [[Harry Bridges]], a notable union activist and eventual union president of the [[International Longshore and Warehouse Union|International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU)]], was a direct target of such attacks. A campaign led by the committee chairman, at the time [[Martin Dies Jr.|Martin Dies]], focused on deporting the Australian American union activist directly based on testimony from John Frey claiming his Communist Party associations, despite his multiple public denials of such claims. Harry Bridges did although share a close intimacy with the Communist Party by aligning himself with certain aspects and ideals commonly targeted by HUAC, giving reason for the subpoena and deportations attempts.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Cherny |first=Robert W. |title=Harry Bridges : Labor Radical, Labor Legend |publisher=University of Illinois Press |year=2023}}</ref>

=== Advocacy Movement === [[Elizabeth Gurley Flynn]], cofounder and board member of the [[American Civil Liberties Union|American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)]], was a large target of the Dies Committee. She joined the Communist Party in 1937 and was even included in the party's [[Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union|Central Committee]] the following year. Because of her political associations, she was an easy individual for HUAC to target as they could also attack the ACLU. Martin Dies decided to publicly prosecute the organization in 1939 which forced a response from the ACLU. The response came in the form of shearing any connection with the Communist Party by ridding individuals with communist ties as an attempted plea to Martin Dies. This of course included Elizabeth Gurley Flynn who was expelled from the ACLU, even after being a part of the founding committee.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Neuborne |first=Burt |date=2006 |title=Of Pragmatism and Principle: A Second Look at the Expulsion of Elizabeth Gurle Elizabeth Gurley Flynn from the ACLU's Board of Directors |url=https://digitalcommons.law.utulsa.edu/tlr/vol41/iss4/11 |journal=The University of Tulsa |volume=41}}</ref>

=== Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss === [[File:Whittaker Chambers.jpg|thumb|[[Whittaker Chambers]] in 1948]] [[File:Alger Hiss (1950).jpg|thumb|[[Alger Hiss]] in 1950]] On July 31, 1948, the committee heard testimony from [[Elizabeth Bentley]], an American who had been working as a Soviet agent in [[New York City|New York]]. Among those whom she named as communists was [[Harry Dexter White]], a senior U.S. Treasury department official. The committee subpoenaed [[Whittaker Chambers]] on August 3, 1948. Chambers was also a Soviet spy that worked for the senior editor of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' magazine during that period.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Alger Hiss |url=https://www.fbi.gov/history/famous-cases/alger-hiss |access-date=April 27, 2023 |website=Federal Bureau of Investigation |language=en-us}}</ref>

Chambers named more than a half dozen government officials including White as well as [[Alger Hiss]] (and Hiss' brother Donald). Most of these former officials refused to answer committee questions, citing the [[Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution|Fifth Amendment]]. White denied the allegations, and died of a heart attack a few days later. Hiss also denied all charges; doubts about his testimony though, especially those expressed by freshman Congressman [[Richard Nixon]], led to further investigation that strongly suggested Hiss had made a number of false statements.

Hiss challenged Chambers to repeat his charges outside a Congressional committee, which Chambers did. Hiss then sued for libel, leading Chambers to produce copies of State Department documents which he claimed Hiss had given him in 1938. Hiss denied this before a grand jury, was indicted for perjury, and subsequently convicted and imprisoned.<ref name=Witness>{{Cite book |last=Chambers |first=Whittaker |title=Witness |publisher=Random House |year=1952 |isbn=978-0-89526-571-5}}</ref><ref name=Perjury>{{Cite book |last=Weinstein |first=Allen |title=Perjury |publisher=Hoover Institution Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-8179-1225-3}}</ref> The present-day House of Representatives website on HUAC states, "But in the 1990s, Soviet archives conclusively revealed that Hiss had been a spy on the Kremlin's payroll."<ref>{{cite web |title=Office of the Clerk of the U.S. House of Representatives |url=http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=169 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120916043311/http://artandhistory.house.gov/highlights.aspx?action=view&intID=169 |archive-date=September 16, 2012 |access-date=July 15, 2012}}</ref> However, in the 1990s, senior Soviet intelligence officials, after consulting their archive, stated they found nothing to support that theory.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Hartshom |first=Lewis |title=Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers and the Case That Ignited McCarthyism |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=viii}}</ref> In 1995, the [[National Security Agency]]'s [[Venona project|Venona]] papers were alleged to have provided overwhelming evidence that Hiss was a spy, but the same evidence is also judged to be not only not overwhelming but entirely circumstantial.<ref>{{Cite journal |author1=Bird, Kai |author2=Chervonnaya, Svetlana |date=Summer 2007 |title=The Mystery of Ales |url=http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2 |journal=American Scholar}}</ref> As a result, and also given how many documents remain classified, it is unlikely that a truly conclusive answer will ever be reached.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=8SvufU3WsisC&pg=PT113 Anthony Summers, ''The Arrogance of Power: The Secret World of Richard Nixon'' (New York, London: Penguin-Putnam Inc, 2000), p. 77].</ref>

=== Ku Klux Klan (KKK) === In 1965, Klan violence prompted President [[Lyndon B. Johnson]] and Georgia congressman [[Charles L. Weltner]] to call for a congressional probe of the Ku Klux Klan. The resulting investigation resulted in numerous Klansmen remaining silent and giving evasive answers. The House of Representatives voted to cite seven Klan leaders, including [[Robert Shelton (Ku Klux Klan)|Robert Shelton]], for contempt of Congress for refusing to turn over Klan records. Shelton was found guilty and sentenced to one year in prison plus a $1,000 fine. Following his conviction, three other Klan leaders, Robert Scoggin, [[Bob Jones (Grand Dragon)|Bob Jones]], and Calvin Craig, pleaded guilty.<ref>{{Cite news |date=November 19, 1966 |title=Article clipped from Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/chicago-tribune/110046968/ |access-date=February 24, 2024 |work=Chicago Tribune |pages=14}}</ref> Scoggin and Jones were each sentenced to one year in prison, while Craig was fined $1,000. The charges against Marshall Kornegay, Robert Hudgins, and George Dorsett were later dropped.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Harold Weisberg |url=http://archive.org/details/nsia-KuKluxKlan |title=Ku Klux Klan |publisher=The Weisberg Archive, Beneficial-Hodson Library, Hood College |others=Michael Best}}</ref>

===Decline=== [[File:Ichord-Richard-1969.jpg|thumb|Democrat [[Richard Howard Ichord Jr.]] of Missouri was chair of the renamed House Internal Security Committee from 1969 until its termination in January 1975.]] The HUAC's prestige began declining in the late 1950s after the [[Joseph McCarthy#Censure and the Watkins Committee|censure of Joseph McCarthy]]; a U.S. Senator who never served in the House or for the HUAC. The committee was denounced by former President [[Harry S. Truman]] in 1959, and he labeled it as the "most un-American thing in the country today".<ref>{{cite book |last=Whitfield |first=Stephen J. |title=The Culture of the Cold War |publisher=The Johns Hopkins University Press |year=1996}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |date=April 29, 1959 |title=Harry S. Truman Lecture at Columbia University on the Witch-Hunting and Hysteria |url=https://www.trumanlibrary.gov/soundrecording-records/sr75-3-harry-s-truman-lecture-columbia-university-witch-hunting-and-hysteria |accessdate=April 2, 2021 |publisher=Harry S. Truman Library & Museum}}</ref>

In May 1960, the committee held hearings in [[San Francisco City Hall]] which led to a riot on May 13, where the [[San Francisco Police Department|city police officers]] fire-hosed protesting students from [[University of California, Berkeley|UC Berkeley]], [[Stanford University|Stanford]], and other local colleges. They dragged these students down the marble steps, beneath the rotunda, and left some seriously injured.<ref>[https://www.pbs.org/opb/thesixties/topics/politics/newsmakers_4.html "The Sixties: House Un-American Activities Committee"] at PBS.org</ref><ref>{{Cite news |first=Carl |last=Nolte |date=May 13, 2010 |title='Black Friday', birth of U.S. protest movement |url=https://www.sfgate.com/news/article/Black-Friday-birth-of-U-S-protest-movement-3188770.php |work=[[San Francisco Chronicle]]}}</ref> Soviet affairs expert [[William Mandel]], who had been subpoenaed to testify, angrily denounced the committee and the police in a [[William Mandel#Senator McCarthy and the House Un-American Activities Committee|blistering statement]] which was aired repeatedly for years thereafter on [[Pacifica Radio]] station [[KPFA]] in [[Berkeley, California|Berkeley]]. An [[anti-communist]] propaganda film, ''Operation Abolition'',<ref>{{YouTube|MeiW63M3bcI|"Operation Abolition", 1960}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |year=1961 |title=The Investigation: Operation Abolition |url=https://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894425,00.html |url-access=subscription |access-date=March 4, 2021 |magazine=Time}}</ref><ref>{{YouTube|DXsCfYYi2FE|Operation Abolition (1960)}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Ramishvili |first=Levan |author-link=Levan Ramishvili |date=August 19, 2010<!-- NOT March 17, 1961 - that's the date of the film, not this blog post about it! --> |title=Operation Abolition <!-- Is this identity correct? Appears to be: --> |url=https://matiane.wordpress.com/2010/08/19/operation-abolition/ |access-date=March 4, 2021 |type=blog post}}<!-- This is a personal blog, normally considered unreliable under [[WP:RS]] but author (a post-Soviet Georgian democracy activist) is presumably a subject-matter expert. --></ref> was produced by the committee from subpoenaed local news reports, and shown around the country during 1960 and 1961. In response, the Northern California [[ACLU]] produced a film called ''Operation Correction'', which discussed falsehoods in the first film. Scenes from the hearings and protest were later featured in the Academy Award-nominated 1990 documentary ''[[Berkeley in the Sixties]]''.{{citation needed|date = May 2020}} [[Women Strike for Peace]] also protested against HUAC at this time.<ref>{{Cite book |last=May |first=Elaine Tyler |url=https://archive.org/details/homewardboundame00maye_0 |title=Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era |publisher=BasicBook |year=1988 |isbn=0-465-03055-6 |accessdate=August 28, 2024}}</ref>

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 a Revolutionary War soldier and passed out copies of the [[United States Declaration of Independence]] to those in attendance. Rubin then "blew giant gum bubbles, while his co-witnesses taunted the committee with [[Nazi salute]]s".<ref>[http://www.bookrags.com/Youth_International_Party Youth International Party], 1992.</ref> Rubin attended another session dressed as [[Santa Claus]]. On another occasion, police stopped Hoffman at the building entrance and arrested him for wearing the United States 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 as well.<ref>{{cite web |last=Rubin |first=Jerry |title=A Yippie Manifesto |url=http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/yippiemanifesto.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716234903/http://www.montgomerycollege.edu/Departments/hpolscrv/yippiemanifesto.html |archive-date=July 16, 2011}}</ref>

Hearings in August 1966 called to investigate anti-Vietnam War activities were disrupted by hundreds of protesters, many from the [[Progressive Labor Party (United States)|Progressive Labor Party]]. The committee faced witnesses who were openly defiant.<ref name="NYT81766">{{cite news |author1=John Herbers |date=August 17, 1966 |title=War Foes Clash With House Panel in Stormy Session After Judges Lift Hearing Ban |url=https://query.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=980DE7DA163CE43BBC4F52DFBE66838D679EDE&legacy=true |access-date=December 11, 2016 |work=The New York Times}}</ref><ref name="5R">{{cite web |author1=Jim Dann and Hari Dillon |title=The Five Retreats: A History of the Failure of the Progressive Labor Party CHAPTER 1: PLP AT ITS PRIME 1963–1966 |url=https://www.marxists.org/history/erol/1960-1970/5retreats/chapter1.htm#bk05 |access-date=December 11, 2016 |website=Marxists.org |quote=PLP brought 800 people for 3 days of the sharpest struggle that Capital Hill had seen in 30 years. PL members shocked the inquisitors when they openly proclaimed their communist beliefs and then went on into long sharp detailed explanations, which didn't spare the HUAC Congressmen being called every name in the book.}}</ref>

According to ''[[The Harvard Crimson]]'': {{blockquote|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|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>{{cite news |last=Geogheghan |first=Thomas |author-link=Thomas Geoghegan |date=February 24, 1969 |title=By Any Other Name. Brass Tacks |url=https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1969/2/24/by-any-other-name-pthe-house/ |access-date=May 25, 2018 |newspaper=[[The Harvard Crimson]]}}</ref>}}

In an attempt to reinvent itself, the committee was renamed as the Internal Security Committee in 1969.{{sfn |Staples |2006 |p=284}}

=== Termination === The House Committee on Internal Security was formally terminated on January 14, 1975, the day of the opening of the 94th Congress.<ref name="Records">Charles E. Schamel, [https://archive.org/details/RecordsOfTheHouseUn-americanActivitiesCommittee-NaraFindingAid ''Records of the US House of Representatives, Record Group 233: Records of the House Un-American Activities Committee, 1945–1969 (Renamed the) House Internal Security Committee, 1969–1976.''] Washington, DC: Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records, July 1995; p. 4.</ref> The committee's files and staff were transferred on that day to the House Judiciary Committee.<ref name=Records />

==Chairmen== Source:<ref>Eric Bentley, ''Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968.'' New York: The Viking Press 1971; pp. 955–957.</ref> {{Div col|colwidth=22em}} *[[Martin Dies Jr.]], (D-Tex.), 1938–1944 *[[Edward J. Hart]] (D-N.J.), 1945–1946 *[[J. Parnell Thomas]] (R-N.J.), 1947–1948 *[[John Stephens Wood]] (D-Ga.), 1949–1953 *[[Harold H. Velde]] (R-Ill.), 1953–1955 *[[Francis E. Walter]] (D-Pa.), 1955–1963 *[[Edwin E. Willis]] (D-La.), 1963–1969 *[[Richard Howard Ichord Jr.]] (D-Mo.), 1969–1975 {{div col end}}

==Notable members== {{For|a complete list of members|List of members of the House Un-American Activities Committee}} {{Div col|colwidth=22em}} * [[F. Edward Hébert|Felix Edward Hébert]] * [[Donald L. Jackson]] * [[Noah M. Mason]] * [[Karl E. Mundt]] * [[Richard Nixon]] * [[John E. Rankin]] * [[Gordon H. Scherer]] * [[Richard B. Vail]] * [[Jerry Voorhis]] {{div col end}}

==See also== {{div col}} * [[California Senate Factfinding Subcommittee on Un-American Activities]] * [[Defending Dissent Foundation]] * [[Edith Alice Macia]] * [[Edward S. Montgomery]] * [[J. Edgar Hoover]] * [[Jack Moffitt (screenwriter)]] * [[Loyalty oath]] * [[Lusk Committee]] * [[Manning Johnson]] * [[McCarthyism and antisemitism]] * [[McCarran Internal Security Act]] * [[Mundt–Ferguson Communist Registration Bill]] * [[Mundt–Nixon Bill]] * [[Red-baiting]] * [[Subversive Activities Control Board]] * ''[[Wilkinson v. United States]]'' {{div col end}}

==References== {{Reflist}}

===Works cited=== * {{cite book |last=Staples |first=William G. |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sFv1ZltBhR0C&pg=PA284 |title=Encyclopedia of Privacy |publisher=Greenwood Press |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-313-08670-0}}

==Further reading==

===Archives=== *[http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=diescommittee Investigation of un-American propaganda activities in the United States. Hearings before a Special Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives (1938–1944), Volumes 1–17 with Appendices.] University of Pennsylvania online gateway to Internet Archive and HathiTrust. *[http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/book/lookupname?key=United%20States.%20Congress.%20House.%20Committee%20on%20Internal%20Security United States House Committee on Internal Security] University of Pennsylvania online gateway to Internet Archive and HathiTrust. * Schamel, Gharles E. Inventory of records of the Special Committee on Un-American activities, 1938–1944 (the Dies committee). Center for Legislative Archives, [[National Archives and Records Administration]]. Washington, D.C., July 1995. * Schamel, Gharles E. [https://archive.org/details/RecordsOfTheHouseUn-americanActivitiesCommittee-NaraFindingAid ''Records of the House Un-American Activities committee, 1945–1969, renamed the House Internal Security committee, 1969–1976.''] Center for Legislative Archives, National Archives and Records Administration. Washington, D.C., July 1995. *{{cite journal |last=Ship |first=Reuben |year=2000 |title=From the Archives: The Investigator (1954): A Radio Play by Reuben Ship |url=http://www.albany.edu/jmmh/vol3/investigator/investigator.html |journal=The Journal for MultiMedia History |volume=3}}

===Books===

*{{Cite book |title=Thirty Years of Treason: Excerpts from Hearings Before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, 1938–1968 |publisher=Nation Books |year=2002 |isbn=978-1-56025-368-6 |editor-last=Bentley |editor-first=Eric |editor-link=Eric Bentley |orig-year=1971, Viking Press}}

*{{Cite book |last=Buckley |first=William F. |author-link=William F. Buckley |title=The Committee and Its Critics; a Calm Review of the House Committee on Un-American Activities |publisher=Putnam Books |year=1962}} * Caballero, Raymond. ''McCarthyism vs. Clinton Jencks.'' Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2019. * {{Cite book |last=Chambers |first=Whittaker |author-link=Whittaker Chambers |title=Witness |publisher=Random House |year=1952 |isbn=978-0-89526-571-5}}

*{{Cite book |last=Donner |first=Frank J. |title=The Un-Americans |publisher=Ballantine Books |year=1967}}

*{{Cite book |last=Gladchuk |first=John Joseph |title=Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935–1950 |publisher=Routledge |year=2006 |isbn=978-0-415-95568-3}}

*{{Cite book |last=Goodman |first=Walter |author-link=Walter Goodman (TV Critic) |title=The Committee: The Extraordinary Career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities |publisher=Farrar Straus & Giroux |year=1968 |isbn=978-0-374-12688-9}}

* {{cite book |last=Newton |first=Michael |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YSLCS7hg-DEC |title=The Ku Klux Klan in Mississippi: a history |publisher=McFarland |year=2010 |isbn=978-0-7864-4653-7}} *{{Cite book |last=O'Reilly |first=Kenneth |title=Hoover and the Unamericans: The FBI, HUAC, and the Red Menace |publisher=Temple University Press |year=1983 |isbn=978-0-87722-301-6}}

*{{cite book |last=Schmidt |first=Regin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Fo1jblFR3BcC&pg=PP1 |title=Red Scare: FBI and the Origins of Anticommunism in the United States, 1919–1943 |publisher=Museum Tusculanum Press |year=2000 |isbn=9788772895819}} *{{Citation |author=U.S. 86th Congress – House Committee on Un-American Activities |title=Facts on Communism – Volume I, The Communist Ideology |date=December 1959 |pages=166 |url=https://archive.org/details/factsoncommunism195901unit |access-date=October 6, 2013 |series=House Document No. 336 |oclc=630998985}}→{{usstat|75|965}} *{{Citation |author=U.S. 87th Congress – House Committee on Un-American Activities |title=Facts on Communism – Volume II, The Soviet Union, from Lenin to Khrushchev |date=December 1960 |pages=408 |url=https://archive.org/details/factsoncommunism195902unit |access-date=October 6, 2013 |series=House Document No. 139 |oclc=80262328}}→{{usstat|75|961}}

===Articles=== *{{cite web |last=Bogart |first=Humphrey |date=March 1948 |title=I am no communist |url=https://docs.google.com/document/d/1khEGRvkO_nTSne4jDqCdtJ9aCXcPjhQaxVMExAVE_pk/preview?pli=1 |access-date=August 28, 2013 |publisher=Photoplay}} *[https://web.archive.org/web/20080205061418/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,894425-1,00.html "Operation Abolition", ''Time'' magazine, March 17, 1961] *{{cite journal |last=Seidel |first=Robert W. |year=2001 |title=The National Laboratories and the Atomic Energy Commission in the Early Cold War |journal=Historical Studies in the Physical and Biological Sciences |volume=32 |issue=1 |pages=145–162 |doi=10.1525/hsps.2001.32.1.145 |jstor=3739864}}

==External links== {{Commons category|House Un-American Activities Committee}} * {{Gutenberg author|id=48809}} * {{Librivox author |id=14789}} * [http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-permanent-standing-House-Committee-on-Un-American-Activities/ History.House.gov] HUAC – permanent standing House Committee on Un-American Activities * [http://history.house.gov/Historical-Highlights/1901-1950/The-1948-Alger-Hiss-Whittaker-Chambers-hearing-before-HUAC/ History.House.gov] HUAC – 1948 Alger Hiss-Whittaker Chambers hearing before HUAC * [https://libguides.ecu.edu/c.php?g=17484&p=97624 Eastern Carolina University Libraries]: The Cold War and Internal Security Collection (CWIS): HUAC * {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20130903060443/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAhuac.htm Un-American Activities Committee]}} The Spartacus Educational website, UK * House Unamerican Activities Committee (HUAC) Collection: Pamphlets collected by HUAC, many of which the committee deemed "un-American". (4,000 pamphlets). From the [https://www.loc.gov/rr/rarebook/ Rare Book and Special Collections Division at the Library of Congress] {{Authority control}}

[[Category:1938 establishments in Washington, D.C.]] [[Category:1975 disestablishments in Washington, D.C.]] [[Category:Anti-communist organizations in the United States]] [[Category:Anti-fascist organizations in the United States]] [[Category:Anti-Sovietism in the United States]] [[Category:Defunct committees of the United States House of Representatives|Un-American activities]] [[Category:Government agencies established in 1938]] [[Category:Government agencies disestablished in 1975]] [[Category:McCarthyism]] [[Category:Political repression in the United States]]