House Un-American Activities Committee Term Papers

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) that had been organized in 1938 had been made permanent in 1948 following American disillusion with Soviet Communists when it was no longer needed to ally with them as World War II ended. It was decided by The House Un-American Activities Committee that the organization of Ku Klux Klan and American Nazi Party were “American traditions” and they were not blacklisted, whereas the foreign-based Communist party had been identified by the HUAC, CIA and FBI as a hostile force to America and to the free world as Communist states continued expansionist policies, gaining control over Poland, Czechoslovakia, East Berlin, China, and Korea. When in 1949 an atomic bomb was exploded by the former Soviet allies, American fears of Communism multiplied. American Communists started to be viewed not as political party members, but as potential enemy agents, serving a menacing and emulous Soviet Communism. Anti-Communist support from the public was stirred by both Congress and President Truman. While Truman represented the Soviet Union as evil, J. Edgar Hoover gave a definition of the “Red Menace” for the House Un-American Activities Committee. American Communists were portrayed as zealots and pawns of Stalin, as secretive people who denied their Party association and were preoccupied with infiltrating American’s hearts, minds and government, instead of openly declaring their belief in Communist ideals of sharing and equality.