The Cold War at Home
Leader of the
witch-hunt,
Senator Joseph
McCarthy of
Wisconsin
Section 16.2
Objectives
At the end of this lesson, you should be able to:
• Describe the HUAC
• Describe the state of the communist party in
the late 1940s & why people joined
• Identify Alger Hiss, Whittaker Chambers,
Richard Nixon, and the Pumpkin Papers
• Describe Truman’s domestic policy towards
communism
• Identify Joseph McCarthy and McCarthyism
• Identify the Hollywood Ten
Atomic Age
Yet another
hydrogen bomb test
What was the HUAC?
• House of Un-American
Activities Committee
• Congressional committee
formed during New Deal as
way of discrediting FDR for
allowing communists
• Resurrected during the Cold
War
• Members were mostly
conservative &/or reactionary
• some were demagogues,
political opportunists
Above: HUAC in session; below: one of the
first well-known victims gets wrongly
accused
Capture from a video portraying
one of the hearings: SO
reminiscent of The Crucible!
Describe the American Communist Party in
the 1950s:
• Small
• Had its heyday during Great
Depression
• Included liberals, workers,
intellectuals, artists, students
• Against laissez-faire economic
system of US
• Not associated with evil,
oppressive governments yet
• Lost popularity after WWII and
news of Stalin’s brutality
Above: bread line during
Depression; below: the Rosenbergs
in jail
Who was Alger Hiss?
• High ranking government
official
• Clerk to Oliver W. Holmes,
member of FDR staff at Yalta
• President of Carnegie
Endowment for International
Peace
Above: Alger Hiss; below: Whittaker Chambers
– Peace organizations were
suspected of trying to weaken the
US
• Labeled as a Soviet operative by
Whittaker Chambers (editor of
Time magazine)
Alger Hiss
Useless blank
capture from clip
on Hiss and
Chambers
What were the Pumpkin Papers?
• Hiss was questioned by Richard
Nixon at HUAC
– caught Hiss lying about whether he
had ever known Chambers but lacked
evidence for conviction
• Chambers showed investigators a
pumpkin with microfilm of secret
documents
– Apparently typed on Alger Hiss’
typewriter
• Convicted of perjury
• Nixon became famous as an anticommunist crusader
Above: Alger Hiss at hearing; below: Richard
Nixon with prosecutor Roy Cohn
Describe Truman’s Anti-Communist policy at
home.
• Said there was an “enemy within”
• Instituted Federal Employee Loyalty Program
• Government employees fired for openly
criticizing US foreign policy, supporting equal
rights for women, reading socialist books,
attending foreign films
• Loyalty Board investigated 3 million
employees
– 3, 000 forced to resign or fired
– No proof of espionage ever found
• Truman vetoed McCarran Act
– Made it extremely difficult to be in
communist party
– Congress overrode his veto
Above: President Truman; below:
another sham hearing
Julius Rosenberg led to court; clip also
deals with pop culture reflecting fear
of spies
Who was Joseph McCarthy?
• Senator, opportunist, demagogue
• Claimed (in a speech) to have a list
of 205 names, all of communists
working in the State Department
• Headed the Senate subcommittee of
Investigations
• Ruined the reputations of dozens of
officials without a shred of evidence
• Viewed as a patriot (at first)
• McCarthyism= the use of
intimidation and unfounded
accusations in the name of fighting
communism
• Accused the army of communism!
• Was discredited and censured
(condemned) by the Senate, finally,
and died not long thereafter
Above: another photo of McCarthy; below:
cartoon implying McCarthy was a fraud
Capture shows LA; clip is about
Hollywood and the witch hunt
there
Hollywood Ten Presentation
Some of the Hollywood
Ten shown approaching
the courthouse
Who were the Hollywood Ten?
• Prominent writers, directors who
had been members of the
communist party
• Included Dalton Trumbo
• HUAC used their prominence and
fear of communism to gain
publicity
• H. T. pleaded the 5th, were accused
of contempt of Congress, and
sentenced to 1 year in jail
– Blacklisted by Hollywood
(unable to find work in film
industry)
Above and below: members of the
Hollywood Ten
Long, powerful clip depicts examination of one of the H.T. by HUAC