HUAC-+p7

__**HUAC**__
Luke

The main goal of the HUAC was to find Communists that influenced our government from the inside and from the outside. They were also supposed to find racial and extremist groups in our society. One thing that they found out is that there were communist influences in our "Motion Pictures". They made private industries take an oath that they were not communists. If they were accused of being a communist then they were "blacklisted".

The committee was started after World War two because our government was afraid that there were communists in our government and influencing our society. One of their most known investigations was the one against Alger Hiss, a man who worked closely with "blacklisting". When people were "blacklisted" they weren't able to get a job. You could be "blacklisted" even if you were just accused of being a communist or helping them. He accused everyone from private business owners to popular movie stars! Whoever you were you were not safe from being "blacklisted" by McCarthy. McCarthy bullied people and ruined their lives for four and a half years. Private industries had to take an oath that they were not communists and that they didn't associate themselves with communists.

They also found communists in the movie industry. Hollywood’s movies industry was supposedly crawling with communists. "Reds" or communists, were actors and/or writers that wouldn't answer questions or wouldn't reveal the names of people in Hollywood who were suspected of being communists. People in Hollywood who were suspected of being sympathetic to communists in the Hollywood movie industry were also, "blacklisted". Most of the Hollywood actors and writers never got the chance to work again in Hollywood or any other type of movie.

One thing that I found interesting was the spies that were found in our government. The spies were going after explosives that we had developed. This made the people of the United States of America even more tense and on edge when it came to Communists. A German born physicist was tried and convicted of giving the Soviet Union information of us testing the Atomic Bomb in Los Alamos, New Mexico. This is one reason why Americans believe that the Soviets were able to make the atomic bomb. At least we believe that this information let them make the atomic bomb much earlier then they should have been able to.

In 1951, two Soviet spies were caught. Their names were Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. They also were spies that tried to get the Soviet Union information on the Atomic Bomb and what we were doing with it. Even though the Rosenberg’s denied the charges that they were accrued of. The Rosenberg's claimed to be victims of the "Red Scare". They were found guilty after a trial and were then sentenced to death in 1953.

Without the HUAC the Soviet Union would have discovered the Atomic Bomb earlier than they actually were able to. Though in the end, they did more things to hurt our country and citizens than they did to help them. For example they accused movie stars of being communists and they were never allowed to work in Hollywood again. They caught spies and they found "communists" in our society. By doing all of this, our country was afraid of anyone who did something that made them look like they might be a communist.

Cunningham Jesse. __The McCarthy Hearings__. San Diego: Green Haven Press, 2003

Reeves, Thomas C. "McCarthyism." World Book Online Reference Center. 2007. [Place of access. Date of access.] <[|http://www.worldbookonline.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/wb/Article?id=ar350785>.]

Glickman, Harvey. "Un-American Activities Committee." World Book Online Reference Center. 2007. [Place of access. Date of access.] <[|http://www.worldbookonline.com.ezproxy.cooklib.org:2048/wb/Article?id=ar574140>.]

Deverell Williams. United States History Civil War to Present. Orlando: Harcourt Education Company, 2007