An Undervalued Witch-Hunt: Reassessing the Nature and the Impact of the 1930s Struggle against Un-American Activities

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 Fariello, ed., Red Scare; Jaffe, Crusade against Radicalism; Murray, Red Scare; Pfannestiel, Rethinking the Red Scare; Goodall, Loyalty and Liberty; Feldman, Manufacturing Hysteria; Fried, Nightmare in Red; Latham, The Communist Controversy; Migliucci, “Intolerable, peligrosa, imprescindible”; and Migliucci, “Opinión pública y propaganda.”

2 Between 1918 and 1920, the United States Senate established two investigations into communist activities (the Overman and Moses Committees). In the same period, an investigation into Bolshevik propaganda was carried out by the Lusk committee, which was instituted by the legislative assemblies of the State of New York. Meanwhile, the United States Attorney General A. Mitchell Palmer conducted dozens of raids across the country against the headquarters of the radical movements. Subcommittee on the Judiciary, Brewing and Liquor Interests; Subcommittee of the Committee on Foreign Relations. Russian Propaganda; and Joint Legislative Committee Investigating Seditious Activities. Revolutionary Radicalism. In a first moment (the Great War was not over yet), the Overman Committee was established in order to investigate the German communities in the United States. Johnson, Culture at Twilight.

3 The Second Red Scare emerged in the context of the international tensions that characterized the first years of the Cold War (development of nuclear weapons, fear of Soviet expansionism in Eastern Europe and in the so–called Third World countries, serious international crises and diplomatic misunderstandings, etc.). The witch–hunt of those years was called McCarthyism after Senator Joseph McCarthy, who undertook harsh surveillance and repression activities.

4 The topic of the repression against anti-American activities in the 1930s is usually analyzed in books that cover broader issues and a much longer chronology. See for example Feldman, Manufacturing Hysteria; Fried, Nightmare in Red; Goldstein, Political Repression in Modern America; Goodall, Loyalty and Liberty; Goodman, The Committee; Heale, American Anticommunism; and Morgan, Reds. Still, other books have analyzed more specific topics such as the repression against educators in the New York State starting from the end of the 1930s, for example Feffer, Bad Faith. In Goldstein (ed.), Little ‘Red Scares’ several chapters analyze the so–called Little Red Scares that emerged between the beginning of the 1930s and US intervention in World War II: Goodall, Red Herrings?; O’Reilly, The Dies Committee; Leberstein, Shooting Rabid Dogs; and Cain, Little Red Schoolhouses? It is also worth mentioning Fischer, Spider Web. This book reveals the existence of a “system,” built in the years after the Great War and throughout the 1920s, through which influential people (politician, but also businessmen, journalists, etc.) exploited anti-Americanism in order to influence the decisions of the US Congress and Government (pushing towards antilabor or antiimmigrant politics).

5 Goldstein, ed., Little ‘Red Scares’, XIII.

6 Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States (U.S. House of Representatives, 1930).

7 Along with congressman John W. McCormack, Dies led the Special Committee on Un–American Activities Authorized to Investigate Nazi Propaganda and Certain Other Propaganda (U.S. House of Representatives, starting from 1934).

8 House Un–American Activities Committee (U.S. House of Representatives, starting from 1938).

9 For example, the Special Commission to investigate the activities within this commonwealth of communistic, fascist, Nazi and other subversive organizations, so called (Commonwealth of Massachusetts, 1938); the Rapp–Coudert Legislative Committee (State of New York, starting from 1940); and the California Un–American Activities Committees (State of California, starting from 1940).

10 In many works it is also argued that McCarthy was inspired by Martin Dies. In the preface of Richard M. Fried’s Nightmare in Red (p.VIII), for example, we can read that the Dies Committee “pioneered techniques that prefigured McCarthy’s.” In Morgan, Reds (p.188) one could read that “Dies polarized opinion and manipulated the press in ways that McCarthy would later emulate.”

11 The historical sources mentioned in the current article have been collected at the CSA of Sacramento (California Un–American Activities Committees Records); the NYSA of Albany (Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee); the NARA at San Bruno (Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, RG85); at Washington D.C. (Records of the United States House of Representatives, RG233); and at College Park (Records of the War Department General and Special Staff, RG165, and General Records of the Department of State, RG59). Congressional records and resolutions, reports, press articles and other valuable historical documents have been consulted – using databases such as HathiTrust Digital Library, ProQuest Historical Newspapers and ProQuest Congressional – in the Library of Congress (Washington D.C.).

12 According to Maury Klein, “the stock market crash became a symbol for the end of one era and the beginning of another. It brought to a stunning halt a decade that had witnessed the greatest economic prosperity and most profound cultural changes yet known and ushered in a decade blighted by the longest and deepest depression Americans had ever endured.” See Klein, Rainbow’s End, XIII.

13 For example, the New Century Publishers and the International Publishers. As for the newspapers, the most important was the Daily Worker. Haynes, Red Scare, 36.

14 Latham, The Communist Controversy, 20–21.

15 Schrecker, The Age of McCarthyism, 9.

16 Heins, Priests of Our Democracy, 34.

17 Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States, Investigation of communist propaganda, 341–394; and Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States, Report, 12.

18 Haynes, Red Scare, VII.

19 Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood. The presence of Russian spies in the United States (prior and after World War II) has been fully investigated also by Sibley, Red Spies in America.

20 “Nazi Menace Spreading over United States through Widely Organized Nazi Groups in 40 Cities and Towns.” The Jewish Advocate, July 10, 1934.

21 Powers, Not Without Honor, 128.

22 The federal law enforcement agency would be called Federal Bureau of Investigation only starting since 1935. On the reasons which led to the 1924 reform, Williams, “The Bureau of Investigation.”

23 United States Secretary of War Harry Hines Woodring to Norman L. Marks, American Legion, October 28, 1935. Military Intelligence Division Correspondence, 1917–41, box 2858, NARA, College Park, RG165 Records of the War Department General and Special Staffs [hereafter Records of the WFGS].

24 Among others, W.E. Walsh, Inspector in Charge, Office of the Commissioner Angel Island Station, reporting on communist propaganda activities to inspector F.O. Seidle, Sacramento, California, November 25, 1930. Deportation Investigating Case Files, box 3, NARA, San Bruno, RG85.

25 Department of State Decimal File, 1910–29. NARA, College Park, RG59. As for communist activities, boxes 4720–4729. As for fascist activities, boxes 4729–4731.

26 For example, in the summer of 1934 there was an intense mail exchange with the United States Customs Service and the United States Department of the Treasury on the subject of communist publications from Barcelona, Spain. Department of State Decimal File, 1910–29, box 4723, NARA, College Park, RG59.

27 Estimate of the Subversive situations as of December 31, 1933. Headquarters Second Corps Area, Office of the Corps Area Commander, Governors Island, New York, January 10, 1934. Military Intelligence Division Correspondence 1917–41, box 2843, NARA, College Park, RG165, Records of the WFGS.

28 Agents A. M. Jones and H. R. Oldfield to the United States Department of War, May 20, 1935; December 13, 1935; and June 17, 1938, Military Intelligence Division Correspondence 1917–41, box 373, NARA, College Park, RG165, Records of the WFGS.

29 Clifford D. Landauer to the United States Department of State, February 19, 1938. Department of State Decimal File, 1910–29, files, box 4729, NARA, College Park, RG59.

30 Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States, Report, 2.

31 In the first half of the 1930s, several investigations were established in order to investigate the propaganda campaigns of private corporations. The relations between businessmen and politicians were also examined. Federal Trade Commission, Utility Corporations; Special Committee to Investigate Lobbying Activities, Investigation of Lobbying Activities; and Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, Investigation of Lobbying Activities. Nevertheless, in the first half of the decade the most famous investigations were those dealing with communist and fascist propaganda.

32 F. L Stotler to congressman Albert Johnson, November 13, 1929. Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (seventy–first Congress), box 519, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee Papers.”

33 Current, “Hamilton Fish,” 210–214.

34 “Providing for an Investigation of Communist Propaganda in the United States,” H. Res 220, seventy–first Congress, May 22, 1930.

35 Special Committee on Communist Activities in the United States, Report, 3 and 33.

36 Fish, Hamilton Fish, 45.

37 Klug, Labor Market Politics in Detroit.

38 Alfred T. Smith, Colonel, General Staff, to congressman Hamilton Fish, January 22, 1931. Military Intelligence Division Correspondence, 1917–41, box 2832, NARA, College Park, RG165, Records of the WFGS.

39 “Communism Finds Hard Going in the United States Even in Time of Present Depression.” The Christian Science Monitor, October 9, 1931.

40 “Congressional Record–House,” June 13, 1930, 10654.

41 Anonymous letter (the signature is “Naturalized Italian”) sent to the United States Secretary of War, October 28, 1929. Central Decimal File, 1910–1929, box 7333, NARA, College Park, RG59.

42 Johnson, Chairman of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to Hamilton Fish, June 3, 1930. Committee on Immigration and Naturalization (seventy–first Congress), box 519, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee Papers.”

43 Weinstein and Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, chapter 7.

44 Subcommittee of the Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, House of the Representatives, Nazi Propaganda Activities, 4.

45 “To Authorize Special Committee to Investigate Nazi Propaganda Activities and certain other Propaganda Activities,” H. Res. 198, seventy–third Congress, January 3, 1934.

46 For example, “A Good Move, Mr. Dickstein.” The Jewish Advocate, April 13, 1934.

47 Hiller Aronoff to congressman Samuel Dickstein, October 16, 1933. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 368, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee Papers.”

48 United State Secretary of War George H. Dern to congressman John McCormack, May 17, 1934. Military Intelligence Division Correspondence 1917–41, box 2856, NARA, College Park, RG165, Records of the WFGS.

49 John Edgard Hoover to F. P. Randolph, Secretary of the Special Committee on Un–American Activities, August 16, 1934. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 372, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee Papers.”

50 Mail exchange between congressman Samuel Dickstein and the United State Department of State, November 27, 1933, and January 17, 1934. Department of State Decimal File, 1910–29, box 4729, NARA, College Park, RG59.

51 Anonymous letter to Samuel Dickstein, October 22, 1933. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 369, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee Papers.”

52 Special Committee on Un-American Activities. Investigation of Nazi Propaganda, 8.

53 Dickstein to Berkley, National Broadcasting Company, October 31, 1933. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 358, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, Entry I–Administrative Records.

54 Goldstein, Political Repression in Modern America, 213. According to Goldstein, the American people responded to political efforts to link the Democratic Administration to communism by awarding Roosevelt a decisive victory.

55 A. M. Adams to congressman John McCormack, May 7, 1934. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 369, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee papers.”

56 H. Seaton Frank to congressman Samuel Dickstein, October 12, 1933. Special Committee on Un–American Activities on Nazi Propaganda (seventy–third Congress), box 368, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, “Committee papers.”

57 Among others, Busch and Maxwell, The Red Fog; and Dilljnc, The Red Network.

58 Resolution of the Opportunity Club of the North Congregational Church of Cambridge, April 24, 1934. Petitions and Memorials (seventy–third Congress), box 398, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233.

59 The Business and Professional Women’s Republican Club of Massachusetts to Piatt Andrew, April 23, 1934. Petitions and Memorials (seventy–third Congress), box 398, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233.

60 “Dr. Wirt’s Charges are Held Unproved,” The New York Times, April 27, 1934.

61 “District of Columbia Appropriation Act,” seventy–fourth Congress, 49 Stat. 356, June 14, 1935. The law, however, was repealed a couple of years later.

62 Cain, “Little Red Schoolhouses?,” 120–121.

63 Lynch, “‘In Defense of True’,” 170.

64 Commonwealth of Massachusetts Special Commission, Report, 41 and 578.

65 “Providing for a Special Committee to Investigate Un–American Propaganda,” H. Res. 282, seventy–fifth Congress, July 21, 1937.

66 Dies, Martin Dies’ Story, 159.

67 Williams, “The Bureau of Investigation,” 578.

68 O’Reilly, “A New Deal.”

69 Theoharis and Cox, The Boss, 156.

70 Powers, Not Without Honor, 160.

71 “Congressional Record–House,” January 23, 1940, 593.

72 Fried, Nightmare in Red, 49.

73 Ribuffo, The Old Christian Right.

74 Goodall, Loyalty and Liberty, 206.

75 Migliucci, “Control gubernamental de la opinión pública.”

76 Sinclair Lewis, It Can't Happen Here (Washington, DC: Federal Theater Project, 1935); Joseph Losey, Triple A Plowed Under (Washington, DC: Federal Theater Project, 1936).

77 Special Committee on Un–American Activities, Investigation of Un–American propaganda, 981–1017.

78 “W.P.A. Theater Is ‘Red,’ Davis Says, Asks Inquiry,” New York Herald Tribune, April 21, 1936.

79 “Dies Agents Making Raids in Eight Cities,” New York Herald Tribune, November 22, 1940.

80 Stripling, The Red Plot Against America, 23.

81 “The Dies Committee,” Chicago Daily Tribune, January 8, 1939.

82 Luff, Commonsense Anticommunism, 176.

83 Willard Edwards, “Crusader for America!: They Can’t Stop Martin Dies! Even the White House Can’t Stop Dies!,” Chicago Daily Tribune, March 17, 1940.

84 Feffer, Bad Faith.

85 Weidlich, Appointment Denied.

86 Anonymous letters (the signatures are ‘A Student’; ‘A foe of communism’; and ‘A Taxpayer’) sent to the Rapp–Coudert Legislative Committee, April 22, 1941; June 6 1941; and June 30, 1941). Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, box 13 of 21, L0260–09, NYSA, RC#505A, Miscellaneous.

87 John Edgar Hoover to J. G. L. Molloy, Rapp–Coudert Legislative Committee, November 25, 1940. Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, box 21 of 21, L0260–21, NYSA, RC#592, F.B.I.

88 New York State Joint Legislative Committee on the State Education System Investigation. Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, NYSA, Accessed February 13, 2020.

iarchives.nysed.gov/xtf/view?docId = ead/findingaids/L0260.xml;query = Rapp–Coudert

89 “Relative to the creation of a Joint Fact–Finding Committee on Un–American Activities in California,” Assembly Concurrent Resolution no. 13, January 27, 1941.

90 Jack B. Tenney to Thos. L. Harris, Secretary of the American League for Peace and Democracy, October 28, 1939. California Un–American Activities Committees Records, CSA, box 2, Un–American Activities Comm.

91 Pritchard, “California Un–American Activities,” 311–312.

92 Tenney, RED Fascism.

93 “Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee,” L0260–21, box 21 of 21, NYSA, RC#607, “S” Letters.

94 “California Un–American Activities Committees Records,” Box 27, CSA, Un–American Activities Comm.

95 “Propaganda Drive Centers in Schools: Assembly Committee Questions Italian Leaders about Activities,” Los Angeles Times, December 6, 1941.

96 “Report Tells of Japanese Plot in U.S.,” The Washington Post, August 1, 1941.

97 Joint Fact–Finding Committee on Un–American Activities in California, Report, 12.

98 “An Act to Prohibit certain Subversive Activities; to Amend certain Provisions of Law with respect to the Admission and Deportation of Aliens; to Require the Fingerprinting and Registration of Aliens; and for other Purposes,” seventy–sixth Congress, Public Law 76–670, 54 Stat. 670, 1940; “An Act to Requires Registration with the Attorney General of certain Organizations, the Purpose of which is to Overthrow the Government or a Political Subdivision thereof by the Use of Force and Violence,” seventy–sixth Congress, 54 stat 1201, 1940; and “An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities,” seventy–sixth Congress, Public Law 76–252, 53 Stat. 1147, 1939.

99 Scobie, “Jack B. Tenney,” 200.

100 Lynch, “‘In Defense of True’,” 225.

101 Heins, Priests of Our Democracy, 66.

102 Joint Fact–Finding Committee on Un–American Activities in California, Report, 13.

103 “Congressional Record–House,” March 11, 1942, 2295.

104 Gellermann, Martin Dies (New York, NY: The John Day Company, 1944), 155–166.

105 Martin Dies, The Trojan Horse, 349.

106 President Roosevelt to Martin Dies, October 9, 1940. Special Committee on Un–American Activities (HUAC), box 4, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, Correspondence with Government Agencies of Officials (1938–44).

107 President Roosevelt (Telegram) to Martin Dies, November 26, 1940. Special Committee on Un–American Activities (HUAC), box 4, NARA, Washington D.C., RG233, Correspondence with Government Agencies of Officials (1938–44).

108 Alexander, “The President,” 106–117.

109 Ng, Japanese American Internment.

110 Heale, “Red Scare Politics,” 5–7.

111 Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, box 21 of 21, L0260–21, NYSA, RC#604, Protest against Committee.

112 Howard Salsam to senador Coudert, October 22, 1940, Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, box 21 of 21, L0260–21, NYSA, RC#604, Protest against Committee.

113 Bernard M. Kliman to the Rapp–Coudert Legislative Committee, April 9, 1941, Investigation Files of the Rapp–Coudert Committee, box 21 of 21, L0260–21, NYSA, RC#597, “K” Letters.

114 Walter Lippmann, “The Dies Committee,” Los Angeles Times, January 12, 1940. Browder was a famous communist politician. Kuhn was the leader of the Nazi organization German American Bund.

115 Walter Lippmann, “Today and Tomorrow,” The Washington Post, January 11, 1940.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Spanish Ministry of Education under Grant FPU14/01884.

Notes on contributors

Dario Migliucci

I am currently working at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (México) with a postdoctoral fellowship. I graduated in History in 2014 at University of Granada (Spain). In 2015, I obtained a master’s degree in Contemporary History. That year I got a “FPU contract” (Spanish Ministry of Education), exercising my duties of researcher and professor at Complutense University of Madrid (Spain). I got my PhD in 2019, obtaining a postdoctoral fellowship at UNAM in 2020. My research interests are related to the theme of conflict and to the question of propaganda and populism in democratic states. I have published several academic book chapters and articles in high-impact journals (JCR, Scopus, etc.). I have just coordinated (together with Lucía López-Rodríguez) a book on the issue of conflicts in the contemporary age: El conflicto humano: orígenes, dinámicas, secuelas y resolución de los conflictos contemporáneos (Sanz y Torres, 2021). I carried out research stays in prestigious international academic institutions: Ben Gurion University (Israel); New School for Social Research (New York); Georgetown University (Washington D.C.). I fluently speak Italian, English and Spanish. [email protected].