Analysis: Testimony Regarding Communist Investigations
The topic of "Communist Investigations" in the United States, particularly during the late 1940s, revolves around the intense scrutiny and investigations carried out by congressional committees, notably the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), in response to fears of Communist influence infiltrating American society, including the film industry. This era, known as the Second Red Scare, followed the conclusion of World War II and was marked by a heightened concern over the spread of Communism, particularly after the establishment of the Soviet Union as a global power.
Key figures, such as Eric A. Johnston, the president of the Motion Picture Association of America, emerged in these discussions, advocating for the film industry while acknowledging the presence of diverse political opinions within Hollywood. Johnston criticized the methods employed by HUAC as overly aggressive and damaging to free speech, arguing that the committee's tactics not only misrepresented the industry but also posed risks to individual liberties and the broader economic health of Hollywood.
This period encapsulated a significant cultural and political struggle within the United States, as the government sought to contain perceived subversive threats while grappling with the implications of such investigations on civil rights and artistic expression. Overall, the Communist investigations reflect the complex interplay between national security concerns and the values of free speech and individual rights during a time of significant political tension.
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Analysis: Testimony Regarding Communist Investigations
Date: October 27, 1947
Author: Eric Allen Johnston
Genre: court testimony
Summary Overview
In October 1947, the House Committee on Un-American Activities (popularized as House Un-American Activities Committee, or HUAC) held a series of investigations into a suspected Communist infiltration of the film industry. Among those summoned to testify was Motion Picture Association of America president Eric A. Johnston, a moderate Republican businessman whose position made him responsible for overseeing Hollywood studios' interests as a whole. While acknowledging the diversity of political viewpoints and the likely presence of at least a few affirmed Communists in Hollywood, Johnston sharply criticized the House committee for its headstrong approach to rooting out subversion. He both strongly contested the implications that Hollywood permitted Communist ideology to inform its films and complained that the scandal stirred by the committee's efforts infringed on free speech and carried the possibility of economic devastation for the film industry. He argued that it was better and more American to resolve the underlying social problems that led people to support Communist ideals.
Defining Moment
Although the political and economic ideology known as Communism developed during the 1800s, it did not become a major force into world politics until the Russian Revolution of 1917 installed the Soviet Communist regime in place of Russia's imperial government. The radical and bloody nature of the Russian Revolution shocked the world and caused many Americans to fear that a similar radical movement could transform into an actively revolutionary one in the United States. The First Red Scare that followed World War I reflected these concerns, and during this time, the American government rooted out both real and perceived threats from the left. Although this fervor soon faded, Americans remained deeply uneasy about Communism.
With the rise of the Nazi government in Germany, however, US leaders such as President Franklin D. Roosevelt began to see the Soviet Union as a useful ally against German aggression. Supported in part by US aid, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and the Soviet army weakened Nazi troops along the Eastern Front; after the German surrender, the Soviets helped pressure the Japanese to surrender in the Pacific theater. However, the resolution of World War II brought the US-Soviet partnership to an end. Immense wartime damage left traditional European powers such as Great Britain, Germany, and France unusually weakened. The ascendance of the United States ensured its role as the leading geopolitical power of the Western world; despite its own heavy wartime losses, the Soviet Union quickly proved its main challenger. As the Allies sought to remake a tattered Europe, Stalin pressed for greater Soviet influence in Eastern Europe. US leaders saw the existence of Communism as a threat to democratic values and, therefore, strongly opposed its expansion. The theory of containment, which argued that limiting Soviet expansion would ultimately destroy Communism, underpinned the postwar Truman Doctrine, which pledged US assistance to any people resisting Communism. The Cold War had begun.
As it had during the First Red Scare, domestic concern over the threat of Communism skyrocketed during the late 1940s, sparking a Second Red Scare. Two congressional entities came to exemplify the Red Scare of the post–World War II era: the House Un-American Activities Committee, first formed in the late 1930s to investigate subversive activity, and, from 1950 on, the inquiries headed by Senator Joseph McCarthy. Even as President Harry S. Truman issued executive orders requiring government employees to swear loyalty oaths, HUAC held hearings seeking evidence or simple accusations of subversive support for Communist ideals among the nation's people. Among its high-profile and best-known investigations were those into government official Alger Hiss and into entertainers ranging from folk singer Pete Seeger to numerous Hollywood directors, actors, and screenwriters. In 1947, notable figures, including Screen Actors Guild head Ronald Reagan and famed animator Walt Disney, appeared before the committee to discuss the issue of possible Communist influence in Hollywood.
Author Biography
In 1945, Eric Allen Johnston succeeded long-standing Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) head Will H. Hays as the studio organization's president. In this role, Johnston was primarily responsible for enforcing the studios' self-imposed censorship rules, commonly known as the Hays Code. Before becoming head of the MPAA, Johnston had already built a career in the business world. He worked as a traveling vacuum salesman after World War I, and by the early 1930s, he was at the head of a thriving business in household appliance manufacturing and distribution located in the Pacific Northwest. As his interests expanded, Johnston became active in the Chamber of Commerce. In 1942, members elected him as the organization's president in something of an upset: Johnston held more liberal, pro-labor views than his forebears in that role. Although a Republican, he developed a relationship with the Roosevelt administration and represented the US entrepreneurial spirit abroad throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
Document Analysis
Speaking to HUAC, Johnston asserts four key points in his defense of Hollywood studios and their role in US society. He uses strong, forthright language to present his positions to the committee, showing neither a great willingness nor a complete refusal to assist in its investigations. This stance of avowed anti-Communism combined with strong support for independent expression and social welfare meant that Johnston could not himself be accused to subversive opinions even as he admonishes the committee for what he saw as its rabid excesses.
Johnston works systematically through four key points. The first of these rests on the claim that HUAC's actions have given the American people the impression that Hollywood—one of the nation's cultural centers—is rife with Communist influence, a suggestion he say is “grossly unfair” to the film industry and to the “patriotic, hardworking, decent citizens,” who kept the movies humming. To that end, Johnston asks that the committee back away from its attack on the studios—a goal well in keeping with his role in protecting studios interests.
Johnston also requests that the committee give up some of the secrecy surrounding its suggestions that Hollywood films contain subversive elements by naming the offending films. “Unless this evidence is presented and we are given the chance to refute it in these public hearings, it is the obligation of the committee to absolve the industry from the charges against it,” he argues. Later in his testimony, Johnston further argues that accusations based on the slightest perception of leftism threatened individual liberties and could unfairly ruin lives. Indeed, this type of unsupported attack was common of the anti-Communist craze of the era, and ultimately proved to be its undoing.
Finally, Johnston moves on to two ideological points that applied to society at large. He argues that political intimidation—like that taking place, it is implied, by HUAC—is a threat to free speech, one of the bedrock American ideals. Private individuals have the right to dictate their own content, but also the responsibility to ensure that it is not a danger to liberty. In the same way, he asserts that government has the responsibility to fight Communism through positive measures, such as economic and social support for the poorest and least privileged members of society, as those with the greatest need were the most likely to seek refuge in political radicalism.
Bibliography and Additional Reading
Ceplair, Larry, & Steven Englund. The Inquisition in Hollywood: Politics in the Film Community, 1930–1960. Berkeley: U of California P, 1979. Print.
Dick, Bernard K. Radical Innocence: A Critical Study of the Hollywood Ten. Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1983. Print.
“Eric Johnston Dies; Aided 3 Presidents.” New York Times 23 Aug. 1963: 1. Print.
Gladchuck, John Joseph. Hollywood and Anticommunism: HUAC and the Evolution of the Red Menace, 1935–1950. 2006. Hoboken: Taylor, 2013. Digital file.