Are You Now or Have You Ever Been? - week 7::
These readings are some of the transcripts of the hearings by the Congress on Americans who were suspected of being communists. I found these very engaging and I feel like I learned a lot more about this time period and how it affected everyone in some way. Personally, I don't enjoy reading about war and how the US fought against the British and a whole "us against them" kind of idea. It's in these more personal and human accounts, such as these transcripts or the Studs Terkel interviews, that I find the most informative tidbits that help me, maybe not others, understand what really went on in this confusing era.Here are some quotes that I found thought-inducing (and some of the thoughts that were induced are below, too)::
"Before the end of 1951 Ronald Reagan proclaimed a victory:
For many years the Red propagandists and conspirators concentrated their big guns on Hollywood. They threatened to throw acid in the faces of myself and some other stars, so we would never appear on screen again. I packed a gun for some time. Policemen lived at my home to guard my kids. But that was more than five years ago. Those days are gone forever!" (79)Ummm.. I love how Reagan is so.. I can't think of the word. He believes that this will NEVER happen again. Hmmm, I'll try and remember the word I was going to use, it was a good one.
A woman, Lillian Hellman, wrote a letter to the Chairman on the Committee of UnAmerican acts (not sure what the name of the Committee was called) [EDIT: 2:39PM: House UnAmerican Activities Committee.] Here are some parts that I enjoyed:
"But I am advised by counsel that if I answer questions about myself, I will have waived my rights under the Fifth Amendment and could be forced legally to answer questions about others. If I refuse to do so, I can be cited for contempt. This is very difficult for a layman to understand. But there is one principle that I do understand: I am not willing, now or in the future, to bring bad trouble to people who, in my past association with them, were completely innocent of any talk or any action that was disloyal or subversive. I do not like subversion or disloyalty in any form, and if I had ever seen any, I would have considered it my duty to have reported it to the proper authorities. But to hurt innocent people whom I knew many years ago in order to save myself is, to me, inhuman and indecent and dishonorable. I cannot and will not cut my conscience to fit this year's fashions... I was raised in an old-fashioned American tradition and there were certain homely things that were taught to me: to try to tell the truth, not to bear false witness, not to harm my neighbor, to be loyal to my country... It is my belief that you will agree with these simple rules of human decency and not expect me to violate the good American tradition from which they spring." (112)
I don't think I needed to include all of this from her letter, but I don't want to delete it after I typed it all up! : ) Lillian Hellman stated some ideas that I hope made someone think, well it did make me think so it worked! Her thoughts made me think because this was an American committee created by the American gov't and they were, at least Hellman and I think, going against "old-fashioned American tradition."
This Committee seems like a very strange thing in history. A whole lot of the transcripts sound very comic and unreal. Now, that may be because a whole lot of the people being tried were actors... I don't know.
Lionel Stander, didn't want the cameras on him while he was being asked questions. And he fought over it for awhile with the Chairman of the Committee. (page 116)
It seemed as if even if you weren't really a communist, if your name was in the paper in the same article as one talking about the Committee, then you were blacklisted, or at least shunned or something...
proof:
"Mr. Stander: That appeared in the paper. Just to have my name appear in association with this Committee! It's like the Spanish Inquisition!
Investigator: Let me remind you--
Mr. Stander: You may no be burned but you can't help coming away a little singed." (121)
I'm not sure if this will make sense out of context, but I liked this part of a later transcript with Stander:
"The Chairman: Now will you answer the question [if he was acquainted with Martin Berkeley]? Pause
Mr. Stander, quietly: I decline under the First Amendment, which entitles me to freedom of belief, under the Fifth Amendment--in which there is no inference of guilt-- and under the Ninth Amendment, which gives me the right to get up in the union hall, which I did, and introduce a resolution condemning this Committee for its abuse of powers in attempting to impose censorship upon the American theater.
Investigator: Now, Mr. Stander--
Mr. Stander, still quiet. And, finally, I can't understand why a question dating back to 1935 concerning statements made by a bunch of stool pigeons and informers can aid this Committee in recommending legislation to Congress. The question is not relevant to the purposes of this Committee.
Lionel Stander remained on the blacklist." (130)
"Arthur Miller, May 21, 1956." (135)
"Investigator. Who was there when you walked into the room?
Pause.
Mr. Miller. I understand the philosophy behind this question and I want you to understand mine. I am trying to--and I will--protect my sense of myself. I could not use the name of another person and bring trouble on him. I ask you not to ask me that question.
CM 1. We do not accept your reasons for refusing to answer. If you do not answer, you are placing yourself in contempt." (135)
I feel like the Committee put a great amount of pressure on those they questioned. The whole US was so afraid of the Communists and I don't think they had any idea of how to deal with their fear. Everyone handled it differently, the gov't, "regular" people, children, teachers. In the second to last reading of this week, Exaggerations of the Soviet Threat, explains just that, the exaggeration of the Soviet threat... It's hard to tell how I would feel at this time, if I was alive then. My mom remembers asking her parents when the Communists were coming, she told me she remembers thinking that when she woke up in the morning, they, the Communists, would be in her house. She had drills very often at school when they went into the basement if the Communists suddenly dropped bombs... I'll continue talking, writing, about this in the other posts for this week's readings.
Some names/places/things/-isms that came up in the reading::
J. Edgar Hoover
McCharthyism
House UnAmerican Activities Committee
Subpoena
Lionel Stander
the Fifth Amendment
the United States Constitution
posted by Cassie @ 2:15 PM
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