House Un-American Activities Committee

committee of the US House of Representatives best known for investigating those accused of adhering to communism during the Red Scare

The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC, or House Committee on Un-American Activities, or HCUA) was an investigative committee of the United States House of Representatives.

Chairman Dies of HUAC proofs his letter replying to President Roosevelt's attack on the committee, October 26, 1938.

The HUAC was created in 1938 to investigate alleged activities on the part of private citizens, public employees, and those organizations suspected of having communist ties. In 1969, the House changed the committee's name to "House Committee on Internal Security". When the House abolished the committee in 1975,[1] its functions were transferred to the House Judiciary Committee.

The committee's anti-communist investigations are often associated with those of Joseph McCarthy[2] who, as a U.S. Senator, had no direct involvement with this House committee.[3] McCarthy was the chairman of the Government Operations Committee and its Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the U.S. Senate, not the House.

References

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  1. Frum, David (2000). How We Got Here: The '70s. New York: Basic Books. p. 265. ISBN 0-465-04195-7.
  2. For example, see Brown, Sarah (2002-02-05). "Pleading the Fifth". BBC News. McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee
  3. Patrick Doherty, Thomas. Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. 2003, pages 15-16.