Cold War in California Essay Example for Free

Cold War in California Essay During the end of the World War II, the strife between the conflict between Capitalism against communism, and allied forces against Soviets were very much intense. From this era, various rumors and small to large scales uprising brought by communistic ideas occurred within the United States. In California and the national perspective, the thought of subversive activity was assumed by the presidency of Harry Truman. According to these assumptions, various communist parties were lurking within the cities of United States and plotting to initiate havoc; hence, in order to stop this condition, the government initiated the group, House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) in 1938. The primary of the HUAC movement was to search the quarters of American society for the possibility of existing fascists, communists or the contradicting idealism from the Soviet enemy. The tensions of HUAC had occurred nation-wide, while in California, the advancement made had grown to the point of implementing human rights violations in order to attain further victims. There were no considerations being implemented during their search. Within the study, the task is to determine the consorts of the movement HUAC and how was it able to contribute to the occurrence of cold war within California dating from 1946 to 1989. Discussion House of Un-American Activities Committee The organization of HUAC was established in May 26, 1938 with aims of investigating any signs of disloyalty among fascists as well as communists. The HUAC movement was chaired by Martin Dies Jr. together with Samuel Dickstein; hence, calling their committee as the Dies Committee. According to Christenson (1991), HUAC tracked Communist party members and other proponents of foreignisms for thirty seven years (206). During the initial phase of its operations, the HUAC movement considered the aspect of un-Americanism as a modest intervention in order to resolve the social dilemma of differences in idealism within the society. The primary and original motive of the movement was to counter the movement from possibly contemplating German American, who might had still be involved in the casualty-causing Nazi, and the Ku Klux Klan. However, the Dies committee mainly considered the Nazi and German Americans since, at that point, the stigma of World War II was still fresh to the society. From 1938 until the end of its operation, it created massive suspicion in the public and the paranoia of dangerous Un-American plot had caused unreasonable arrests. The Ku Klux Klan was accused to have been the main source of American Communism influence, and HUAC also thought of an accusation that this group was planning a Communist conspiracy. However, the HUAC was not able to obtain sufficient information to validate their accusations. Therefore, the chief counsel Ernest Adamson announced the lacking of evidence to support the communism conspiracy claims against the Klan. As supported by Linfield (1990), the representative John Wood, chair from 1945 to 1946 and 1949 to 1953, had considered Ku Klux Klan as an old American Custom (87). From the original target, Ku Klux Klan of Communist Group, HUAC moved to highlight their attention towards the American Communist party, since they were actually assuming that these groups were behind the incidents of Works Progress Administration and Federal Theatre project. By the start of 1940s, Chairman Martin Dies ordered the investigations of HUAC among labor unions and New Deal agencies, which led to different forms of accusations, rumors and response out of guilt, witness abuse and pressure implications, and assumptions of disloyalty among organizations. During its operation in the 1950s, the HUAC movement applied most of its move to the private sector blacklists, and their assumptions of possible communist threat within the entertainment industry, labor unions and different professions had consequently intensified. According to Christenson (1991), the informers introduced by HUAC cam to be known as friendly witnesses and they named names for the HUAC to target (207). The investigations of HUAC were all tarnished with human rights violations. With the drastic accusations they had implicated to public organizations, the strife and paranoia of forces occurred within the society. As the 1960s progressed, even those in political positions, together with political activists and satirists, noticed the negative implications of the committee. In 1969, the HUAC movement was renamed to House Committee on Internal Security; however, in 1970s, the movement began to loose its grounds due to the widely occurring demonstrations and effects of contributions of HUAC, which had been pertained to as the Cold War. The history of social paranoia and unproven accusations had caused negative trademark within the internal systems of the American society. One of the vastly targeted areas was California that gave emphasis on their educational systems. What Triggers to Start Defense Against HUAC? With the aim of the HUAC operations to locate possible to proven communist supporters, the drive of paranoia first suggested the famous people. Hence, the first HUAC intervention circled their first investigations to the Hollywood in 1947. HUAC movement was claiming that a writer and the motion picture industry were attempting to influence the American people through movies. From this point, ten writers and their director were imprisoned and interrogated for the reason that they were unable to answer the question, â€Å"Are there any communist plot being discussed in this area? † This was only one of the instances that occurred during the prevalence of the HUAC committee. In another scenario, after the holding of the first investigation of HUAC towards the celebrity and elite class people, 205 communists were detected within the State Department (Doherty 15). During that point, one of the famous political informal propagandas mentioned was McCarthysm, which depicted the images of celebrity persecution due to fears and anxiety brought by communist threats. According to Foner and Garraty (1991), in the 1950s, HUAC was overshadowed by Senator McCarthy’s activities, but it outlasted him, making new allegations of subversion in universities and among the clergy and then in the civil rights, black power, student, and peace movements (519). Due to these negative impressions and authority abuses made by the HUAC authorities, the society had this desire of removing the turning against to their campaign. As supported by Chalmers (2005), the events issued by the HUAC caused massive revolts and uprising with claims of human rights violations and American liberalization offenses (93). During the expanse of HUAC implementations, various societal conflicts had occurred between civilians, famous people, and even some of those in political line against the conditions of terror brought by the paranoia-based intervention. In California as well as other states in the United States, different writers, actors, and directors were taken into prison for unreasonable assumptions for the need of interrogations. Somehow, HUAC was presuming to find some traces of communist ideations from these well-known people. Some of the most prominent persons that had faced the interrogations and even imprisonment by HUAC were the â€Å"Hollywood Ten†. As for the basis of their imprisonment, HUAC claimed that they failed to answer back instantaneously when they were asked if they are involved with any communist plot. Other artists that faced the paranoia of the society were the singer Pete Seefer, playwright Arthur Miller and many others (Zinn and Arnove 378). Implications HUAC to Cold War in California With this scenario, the Californian congressman, James Roosevelt, had issue his proposal of stopping the movement and its campaign. According to Schoenwald (2001), James Roosevelt proposed a resolution to kill the committee (HUAC) while standing up to withering attacks by his colleagues on both sides of the aisle. Despite the declaration of Speaker Sam Rayburn that the proposal would only be ignored, Roosevelt did not concede to surrender (54). Due to the vast contradiction of Californian state towards the movement of HUAC, the chair Francis Walter (1955–1965) had initiated a plan to prompt an attack against Roosevelt. Walter even proposed that HUAC assume jurisdiction over immigrants and passport legislation processing. Walter defended his proposition with claims of assuming these tourism affairs as another threat to internal security. Roosevelt, as the representative of the Californian state, chose to lead the fight against HUAC while being oppressed by some of his political colleagues. With the claims of Roosevelt, Walter with his HUAC made a counterattack move to somehow sabotage and infiltrate San Francisco, most specifically California. HUAC scheduled hearings in San Francisco in May, 1960. The justifications of HUAC for the said investigation were to validate the statements made by the American National Exhibition. Walter was looking forward for the exposure of communists and subversives’ movement within the area; hence, his contemplation for false threat to internal security had succeeded, and he was able to break in San Francisco. According to Schoenwald (2001), other groups like the American Civil Liverties Union and Americans for Democratic Action and liberal politicians joined in the calls for exterminating the committee of HUAC; however, what might have bee just another series of inquiries to defendants pleading the Fifth Amendment became a cause celebre among conservatives, reinvigorating their moribund struggle against the enemy (53-54). The May 1960 hearing occurred in San Francisco, and the main target of investigation was the teachers in the Universities among the city streets of California. With the intense paranoia brought by the conditions of HUAC, the education systems in California Universities and other public schools had become the most widely recognized victims of this campaign. The movement California Teachers Association suggested a profession-suicidal move by means of handling their files to local school boards, which in turn would investigate the teachers in private. After which, several teachers lost their jobs by handling over these files. With this scenario, Roosevelt called forth the attention of the public against the HUAC: â€Å"†¦more than 100 teachers have been in emotional turmoil for 10 months. Their teaching effectiveness has been impaired, and their sense of insecurity has communicated itself to their colleagues†¦ (Cited in Freeman 39). † Prior to this incident, HUAC even sent out subpoenas on April 26th. One of the Californian sophomore student, who is also a SLATE Organization member, named Douglas Wachter called forth an ad hoc among his fellow students in order to protest against the human rights violations inculcated by the HUAC committee. According to Freeman (2003), within a span of three days, there were approximately a thousand students and 300 faculties who had to sign the petition for hearing (40). The news was imprinted in the Daily Cal wherein excerpts from the recognized HUAC documents, which implicated the protest of HUAC abolishment by the students. The student riots had attracted massive student protests within the consorts of California. During the student demonstration, some of them even sang the song, â€Å"We Shall Not Be Moved†. Eventually, the court laid down its decision and the HUAC investigation was postponed and did not continue. In addition, the estimated legal and other facilitated damages that HUAC issue resulted reached the amount of $250,000. The city mayor, Rossevelt, condemned the scenario and stated that this should never happen again within the consorts of California. On the other hand, the protest made by the Berkeley students entitled, â€Å"Operation Abolition†, had gained significant popularity among Universities across the United States. The events of HUAC infiltration were evidently centered in the University of California at Berkely, but it also involved other city universities, such as the San Francisco State College and from Stanford as well. Most evidently, HUAC had to involve 165 professors from San Francisco State College, and 300 from the Berkeley University (Schoenwald 54). The consorts of paranoia brought by the operations of HUAC generally violated the civilian liberties; hence, the starting conditions of cold war had gone intensified. According to the statements made by Schoenwald (2001), the demonstrations convinced conservative observers that not only were subversives still active in the United States but that contemplating shutting down the one legislative body committed to their annihilation was nothing less than presposterous (55). Hence, the major events that contributed to the Cold Wars in California due to HUAC infiltration were triggered by the massive student protests and profession demonstrations. Conclusion In conclusion of the study, the committee of HUAC, designed to supervise and protect the American society from the possible internal threats of communism and Nazism, had abused its authorities and power, which led to the false accusations, violations of human rights, and the destruction of human career properties. Within the American society, the cold war grew due to the massive false paranoia rendered by the HOAC. From the time city mayor Roosevelt contradicted the existence of HOAC, the intrusive aim of their investigation had centered to California. However, massive demonstrations were further triggered by the events that occurred in San Francisco, California wherein the students had launched their abolition request. The consorts of HUAC ended during the 1970s, and the turmoil caused by their paranoia ended. Works Cited Chalmers, David. Backfire: How the Ku Klux Klan Helped the Civil Rights Movement. Rowman Littlefield, 2005. Christenson, Ron. Political Trials in History: From Antiquity to the Present. Transaction Publishers, 1991. Doherty, Thomas, and Anthony Arnove. Cold War, Cool Medium: Television, McCarthyism, and American Culture. Columbia University Press, 2003. Foner, Eric, and John Garathy. The Readers Companion to American History. Houghton Mifflin Books, 1991. Freeman, Jo. At Berkeley in the Sixties: The Education of an Activist, 1961-1965. Indiana University Press, 2003. Linfield, Michael. Freedom Under Fire: U. S. Civil Liberties in Times of War. South End Press, 1990. Schoenwald, Jonathan. A Time for Choosing: The Rise of Modern American Conservatism. Oxford University Press, 2001. Zinn, Howard, and Anthony Arnove. Voices of a Peoples History of the United States. Seven Stories Press, 2004.