The Red Scare – Arthur Miller’s real life experience.

Thanks primarily to McCarthy, most Americans identify the anti-Communist investigations and hearings of the late 1940s and early 1950s as a shameful episode in American life during which a non-existent communist threat was used to pillory innocent people for their political beliefs.

The McCarthy era is routinely portrayed in textbooks as an age of hysteria.

Definitions

hysteria –noun1.an uncontrollable outburst of emotion or fear, often characterized by irrationality, laughter, weeping, etc.

Crucible 1.A heat-resistant container in which material can be subjected to great heat. 2. A severe test.

red herring  "smoked herring" c.1420 (they turn red when cured). Supposedly used by fugitives to put bloodhounds off the scent (1686), hence metaphoric sense (1884) of "something used to divert attention from the basic issue."

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper

This new evidence is forcing the revision of many of the prevailing myths about the internal communist threat to American democracy in the postwar era.

McCarthy remains a political bully who hurt a number of people. But his exaggerated and baseless charges also harmed the anti-communist cause because his bad charges trivialized and weakened good ones.

Genuine Soviet spies portrayed themselves as victimized by McCarthyism. They found sympathetic listeners, convinced that anyone accused of espionage or communism must be innocent because some innocent people were accused.

Which Crucible character represents the following people:

Sen. Joe McCarthy = Roy Cohn = Albert Canwell = E.L. Pettus= Arthur Miller=

Though World War II had come to an end with the defeat of Germany in 1945, the threat of a Cold War was already pressing upon the nation. To ensure support for the Cold War abroad, the Truman Administration paralleled its foreign policy of containment overseas with a full-out anti-communist crusade at home.

Making anti-communism the focus of their 1946 campaign, Washington Republicans charged that “Democrats had sold their soul to the Communist Party.” Quoted in Reese’ website “The Cold War and Red Scare in Washington State.”

The State Republicans’ determination proved fruitful when the 1946 elections ushered many of them into the State Legislature.

The Alien Registration Act (also known as the Smith Act) was passed by Congress on 29th June, 1940, made it illegal for anyone in the United States to advocate, abet, or teach the desirability of overthrowing the government.

The law also required all alien residents in the United States over 14 years of age to file a comprehensive statement of their personal and occupational status and a record of their political beliefs.

Within four months a total of 4,741,971 aliens had been registered. The main objective of the act was to undermine the American Communist Party and other left-wing political groups in the United States. One of the first men to be arrested under the act was James Cannon, the national secretary of the Socialist Workers Party.

Alvah Bessie, screenwriter Herbert Biberman, screenwriter and director Lester Cole, screenwriter Edward Dmytryk, director Ring Lardner Jr., screenwriter John Howard Lawson, screenwriter Albert Maltz, screenwriter Samuel Ornitz, screenwriter Adrian Scott, producer and screenwriter Dalton Trumbo, screenwriter

The House of Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) started an investigation of the Hollywood Motion Picture Industry. The HUAC interviewed 41 people who named names and became known as “friendly witnesses.” During interviews they named 19 people who they accused of holding left-wing views (Spartacus, 2008).

One of those named was Bertoit Brecht who gave evidence then left for East Germany. Ten others refused to name names. They claimed that the 1st Amendment of the United States Constitution gave them the right to do this. The HUAC disagreed and all ten were found guilty of contempt of congress and each was sentenced to between six and twelve months in prison.

Edward Dmytryk, the director, who was one of the Hollywood Ten was summoned to once again appear before the HUAC. This time, because of money problems he named names. He named twenty-six members of left-wing groups.

If people refused to name names when called up to appear before the HUAC, they were added to a blacklist that had been drawn up by the Hollywood film studios. Over 320 people were placed on this list that stopped them from working in entertainment industry.

Leonard Bernstein, Charlie Chaplin, Burl Ives, Arthur Miller, Orson Welles, Abraham Polonsky, Dorothy Parker, Josh White, Louis Untermeyer, and Clifford Odets. (There were many more.)

The State Patrol ejects E.L. Pettus, vice president of the Washington Pension Union, after Canwell ordered Pettus removed from the hearing because Pettus stood up and declared that he thought the Canwell Committee was unconstitutional. Photo courtesy of Museum of History and Industry.

Rep. Albert Canwell surrounded by members of the Canwell Committee.

An example of people protesting the accusations.

  Editorial cartoon by Mark Alan Stamaty, depicting the presentation of an honorary Academy Award to Elia Kazan in 1999. Many Oscar attendees refused to applaud Kazan. (Mark Alan Stamaty)

Overwhelmed by post-war paranoia and intolerance, Miller began work on the third of his major plays. Though it was clearly an indictment of the McCarthyism of the early 1950s, "The Crucible" was set in Salem during the witch-hunts of the late 17th century.

The play, which deals with extraordinary tragedy in ordinary lives, expanded Miller's voice and his concern for the physical and psychological wellbeing of the working class. Within three years, Miller was called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, and convicted of contempt of Congress for not cooperating.

A difficult time in his life, Miller ended a short and turbulent marriage with actress Marilyn Monroe. Throughout the 1960s and 1970s, he wrote very little of note, concentrating at first on issues of guilt over the Holocaust, and later moving into comedies.

"I do think that most things end badly," he said. "Most human enterprise disappoints."

"Ever since Stalin and the Nazis, reality has transcended fiction," he said.

Arthur Miller

Writing Prompt• What parallels can be made between the Salem witch hunt

and the “witch hunt” for communists in the U.S. in the 1950s?

• Who was responsible for the deaths of the people who were wrongly convicted and hanged? Explain.

• Pretend you have the Puritanical outlook that things are either “good” or “bad” and that there is no “in between” choice. Characterize one of the following characters as either “good” or “bad” and give the reasons for your choices: Abigail, Cheever, Giles Corey, Danforth, Elizabeth, Mary, Rebecca, Parris, Ann Putnam, & John Proctor.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts/233032.stm

http://www.pbs.org/wnet/americanmasters/database/miller_a.html

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmccarthyism.htm

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x36zy7_1950s-joseph-mccarthy-tv-interview_news?from=rss

Last link is video of McCarthy

Web sites used

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollywood_blacklist#The_Hollywood_Ten