Chapter 26 Section 3

Other agencies investigated possible Communist influence, both inside and outside the U.S. government. The most famous of these was the _______________. It first made headlines in 1947, when it began to investigate Communist influence in the movie industry. It subpoenaed 43 witnesses from the Hollywood film industry in September 1947.

Ten "unfriendly" witnesses were called to testify but refused. These men, known as the ___________, decided not to cooperate because they believed that the hearings were unconstitutional. Because they refused to answer questions, they were sent to prison.

In response to the hearings, Hollywood executives instituted a ________, a list of people whom they condemned for having a Communist background. People who were __________, approximately 500 actors, writers, producers, and directors--had their careers ruined because they could no longer work.

In 1948, a former Communist spy named Whittaker Chambers accused _____ _____ of spying for the Soviet Union. To support his charges, Chambers produced microfilm of government documents that he claimed had been typed on his typewriter. Too many years had passed for government prosecutors to charge him with espionage, but a jury convicted him of perjury---for lying about passing the documents-- and sending him to jail.

This second spy case seemed to confirm that suspicion. In 1950, the German-born physicist Klaus Fuchs admitted giving the Soviet Union information about America's atomic bomb. The information probably enabled Soviet scientists to develop their own atomic bomb years earlier than they would have otherwise. Implicated in the Fuchs case were _________ ___ ______________ ________________, minor activists in the American Communist Party.
When asked if they were Communists, the Rosenbergs denied the charges against them and pleaded the Fifth Amendment, choosing not to incriminate themselves.

The most famous anti-comminist activist was Senator ________ __________, a Republican from Wisconsin. During his first three years in the Senate, he had acquired a reputation for being an ineffective legislator.

Taking advantage of people's concerns about communism, McCarthy made one unsupported accusation after another. These attacks on suspected Communists in the early 1950s became known as _________________. Since that time, McCarthyism has referred to the unfair tactic of accusing people of disloyalty without providing evidence.