What was the House UnAmerican Activities Committee responsible for?
The House of Representatives began its work investigating
subversive activity by U.S. citizens in 1930 as the Fish Committee
and in 1934 as the McCormack Committee. In 1938 the committee was
revived as the Dies Committee (after the name of its chairman,
Martin Dies, Jr., D-Texas) to investigate the activities of
communist and fascist organizations on the home front. Despite the
strong anticommunism of Chairman Dies, before and during World War
II the committee concentrated on fascist organizations.