Episode 72: Commiecrats

Political Junkie Podcast · May 6, 2025 · 37m

Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy, center, confers with Roy Cohn, chief counsel for House Un-American Activities Committee, on August 23, 1953. Photo credit: Los Angeles Times/Wikimedia Commons

In 1938, in the face of rising fascism in Europe, the United States Congress created the House Special Committee on Un-American Activities. Preceded by at least two internal security committees meant to expose Communist activity in the United States, the Dies Committee, named after its chair, Texas Democrat Martin Dies Jr., lasted until the end of the war. It was almost immediately followed by a new…