in 1947, ronald reagan traveled to washington to testify at house un-american activities committee hearings. >> as a citizen, i would hesitate, or i would not like to see any party outlawed on the basis of political ideology. we have spent 170 years in this country that democracy is strong enough to stand on itself. >> in 1950 four ronald reagan became host of "the general electric theater" at his cross-country speaking engagements with the people of america began. >> we were aware that ron reagan was a strong union man, and a strong democrat. we never noticed, though, that he was speaking from a political or labor partisan viewpoint. i recall one time he said he thought the democratic party he had been associated with had left him. and i think in the early 1960's, he registered as a republican. >> for over 20 years, he had been speaking out on public issues, but never as a political candidate. perhaps his time had come. >> for several years and through the 1960 four election, the republican party in california was badly divided. what the party desperately needed was a man who could unite t

here and with the precursor of the mccarthy you know this he was the chairman of the house un-american activities committee right and he started examining federal employees basically because. if they were for racial integration or against racism or if they were privy to pro-labor that would that would get you in dices sights or you know one of the chapters in the book stone wrote a series for the nation where they talked about this federal loyalty questionnaire and one of the questions was do they have negro friends and that was considered a mark against you know do do do they have jews who come to their house that was another mark against you so you know that was the atmosphere and and truman issued this executive order which which allowed. 4 loyalty hearings and the interesting thing about that and i don't say this in this book but i do say it in my latest book is that there is no publicly never know how many people withdrew from politics because of the truman loyalty hearings because all of those records were destroyed so we don't know how many people were investigated we don't know how many people had

so the house un-american activities committee you would say was subverted after the war to the new purpose of against anti-communist activities. truman himself started to investigate such anti-communist activity in the federal government in 1947. people were fired from the federal government. but then of course came a fellow that has been mentioned named joe mccarthy who needed an issue in 1950 to be re-elected. he went to the president of georgetown university and said, what would be a good issue today that would rile the american public. he said, the st. lawrence seaway is a big topic. mccarthy said, that is boring, nobody is interested in that. >> i just fell asleep. >> then walsh said anti-communism in government. from a catholic perspective. that is what mccarthy picked up. a few weeks later he held a speech in west virginia and talked about 57 communist and the state department. from there, mccarthyism took its strange fate. i know this stuff, i should mention, pretty well because i wrote my master's thesis on the relationship between eisenhower and mccarthy. eisenhower said, you hav

their political activity, was, were they using entertainment, where they using their celebrity, for undemocratic purposes? one anti-communist film critic told the house committee of un- americanthat clamor is appealing. the communists have made shrewd and excellent use of it for their purposes. they are trying to bedazzle audiences with celebrities. this is a question that pervaded national politics. is entertainment media? motion pictures and this new media, television, that people weren't sure what to do with, is this going to undermine democracy? does it focus more attention on entertainment? can it be used as a way to advance communism? these were central questions that people had periods of these fears of entertainment and propaganda and manipulation are really important to understand, when we see the different ways that politicians grappled with television. some of them embraced television and the opportunities that it is going to offer. overwhelmingly in the 1950s they were very wary of it. the argument that we don't want to manipulate others by embracing advertising, advertising in madison avenue, that really dominated public discourse in the 1950s. for example, the d

can't --s a comment about the hot house un-american activities commission how came into being probably because of the slow leakage of information at yalta. >> that committee actually came into being in 1940. at that time, it was persecuting nazis, or trying to find nazi spies in the u.s. only after world war ii was h uac really directed toward chasing communists out of the american government. it was sort of subverted after the war toward a new purpose against anti-communist activities. himself started to investigate such anti-communist in the federal government in 1947. people retired from the federal government. , whocame joe mccarthy needed an issue in 1950 to be reelected. he went to the president of georgetown university and said, what would be a good issue today that what riley the american public? public.the american he said, the st. lawrence seaway is a big topic. [laughter] boring, said, that is nobody is interested in that. then he said anti-communism and government. from a catholic perspective. that is what mccarthy picked up. he held as later speech in west virginia and talked about 67 communist and the state department. took itse, mccarthyism