I was shocked and amazed to read the commentary “The Big Lie in Hollywood,” by Michael Berliner (Op-Ed, Nov. 20). I really never thought I’d see the day when someone defended “Tailgunner” Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee. That committee’s communist “witch hunts” have been given a black eye in history and with good reason:
– The committee never uncovered a single communist, yet through innuendo it ruined a number of people’s careers.
– It is not against the law to be a communist–read the Constitution and Bill of Rights.
– Put into historical perspective, most of the people humiliated before the committee would have been in school (an idealistic time) during the 1930s and ’40s, the height of Italian and German fascism. It would have been natural to go to the other extreme. Most people then grow up, find their ideals have little to do with reality and move on into the working world. How embarrassing to be confronted as a middle-aged man with the folly and idealism of one’s youth?
– The communist ideal is very liberal, simplistic and naive–just the sort of views one associates with artists, actors and Hollywood writers.
Mr. Berliner asks why Hollywood is intent on revisiting the anniversary of the Hollywood 10 and their blacklisting (Nov. 24). Much like the Jewish people keep alive the memory of the Holocaust, I’m sure Hollywood wants to keep alive the memory of “the Committee”; never forget, lest it happen again.
