Martin Dies

Question 1

When was the Dies Committee set up and why?

Answer 1

1938, the intent was the both discredit political radicalism and roll back what the Dies Committee later called “creeping totalitarianism” of the executive’s “effort to obliterate the Congress of the United States as a coequal and independent branch of government”

Question 2

What did the Dies Committee/HUAC do?

Answer 2

Had a mandate to probe “the extent, character, and object of un-American propoganda activities in the United States”, no congressional proponents ever precisely defined the term “un-American”, had been other un-American investigative committees post-WW1, Dies released official papers that alleged communist infiltration of New Deal programmes and other liberal organisation (most notably the CIO = Congress of Industrial Organisations)

Question 3

How did FDR react to the Dies Committee?

Answer 3

Had J. Edgar Hoover investigate Dies (the FBI director saw the committee as a rival and never fully cooperated with it despite having similar ideas about New Deal reforms and the subversiveness of New Deal personnel)

Question 4

After retiring from Congress in 1945 how did Dies return to government?

Answer 4

Reelected to the House in 1952 hoping to capitalize on the issue’s notority he unsuccessfully sought a seat on HUAC