Dies Committee (HUAC) Formed by Conservative Democrats to Discredit New Deal as Communist Infiltration

The House of Representatives establishes the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC), commonly known as the Dies Committee after its chairman Representative Martin Dies Jr. (D-TX), on May 26, 1938, as a special investigating committee to probe alleged disloyalty and subversive activities by private citizens, public employees, and organizations suspected of communist or fascist ties. The committee is founded largely through the efforts of Dies and former House Speaker John Garner, conservative Democrats disenchanted with Roosevelt’s pro-union New Deal who work to disable it by creating an investigative body that will discredit New Deal programs and officials as un-American communist infiltration.

Dies introduces the resolution to form HUAC in spring 1938, and it passes on May 26 with support from both the left—interested in investigating Nazi and far-right movements—and the right, which seeks to target communism and New Deal programs. However, Dies quickly reveals his determination to use the committee to undermine New Deal legislation for its “leftist-leaning” content rather than conduct balanced investigation of extremism from both ends of the political spectrum. His primary targets include union leader Harry Bridges and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO), which Dies and his supporters view as sympathetic to communist influences, as well as New Deal agencies including the Works Progress Administration, Federal Theatre Project, and Federal Writers’ Project.

Under Dies’ chairmanship from 1938 to 1944, HUAC concentrates on investigating alleged Communist Party infiltration of New Deal agencies rather than examining the Ku Klux Klan or far-right extremism. The committee’s formation occurs amidst a politically charged environment influenced by the Great Depression, the decline of the New Deal’s momentum after the 1937 Roosevelt Recession, and rising concerns about international politics. Dies receives authorization for a short-term (seven months, extendable by congressional vote) committee, which he chairs for almost eight years.

The Dies Committee establishes the template for weaponizing congressional investigative powers to attack political opponents through guilt-by-association and red-baiting rather than conducting legitimate oversight. HUAC’s tactics and mission persist long after Dies’ tenure, with the committee continuing operations until 1975 and conducting notorious investigations during the McCarthy era of the 1950s that destroy careers through innuendo and ideological persecution. The committee’s founding demonstrates how conservative Democrats opposed to economic reform can exploit anti-communist hysteria to undermine progressive policies, prefiguring later efforts to discredit civil rights, anti-war, and labor movements as communist conspiracies. The Dies Committee’s legacy of political intimidation masquerading as patriotic investigation shapes American political culture for decades, establishing red-baiting as a standard tool for delegitimizing challenges to corporate power and economic inequality.