The House Un-American Activities Committee, better known as HUAC, used and abused its power to compel witnesses to testify, in order to carry out a Cold War hunt for communists. In splashy public hearings and pronouncements, HUAC accused Americans in government, organized labor, and the entertainment industry of being traitors. By the 1960s, HUAC’s infamous and career-ending smears had grown intolerable, and buttons like this one became popular.
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