Ronald Reagan, Testimony Before the House Un-American Activities Committee (1947)
The Committee met at 10:30 A.M. [October 23, 1947], the Honorable J. Parnell Thomas (Chairman) presiding.
THE CHAIRMAN: The record will show that Mr. McDowell, Mr. Vail, Mr. Nixon, and Mr. Thomas are present. A Subcommittee is sitting.
Staff members present: Mr. Robert E. Stripling, Chief Investigator; Messrs. Louis J. Russell, H. A. Smith, and Robert B. Gatson, Investigators; and Mr. Benjamin Mandel, Director of Research.
MR. STRIPLING: When and where were you born, Mr. Reagan?
MR. REAGAN: Tampico, Illinois, February 6, 1911.
MR. STRIPLING: What is your present occupation?
MR. REAGAN: Motion-picture actor.
MR. STRIPLING: How long have you been engaged in that profession?
MR. REAGAN: Since June 1937, with a brief interlude of three and a half years-that at the time didn't seem very brief.
MR. STRIPLING: What period was that?
MR. REAGAN: That was during the late war.
MR. STRIPLING: What branch of the service were you in?
MR. REAGAN: Well, sir, I had been for several years in the Reserve as an officer in the United States Calvary, but I was assigned to the Air Corp.
MR. STRIPLING: Are you the president of the guild at the present time?
MR. REAGAN: Yes, sir. . . .
MR. STRIPLING: As a member of the board of directors, as president of the Screen Actors Guild, and as an active member, have you at any time observed or noted within the organization a clique of either Communists or Fascists who were attempting to exert influence or pressure on the guild?
MR. REAGAN: Well, sir, my testimony must be very similar to that of Mr. [George] Murphy and Mr. [Robert] Montgomery. There has been a small group within the Screen Actors Guild which has consistently opposed the policy of the guild board and officers of the guild, as evidenced by the vote on various issues. That small clique referred to has been suspected of more or less following the tactics that we associated with the Communist Party.
MR. STRIPLING: Would you refer to them as a disruptive influence within the guild?
MR. REAGAN: I would say that at times they have attempted to be a disruptive influence.
MR. STRIPLING: You have no knowledge yourself as to whether or not any of them are members of the Communist Party?
MR. REAGAN: No, sir, I have no investigative force, or anything, and I do not know.
MR. STRIPLING: Has it ever been reported to you that certain members of the guild were Communists?
MR. REAGAN: Yes, sir, I have heard different discussions and some of them tagged as Communists.
MR. STRIPLING: Would you say that this clique has attempted to dominate the guild?
MR. REAGAN: Well, sir, by attempting to put over their own particular views on various issues. . . .
MR. STRIPLING: Mr. Reagan, there has been testimony to the effect here that numerous Communist-front organizations have been set up in Hollywood. Have you ever been solicited to join any of those organizations or any organization which you consider to be a Communist-front organization?
MR. REAGAN: Well, sir, I have received literature from an organization called the Committee for a Far-Eastern Democratic Policy. I don't know whether it is Communist or not. I only know that I didn't like their views and as a result I didn't want to have anything to do with them. . . .
MR. STRIPLING: Would you say from your observation that this is typical of the tactics or strategy of the Communists, to solicit and use the names of prominent people to either raise money or gain support.
MR. REAGAN: I think it is in keeping with their tactics, yes, sir.
MR. STRIPLING: Do you think there is anything democratic about those tactics?
MR. REAGAN: I do not, sir.
MR. STRIPLING: Mr. Reagan, what is your feeling about what steps should be taken to rid the motion-picture industry of any Communist influences?
MR. REAGAN: Well, sir, ninety-nine percent of us are pretty well aware of what is going on, and I think, within the bounds of our democratic rights and never once stepping over the rights given us by democracy, we have done a pretty good job in our business of keeping those people's activities curtailed. After all, we must recognize them at present as a political party. On that basis we have exposed their lies when we came across them, we have opposed their propaganda, and I can certainly testify that in the case of the Screen Actors Guild we have been eminently successful in preventing them from, with their usual tactics, trying to run a majority of an organization with a well-organized minority. In opposing those people, the best thing to do is make democracy work. . . .
Sir, I detest, I abhor their philosophy, but I detest more than that their tactics, which are those of the fifth column, and are dishonest, but at the same time I never as a citizen want to see our country become urged, by either fear or resentment of this group that we ever compromise with any of our democratic principles through that fear or resentment. I still think that democracy can do it.