While this usually kept them from a contempt of Congress citation, they were labeled as “Fifth Amendment Communists”. The committee tried many people after Hiss, and many chose to avoid perjuring themselves by pleading the Fifth Amendment. Although he avoided the espionage conviction, Hiss was later tried and convicted of perjury and spent 44 months in jail. In 1948 Alger Hiss, a high-ranking member of the State Department, was called to testify before the committee that he was not a communist spy. Despite the circus appearance the HUAC trials hold in today’s culture, the consequences on politicians were no joke. The nervous-looking men represent the Washington officials who were tried in the House of Un-American Activities hearings. carrying a paintbrush and a bucket of black liquid labeled “smear”. This 1951 Herblock drawing depicts a grimacing Joe McCarthy storming Washington D.C.
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