AMERICAN MASTERS: Trumbo | HUAC Testimony (Dalton Trumbo)

[JustsDL]

refuse to testify but to rebut by asking questions to the investigators

[Ranillon]

Wow -- a number of the comments here make it clear that we haven't properly learned the lessons of this cruely outrageous witch hunt. Too bad as given the extreme black-and-white poltical attitudes of the Far Right in the US nowadays those lessons are more timely than ever.

[aquagrl63]

Oh, for god's sake what was the whole point of this? Someone who was briefly involved in the Communist party when they were 20 was a traitor. God, people are cruel. Or stupid. Or both.

[RuflessRecords]

Was he a communist, yes, and a Joseph Stalin acolyte in addition to being a member of CPUSA. Claimed to have written a speech for our Sec of State who gave it in 1945 at the opening of the original United Nations Conference on International Organization; the Secretary General of the Conference was fellow Stalinist, and communist agent Alger Hiss.

This is where Hollywood got its constant anti-business drumbeat, from having Stalinists write its touching scripts.

[artemisfowl95]

My goodness, such talk.....Is there any such person here who is inspired by this fiery, witty man? He is a writer, mind you, and as writers, we are destined to be ourselves and nothing more. I myself am a writer, and in this community, we find him to be a hero amongst us, communist or not. It does not matter the party of a writer; merely the fact that we affected the world, or were simply noticed in it is enough. This man was blacklisted, jailed, and yet he still wrote, against his own stature.

[jvarela965]

Trumbo followed the Soviet line all through the Nazi-Soviet pact. Before Barbarossa when the Party was pushing for the U.S. not to enter the war Trumbo as a member of every isolationist and pro Peace organization one can imagine. Thank You and RIP Roy Brewer, Ronald Reagan and Robert Taylor.

[Stronghurst]

Trumbo asked that his own book -- "Johnny Got His Gun" -- be pulled from the shelves and censored after Germany invaded the USSR in 1941 because it was an anti-war book and Trumbo now supported the war. In other words, he towed the communist party line. During WWII Trumbo offered to identify to the FBI people in Hollywood who expressed anti-war sentiments. Trumbo also participated in the informal blacklist that Hollywood communists used against their enemies.

He was a dirtbag.

[TwoCows23]

I love this. Trumbo's giving a perfectly good response and then:

"YER NOT ASKING THE QUESTIONS WAAAAAAAAAAAAAH"

[megamanxu]

wait wait, i'm confused here, doesn't communism means a perfect world and utopia and every lives happy and sing pombaiyay? if so, that what is wrong with wanting to be communist? o_O i mean if you think about it, countries that are trying to be communists are stuck at being socialists, socialists are what we need to kill off, not communist... but am i getting something wrong here? again, very confused.

[TwoCows23]

@megamanxu The problem is that Communism calls for absolute conformity. You do not have individual thoughts, you work for the collective.

The Communist countries throughout the world are not true Communists. Most are dictatorships parading as Communist paradises.

Socialism is basically Communism, except you get to complain. It's really not too bad.

[megamanxu]

@TwoCows23 but china and Russia are technically socialist.... and also Vietnam, if it was not too bad, people wont move away from it. i'm telling ya, communist = win, socialist = dictatorship, for now that is, but really, any country that is under communism doesn't even follow the rules on how to be communist lol, they just said that to make a logo or a motto, most communist countries now are freaking dictatorship, which is the opposite of communism

[TwoCows23]

@megamanxu Sweden is socialist. They're not a dictatorship.

[RuflessRecords]

@TwoCows23 they were all communist, communists like you say those evil regimes weren't communist to try to spare your precious religion from all its crimes in practice.

These countries collectived and nationalized everything and preached Karl Marx like gospel. The violence is endemic to all Communist regimes due to the innate, seething hatred of all people who subscribe to the philosophy and the fact that others will not willingly give up their property and businesses, and must be forced.

[mrjosephyoung]

Bottom line: Trumbo and the others were Commies who pledged fealty to ole Uncle Joe Stalin and would have betrayed their country for "The Cause."

[TwoCows23]

@mrjosephyoung Considering that he'd left the Communist Party a few years ago, I highly doubt that.

[mrjosephyoung]

@TwoCows23 : What are you talking about? Trumbo died in 1976. His membership in the Communist Party from 1943 until 1948 is not in doubt. Who knows what the Party required him to do for his membership which is why these hearings were held. America had little idea of what all these lefties were doing in this country and how were they aiding the Soviet Union, our enemy at the time.

[TwoCows23]

@mrjosephyoung ...so? There's no more Soviet Union, that's all in the past, and Trumbo has a number of amazing films to his credit.

Also, I sincerely doubt he was funneling secrets to the USSR, considering that he was anti-war and those secrets could have started a war.

Furthermore, how could he have gotten a hold of those secrets in the first place?

[meandmehadi]

Those who do not remember history are destined to repeat it.

[kutthroat84]

ahahahahaahah!!!!! brilliant...

[heybamanba]

Nixon, sitting there like a hawk. Chk out "gabriel over the white house" to see where his mind was at. Cheney and Rumsfeld could have been the inquisitors at his side, since he mentored them at a later date. thanks for keeping the truth alive.

[tonyreno123]

look's nothing like a witch hunt you pleb

6Nicad6emus6 .

[6Nicad6emus6]

Now I know what the witch hunts throughout history looked like.