ABSTRACT
For most liberals the issue of past failings was not so urgent as current matters of strategy. A crucial one was how to handle investigating committees. Granville Hicks was called by House Committee on Un-American Activities in 1953 to testify about the extent of Communism at Harvard during the 1930s. Sidney Hook denied that he was calling people fellow travelers for criticizing the Washington decision. Hook knew the difference and indicated it by pointing out that Lynd herself had signed Communist-front petitions and been a sponsor of the Waldorf conference for world peace that spring. The issue of Communist teachers disappeared along with, to all intents and purposes, the Communist Party. McCarthyism passed away also, having had a less blighting effect than worried academics feared. The American Association of University Professors would have been better off to face the issue directly and say that Communists should be allowed into the academy.
