The United States Government (in the form of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the House Committee on Un-American Activities) versus Three Alien Artists (Charlie Chaplin, Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler)

Abstract

In this article, I discuss in detail the surveillance and the persecution by the United States Government of three of the greatest artists of the twentieth century: Charlie Chaplin, Bertolt Brecht and Hanns Eisler. Because of their association with left-wing figures and, in the case of the latter two, their writing, the national security agencies amassed voluminous files on them, mainly filled with circumstantial evidence and the words of informers. But in the cold-war United States the words of informers and circumstantial evidence were gilt-edged bonds. Chaplin and Eisler were subject to lengthy interrogations by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and all three were issued subpoenas by the Committee on Un-American Activities. Only Brecht and Eisler (twice) actually testified. Brecht hastily left the country after his testimony, while Eisler was deported. Chaplin left for a trip around the world, but the Attorney General announced he would not be allowed to return. Though each of these artists resisted as best they could, they did not have a strong support network behind them, and the cold-war juggernaut easily disposed of them.