http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4lPjMh1zpEo

Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev made a surprising and historic announcement on December 25, 1991. Effective immediately, he resigned as president and essentially dissolved the entire Soviet Union. The Christmas day speech is seen by many, along with the fall of the Berlin Wall, as the moment that the Cold War officially ended.

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Mikhail Gorbachev Resigns on Television appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ekfej_kmHQ

On December 11, 1964, Che Guevara addressed the United Nations General Assembly as head of the Cuban delegation. In expressing Cuba’s frustration with the actions of the United States, he says: “The United States, furthermore, tried to get the UN to inspect our territory. But we emphatically refuse, since Cuba does not recognize the right of the United States, or of anyone else in the world, to determine the type of weapons Cuba may have within its boarders… So long as the world is governed by these principles, so long as the world is governed by those concepts that have universal validity because they are universally accepted and recognized by the peoples, we will not accept the attempt to deprive us of any of those rights, and we will renounce none of them.”

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Che Guevara Addresses The United Nations appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmIITOahKVM

Alger Hiss was an American lawyer who was accused of being a member of the Communist Party by the House Un-American Activities Committee(HUAC). On August 3, 1948, a man named Whittaker Chambers testified before the committee that he and Hiss had both been secret communists for years. Despite questions over the reliability of Chamber’s testimony, Hiss was eventually imprisoned for 3 years and eight months for lying to Congress.

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Alger Hiss Testifies Before HUAC appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RY1ERND8nnk

Professor Bernard B. Fall, who wrote the first Western biography on the notorious Vietnamese communist revolutionary leader Ho Chi Minh, discusses Ho’s effective application of public relations strategies: “He is extremely response-conscious…The uncle idea is his idea.” Ho Chi Minh is referred to by the Vietnamese people as “Uncle Ho” even to this day in Vietnam. Fall, who was an expert on Indochina and even had a chance to personally interview Ho in 1962, was interviewed by Walter Cronkite in this audio recording before his death on February 21, 1967.

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Ho Chi Minh’s Mastery of Public Relations appeared first on Witnify.

Author: Megan O’Toole

Members of the Hollywood Ten and their families in 1950, protesting the impending incarceration of the ten. Source: Creative Commons.

In the golden age of Hollywood, many film industry employees fueled a stable “studio system” by signing contracts with a select number of major studios. Between the years 1927 to 1963, five large studios including Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and Paramount Pictures controlled the film industry–creating thousands of efficiently-made movies. Yet this system, which bolstered Hollywood’s economy, was rattled when politics started to play a stronger role in the production and distribution of films following World War II.

The reoccurrence of the Red Scare and the threat of communism led many talented individuals in Hollywood to face accusations of membership in the American Communist Party. The alleged communist members were threatened with being “blacklisted,” a practice that banned a person from any future employment in the film industry.

This practice began in 1947 when ten screenwriters were accused of being communists in the Hollywood Reporter. The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) required that the writers confirm their political beliefs but the committee found the accused to be in contempt of Congress because they refused to answer their questions. The committee also encouraged several witnesses such as Gary Cooper and Ronald Reagan to testify against the “Hollywood Ten,” and the ten were eventually given year-long prison sentences.

Following this “Hollywood Ten” incident, forty-eight executives from the major studios constituted the Waldorf Statement to publicly announce that the writers would be blacklisted. The president of the Motion Picture Association of America, Eric Johnston, and many others expressed that the studios “will not re-employ any of the ten until such time as he is acquitted or has purged himself of contempt and declares under oath that he is not a communist.”

Actress Jean Muir. Source: Creative Commons.

As skepticism about communist involvement grew, politics gained a larger influence over Hollywood and many more professionals in the entertainment business faced accusations. In 1950, a publication called the Red Channels from Counterattack Magazine listed 151 men and women who were supposedly involved in communist actions. This list was taken seriously in Hollywood, and many of the accused persons were blacklisted and denied livelihood for many years. The list included major celebrities like actor Orson Welles and folk singer Pete Seeger–only some performers were able to clear their names by testifying in front of HUAC regarding their political beliefs.

However, some people involved in the film industry, such as actress Jean Muir, were unable to find work even after testifying. In a series of interviews with the Hollywood Reporter, Marsha Hunt, Cliff Carpenter, Lee Grant, Norma Barzman, and Walter Bernstein discuss what it was like to be cast away from Hollywood for many years after achieving success there. The blacklisted Hollywood writers mention that they needed to consider using pseudonyms in order to continue writing screenplays again. Grant also recalls the disgust she felt once actors were encouraged to betray fellow members of the Hollywood community to HUAC as communists.

The blacklisting period in Hollywood was steeped with anxiety and suspicion–and it led to the infamous conclusion of many prosperous careers. This practice of blacklisting essentially ended in 1957 when professionals in the entertainment business started taking a firm stand against it. That year, Alfred Hitchcock hired the blacklisted actor Norman Lloyd and radio show host John Henry Faulk sued a firm for investigating him for communist affiliation. In the coming years, many other instances occurred when members of the Hollywood elite began to insist on returning talented blacklisted workers out of exile.

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[Blog] The Hollywood Blacklist appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtjJqZvl5nk

Svetlana Alliuyeva, the youngest child and only daughter of Soviet Union leader Joseph Stalin, addresses the press concerning her 1967 immigration to the United States. Svetlana, who changed her named to Lana Peters after moving to America, sparked international scandal with her defection from the Soviet Union becoming a naturalized citizen of the United States and voicing her dissent against her homeland’s ruling powers.

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Daughter of Stalin Speaks After Defection to U.S. appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NLya_3TS9mc

Robert Meeropol discusses the execution of his parents, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg, the only U.S. citizens to be executed under the Espionage Act of 1917. As one of the most contested death sentences in history, the Rosenberg case has inspired continued debate over the constitutionality of the Espionage Act. In addition to sharing his parents’s story, Meeropol explains his support for WikiLeaks, the infamous publication that has revived the controversy surrounding the Espionage Act of 1917.

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Son Discusses the Execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ei1HnWwzmNk

A significant moment in Cold War history: U.S. President Ronald Reagan on June 12, 1987 issued a challenge to Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev to “tear down” the Berlin Wall, which the Communist state of East Germany erected in 1961 as a barrier between West Berlin and the socialist state of East Germany. Reagan’s challenge was for Gorbachev to dismantle the wall as a marker of his stated commitment to increase transparency and freedom in the Eastern Bloc and to urge an end to the arms race with the Soviets.

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‘Mr. Gorbachev, Tear Down This Wall!’ appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hooL98OwlMM

Beijing University students struggle to identify the iconic “Tank Man” image that captures an unidentified protester standing before a row of tanks the morning after the Tiananmen Square Massacre of 1989. Although the Tiananmen Square Protests were primarily led by Beijing University students, the muddled facts on this historical event due to government propaganda have made the true details of this protest unfamiliar to present-day students.

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Tiananmen Square Protests Unknown to Current Chinese Students appeared first on Witnify.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jumuu_jvlw4

Wu Dingfu and Song Xiuling lament the death of their son, Wu Guofeng, a 20-year-old Chinese student who was among the first victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square Massacre. On June 4, 1989, Wu Guofeng set out to document the student-led protests in Beijing with his camera, but instead was shot by the government’s advancing troops before being pierced through the stomach with a bayonet. According to Wu Dingfu, the Communist Party still denies accountability for the deaths of innocent citizens such as his son, even 25 years after the incident.

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Parents Mourn Son’s Unsung Death in Tiananmen Square Protest appeared first on Witnify.