6. Headline: The Rise of Martin Dies and HUAC Guest Author: James Shapiro Congressman Martin Dies, an ambitious politician from Texas, leveraged the burgeoning medium of radio to attack the Federal Theater Project. As chairman of the first House Un-AmericanActivities Committee, Dies targeted the program by framing its output as communistic and un-American. He exploited public fatigue with relief programs to challenge the popular New Deal policies of President Roosevelt. This political maneuvering culminated in a historic 1938 hearing where Hallie Flanagan defended the role of theater in democracy against accusations of salacious and radical content. (6)