Page "Olivia de Havilland" Paragraph 16

During this era, de Haviland was also notable as a staunch liberal, campaigning for Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman.

In 1946, determined to protect liberalism from infiltration by communists, she provoked a highly-publicized row: concerned about reports of Stalinist atrocities, de Havilland removed pro-Communist material from speeches prepared for her by the Independent Citizens ' Committee of the Arts, Sciences and Professions, a group later identified as a communist front organization.

De Havilland became concerned that the liberal membership of the Independent Citizens ' Committee was being manipulated by a small group of communists in leadership positions and that their pro-Soviet statements were damaging the election chances of the Democrats in the 1946 mid-term elections.

She organized a fight to regain control of the committee and, upon their failure she resigned, triggering a wave of resignations from other Hollywood figures, including her own star-recruit to the reform camp, Ronald Reagan.

Ironically, given her role in galvanizing Hollywood resistance to Soviet influence, de Havilland was denounced that same year ( along with Danny Kaye, Frederic March, and Edward G. Robinson ) as a " swimming-pool pink " by Time magazine and called before the House Un-American Activities Committee in 1958 due to her vocal liberal activism in this period.