The House Un-American Activities Committee maneuvered, characteristically, to steal the limelight, calling hearings on espionage to piggyback on a New York grand jury’s recent indictment of twelve Communist leaders based on the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley, whom the New York World-Telegram racily labeled a “beautiful blonde.” She was actually a homely brunette. But a sense of sexualized menace was a common currency of voyeuristic tabloids and voyeuristic congressional committees at the high tide of the Cold War.
