WHAT HAPPENED TO THIS?
Statement by the President Upon Signing the Communist Control Act of 1954August 24, 1954
I HAVE TODAY signed S. 3706, An Act to make illegal the Communist Party and to prohibit members of Communist organizations from serving in certain representative capacities. The American people are determined to protect themselves and their institutions against any organization in their midst which, purporting to be a political party within the normally accepted meaning, is actually a conspiracy dedicated to the violent overthrow of our entire form of government.
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The Congress has passed a bill providing for the loss of citizenship by those advocating the overthrow of our government by force and violence. In carrying out the Administration's recommendation that any citizen who knowingly and actively participates in the Communist conspiracy to overthrow the government by force and violence should be regarded as renouncing his allegiance to the United States and forfeiting his right to citizenship, the Congress has reinforced our historic concept that citizenship is a right only of those who bear true faith and allegiance to the United States and its free institutions.
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The foregoing bill also includes a provision for the death penalty for persons found guilty of peacetime espionage. It creates within the framework of the Internal Security Act of 1950 a new category entitled, "Communist-Infiltrated Organizations."
This provision will enable the Administration to assist members of those few labor organizations which are dominated by Communists, to rid themselves of the Communist control under which they have been forced to operate.n the final days of the session, the Congress added to this measure certain clauses denying to Communists all rights, privileges and immunities which they have under the Federal Government. These provisions also subject members of the Communist Party or its front organizations, having knowledge of their revolutionary aims and objectives, to the provisions and penalties of the Internal Security Act. archive.is/l7uNc
Note: As enacted, S. 3706 is Public Law 637, 83d Congress (68 Stat. 775).
The statement was released at Lowry Air Force Base, Denver, Colo. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Statement by the President Upon Signing the Communist Control Act of 1954 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232611 https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/statement-the-president-upon-signing-the-communist-control-act-1954