Dissertation viva (2) Through the books I had as well as through my researches on the Internet, my understanding of the witch-hunt seemed clearer. Before I began to write my dissertation, I collected some informations both on the Internet and in the different books I had. I chose to set a background for my first part as I wanted to have a clearer understanding of the period. I figured out that some laws have been enacted by Congress in order to limit the rights of the Communists. I also found interesting to get through two famous cases that were the Hiss' case and the Rosenbergs affair. I chose not to deal with the affair of John Stewart Service or the one of Igor Gouzenko even if I briefly mentioned them during my first part. As my dissertation was focused on the United States, I did not want to include the affair of Igor Gouzenko which took place in Canada. I prefer the Hiss' case to the one of John Stewart Service as I thought it was most famous but also because it would be more interesting as the Hiss' affair contributed to the speech of McCarthy. Indeed, Alger Hiss was founded guilty just a month before McCarthy made his speech at Wheeling. I also thought that it might be interesting to talk about some testimonies of former Communists. Through the testimonies founded, I tried to understand how people – and more precisely Communists – lived under the fear presents in the United States. I chose Elia Kazan because he was one famous screen producer of that time. Also, I chose Arthur Miller because I read that people linked the film On the Waterfront produced by Elia Kazan to Arthur Miller's play The Crucible. Indeed, people thought that as Miller denounced the informers, Elia Kazan wanted to answer him by making a film which was an apology of informing. For the play The Crucible, I read it as well as I watched the film in order to get a clearer idea.