Editing B. Carroll Reece (section)

===Defeating Phillips, returning to the U.S. House===
In 1950, Reece ran against the man who succeeded him in the House, [[Dayton Phillips]], and defeated him in the Republican [[Partisan primary|primary]].  This all but assured him of a return to Congress in the heavily Republican district.  He was reelected five more times.  When the Republicans gained control of the House after the [[United States House election, 1952|1952]] elections, Reece served as chairman of the Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations, losing this post after the Democrats regained control in [[United States House election, 1954|1955]].

In the [[1952 United States presidential election]], Reece threw support to [[Robert A. Taft]], who he predicted the GOP delegations in Southern and border states would support.<ref>December 17, 1951. [https://www.nytimes.com/1951/12/17/archives/gop-in-south-solid-for-taft-says-reece.html G.O.P. IN SOUTH SOLID FOR TAFT, SAYS REECE]. ''The New York Times''. Retrieved August 13, 2021.</ref> Taft ultimately lost in the Republican primaries to the more moderate [[Dwight D. Eisenhower]], an [[Internationalism (politics)|internationalist]].

During his time in Congress, he was a social and fiscal conservative who supported [[isolationism]] and [[civil rights]] legislation, being one of the few Southern Congressmen who declined to sign the 1956 anti-desegregation [[Southern Manifesto]] and voted in favor of the [[Civil Rights Act of 1957|Civil Rights Acts of 1957]] and [[Civil Rights Act of 1960|1960]].<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/85-1957/h42|title=HR 6127. CIVIL RIGHTS ACT OF 1957.|work=GovTrack.us}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/86-1960/h102|title=HR 8601. PASSAGE.}}</ref> He was a rarity in politics at the time—a truly senior Republican congressman from a former Confederate state.

====International controversy====
During the [[Cold War]], Reece's statement that "The citizens of [[Gdańsk|Danzig]] are [[Germans|German]] as they always had been" caused a reply from [[Jędrzej Giertych]], a leading Polish emigrant in London and writer, publicist, and publisher of [[National-Democratic Party (Poland)|National Democratic]] background.<ref>Jędrzej Giertych, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tg4gAAAAMAAJ&q=danzig+1308 Poland and Germany: A Reply to Congressman B. Carroll Reece of Tennessee]''. (1958). p. 15</ref> Danzig was separated from Germany and had been established as the [[Free City of Danzig]] in accordance with the [[Treaty of Versailles]] following [[World War I]]. It was annexed by [[Nazi Germany]] in 1939 and subsequently grouped with [[Poland]] in the [[Potsdam Conference|Potsdam Agreement]].

Reece was opposed to the [[Oder–Neisse line|Oder-Neisse line]], advocating the return to Germany of its [[Former eastern territories of Germany|former Eastern territories]].<ref>{{Cite book|last=Allen|first=Debra J.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7LRuWXPmqxMC&q=Reece&pg=PA300|title=The Oder-Neisse Line: The United States, Poland, and Germany in the Cold War|date=2003|publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group|isbn=978-0-313-32359-1|pages=186|language=en}}</ref>

====Cox Committee====
Reece was a member of the 1952 [[Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations]], established by the House in April that year to probe major foundations for subversive activities.<ref>[https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes/82-1952/h133 H RES 561. RESOLUTION CREATING A SELECT COMMITTEE TO CON- DUCT AN INVESTIGATION AND STUDY OF FOUNDATIONS AND OTHER COMPARABLE ORGANIZATIONS.]. ''GovTrack.us''. Retrieved September 21, 2021.</ref> It was known during the congressional session as the [[Cox Committee]], named after its chair [[Edward E. Cox|Eugene "Goober" Cox]], a Democratic segregationist from Georgia.

Due to family illnesses, Reece was absent for most of the hearings the Cox Committee conducted.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Cox suddenly died in December 1952, and the final report which was soon released cleared the investigated foundations of any wrongdoing.<ref name=fascinatingpoliticsreececommittee>FascinatingPolitics (December 22, 2019). [https://fascinatingpolitics.com/2019/12/22/the-reece-committee-on-foundations-conspiratorial-nonsense-or-an-expose-of-a-threat-to-the-nation/comment-page-1/ The Reece Committee on Foundations: Conspiratorial Nonsense or an Expose of a Threat to the Nation?]. ''Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History''. Retrieved March 2, 2022.</ref> Reece asserted the following, as listed in the Cox Committee report:<ref>January 1, 1953. [https://coxcommitteereport.weebly.com/uploads/1/3/9/4/139443759/82_h_rept_2514.pdf Final Report Of The Select Committee To Investigate Foundations And Other Organizations (Pursuant to H. Res. 561, 82d Cong.)], p. 1. Retrieved October 6, 2021. Final Report, pp. 14. Retrieved March 2, 2022.</ref>
{{cquote|As pointed out and stressed in this report, the select committee has had insufficient time for the magnitude of its task. Although I was unable to attend the full hearing I feel compelled to observe that, if a more comprehensive study is desired, the inquiry might be continued by the Eighty-third Congress with profit in view of the importance of the subject, the fact that tax-exempt funds in very large amounts are spent without public accountability or official supervision of any sort, and that, admittedly, considerable question able expenditures have been made.}}

Among the remaining committee members, only Reece sought a do-over, believing that the scope of the investigations were insufficient. He in addition stated in a long, detailed House speech:
{{cquote|Some of these activities and some of these institutions support efforts to overthrow our Government and to undermine our American way of life.

These activities urgently require investigation. Here lies the story of how communism and socialism are financed in the United States, where they get their money. It is the story of who pays the bill.

'''There is evidence to show that there is a diabolical conspiracy back of all this. Its aim is the furtherance of socialism in the United States.'''

The method by which this is done seems fantastic to reasonable men, for these Communists and Socialists seize control of fortunes left behind by Capitalists when they die, and turn these fortunes around to finance the destruction of Capitalism.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}}}}

The Cox Committee report recommended a possible investigation of whether major foundations used their privileges for the purpose of [[tax evasion]], as stated in page 12 of the report:<ref>''Final Report of the Cox Committee'', p. 13.</ref>
{{quote box|The committee regards questions 11 and 12 as matters for the consideration of the Committee on Ways and Means. It therefore has made no attempt to find the answers to these questions. We feel the questions are of sufficient importance to warrant inquiry.

...

We respectfully suggest that the [Committee on Ways and Means] reexamine pertinent tax laws, to the end that they may be so drawn as to encourage the free-enterprise system with its rewards from which private individuals may make gifts to these meritorious institutions.}}

Reece ignored this aspect and only focused on subversive activities.{{citation needed|date=August 2022}} Texas liberal populist Democrat [[Wright Patman]] later took up the report's particular suggestion in the 1960s as chairman of the Select Committee on Small Business, also known as the [[Patman Committee]].<ref>FascinatingPolitics (July 3, 2021). [https://fascinatingpolitics.com/2021/07/03/texas-legends-7-wright-patman/ Texas Legends #7: Wright Patman]. ''Mad Politics: The Bizarre, Fascinating, and Unknown of American Political History''. Retrieved March 2, 2022.</ref>

====Reece Committee====
{{Main article|Reece Committee}}
Reece led the [[United States House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations|House Select Committee to Investigate Tax-Exempt Foundations and Comparable Organizations]] which investigated the use of funds by tax-exempt non-profit organizations, and in particular [[private foundation (United States)|foundations]], to determine if they were using their funds to support communism in educational institutions.<ref>[http://www.2facts.com.wylproxy.minlib.net/Archive/temp/76987temp1954020050.asp?DBType=News World News Digest: Foundations Probe: Reece Unit vs. Foundations; Other Developments] (subscription required)</ref> Reece selected attorney [[Norman Dodd]] to lead the investigation, which lasted eighteen months. Reece would later declare that "The evidence that has been gathered by the staff pointed to one simple underlying situation, namely that the major foundations, by subsidizing collectivistic-minded educators, had financed a socialist trend in American government."<ref>{{cite book |last=Epperson |first=Ralph |date=1985 |title=The Unseen Hand |publisher=Publius |page=208}}</ref>