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Aware, Inc. IN THE SPRING OF 1955 the NBC network, wanting to clear a prominent performer for a top dramatic show, asked the actor to get two letters of endorsement, one from an officer of the Anti- Defamation League, the other from Godfrey P. Schmidt, President of AWARE, Inc. The network's request was recognition of the grow- ing importance of AWARE, Inc., "an organization to combat the Communist conspiracy in entertainment-communications." At one time the letter from the Anti-Defamation League official might have turned the trick, but in this case it took two endorse- ments. And of the two (as the actor found out), AWARE'S was harder to get. For it is A WARE'S position that a performer wanting to clear himself should not only prove he is not a Communist, or Communist sympathizer, but give ample evidence that he is "ac- tively" anti-Communist — or, in A WARE'S own words, that he does not support "dangerous neutralism." "No one can be neutral before the Communist challenge and peril," AWARE stated in one of its publications. "Its threat to our civilization demands that people stand up and be counted." Many radio-tv people feel strongly about AWARE because it is their general impression that those who wish to establish anti-Communist creden- tials must "stand up and be counted" on AWARE'S side on any given trade-union issue. Certainly one who opposes blacklisting, for instance, would not be considered truly "anti-Communist" by AWARE. But it was largely because the organization supports blacklisting that members of the American Federation of Television 129