Matt Cvetic

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Matt Cvetic is the fictional lead character in the old time radio Show I Was a Communist for the FBI. In the series, Cvetic is an undercover agent of the FBI that infiltrates many communist spy rings within the United States. Cvetic poses as a faithful party member to gain information on communist plots designed to destroy democratic American values. Except for his superiors in the FBI, no one, not even members of Cvetic's family, knows that he is merely posing as a communist.

The character is loosely based on the real Matt Cvetic who wrote a book entitled I Was A Communist For The FBI. Cvetic, as an informant for the FBI, joined a Pittsburgh branch of the CPUSA in 1943. He became one of many moles in the American Communist Party during the 1940s. However, the FBI fired him in 1950 because of his erratic behavior. Soon after, he became nationally recognized by his testimony before the HUAC hearing.

Cvetic was the subject of a series of stories in the Saturday Evening Post. The articles fed into the red scare spirit of the day.^{[citation needed]} Warner Brothers produced a movie based on Cvetic's supposed exploits. A series of radio dramas and even a short lived TV series followed. By the mid-1950s, Cvetic's personal life was in a shambles. His wife had divorced him and most of his friends and family were alienated during his undercover years. He drank a lot and his career as a witness on communist activities soon ended. He died in 1962. Those on the left have continued to revile him, while those on the right still consider him a hero.