Ah, so!

Amos, I just read your post of Feb. 2, 1:10 p.m. a bit more carefully, particularly:

"Ives stated that he believed that the party was an enemy of the country he loved. Although Seeger remained bitter towards Ives, and Seeger fans avoided Ives' recordings, Ives was not even the one who named Seeger or the Weavers to the committee."

Scratch my supposition that Burl Ives wished he had refused to answer like Seeger had. Considering his pretty strongly patriotic stance (but not necessarily conservative) both then and later, what you cited sounds more like it.

Don Firth