In 1939, in protest against the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Hicks resigned from the Communist Party. He attempted to organize an independent left-wing alternative organization but with little success. By 1940 he had entirely renounced communism and termed himself a democratic socialist. The same year he wrote an essay for "The Nation", "The Blind Alley of Marxism." In the 1950s, Hicks testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee twice. In a 1951 essay in "Commentary", he explained that communism "permits of no neutrality. The liquidation of neutrals is one of its specialties." Its aim is "brutal revolutionary totalitarianism."