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On February 7, 1950, three days before McCarthy's acclaimed Wheeling West Virginia speech, Hoover testified before House Appropriations Committee that [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Counterintelligence|counterespionage]] requires "an objective different from the handling of criminal cases." It is more important is to ascertain his contacts, his objectives, his sources of information and his methods of communication" as "arrest and public disclosure are steps to be taken only as a matter of last resort." He concluded that "we can be secure only when we have a full knowledge of the operations of an espionage network, because then we are in a position to render their efforts ineffective." <ref>[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence], John F. Fox, Jr., FBI Historian, Presented at the 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, 10/27/2005. </ref>

On February 7, 1950, three days before McCarthy's acclaimed Wheeling West Virginia speech, Hoover testified before House Appropriations Committee that [[Glossary_of_espionage_terms#Counterintelligence|counterespionage]] requires "an objective different from the handling of criminal cases." It is more important is to ascertain his contacts, his objectives, his sources of information and his methods of communication" as "arrest and public disclosure are steps to be taken only as a matter of last resort." He concluded that "we can be secure only when we have a full knowledge of the operations of an espionage network, because then we are in a position to render their efforts ineffective." <ref>[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence], John F. Fox, Jr., FBI Historian, Presented at the 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, 10/27/2005. </ref>

Three days later, at Wheeling West Virginia, McCarthy is said to have made the claim, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party."  The famous "List", as it has become to be known, has always engendered much controversy.  The figure McCarthy used of 205 appears to have come from an oral briefing with Hoover regarding espionage suspects the FBI was then investigating.  The FBI had discovered on its own five Soviet agents operating in the United States during World War II; defector Elizabeth Bentley further added another 81 known identities of espionage agents; Venona materials had provided the balance, and by the time a full accounting of the list was compiled in an FBI memo in 1957, one more subject had been added to the number, now totalling 206. <ref>[[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/FBI_Synopsis_on_%22Operations_of_the_MGB_Residency_at_New_York,_1944-45%22|FBI Memo Referencing 206 Communists in Government]]</ref>

Three days later, at Wheeling West Virginia, McCarthy is said to have made the claim, "I have here in my hand a list of 205—a list of names that were made known to the Secretary of State as being members of the Communist Party."  The famous "List", as it has become to be known, has always engendered much controversy.  The figure McCarthy used of 205 appears to have come from an oral briefing with Hoover regarding espionage suspects the FBI was then investigating.  The FBI had discovered on its own five Soviet agents operating in the United States during World War II; defector Elizabeth Bentley further added another 81 known identities of espionage agents; Venona materials had provided the balance, and by the time a full accounting of the list was compiled in an FBI memo in 1957, one more subject had been added to the number, now totalling 206. <ref>[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/FBI_Synopsis_on_%22Operations_of_the_MGB_Residency_at_New_York,_1944-45%22|FBI Memo Referencing 206 Communists in Government]</ref>

Much confusion has always surrounded the subject.  While the closely guarded FBI/Venona information of espionage agents uses the number of 206, McCarthy in his Wheeling speech only referred to Communist Party membership, and not espionage activity.  Being a security risk as a CPUSA member does not necessarily entail or imply that a person was or is actively involved in espionage activity.  When McCarthy was questioned on the number, he referred to the Lee List, which most probably was given to him by Hoover, while Hoover kept the suspects involved in espionage activity from Venona evidence, and elsewhere, secret. Hoover is known to have done precisely this same thing in May of 1946 with a confidant of [[President Truman]] in the very early days of the FBI's joint investigation with the [[Army Signals Intelligence Service]] using Venona decryptions. Hoover reported that a reliable source had revealed “an enormous Soviet espionage ring in Washington.” Of some fourteen names, [[KGB|Soviet agents]] [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]] were listed well down the list. The name at the top was “Undersecretary of State [[Dean Acheson]]” and included others beyond reproach, thus discrediting the Hiss and Silvermaster accusations, which happened to be on target. Hence the Truman administration always suspected Hoover and the FBI as playing partisan political games with accusations of various administration members’ complicity in Soviet espionage. <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/foreword.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Chairmans Forward], 1997.</ref>

Much confusion has always surrounded the subject.  While the closely guarded FBI/Venona information of espionage agents uses the number of 206, McCarthy in his Wheeling speech only referred to Communist Party membership, and not espionage activity.  Being a security risk as a CPUSA member does not necessarily entail or imply that a person was or is actively involved in espionage activity.  When McCarthy was questioned on the number, he referred to the Lee List, which most probably was given to him by Hoover, while Hoover kept the suspects involved in espionage activity from Venona evidence, and elsewhere, secret. Hoover is known to have done precisely this same thing in May of 1946 with a confidant of [[President Truman]] in the very early days of the FBI's joint investigation with the [[Army Signals Intelligence Service]] using Venona decryptions. Hoover reported that a reliable source had revealed “an enormous Soviet espionage ring in Washington.” Of some fourteen names, [[KGB|Soviet agents]] [[Alger Hiss]] and [[Nathan Gregory Silvermaster]] were listed well down the list. The name at the top was “Undersecretary of State [[Dean Acheson]]” and included others beyond reproach, thus discrediting the Hiss and Silvermaster accusations, which happened to be on target. Hence the Truman administration always suspected Hoover and the FBI as playing partisan political games with accusations of various administration members’ complicity in Soviet espionage. <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/foreword.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Chairmans Forward], 1997.</ref>