Changes

As the [[Republican]] 80th Congress began closing in on suspects such as [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss, Truman stonewalled, in March 1948 issuing a Presidential Directive cutting Congress off from all access to FBI and other information on loyalty or security cases:

As the [[Republican]] 80th Congress began closing in on suspects such as [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss, Truman stonewalled, in March 1948 issuing a Presidential Directive cutting Congress off from all access to FBI and other information on loyalty or security cases:

{{cquote|Any subpena or demand or request for information, reports, or files of the nature described, received from sources other than those persons in the executive branch of the Government... shall be respectfully declined..."<ref>[https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1415&st=&st1= 50. Directive on the Need for Maintaining the Confidential Status of Employee Loyalty Records], March 15, 1948. Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1945-53 (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum); Presidential Directive (13 F. R. 1359), reprinted in Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, United States Congress, ''[http://ia360613.us.archive.org/3/items/annualreportfory1953unit/annualreportfory1953unit_bw.pdf Annual Report for the Year 1953]'' (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 186-187 (PDF pp. 194-195</ref>}}

{{cquote|Any subpena or demand or request for information, reports, or files of the nature described, received from sources other than those persons in the executive branch of the Government... shall be respectfully declined..."<ref>[https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1415&st=&st1= 50. Directive on the Need for Maintaining the Confidential Status of Employee Loyalty Records], March 15, 1948. Public Papers of the Presidents: Harry S. Truman, 1945-53 (Harry S. Truman Library and Museum); Presidential Directive (13 F. R. 1359), reprinted in Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, United States Congress, ''[http://ia360613.us.archive.org/3/items/annualreportfory1953unit/annualreportfory1953unit_bw.pdf Annual Report for the Year 1953]'' (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1954), pp. 186-187 (PDF pp. 194-195</ref>}}

Cut off from investigative data, Congress interviewed witnesses itself. Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department security officials and the FBI about the [[Ware group]] for a decade.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Cut off from investigative data, Congress interviewed witnesses itself. Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]] called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling [[State Department]] security officials and the [[FBI]] about the [[Ware group]] for a decade:

{{cquote|I was a member of the Communist Party and a paid functionary of the party.... the apparatus to which I was attached…. was an underground organization of the United States Communist Party developed, to the best of my knowledge, by [[Harold Ware]]…. The head of the underground group at the time I knew it was [[Nathan Witt]]…. Later, [[John Abt]] became the leader. [[Lee Pressman]] was also a member of this group, as was Alger Hiss….<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref>}}

When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions: