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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:

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….The purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the Communist infiltration of the American Government. But [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives].}}

{{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….The purpose of this group at that time was not primarily espionage. Its original purpose was the Communist infiltration of the American Government. But [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html espionage was certainly one of its eventual objectives].}}

[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Элджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.documents&group_id=511603 Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lt8FHQAACAAJ Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, a Soviet Spymaster]'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref> That year, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= memorandum], entitled "Failures in the USA (1938-48)," listing 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities. Included on the list, under the heading, "'Karl’s' group," was "Alger Hiss, former employee of the State Dept."<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, ''Black Notebook'', [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Original.pdf Original], p. 39; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], p. 77; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Translated] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77</ref>

[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Элджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?topic_id=1409&fuseaction=topics.documents&group_id=511603 Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lt8FHQAACAAJ Special Tasks: The Memoirs of an Unwanted Witness, a Soviet Spymaster]'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref> Four months later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= memorandum], entitled "Failures in the USA (1938-48)," listing 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities. Included on the list, under the heading, "'Karl’s' group," was "Alger Hiss, former employee of the State Dept."<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, ''Black Notebook'', [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Original.pdf Original], p. 39; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], p. 77; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Translated] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77</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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 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":<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref>

Two days after Chambers, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 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":<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref>

{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,859675,00.html highest rectitude] without its [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,811892,00.html becoming known]. It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}

{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,859675,00.html highest rectitude] without its [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,811892,00.html becoming known]. It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fLdPjg5PFrcC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}

That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 We should hang him].” Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “[https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 red] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html herring],”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> a characterization he would repeat [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html as late as 1956]. When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 political view].” (That year, Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html too many unknowns]" in the partially decoded Venona messages,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M2pbieYYHrYC Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History]'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, [http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp it would open up the whole red panic again].")<ref>The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>

That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 We should hang him].” Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “[https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 red] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html herring],”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> a characterization he would repeat [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html as late as 1956]. When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 political view].” (That year, Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html too many unknowns]" in the partially decoded Venona messages,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M2pbieYYHrYC Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History]'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, [http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp it would open up the whole red panic again].")<ref>The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>