Changes

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

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:

::"Any [http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/Term/BE45BC5C-A852-41E6-A9C1C267589E6C61/alpha/S/ 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 [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1415&st=&st1=%2050. respectfully declined]..."<ref>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> Following Hiss' HUAC testimony on August 5, Truman would read to the press a statement amplifying this order:

::"Any [http://www.nolo.com/definition.cfm/Term/BE45BC5C-A852-41E6-A9C1C267589E6C61/alpha/S/ 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 [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1415&st=&st1=%2050. respectfully declined]..."<ref>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) Following Hiss' HUAC testimony on August 5, Truman would read to the press a statement amplifying this order:

:"In response to written requests from congressional groups for information relating to the employment of individuals, the department or agency may forward to the committee all unclassified routine papers, such as Civil Service Form 57, records of promotion, efficiency ratings, letters of recommendation, etc.

:"In response to written requests from congressional groups for information relating to the employment of individuals, the department or agency may forward to the committee all unclassified routine papers, such as Civil Service Form 57, records of promotion, efficiency ratings, letters of recommendation, etc.

:"No information of any sort relating to the employee's loyalty, and no investigative data of any type, whether relating to loyalty or other aspects of the individual's record, shall be included in the material submitted to a congressional committee. If there is doubt as to whether a certain document or group of documents should be supplied, the matter should be referred [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 to the White House].

:"No information of any sort relating to the employee's loyalty, and no investigative data of any type, whether relating to loyalty or other aspects of the individual's record, shall be included in the material submitted to a congressional committee. If there is doubt as to whether a certain document or group of documents should be supplied, the matter should be referred [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 to the White House].</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:

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].}}