Changes

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

In a bid to steal the [[GOP]]'s thunder,<ref>Kathryn S. Olmsted, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kwQQDXs__wwC Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley]'' (UNC Press, 2002) ISBN 0807827398, p. 114</ref> Truman enacted a "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 loyalty program]" in March 1947&mdash;despite which, according to [[State Department]] security files, there were still [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html 108 cases] there the the following autumn. By early 1948, the [[Republican]] 80th Congress had begun hearings on these and other suspects, including [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss. The [[Democrat]] Truman stonewalled, issuing a Presidential Directive that cut Congress off from all access to FBI and other information on loyalty or security cases:

In a bid to steal the [[GOP]]'s thunder,<ref>Kathryn S. Olmsted, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kwQQDXs__wwC Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley]'' (UNC Press, 2002) ISBN 0807827398, p. 114</ref> Truman enacted a "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 loyalty program]" in March 1947&mdash;despite which, according to [[State Department]] security files, there were still [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page62.html 108 cases] there the the following autumn. By early 1948, the [[Republican]] 80th Congress had begun hearings on these and other suspects, including [[Lauchlin Currie]], [[Harry Dexter White]] and Hiss. The [[Democrat]] Truman stonewalled, issuing a Presidential Directive that cut 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) 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 Pyyrinting 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:

:"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 [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 to a congressional committee]."</ref>

:"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 [https://trumanlibrary.org/publicpapers/index.php?pid=1771&st=&st1=%20170 to a congressional committee]."</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].}}

[[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>

[[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> That same month, Piotr Fedotov and Konstantin Kukin, two other senior Soviet intelligence officials, [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6731654.ece reported to the chairman of Soviet intelligence] about “our former agents who were betrayed by Chambers (A. Hiss, [[Donald Hiss|D. Hiss]], [[Julian Wadleigh|Wadleigh]], [[Ward Pigman|Pigman]], [[Vincent Reno|Reno]])”

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>

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>