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When Hiss testified, most of those watching, including members of the press, appeared to be on Hiss's side, even giving him [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/3.html a round of applause] when he finished. So strong was Hiss's denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either [[#refLinder03|Chambers or Hiss was lying]] about whether they had known one another; he asked the committee to appoint him [http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm to head a subcommittee] to find out which one.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 15-16</ref>

When Hiss testified, most of those watching, including members of the press, appeared to be on Hiss's side, even giving him [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/3.html a round of applause] when he finished. So strong was Hiss's denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either [[#refLinder03|Chambers or Hiss was lying]] about whether they had known one another; he asked the committee to appoint him [http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm to head a subcommittee] to find out which one.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 15-16</ref>

Many editorialists and columnists violently attacked [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] and defended Hiss.<ref>''[http://ia331329.us.archive.org/3/items/thisisnixon017711mbp/thisisnixon017711mbp.pdf This Is Nixon]'' (New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1956) ASIN B000MXH0XA, p. 40</ref> "Hiss stoutly continued to deny the charge," reported ''Time'', but "it was clear to everyone" that he and Chambers "had known each other quite well in the mid-'30s." The magazine added that Hiss's "favorite phrase, as he fenced tediously with the committee, was: 'To the best of my recollection.' He used it and similar phrases [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,779940,00.html 198 times]." Chambers [[#refWhalen48|offered to take]] a lie-detector test; [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html Hiss refused]&mdash;a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life.

The Hiss forces launched a "frightful campaign of vilification"<ref>Hilton Kramer, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=yPZ3AAAAMAAJ The Twilight of the Intellectuals: Culture and Politics in the Era of the Cold War]'' (I.R. Dee, 1999) ISBN 1566632226, p. 6</ref> against [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]], a whispering campaign of lies and innuendos. Many editorialists and columnists violently attacked him and defended Hiss.<ref>''[http://ia331329.us.archive.org/3/items/thisisnixon017711mbp/thisisnixon017711mbp.pdf This Is Nixon]'' (New York: GP Putnam's Sons, 1956) ASIN B000MXH0XA, p. 40</ref> "Hiss stoutly continued to deny the charge," reported ''Time'', but "it was clear to everyone" that he and Chambers "had known each other quite well in the mid-'30s." The magazine added that Hiss's "favorite phrase, as he fenced tediously with the committee, was: 'To the best of my recollection.' He used it and similar phrases [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,779940,00.html 198 times]." Chambers [[#refWhalen48|offered to take]] a lie-detector test; [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html Hiss refused]&mdash;a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life.

Trying to explain Chambers' charges, Hiss had suggested that his accuser was crazy, asking, "is he a man of consistent reliability, truthfulness and honor?... Indeed, is he a man of sanity?"<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1164 (PDF 674)</ref> Now, Hiss demanded that the committee ask Chambers if he had ever been treated for a mental illness. The committee obliged, and Chambers answered: "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19480904/sanction I have not, period]." Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/un/large/general_assembly/general_assembly3-1.jpg Clark Clifford], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if ''Hiss'' might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif confinement in a mental institution]."<ref>[[#refBW96|NSA/CIA 1996]]: 117. On August 20, [[J. Edgar Hoover|Hoover]] reported to [[Attorney General]] [[Tom Clark]], "With regard to [[Whittaker Chambers]], there is nothing indicated in the files of the [[FBI|Bureau]], or in the files of the New York office that Chambers has been institutionalized." [[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss's mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 15</ref>

Trying to explain Chambers' charges, Hiss had suggested that his accuser was crazy, asking, "is he a man of consistent reliability, truthfulness and honor?... Indeed, is he a man of sanity?"<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1164 (PDF 674)</ref> Now, Hiss demanded that the committee ask Chambers if he had ever been treated for a mental illness. The committee obliged, and Chambers answered: "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19480904/sanction I have not, period]." Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/un/large/general_assembly/general_assembly3-1.jpg Clark Clifford], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if ''Hiss'' might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif confinement in a mental institution]."<ref>[[#refBW96|NSA/CIA 1996]]: 117. On August 20, [[J. Edgar Hoover|Hoover]] reported to [[Attorney General]] [[Tom Clark]], "With regard to [[Whittaker Chambers]], there is nothing indicated in the files of the [[FBI|Bureau]], or in the files of the New York office that Chambers has been institutionalized." [[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss's mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 15</ref>