Changes

Two days after Chambers, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface~content=a789433344~fulltext=713240930 disregard the evidence] and follow its emotions":

Two days after Chambers, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to [http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/ftinterface~content=a789433344~fulltext=713240930 disregard the evidence] and follow its emotions":

{{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 being 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>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1162 (PDF 672)</ref> (Emphases Bagley's)<ref>[[#refBagley07|Bagley 2007]]: 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 being 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>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1162 (PDF 672)</ref> (Emphases Bagley's)<ref>[[#refBagley07|Bagley 2007]]: 274</ref>}}

Trying to explain Chambers' charges, Hiss 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> Following up, [[J. Edgar Hoover|Hoover]] would report to [[Attorney General]] [[Tom Clark]] on August 20, "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."</ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref>

Trying to explain Chambers' charges, Hiss 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> Following up, [[J. Edgar Hoover|Hoover]] would report to [[Attorney General]] [[Tom Clark]] on August 20, "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."<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref>

The day of Hiss's testimony, 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. We should [[#refToledano97|hang him]].” Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “[[#refTruman8.5.48|red]] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html herring],”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=oyx3AAAAMAAJ Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman]'' (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&mdash;White House/President, 1948," box 83, reproduced (as Document 22) at [[#refBW96|NSA/CIA 1996]]: 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 [[#refToledano97|political view]].”<ref>Truman "wasn't fronting for Alger Hiss, per se, he thought they were attacking him through Hiss... Mr. Truman figured that that was a fight on him, so he supported Hiss whom he didn't really like; thought he was a terrible fellow." [[#refTrohan1970|Trohan 1970]]: 14</ref> (That year, Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "[[#refNovak03|too many unknowns]]" in the partially decoded Venona messages,<ref>[[#refSchecter02|Schecter 2002]]: 148</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, [[#refRusher04|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, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] (Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University), PDF p. 22; [http://jamesforrestal.ariwatch.com/WillcuttsReport.htm#Page0 HTML version].</ref>  In her [http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/who-is-er/q-and-a/q24.htm newspaper column], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgiveable.... Anyone knowing either Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>[[#refER48|Eleanor Roosevelt 1948]]. Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>   

The day of Hiss's testimony, 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. We should [[#refToledano97|hang him]].” Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “[[#refTruman8.5.48|red]] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html herring],”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=oyx3AAAAMAAJ Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman]'' (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&mdash;White House/President, 1948," box 83, reproduced (as Document 22) at [[#refBW96|NSA/CIA 1996]]: 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 [[#refToledano97|political view]].”<ref>Truman "wasn't fronting for Alger Hiss, per se, he thought they were attacking him through Hiss... Mr. Truman figured that that was a fight on him, so he supported Hiss whom he didn't really like; thought he was a terrible fellow." [[#refTrohan1970|Trohan 1970]]: 14</ref> (That year, Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "[[#refNovak03|too many unknowns]]" in the partially decoded Venona messages,<ref>[[#refSchecter02|Schecter 2002]]: 148</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, [[#refRusher04|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, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] (Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University), PDF p. 22; [http://jamesforrestal.ariwatch.com/WillcuttsReport.htm#Page0 HTML version].</ref>  In her [http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/who-is-er/q-and-a/q24.htm newspaper column], [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgiveable.... Anyone knowing either Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>[[#refER48|Eleanor Roosevelt 1948]]. Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>