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But when it came to Chambers' allegation about Hiss, Berle “[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html scoffed at the charge],” according the Public Broadcasting System's NOVA Online. “I have vague recollections of having mentioned the matter to [[FDR|the President]] when shortly thereafter we were working on the Foreign Agents Registration Act [FARA],” claimed Berle, “which was the real, tangible outcome of this....”<ref>[[#refBerle52|Berle 1952]]: 598</ref> (Berle's “vague recollections” of this matter were in fact mistaken; FARA was actually [http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fara/ enacted in 1938]&mdash;the year ''before'' he met with Chambers.) Asked how FDR responded, according to Levine, Berle said, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/expletive expletive] remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 197-198</ref>

But when it came to Chambers' allegation about Hiss, Berle “[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html scoffed at the charge],” according the Public Broadcasting System's NOVA Online. “I have vague recollections of having mentioned the matter to [[FDR|the President]] when shortly thereafter we were working on the Foreign Agents Registration Act [FARA],” claimed Berle, “which was the real, tangible outcome of this....”<ref>[[#refBerle52|Berle 1952]]: 598</ref> (Berle's “vague recollections” of this matter were in fact mistaken; FARA was actually [http://www.justice.gov/criminal/fara/ enacted in 1938]&mdash;the year ''before'' he met with Chambers.) Asked how FDR responded, according to Levine, Berle said, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an [http://www.thefreedictionary.com/expletive expletive] remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 197-198</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised [http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/print.html Alice Roosevelt Longworth] and de Toledano that he also took this information [[#refToledano01|directly to FDR]]. Levine also told [http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm David Dubinsky], president of the [http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm International Ladies Garment Workers Union] about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist [http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell] of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 197-199. Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story. [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 331</ref> That year FDR's congressional ally Democrat Martin Dies also discussed the issue with him. The President, recalled Dies, was "furious" -- not at the agents of a foreign power then allied with the Nazis in his administration, but with Dies for mentioning it -- "you must see a bug-a-boo under every bed," he railed, adding "there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country. Several of the best friends I have are Communists."<ref>Martin Dies, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BEl3AAAAMAAJ Martin Dies' story]'' (Bookmailer, 1963), p. 144</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised [http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/print.html Alice Roosevelt Longworth] and de Toledano that he also took this information [[#refToledano01|directly to FDR]]. Levine also told [http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm David Dubinsky], president of the [http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/EAD/htmldocs/KCL05780.html International Ladies Garment Workers Union] about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist [http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell] of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 197-199. Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story. [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 331</ref> That year FDR's congressional ally Democrat Martin Dies also discussed the issue with him. The President, recalled Dies, was "furious" -- not at the agents of a foreign power then allied with the Nazis in his administration, but with Dies for mentioning it -- "you must see a bug-a-boo under every bed," he railed, adding "there is nothing wrong with the Communists in this country. Several of the best friends I have are Communists."<ref>Martin Dies, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BEl3AAAAMAAJ Martin Dies' story]'' (Bookmailer, 1963), p. 144</ref>

Diplomat [[#refTime11.5.45|Spruille Braden]] said he knew of three separate occasions when Roosevelt was told about Hiss, including, apparently, once by liberal columnist [http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/thompson-dorothy.htm Dorothy Thompson]:<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/thompson-dorothy.cfm Wife of] the [[Socialist]] [[Sinclair Lewis]], in 1948, Thompson would [http://www.peterkurth.com/DOROTHY%20THOMPSON.htm vote for] Socialist Party candidate [[Norman Thomas]] for [[President]].</ref> "Each time they were completely ignored."<ref>[http://clio.cul.columbia.edu:7018/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=4072554 Oral history interview with Spruille Braden], Oral History Research Office, Nicholas Murray Butler Library, Columbia University. Cited in Peter Grose, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=vjSliiGAx1MC Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain]'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001) ISBN 0618154582, p. 65</ref> For Hiss was a family friend of the Roosevelts;<ref>While Hiss would claim only to have worked "under... or in association with" [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] "in the Government" ([[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1163-1164 [PDF 673-674]), the First Lady would write that she knew Hiss “[[#refER48|fairly well]],” while her daughter Anna reportedly had known him “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/cherrick.html very well]” (in contrast to [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]], concerning whom Mrs. Roosevelt would sniff, “[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGYzMjIzMWYyZDFkNzBiYmU5MjdiZjJkNDZmNjE5ZDk= He’s not one of us]”).</ref> FDR therefore "merely 'scoffed at the charge,'" according to British historian and former diplomat [http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/staff/hon_fellows/dstafford/ David Stafford]: "As a result, [http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stafford-roosevelt.html no counter-intelligence programme for identifying Communist agents in the federal government was put in place]."<ref>Years later, Hiss would comment from prison, "If the old man were alive, none of this would have happened." According to de Toledano, "the 'old man' was none other than [[#refToledano01|Roosevelt himself]]." ''Chicago Tribune'' Washington bureau chief Walter Trohan disagreed with Hiss's assessment: "Roosevelt would have sacrificed Hiss at the snap of the finger. He would have sacrificed anybody..." [[#refTrohan1970|Trohan 1970]]: 14</ref>

Diplomat [[#refTime11.5.45|Spruille Braden]] said he knew of three separate occasions when Roosevelt was told about Hiss, including, apparently, once by liberal columnist [http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/thompson-dorothy.cfm Dorothy Thompson]:<ref>[http://www.gwu.edu/~erpapers/teachinger/glossary/thompson-dorothy.cfm Wife of] the [[Socialist]] [[Sinclair Lewis]], in 1948, Thompson would [http://www.peterkurth.com/DOROTHY%20THOMPSON.htm vote for] Socialist Party candidate [[Norman Thomas]] for [[President]].</ref> "Each time they were completely ignored."<ref>[http://clio.cul.columbia.edu:7018/vwebv/holdingsInfo?bibId=4072554 Oral history interview with Spruille Braden], Oral History Research Office, Nicholas Murray Butler Library, Columbia University. Cited in Peter Grose, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=vjSliiGAx1MC Operation Rollback: America's Secret War Behind the Iron Curtain]'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2001) ISBN 0618154582, p. 65</ref> For Hiss was a family friend of the Roosevelts;<ref>While Hiss would claim only to have worked "under... or in association with" [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] "in the Government" ([[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1163-1164 [PDF 673-674]), the First Lady would write that she knew Hiss “[[#refER48|fairly well]],” while her daughter Anna reportedly had known him “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/cherrick.html very well]” (in contrast to [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]], concerning whom Mrs. Roosevelt would sniff, “[http://article.nationalreview.com/?q=OGYzMjIzMWYyZDFkNzBiYmU5MjdiZjJkNDZmNjE5ZDk= He’s not one of us]”).</ref> FDR therefore "merely 'scoffed at the charge,'" according to British historian and former diplomat [http://www.shc.ed.ac.uk/staff/hon_fellows/dstafford/ David Stafford]: "As a result, [http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/s/stafford-roosevelt.html no counter-intelligence programme for identifying Communist agents in the federal government was put in place]."<ref>Years later, Hiss would comment from prison, "If the old man were alive, none of this would have happened." According to de Toledano, "the 'old man' was none other than [[#refToledano01|Roosevelt himself]]." ''Chicago Tribune'' Washington bureau chief Walter Trohan disagreed with Hiss's assessment: "Roosevelt would have sacrificed Hiss at the snap of the finger. He would have sacrificed anybody..." [[#refTrohan1970|Trohan 1970]]: 14</ref>

Hiss would thus rise unimpeded through the ranks, in 1944 becoming deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>[[#refDallas05|Dallas 2005]]: 412</ref> In August, he [[#refLinder03|would organize]] the [http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks Conference],<ref>Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849502, p. 67</ref> where he would serve as [[#refWhalen48|executive]] [[#refTime2.13.50|secretary]], presiding over<ref>[[#refYUNHiss|YUN Hiss]]: 8 (PDF 9)</ref> the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.

Hiss would thus rise unimpeded through the ranks, in 1944 becoming deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>[[#refDallas05|Dallas 2005]]: 412</ref> In August, he [[#refLinder03|would organize]] the [http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks Conference],<ref>Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849502, p. 67</ref> where he would serve as [[#refWhalen48|executive]] [[#refTime2.13.50|secretary]], presiding over<ref>[[#refYUNHiss|YUN Hiss]]: 8 (PDF 9)</ref> the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.