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{{cquote|Although I learned later, from two different sources who had social relations with Berle, that Roosevelt, in effect, had told him to "go jump in a lake" upon the suggestion of a probe into the Chambers charges, I do not recall hearing that exact phrase from Berle. To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an expletive remark on this order: "Oh, forget it, Adolf."<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 197-198</ref>}}

{{cquote|Although I learned later, from two different sources who had social relations with Berle, that Roosevelt, in effect, had told him to "go jump in a lake" upon the suggestion of a probe into the Chambers charges, I do not recall hearing that exact phrase from Berle. To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an 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://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>

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"&mdash;not at the infiltration of his administration by agents of a foreign power then allied with the Nazis, but with Dies for mentioning it&mdash;"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.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>

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>