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That day, 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. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 We should 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: 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—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 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 political view].” (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</ref>
That day, 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. [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 We should 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: 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—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 [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 political view].” (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</ref>
In her newspaper column, [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing 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>Eleanor Roosevelt, ''Washington Daily News'', August 16th, 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>
In her newspaper column, [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing 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>
When Hiss testified, most of those watching, including members of the press, appeared to be on Hiss' 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' 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' 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' 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>