The Treason Of Harry Truman.

IT'S IMPOSSIBLE to understand the McCarthy era and its security wars without first understanding something of Harry Truman—which, however, is no easy task. On this subject, and certain others, Truman is a hard man to figure.

In many standard histories and bios, Truman is depicted as a tough cold warrior who bravely faced down Moscow, being teamed in this respect with his foreign policy vicar Acheson at State. Even more to the present point, we're told, Truman cleaned up security problems on the home front, long before the blustering Joe McCarthy came barging in with his outrageous charges. The cleanup was supposedly effected through the Truman loyalty program, announced in March of 1947. Thanks to this draconian effort, it's said, whatever Communists or security risks had got on official payrolls were ousted. Thus, when McCarthy showed up in 1950 he was banging on a door already closed and locked by Truman

Sad to say, this portrayal of Truman's policy on the home front is almost entirely fiction. That he was a visceral anti-Communist is not in doubt. However, he seemed to know little about the way the Soviets and their U.S. agents functioned, or their presence in the government he headed, and didn't show much interest in learning. This ennui persisted despite the myriad FBI reports supplied to the White House and Truman cabinet about the vast extent and serious nature of the penetration. Accordingly, not only was the security problem not cleaned up by 1950, some of the most flagrant suspects imaginable were flourishing in the federal workforce.

J. Robert Oppenheimer.

Foremost among such cases was J. Robert Oppenheimer, the famous nuclear scientist who played a leading role in the atom project of World War II. This was by all odds the most significant security problem in Cold War records, having its genesis in the days of FDR, blossoming into a full-fledged scandal under Truman, then finally coming to public view in the Eisenhower era.

The earliest known mention of Oppenheimer in the FBI reports is a memo from March 28, 1941, which says he had the previous year attended a meeting in the home of Haakon Chevalier, an identified (later self-admitted) Red, along with Communist leaders Isaac Folkoff and William Schneiderman. It was apparently this information, obtained at the era of the Hitler-Stalin pact, that prompted the FBI to put Oppenheimer on its "custodial detention" list of people to be picked up by the Bureau if a national emergency developed. A memo to this effect was issued May 21, 1941, describing his "national tendency" as "Communist.

Further intel on the case did nothing to dissuade the Bureau from this verdict. As part of the COMRAP/CINRAD inquiry, the FBI at this time was keeping a close watch on itinerant Soviet commissar Steve Nelson, then based in California. From surveillance of Nelson and other Communist bigwigs, the FBI recorded numerous references to Oppenheimer, explicitly and repeatedly saying he was a secret member of the party. One such entry in the Bureau archive reads as follows:

-"In December, 1942, Julius Robert Oppenheimer was the subject of a discussion between Steve Nelson and Bernadette Doyle, organizational secretary of the Communist Party for Alameda County, California. At this time, Steve Nelson stated that Dr. Hannah Peters had been to visit him and she had stated that Dr. Oppenheimer, because of his employment in a special project, could not be active in the party.... Bernadette Doyle answered Nelson by saying that she believes the matter should be taken up with the State Committee regarding the "two Oppys" inasmuch as they were regularly registered and everyone knew that they were Communist Party members."-

A similar entry dating from May 1943 recounts a conversation between Bernadette Doyle and one John Murra, "suspected intelligence agent of the USSR." This says "Bernadette Doyle . . . informed John Murra that Mrs. Oppenheimer and her husband were 'comrades' and that the husband was working on a special project in the [Berkeley] Radiation Laboratory . . . Also Bernadette Doyle stated that Oppenheimer was a Party member but that his name should be removed from any mailing lists in John Murra's possession and he should not be mentioned in any way."

A further FBI entry, based either on an informant report or microphone surveillance, describes a November 1945 Communist Party meeting in Alameda County, as follows: "According to confidential sources, Jack Manley stated at this meeting that he and Steve Nelson were close to Oppenheimer as Oppenheimer was a party member. Manley also stated that Oppenheimer told Steven Nelson several years ago that the Army was working on the atomic bomb . . . {Catherine Sanders, a Communist Party functionary also present at this meeting, stated that Oppenheimer was a Communist Party member.")

Despite these and other similar data from the FBI, Oppenheimer was taken on as scientific/administrative head of the nuclear project in the crisis of the war years. This was a huge calculated gamble on the part of Gen. Leslie Groves, military capo of the project, who thought Oppenheimer (under tight surveillance) was a plausible security risk in the conflict with the Nazis. And given the circumstances of the war, with Moscow as our ally, it might be viewed as a risk worth taking that in the end succeeded.

However, with the advent of the Cold War, as Moscow turned from ally to increasingly hostile foe, the global outlook was obviously quite different. By the latter months of 1945, signs of tension with the Soviets were mounting and the FBI was following up Elizabeth Bentley's revelations on the home front. At this time also, Oppenheimer would leave the jurisdiction of the Army and become a subject of direct concern to Hoover and the Bureau. Accordingly, in mid-November 1945, Hoover provided a precis of the case to the White House and to Secretary of State James Byrnes, then overseeing atomic matters for Truman. This three-page memo wrapped up the pertinent data on Oppenheimer, including his involvement with pro-Red causes and individuals. Specifically noted was the information that Communist leaders in California considered him a secret member of the party.

None of this, however, seemed to be of much concern to Truman officials dealing with the famous suspect, who rather than being phased out of America's nuclear setup would now be given still other significant duties involving our atomic secrets. Among the most important of these new jobs was his appointment to the General Advisory Committee on atomic energy (and subsequent election as its chairman), which carried with it a "Q clearance" providing access to confidential data. This was no honorific post, but one of utmost sensitivity, as the GAC would be the source of expertise and guidance for the Atomic Energy Commission in making key decisions.

As this appointment was going forward, Hoover again hustled over to Truman higher-ups the security data on Oppenheimer and the problem he presented—again, however, to no avail. This further report would be dismissed in utterly casual fashion by Truman's staffers, including White House aide Clark Clifford and Truman's choice to head the AEC, David E. Lilienthal. In these precincts, the fact that Oppenheimer rendered good service in the war, and was otherwise well regarded, trumped the intel from the Bureau. As revealed in AEC hearings on the case, favorable statements from nuclear satraps Vannevar Bush and James B. Conant, who had worked with Oppenheimer in the atom program, meant "Dr. Oppenheimer's loyalty was prima facie dear despite material contained in the FBIsummary."

And that, believe it or not, was that. There was, Lilienthal added, some discussion with Clark Clifford about a possible "special board" to look into the matter, but "Mr. Clifford did not seem to take this seriously." Nor did Lilienthal himself. He testified that he had forgotten about this proposal entirely and didn't do anything about it. So the question of Oppenheimer's security status apparently just drifted along in bureaucratic limbo until his authorization for a "Q clearance" was formalized in August of 1947.

Further suggestive of then-prevailing security measures is an AEC memo saying that, in fact, Oppenheimer had already received such clearance, dating back to February 1947, but for some reason this significant item hadn't been recorded. This memo also states that "Dr. Oppenheimer was previously cleared by the Manhattan District" (the name given the atom project in World War II)—the point being that such prior clearance meant he was now entitled to another.7 Once more, the fact that a risk taken when the enemy was in Berlin might be a risk of a different nature when the enemy was in Moscow apparently didn't cross the minds of Truman and his people. There are many possible terms for this, but toughness on Cold War security issues obviously isn't among them.

Harry Dexter White

Had Oppenheimer stood alone as an instance of security coma in the Truman years, the case might be put down as a bizarre exception. It was, however, closer to the norm than to unusual conduct for the era. Among other similar episodes was the strange saga of Harry Dexter White and the even stranger handling of the case by Truman.

Though no Oppenheimer in terms of clout or status, White was a significant figure. He wielded enormous influence with Treasury Secretary Morgen-thau, had a hand in countless global dealings, and was instrumental in placing his friends and allies in Treasury and other billets. He was also one of the most important Soviet agents named by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley and would later show up in Venona. He was accordingly featured in numerous FBI reports about the penetration problem, beginning in late 1945 and continuing for months thereafter.

Notwithstanding all of this, White would in early 1946 be named by Truman as the top U.S. official at the International Monetary Fund, to a large extent White's own creation, stemming from a 1944 global confab held at Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. White was confirmed for this position by the Senate, had his commission signed by Truman, and went on to the IMF when it began operations in the spring of 1946.

All this would become a matter of public knowledge when the appointment blew up into a political scandal in the early 1950s. How, it was asked, could Truman have permitted the advancement of an identified Moscow agent to such a high-ranking post? In trying to provide an answer, Truman came up with three different explanations: that the FBI failed to inform him of the security problem with White; that when he found out about it, he took prompt and effective action; and that he allowed the appointment to go through to cooperate with the FBI in its investigation.

All these responses, besides being mutually inconsistent, were mistaken, as shown by the documented record. Extensive information on the case would be disclosed in 1953 Senate hearings by Eisenhower Attorney General Herbert Brownell and, in a rare appearance of this nature, FBI Director Hoover. Most provably wrong was the contention that the FBI had failed to tell Truman about White, as the Bureau had copious evidence in writing—some already noted—that it supplied a steady stream of reports about the case not only to the Treasury and Truman Justice but directly to the White House.

Thus, taking the matter from the top, White was featured in the Hoover letter of November 8, 1945, delivered by special messenger to Truman aide Harry Vaughan for the President's attention. White was second on the list of suspects named in this letter. He would be named again in the comprehensive Bureau memo of November 27, 1945, delivered to the White House December 4. White would then be the subject of a special memo from the FBI, devoted mainly to his case, dated February 1, 1946, delivered to the White House February 4. There would be other Bureau reports in which White was mentioned, but these are noted because they were all supplied to Truman and his agents before the IMF appointment became official.

-- ( The timeline on these reports, plotted against Truman's actions, is instructive. Truman nominated White for the IMF position on January 23,1946—two and a half months after the first Hoover letter prominently mentioning White and a month and a half after the November comprehensive memo was delivered to the White House. The nomination would not be voted on by the Senate until February 6, at which time Truman also had the February memo geared to White. It's thus clear that Truman and his aides had ample warning that White was an identified Soviet agent before the nomination ever happened, and had a heads-up mainly devoted to White before the matter was voted by the Senate)-

Likewise, the notion that the appointment went forward in cooperation with the Bureau (an argument earlier floated in the case of Victor Perlo) was categorically denied by Hoover. "At no time," said the Director, "was the FBI party to any arrangement to promote Harry Dexter White, and at no time did the FBI give its approval to such an agreement."

A last revealing sidelight to the above: When White had been confirmed and was ready to take up his IMF position, Truman sent a flowery letter to the appointee congratulating him on his fine service to the nation and the new job he was assuming. This Truman missive said he regretted White's departure from the Treasury, but "my regret is lessened ... in the knowledge that you leave the Treasury only to assume new duties for the government [at IMF] ... In that position you will be able to carry forward the work you so ably began at Bretton Woods ... I am confident that in your new position you will add to the distinction of your already distinguished career with the Treasury."

This effusive Truman letter was dated April 30, 1946—almost six full months after he was first warned by the FBI that White was an identified Moscow agent. It was also at a time, according to Truman's later claims, that he was cooperating with the Bureau to crack down on White and others like him.

In fact, as Hoover further noted, White's move to the IMF impeded the FBI inquiry as the Bureau's investigative powers didn't extend to global bodies.

Alger Hiss ,

If White and Oppenheimer were proof of indifference to security standards, the case of Alger Hiss was even more so. This was of course the most famous spy scandal of them all. It was also the case that showed the willingness of the Truman administration, not merely to ignore security intel, but to harass the witness who supplied it.

Histories of the Cold War often highlight Truman's statement that the Hiss-Chambers hearings in the summer of 1948 before the House Committee on Un:American Activities were a "red herring." However, things being said and done in private far exceeded in shock value mere criticism of the House proceedings or the term "red herring." (As it happened, the phrase wasn't initially used by Truman but propounded to him in a question by the press, to which he assented.)

As seen, the FBI had provided top officials plentiful information on Hiss, based on the Chambers-Bentley data, beginning in the fall of 1945. It was information of this type that caused Secretary of State James Byrnes to conclude in early 1946 that Hiss should be removed from the department, and that led to...

(In a further footnote to all the above, Hoover added that if the idea was to contain White and monitor his actions by surrounding him with trustworthy people, the project was aborted early on by the appointment of V. Frank Coe, yet another Bentley suspect, as secretary of the IMF. Indeed, the Coe appointment was in some ways even more telling than that of White. Coe had been named as a suspect in FBI reports to the White House, Treasury, and Truman Justice dated February 23 and 24 and March 4, 1946. Coe wasn't appointed to the IMF until three months later (June '46).)

...Hiss's slow-motion resignation ten months later. Also, the department security squad under Joe Panuch had been all over Hiss for a considerable time before he was ousted. Multiple FBI reports about the case were meanwhile sent, not only to the State Department, but to the White House and Truman Justice.

Despite this extensive background, when the Hiss-Chambers duel went public in the summer of 1948, the White House and Truman Justice bent their efforts to nailing and discrediting, not Hiss, but Chambers. Elements of the game plan were set forth in an August 16 memo to Clark Clifford from Truman aide George Elsey. Capsuling steps agreed to at a meeting with Attorney General Clark, this included the notation: "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." To this was added the handwritten comment "investigation of Chambers' confinement in mental institution." There were no similar notes suggesting Hiss be measured for a perjury count or that his mental health might be in question.

Thus a memo to the FBI from Assistant Attorney General Alexander Campbell, reacting to the November deposition, says: "It is desired that an immediate investigation be conducted so that it can be ascertained whether Chambers has committed perjury. In this connection, photostatic copies of these documents should be obtained together with a copy of the deposition given by Chambers."

Other such memos soon made their way to Hoover. One, dated December 2, 1948, reemphasized that Justice wanted "an immediate investigation by the Bureau to determine whether Chambers committed perjury." While telling his agents to proceed as ordered, Hoover noted in the margin: "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss." He would likewise later comment, "I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also." It was—it is—an excellent question.

Luckily for Chambers, he by this time had a vigorous champion in the House committee, spearheaded by chief investigator Robert Stripling and freshman GOP representative Richard Nixon. When these worthies learned of administration plans to railroad Chambers, they raised a vociferous protest, warning of the further uproar that would be caused by any such proceeding. Relative sanity then prevailed and Truman Justice at last switched sides, deciding to drop the Chambers perjury angle and go after Hiss. We can only speculate as to what might have happened had the House committee not been on the job and in possession of probative data Truman Justice couldn't deny or keep sequestered.

Ultimately, Hiss would be convicted of lying about these matters and wind up in a federal prison, so the vindication of Chambers couldn't have been much more conclusive. None of this, however, impressed the alleged security hawk, Harry Truman. As late as 1956, he engaged in the following exchanges in a TV interview reprinted by U.S. News & World Report. Question: "Mr. President, is it true that you characterized Richard Nixon's investigation into the Alger Hiss case as a 'red herring'?" Answer: "No, but it was. I never characterized it that way but that's exactly what it was." Question: "Do you think that he [Hiss] was a Communist spy?" Answer: "No, I do not."

J. Robert OPPENHEIMER, Harry Dexter White, and Alger Hiss were three of the most famous spy suspects ever, and none did any credit to security standards at the Truman White House. All of them, however, were handled outside the boundaries of the President's loyalty program. White and Hiss left the government before the program started, and Oppenheimer would be dealt with through other channels. So it's conceivable that, when the loyalty system was adopted, the administration set off on a different path and thereafter took a harder line than that suggested in these cases. Conceivable—but not what happened. In all too many instances, the same mind-set and same results persisted.

One reason for this outcome was the way the Truman program was structured. Despite its allegedly draconian features, the system contained a host of flaws that made it extremely porous. Among these, ironically, was the "loyalty" requirement itself—stipulating that federal employees be vetted only on this basis. This proved to be a protean concept that gave rise to endless troubles. Closely linked with these was the original Truman order (later changed) that such judgments be based on "reasonable grounds" instead of "reasonable doubt," the rule that in theory obtained before this. Together these Truman notions created a twilight zone of fog and hesitation that resulted in the clearance of many suspects. Following are a few examples.

Edward U. Condon

Had Robert Oppenheimer not existed, Dr. Condon might well be rated the scariest security risk in Cold War history. His case exhibited to the fullest the loopholes in the Truman program and the manner in which its supposedly drastic nature became debilitating weakness.

Condon was another nuclear physicist with odd connections, and also with exotic views about security measures and U.S. relations with the Communist bloc of countries. He had served briefly with the wartime atomic setup but lasted for only about six weeks before he and the project managers parted ways. General Groves, who considered Oppenheimer an acceptable risk, did not so consider Condon. Being judged a bigger security problem than Robert Oppenheimer obviously took a bit of doing (though there were some others who shared this dubious distinction).

As to the Soviet Union and East-West relations, Condon not only adopted the prevalent outlook of the war but carried this to utmost limits and persisted with such notions well after the war was over. He had a worrisome habit of hanging out with East bloc officials, including Polish, Czech, and Bulgarian embassy staffers, subsequent to the Communist takeover of these countries. (Chief among these contacts was one Ignace Zlotowski, a Polish embassy figure named by a defecting Red official as an atomic espionage agent.)

Condon's familiars on the home front were of like nature. He and his wife were friends of the Bentley-identified Soviet agent Gregory Silvermaster and of Silvermaster's housemate, Ludwig Ullman. Another such Condon sidekick was John Marsalka—a member of the Silvermaster circle—discharged from the State Department in the 1930s "due to doubts about his loyalty to the United States," to quote congressional findings on the subject.18 Still another Condon buddy was Edwin Smith, identified as a CP member (taking the Fifth Amendment when asked about this) and an official of the National Council of American Soviet Friendship, an oft-cited front group. (Condon himself was active in the science committee of this outfit.)

This sampling of the Condon vita is perhaps sufficient to suggest why Army security types voiced strong objections in 1945 when he wanted to take off on a trip to Russia and had his passport lifted. Yet, despite this well-documented record, the Truman administration that same year appointed him director of the National Bureau of Standards in the Commerce Department, then kept him at this post, over the protests of Congress, for the next six years. The job had major security implications in that the Standards Bureau dealt with all kinds of classified material, including data on nuclear weapons, radar systems, and guided missiles.

A good deal of this background was known to the House Committee on Un-American Activities, which in early 1948 compiled a report on Condon, calling him one of the "weakest links" in the atomic security chain. The committee discovered also that the FBI had filed its own report on Condon, and House members tried to obtain this as part of their inquiry. As seen, the administration flatly refused to provide this report to Congress.

As to the workings of the loyalty program, the Condon case was bleakly revealing. The Commerce Department was apprised of the negative data on Condon in 1946 and became formally cognizant of the problem with delivery of the FBI report about him in the spring of 1947. Thereafter, the department had the case before it for approximately ten months—a period in which Condon enjoyed continuing access to classified data. Finally, in early 1948, the department held a loyalty hearing on the case, which, to the dismay of Congress, resulted in his clearance.

As brought out in House committee hearings, this surreal result was arrived at by dismissing from consideration Condon's linkages to East Bloc officials, Silvermaster and Marsalka, and other similar intel. The reason for ignoring all this information, said the chairman of the Commerce hearing board, was that it concerned "security," whereas the board looked only at the "loyalty" issue. And the board members didn't think they had "reasonable grounds" for finding Condon was disloyal. As the hearing chairman explained, an adverse ruling on this basis was tantamount to a verdict of treason and the board was loath to make this judgment.

So Condon would stay on at the Bureau of Standards, despite the outcries of Congress, until September of 1951. The case clearly illustrated the problems inherent in the elastic, subjective "loyalty" standard decreed by Truman. That aspect, and the secrecy issue, had obvious tie-ins to the later battles of Joe McCarthy. And there was another tie-in also. The head of the Commerce hearing board that cleared Condon, and who gave the reasons for this clearance, was the already met with Adrian Fisher. By the time of McCarthy's set-to with the State Department. Fisher had moved from Commerce to the AEC and thence to Foggy Bottom, where he was active in the effort to discredit McCarthy and provide back-channel data to Senator Tydings in seeking that objective.

Solomon Adler

As has been well noted, the most explosive security scandal of the Truman era was the Amerasia case, replete with cover-up, perjury, and grand-jury rigging by a coterie of top officials. Among its many peculiar features, the case provides a suggestive study of the Truman loyalty program in action.

Like countless other security problems, the Amerasia scandal had its origins under FDR but would come to public notice under Truman. The case surfaced in the spring of 1945, when Truman had just succeeded to the White House, so his knowledge of it would have been zero at the outset. Also, we're informed that when he first heard about the matter, he ordered a thoroughgoing investigation, which accorded with his hawkish Cold War image.

However, within a few weeks of this brave beginning, everything was thrown into reverse and the case was fixed and buried. All this manipulation happened on Truman's watch and was thus done by people subordinate to him, none of whom so far as we know suffered any official sanctions, and several of whom were in fact promoted. And as the wiretaps that revealed the cover-up were ordained by Truman, it's hard to believe he didn't learn about the fix, especially in its later phases.

Be that as it may, the relevant point for now is the way suspects in the case would fare under the loyalty program of 1947. Chief among these was John Service, the handling of whose case was so singular and important it requires a discussion of its own. Suffice it to note that, despite the FBI's extensive data on Service, he was repeatedly cleared by the State Department's see-no-evil loyalty screeners. Also instructive, though getting less attention, was the case of his Chungking roommate, the veteran Soviet agent Adler.

By the time the Truman loyalty program came on line, the FBI had copious intel on Adler. The Bureau knew from microphone surveillance about Service's links to Adler and their activities in China—including some knowledge of their third housemate, Chi Chao-ting. Hoover's men also had good reason to know Adler was a Communist apparatchik, named as such by Chambers and then again by Bentley. The Bureau likewise had cause to know that Adler was one of a sizable group of Soviet agents battening on the Treasury payroll.

Accordingly, in the period 1945-48, the FBI supplied to Justice, Treasury, and the White House a steady stream of reports in which Adler was featured. Again, however, these memos didn't make much of a dent with the Truman security screeners. In fact, despite all the Bureau information, Adler, after a department loyalty hearing, would continue with his Treasury duties.

Adler thus, like Service, had several years of official employment remaining following Amerasia/Eentley. During this span, he not only stayed on at Treasury but received promotions, pay increases, and key assignments. In 1946, he was a consultant to Gen. George C. Marshall's mission to China; in 1947, he was tasked with providing background data on China to Gen. Albert Wede-meyer, U.S. commander in the region; and from December 1947 until February 1948, he consulted with the State Department on questions of technical/financial aid to Chiang Kai-shek. Given his status as Soviet agent and previous efforts to throttle Chiang, it isn't hard to guess what kind of counsel Adler would have provided in these assignments.

It wasn't until May of 1950, at the peak of the McCarthy uproar, that Adler thought it prudent to leave the Treasury and go back to his native England—not forgetting to put in for back pay and accumulated leave time. Thereafter, he absconded to his real homeland of Communist China, where he lived out his days as an employee of the Red regime he helped midwife to power.

William Remington

The merits of a loyalty system that couldn't flush out the likes of Solomon Adler or Edward Condon don't require much comment. Equally suggestive was the case of William Remington, who for the better part of a decade moved with acrobatic ease from one official billet to another, first under Roosevelt, then under Truman. This occurred despite the fact that Remington, like Adler and so many others, was named in November of 1945 by Bentley as a member of her spy combine.

In the dragnet investigation that followed, the FBI sent out a vast number of reports on Remington to agencies where he worked, the Attorney General, and the White House. In fact, no other target of the probe was the subject of so many reports to top officials. According to Bureau records, the FBI supplied federal agencies no fewer than forty-five memos, written alerts, and oral communications in which the Remington case was mentioned.

The good news was that, on the military side of things, the security data prompted the Office of Naval Intelligence to seek Remington's dismissal as a reserve officer in the Navy. On the civilian side, however, it was Service-Adler redux, as Remington enjoyed an effortless rise to ever more responsible postings. Over the next few years, he was appointed as an economist for the War Conversion and Stabilization Board (1946), served on the staff of the Council of Economic Advisors for the White House (1947), and became chief of the Export Control division at Commerce (1948). The last had serious Cold War implications, as it involved supervision of export-control licenses to the USSR and the Communist bloc in general.

Once more, security intel from the FBI meant little—Commerce officials being totally unaware of the Bureau data or dismissing the case as being of small importance. Among the more amazing revelations was the testimony of Thomas Blaisdell, Remington's chief in several jobs and main sponsor for the export position. Asked by Sen. Homer Ferguson in Senate hearings on the case if he had thought it necessary to check Remington's security status before recommending him for this post, Blaisdell blandly said he hadn't since that wasn't his responsibility.

Other Commerce officials would testify that they knew nothing about FBI reports on Remington, that they assumed he was all right because he worked for the CEA, and that their files showed nothing derogatory on him.

These comments were amplified by leaked suggestions from Commerce higher-ups— mirroring the Harry Dexter White case—that the FBI had been remiss in not advising them about the problem. Again, the records of the Bureau showed these buck-passing efforts were in error.

Remington also supplied a further twist in the escalating secrecy battle between Congress and the White House, and his case would shed some light on file-stripping charges of the McCarthy era. Ferguson and his colleagues called for the Commerce security file on Remington, which was in fact delivered. When it arrived, however, it had been picked clean of relevant data. Commerce spokesman Matthew Hale told the lawmakers this weeding had been done in' compliance with the Truman secrecy order of March 1948.

The denouement of the case, as far as the loyalty program figured in it, was more astounding yet. In 1949, despite the FBI reports, Remington's separation from the Navy, and a belated disapproval by Commerce, the Seth Richardson LRB cleared him on loyalty charges and returned him to his duties. The rationale for this was that even if Remington had provided data for the Soviets as alleged by Bentley, he did so during World War II, when Moscow was our ally. There was no evidence, said the board, that he was delivering data in 1949— thus indicating an adverse finding had to be based on tangible, real-time proof of disloyal conduct in the present.

Like Hiss, Remington would later be convicted in federal court for lying about his Red connections, which meant the Truman loyalty program had been incapable of discharging a flagrant risk found guilty by a jury. Along with Oppenheimer, Condon, Service, and Adler—all holding down significant federal posts in 1950—the Remington case made it clear that the alleged security crackdown under Truman was a myth. And if the Truman screeners could let these sharks slip through the netting, how likely were they to catch the minnows?

The information and records included in this thouroghly researched and factual work are astuonding, and speak vehamently to treason having been commit by many a United States Senator and Representative, and yes, Presidents, also. The plain fact is our leaders and those we trusted have betrayed us all, and sold our country out to our enemies. All in the name of their idiotic Marxist ideology.

Wake up America... Or soon it will be too late.