A famous passage in "Witness," by Whittaker Chambers, continually bears remembering: "You don't understand the class structure of American society," said Smetana, "or you would not ask such a question. In the United States, the working class are Democrats. The middle class are Republicans. The upper class are Communists."
Harry Truman had to confront this truth.
1. It has been one of those blessings of Providence that Harry Truman replaced the communist Henry Wallace as Roosevelt's vice president. Truman, a fine American.....yet he could not resist the 'communist disease' any more than many other fine Americans.
He was a President of the United States who denounced the Hiss case as a "red herring" and tolerated in his Cabinet such abettors of world communism as George C. Marshall and Dean Acheson.
a. "The conduct of President Truman in this case was particularly hard to understand. No one would question the tough-minded anti-Communism of the man who had so boldly initiated the program of Greek-Turkish aid and the Marshall Plan.... He denied outright the evidence in front of him and he stumped the 1948 political trail flailing away at 'the red herring'..." Richard Nixon on the Meaning of the Hiss Case
2. As was true of so may other Americans, Truman certainly didn't begin with such inclinations. What happened?
According to "The Man of Independence," an authorized Truman biography by Jonathan Daniels, it was Max Lowenthal, a crafty southpaw government lawyer, who first corrupted Truman's mind with Marxist prejudices against railroads, insurance companies, and "big business" generally. Lowenthal was counsel to a Senate Interstate Commerce Subcommittee. In 1936. Truman, an eager member of the subcommittee, fell under Lowenthal's spell. When Lowenthal proposed to take him to see Justice Louis D.
Brandeis, the country boy said he was "not used to meeting people like that," but he went anyway and became a disciple of "the great liberal," who held forth on the evils of the American economic system.
Manly, "The Twenty Year Revolution," p. 137.
a. Truman moved so far to the Left, that after his election, he received this salute from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,: "The conceptions of the intellectual are at last beginning to catch up with the instincts of the Democratic politician."
Verifies exactly what Whittaker Chambers said, huh?
3. See how the following fits with Truman's defense of Alger Hiss.
On January 27, 1950, Representative Nixon of California made a speech in the House in which he quoted directly from a secret FBI memorandum on Soviet espionage in the United States, dated November 25, 1945. Nixon said this document was "circulated among several key government departments and was made available to the President" in November, 1945. The report was placed in the record of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee on April 14, 1953. It identified thirty-seven government officials and employees as members of the Soviet espionage service. Among these were Alger Hiss, head of the Office of United Nations Affairs in the State Department; Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Lauchlin Currie, administrative assistant to the President.
4. This FBI report is one of the most significant documents in recent American history. It shows that as early as November, 1945, Truman had received evidence from the FBI that Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and many other officials of his administration were Soviet spies. As the Internal Security Sub committee reported on August 24, 1953, "these people stayed in their jobs, received promotions, and influenced policy for several years after impressive information had been marshaled."
Manly, Op.Cit., p. 139
a. In January, 1946, Truman promoted White to the office of United States executive director of the International Monetary Fund. In the same month, Hiss went to London as senior adviser to the American delegation to the first session of the United Nations General Assembly.
A Page From the Truman Handbook - The Omega Letter
The above is a cautionary tale, and a most enlightening one....even the staunchest of Americans, at that time in our history, had more than they handle in standing up to the wave of communism that washed over the nation.
Had the powerful and popular Franklin Roosevelt not given his imprimatur to communists and communism, perhaps standing up to this abhorrent political policy would have been far easier.
Of course, this makes no excuse for the simpletons who endorse the aims and desires of communism even today.
Harry Truman had to confront this truth.
1. It has been one of those blessings of Providence that Harry Truman replaced the communist Henry Wallace as Roosevelt's vice president. Truman, a fine American.....yet he could not resist the 'communist disease' any more than many other fine Americans.
He was a President of the United States who denounced the Hiss case as a "red herring" and tolerated in his Cabinet such abettors of world communism as George C. Marshall and Dean Acheson.
a. "The conduct of President Truman in this case was particularly hard to understand. No one would question the tough-minded anti-Communism of the man who had so boldly initiated the program of Greek-Turkish aid and the Marshall Plan.... He denied outright the evidence in front of him and he stumped the 1948 political trail flailing away at 'the red herring'..." Richard Nixon on the Meaning of the Hiss Case
2. As was true of so may other Americans, Truman certainly didn't begin with such inclinations. What happened?
According to "The Man of Independence," an authorized Truman biography by Jonathan Daniels, it was Max Lowenthal, a crafty southpaw government lawyer, who first corrupted Truman's mind with Marxist prejudices against railroads, insurance companies, and "big business" generally. Lowenthal was counsel to a Senate Interstate Commerce Subcommittee. In 1936. Truman, an eager member of the subcommittee, fell under Lowenthal's spell. When Lowenthal proposed to take him to see Justice Louis D.
Brandeis, the country boy said he was "not used to meeting people like that," but he went anyway and became a disciple of "the great liberal," who held forth on the evils of the American economic system.
Manly, "The Twenty Year Revolution," p. 137.
a. Truman moved so far to the Left, that after his election, he received this salute from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.,: "The conceptions of the intellectual are at last beginning to catch up with the instincts of the Democratic politician."
Verifies exactly what Whittaker Chambers said, huh?
3. See how the following fits with Truman's defense of Alger Hiss.
On January 27, 1950, Representative Nixon of California made a speech in the House in which he quoted directly from a secret FBI memorandum on Soviet espionage in the United States, dated November 25, 1945. Nixon said this document was "circulated among several key government departments and was made available to the President" in November, 1945. The report was placed in the record of the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee on April 14, 1953. It identified thirty-seven government officials and employees as members of the Soviet espionage service. Among these were Alger Hiss, head of the Office of United Nations Affairs in the State Department; Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, and Lauchlin Currie, administrative assistant to the President.
4. This FBI report is one of the most significant documents in recent American history. It shows that as early as November, 1945, Truman had received evidence from the FBI that Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, and many other officials of his administration were Soviet spies. As the Internal Security Sub committee reported on August 24, 1953, "these people stayed in their jobs, received promotions, and influenced policy for several years after impressive information had been marshaled."
Manly, Op.Cit., p. 139
a. In January, 1946, Truman promoted White to the office of United States executive director of the International Monetary Fund. In the same month, Hiss went to London as senior adviser to the American delegation to the first session of the United Nations General Assembly.
A Page From the Truman Handbook - The Omega Letter
The above is a cautionary tale, and a most enlightening one....even the staunchest of Americans, at that time in our history, had more than they handle in standing up to the wave of communism that washed over the nation.
Had the powerful and popular Franklin Roosevelt not given his imprimatur to communists and communism, perhaps standing up to this abhorrent political policy would have been far easier.
Of course, this makes no excuse for the simpletons who endorse the aims and desires of communism even today.
