From Witness, Whittaker Chambers, 1952

. . . “Is Chambers a Communist?” one newsman had asked Stripling. Stripling hemmed and said that he did not know. Possibly he did not. It is incredible, but it seems to be quite true that, at that time, few members of the Committee had more than a vague inkling of what I might testify, or even if they could get me to testify at all.

But Stripling’s answer exasperated my friend, Frank McNaughton, who then covered the Capitol for Time. “I’ve known Whit Chambers for ten years,” he snapped, “and you know damned well that he’s no more a Communist than you are.” His was the first voice raised in my behalf.

( page 530 )

 

The offices and hearing room of the House Committee un Un-American Activities are in the old House Office Building, just south of the Capitol. They are at the end of a long marble hall, rather dark, with many heavy oak official doors shutting out the light. Behind those doors are the hushed offices of congressmen.

About nine o’clock on the morning of August 3, 1948, Frank McNaughton led me into this impressive tunnel. We had come early to avoid the press. But a cluster of newsmen and sightseers had come earlier still . . .

We slipped into the Committee’s outer office, where it was light (from many windows) and quiet (from a thick carpet), though many anonymous secretaries were moving about, and men were talking indiscreet little groups. All were strangers to me. Frank McNaughton presently guided me into a side office and introduced me to a man who rose rather wearily from behind an impressive desk. This was Robert Stripling, the Committee’s chief investigator. He issued me an indifferent hand to shake. His professionally impervious dark blue eyes made a leisurely trip from my face to my midriff to my shoes and back to Frank McNaughton. They betrayed neither the slight uneasiness nor the surprise that he was feeling—uneasiness at subpoenaing an editor of Time, surprise, which had just expressed privately to McNaughton, that I had not dodged the subpoena. In a Texas drawl, he said: “McNaughton says you have a statement you want to read.” I did not then know that, after its experiences with hostile witnesses, the Committee viewed any statement with loathing. I gave Stripling my statement which he promptly pocketed, feeling with relief, I sensed, that the witness could not be very bright or he would not have surrendered the document.

At that time, I knew even less about the Committee that it knew about me. . . .

( pages 535-6 )

 

A little knot of Committee members soon gathered in Stripling’s office. I was introduced, among others, to Congressman Karl E. Mundt of South Dakota, who, in the absence of Chairman J. Parnell Thomas, was the Committee’s acting chairman. He informed me that he and I must step into the hall for news photos. I had never before witnessed this ordeal of 20th-century public life. Congressman Mundt and I stood side by side, looking a little uneasily at each other. The photographers scrambled . . . .

Fully photographed, Congressman Mundt and I joined the rest of the Committee in the Committee’s hearing room. It was a long, narrow, rather bare room. Across the front, and around one corner, ran a raised platform and desk, at which sat the Committee and its staff. I sat below in the first of a number of witness chairs I was to occupy—durable wooden chairs . . .

An executive session began. A Committee member, probably the acting chairman, questioned me about my knowledge of Communists in the United States Government. As nearly as I can remember, I sketched the organization of the Ware Group. Congressman Rankin broke in to ask darkly if there were any other ex-Communists at Time, Inc. I assured him that there were (of the two I had in mind, one has since died and the other has resigned).

Robert Stripling remarked that he had a statement that I wanted to read, that it was a good statement and that he thought I should be permitted to read it. Somebody said: “This witness seems to answer question in a conservative way. I move that we go into open session.” With the horror of a man whom the sea is closing over, I heard the Committee agree. The executive session had lasted only a few minutes.

( page 538 )

 

Robert Stripling put the routine first questions. “Will you state your full name?”

”My name is David Whittaker Chambers”. . . .
”Where and when were you born?”
”I was born, April 1, 1901, in Philadelphia.”
”How long have you been associated with Time magazine?”
”Nine years.”
”Prior to that time, what was your occupation?”
”I was a member of the Communist Party and a paid functionary of the party.”

* * *

I asked if I might read my statement. I read:

”Almost exactly nine years ago—that is, two days after Hitler and Stalin signed their pact—I went to Washington and reported to the authorities what I knew about the infiltration of the United States Government by Communists . . .

( page 540 )

 

The questioning in detail began, which would cement the public record.

STRIPLING: Who comprised the cell or apparatus to which you referred?

CHAMBERS: The apparatus was organized with a leading group of seven men, each of whom was the leader of a cell.

STRIPLING: Could you name the seven individuals?

CHAMBERS: The head of the group, as I have said, was at first Nathan Witt.  . . [etc].

I was asked who was the guiding spirit of this apparatus. I answered: “J. Peters.” With that there emerged into public view the short, swart figure of that former Hungarian soldier, former official of the Hungarian Soviet under Bela Kun, close friend of Gerhardt Eisler and head of the entire underground section of the American Communist Party. Until then, most Americans had never even heard the name of the quiet, soft-spoken little man who, nevertheless, had so deeply influenced their lives.

Stripling broke into the testimony to say for the record that the Committee had in its possession a false passport in the name of Isidore Boorstein on which Peters had once traveled abroad. Obviously, Peters was a most important witness for the Committee, which had issued a subpoena for him in 1947. It had never been served. “We have never,” said Stripling, “been able to locate him, and we have asked for assistance from the Department of Justice and Immigration authorities, but still we have been unable to serve the subpoena upon this individual.” Said Congressman Mundt: “The presumption is that the top direction of these espionage activities carried on throughout our Government departments was conducted by a man who was not an American citizen.” . . .

( page 543 )

New York : Radon House, 1952.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whitaker Chambers ; forewords by William F. Buckley and Robert D. Novak. Publisher Washington, DC : Regnery Pub., 2001. Description xviii, 808 p. ; 21 cm. ISBN 0895267896 Language English Note Includes index.

Stripling, Robert E. Title The Red plot against America / Robert E. Stripling ; edited by Bob Considine. Publisher New York : Arno Press, 1977, c1949. Description 282 p., [7] leaves of plates : ill. ; 23 cm. Note Reprint of the ed. published by Bell, Drexel Hill, Pa. ISBN 0405099762 Language English

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher Chicago : Henry Regnery, 1969,c1952 Description 808 p. ; 21 cm. Language English Note Autobiographical. Includes index.

Goodman, Walter Title The Committee; the extraordinary career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities / by Walter Goodman, foreword by Richard H. Rovere Publisher Baltimore : Penguin Books, 1969, c1968 Description [xix], 564 p. : ill. ; 18 cm Language English

Goodman, Walter Title The committee : the extraordinary career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities / by Walter Goodman Publisher London : Secker & Warburg, 1969, c1968 Description ix, 564 p., [16] p. of plates : ill., ports. ; 24 cm ISBN 0436183307 Language English Note Includes index Note Bibliography: 549-550

Goodman, Walter. Title The committee : the extraordinary career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities / by Walter Goodman ; foreword by Richard H. Rovere. Publisher New York : Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 1968. Description xxi, 594 p., 8 leaves of plates : ill., ports. ; 22 cm. Language English Note Bibliography: [575]-576.

Goodman, Walter. Title The committee; the extraordinary career of the House Committee on Un-American Activities. Foreword by Richard H. Rovere. Publisher New York, Farrar, Straus, and Giroux [1968] Description xviii, 564 p. illus., ports. 25 cm. Language English Note Bibliography: 549-550.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher London : Andre Deutsch, 1953. Description 629 p. ; 22 cm. Language English Note Includes index.

Chambers, Whittaker. Title Witness / Whittaker Chambers. Publisher New York : Random House, c1952. Description [viii], 808 p. ; 22 cm. Language English Note Autobiographical. Includes index.

Stripling, Robert E. Title The Red plot against America, by Robert E. Stripling; edited by Bob Considine. Publisher Drexel Hill, Pa. : Bell, [1949] Description 282 p. illus. 22 cm. Language English