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previously testified to? The longer I thought about the evidence, the more I became convinced that if Hiss had concocted the Crosley story, we would be playing into his hands by delaying the public confrontation until August 25, thus giving him nine more days to make his story fit the facts. With his great influence within the Administration and among some of his friends in the press, he might be able to develop an enormous weight of public opinion to back up his story and to obscure the true facts in the case. The more I thought about it, the more I became convinced that we should not delay the confrontation. Only the man who was not telling the truth would gain by having additional time to build up his case.
    So, at two in the morning, I called Stripling on the phone. I toldhim to summon both Chambers and Hiss before the Sub-committee in New York City that same afternoon. Desiring as much privacy as possible, we decided to have the meeting in a suite in the Commodore Hotel.
    That afternoon, riding on the train from Washington to New York, we read in the papers that Harry Dexter White, who had denied Chambers’ and Elizabeth Bentley’s testimony that he had participated in Communist activities, had died of a heart attack. The Committee was subsequently to be accused of arranging the Hiss-Chambers confrontation on August 17 in order to divert attention from White’s death. All I can say is that this accusation—like so many others against the Committee—while plausible, is completely untrue. I myself had made the decision on the confrontation well before I learned of White’s death.
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    At 5:35 P.M. on August 17, John McDowell opened the meeting of our Sub-committee by swearing in Alger Hiss as our first witness.
    Room 1400 of the Commodore was an average-size hotel sitting room. Only one feature of it was in keeping with the high drama of the Hiss-Chambers case: the pictures on the wall were Audubon prints.
    McDowell and I sat on separate chairs, our backs to the window, with a lamp table to serve as the presiding officer’s rostrum. Parnell Thomas arrived later. We had Hiss sit in a chair about eight or ten feet from the table, facing us. We reserved a place for Chambers on the couch, which was against the wall directly on Hiss’s right. The only others present were four members of the Committee staff and the official reporter recording the proceedings. Hiss entered the room accompanied by Charles Dollard of the Carnegie Corporation staff.
    I opened the questioning by informing Hiss that, since he had raised the possibility of a third party who might be involved in the case—I was referring, of course, to “George Crosley”—the Committee had concluded that Hiss and Chambers should confront each other at the earliest possible time. I told him he would have the opportunity to see Chambers at this hearing.
    From the beginning, Hiss dropped all previous pretensions of injured innocence. He was on the defensive—edgy, delaying, belligerent, fighting every inch of the way. When he found that the Committee hearing might take longer than fifteen minutes, he complained that he had a six o’clock appointment at the Harvard Club and asked that acall be made explaining his delay. Dollard offered to make the call for him so that we could proceed.
    Then Hiss commented, “I would like the record to show that on my way downtown from my uptown office, I learned from the press of the death of Harry White, which came as a great shock to me, and I am not sure that I feel in the best possible mood for testimony. I do not for a moment want to miss the opportunity of seeing Mr. Chambers. I merely wanted the record to show that.”
    He then complained that parts of his testimony of the day before had been leaked to the press and implied that the Committee was responsible.
    Finally, after about ten minutes of sparring on these collateral issues, I said