s answer would tend to incriminate him is most positive proof obtainable that the witness is a communist." Gradually, as the anti-communists begun to lose influence, the US Supreme Court began to act with some propriety. In 1951, the Court ruled that the Attorney Generals list of subversive organizations was invalid without a hearing. Justice Douglas comment on the governments trend to "set in motion, a subversive influence of our own design that destroys us from within" was quite apt, but did not exonerate the Judiciary from accusations that it also fell prey to McCarthyism. The Constitution was left undefended, not only by the Executive and the Congress, but also by the Judiciary.
The FBI was the centerpiece in the federal Governments internal security apparatus. J. Edgar Hoover built up his power and that of the FBI above and beyond both the Executive Branch and the Congress. He was able to influence the general public on the issue of communism. An investigating Committee of the Agency was the first step in verifying who was a communist. Hoover was very unscrupulous with the use of confidential information on citizens. Such information and files were only to be accessed by the Executive Branch. However, leaks from the FBI to journalists and the Congress were regular. In 1951, he developed a Responsibilities Program in response to a request from Liberal Governors who wanted to establish anti-communist credentials to supply information on individuals who worked for their administration. Ex-FBI agents set up an American Business Consultants company. They used information they had while they were at the Bureau to offer their services to Government Agencies, Foundations, Corporations, Universities and the country at large, to identify communists and carryout purges. They published a regular Newsletter called Counterattack.
There were very few confessions so the prosecutors relied on the testimonies of professional anti-communists, ex-communists, undercover agents and others who frequently lied. The Justice Department sometimes dragged its feet in taking cases to Court, but Hoover and the FBI argued that such an approach was evidence that the Truman Administration was lax on the issue of internal security. Hoover disobeyed the Justice Department senior officials, and put surveillance on people without authorization. By 1956, Judges in many Courts became wary of fictitious testimonies, and made prosecutions difficult. In response, the FBI developed a secret program (COINTELPRO) of political sabotage, unauthorized surveillance and disinformation directed against communists and other groups. This was revealed to the American public two decades after the fact.
McCarthy and Hoover were critical of Truman and his administration. John Steward Service of the State Department was accused. At the White House, David Demarest Lloyd, Administrative Assistant to President Truman and Philleo Nash, Advisor to the President, were under investigation. Truman became a victim of his own Executive Orders. He expressed the view that the FBI could become a Gestapo. The year before the 1952 elections, he appointed a nine-member citizens commission to examine the thorny issue of subversion and loyalty in a free society. He was quoted to have said: "We must be sure that our laws and procedures at home are adequate to preserve our National Security against treason, espionage, sabotage and other subversive acts . At the same time, we are concerned lest measures taken to protect us from these dangers infringe the liberties guaranteed by our Constitution and stifle the atmosphere of freedom ." Clearly, Truman excelled in "double speak." The appointment of a commission at the end of his term of office was insufficient to rewrite history or to excuse him for having promoted and condoned the violation of the Constitution, human rights and the persecution of American citizens. As for J. Edgar Hoover, he seemed to have been "reborn" in the person of Montesinos of Peru!
EISENHOWERS EXECUTIVE ORDER
One might have thought that the election of a new President, p