Lee Pressman

Lee Pressman (July 1, 1906–November 1969) [ [http://www.lib.uchicago.edu/e/su/hist/mfguide.html Guide to Microform and CD-Rom Sources for History and Political Science in the University of Chicago Library] ] [Social Security Death Index [http://ssdi.genealogy.rootsweb.com/cgi-bin/ssdi.cgi] ] was a US government official and confessed Communist. ["I joined a Communist group in Washington, D.C., about 1934." Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, "Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws", Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.]

Pressman was appointed assistant general counsel of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in 1933 by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace. Shortly thereafter, while he was an official of the Federal government, Pressman secretly joined the Communist Party [Gilbert J. Gall, "Pursuing Justice: Lee Pressman, the New Deal, and the CIO" (New York: SUNY Press, 1999) ISBN:079144103, p. 34] Pressman testified that he was active in the Ware group of Communist-led government employees aiding Soviet intelligence agents. [Ibid.] At at least one meeting of the Ware group, he testified, "Mr. Peters may have been present." [op. cit., 5504] "J. Peters" was a cover name of NKVD agent Péter József, the Ware group's control.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's Secretary of Agriculture, Ezra Taft Benson stated:

In 1935, Pressman left the AAA post and was appointed general counsel in the Works Progress Administration by Harry L. Hopkins. Later that year Rexford G. Tugwell appointed him general counsel of the Resettlement Administration. During the same year, he reduced is role in Ware group work to what he later described as that of an ideological ally.

Pressman left government service in June 1936 and became general counsel for the Congress of Industrial Organizations and for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee. In March 1937 he became general counsel for the Textile Workers' Organizing Committee. In 1939, Whittaker Chambers, defecting from the Communist underground, identified Pressman as a member of the Ware group to Adolf Berle, the Assistant Secretary of State in charge of security. [ [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers] ]

In 1948 Pressman was kicked out of his job as CIO counsel, [" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853541,00.html?promoid=googlep God's Gift] ," "Time" magazine, December 6, 1948] reportedly after "Pressman and his Communist line" lost a power struggle with anti-Communist labor leader Walter Reuther. [" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,794181,00.html End of the Line?] " "Time" magazine, February 16, 1948] Pressman became a close adviser of American Labor Party-Progressive Party 1948 presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace, until he was reportedly "forced out because of his Communist line." [" [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,812976,00.html Nobody Here But Us Chicks] ," "Time" magazine, August 21, 1950] That year Anatoly Gorsky, former chief of Soviet intelligence operations in the United States, listed Pressman, along with the code name "Wig" (Vig), among the Soviet sources likely to have been identified by U.S. authorities as a result of the defection of Soviet courier Elizabeth Bentley three years earlier. [ [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page45.html Alexander Vassiliev’s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky’s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks] , Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes. Additional assistance provided by Alexander Vassiliev] The same year, in his testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, Chambers again identified Pressman as a member of the Ware group. [ [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] , House Committee on Un-American Activities, Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, August 3, 1948.] Pressman declined to answer questions regarding Communist Party membership, citing grounds of potential self-incrimination. [" [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back] ," "Time" magazine, September 4, 1950]

Two years later, Pressman resigned from the American Labor Party, reportedly "because of the Communist control of that organization," [Testimony of Lee Pressman, op. cit., 5502] denouncing " [t] he Communist Party and its forces in the labor movement." ["Pursuing Justice", op.cit., p. 268] He provided the first corroboration of Chambers' allegation that the Ware group existed, [Whittaker Chambers, "Witness" (Washington: Regnery, 1952),ISBN:0895267896, p. 346] identifiying federal officials Nathan Witt, John Abt and Charles Kramer as Communists and members of his cell, ["Witness",op. cit., p. 624] and testifying that he recognized Chambers. ["Pursuing Justice", op. cit., p. 553]

References

* John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America," Yale University Press