Letter from President Harry S. Truman to Senator Millard Tydings

ARCHN *NATIONAS RECORDO ES AMD SERVICE* At Key West, Florida March 28, 1950 Dear Senator Tydings: This is in reply to your letter of March 22,1950, in which you have asked for the production befozo your Sube committee of the investigative files relating to Government employees who are or have been employed in the Department of State and against whom charges of disloyalty have been made before your Subcommittee by Senator The question raised by your request is one of grave concern, and I have given vory careful consideration to the response contained herein. In March of 1948, I issued a Directive to all of- ficers and employees in the Executive Branch of the Govern- ment, directing that all reports, records, and files relat- ang to the employee loyalty program be kept in strict confid- ence, even in instances where subpoenas wore received. As you know, this Directivo was clearly within the pawer of the President, and I issued it only after the most caroful cono sideration, and after 1 had satisfied myself beyond any doubt that any other decision would. have resulted in the collapse of the loyalty program. At that tâme, 1 issued a release in which I pointed out the long=standing precedents regarding the production of confidential files and the reasons for my decision. 1 referred, among other things, to a letter from former Attorney General Robert H. Jackson, dated April 30, 1941, to the Chairman of the House Committee on Naval Affairs, declining to furnish that Committee with certain reports of the Federal Buroau of Investigation, which letter was written with the approval and at the direction of President Roosevelt. That letter forcefully pointed out the serious consequences that would have resulted from compliance with the request of the House Naval Affairs Committeo. Among other things, Attorney General Jackson stated: disclosure of the reports would be of serious prejudice to the future usefulness of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. As