Lee Pressman
Encyclopedia
Lee Pressman was a labor attorney and a US government functionary publicly exposed in 1948 for having been a spy for the Soviet
foreign intelligence network during the middle 1930s. Pressman lost his job as counsel for the Congress of Industrial Organizations
in 1948 as a result of a purge of Communist Party
members and fellow travelers from that organization.
Pressman received his Bachelor's degree
from Cornell University
in Ithaca, New York
, and a law degree from Harvard Law School
.
On June 28, 1931, Pressman married the former Sophia Platnich. The couple had two daughters.
Pressman was a member of the National Lawyers Guild
and the New York Bar Association.
of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in 1933 by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace
. Early in 1934, while he was an official of the Federal government, Pressman quietly joined the Communist Party USA
at the invitation of Harold Ware
, a Communist agricultural journalist in Washington, DC.
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
.
(CIO) for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee
(SWOC), appointed by union chief John L. Lewis
as part of a conscious attempt to mobilize left wing activists on behalf of the new labor federation. In 1938, Pressman moved back to Washington, DC to become full time general counsel for the CIO and the SWOC. He remained in this position for the next decade.
In his role as the CIO's general counsel, Pressman was influential in helping to stop the attempt to deport Communist Longshoreman's Union
official Harry Bridges
. He also wrote an influential critique of the Taft-Hartley Act
which was used by President
Harry S. Truman
as background material to justify his veto
of the measure.
In 1948 Pressman was fired from his job as CIO counsel, reportedly as a byproduct of a factional struggle within the federation in which anti-Communist labor leader Walter Reuther
emerged triumphant. Pressman went into private legal practice in New York City following his firing. He also became a close adviser of Progressive Party
1948 presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace
, until he was reportedly "forced out because of his Communist line."
Pressman did stand for election himself in the fall of 1948, running as the candidate of the American Labor Party
for U.S. Congress in the 14th District of New York.
privately identified Pressman to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a member of a so-called "Ware group" of Communist government officials supplying information to the secret Soviet intelligence network.
In 1948, Anatoly Gorsky
, former chief of Soviet intelligence
operations in the United States, listed Pressman, code-named "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. In August of that same year, in testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) Chambers this time publicly identified Pressman as a member of the Ware group. On his own behalf, Pressman declined to answer questions regarding Communist Party membership, citing grounds of potential self-incrimination.
During the superheated political environment which surrounded the Korean War
, Pressman seems to have stepped back from his previous communist affinities. In 1950, Pressman resigned from the American Labor Party
due to "Communist control of that organization," an action which was reported in the press and which signaled HUAC that Pressman was at last ready to talk. Called again before Congress to give testimony on Communist Party activities, Pressman reversed his previous decision to exercise his Fifth Amendment
rights and gave testimony against his former comrades.
Pressman stated that he had been a member of "a Communist group in Washington, DC" from early 1934 to the latter part of 1935, at which time he left government service to begin private legal practice and discontinued participation. Pressman stated that he had no information about the political views of his former law school classmate Alger Hiss
and specifically denied that Hiss was a participant in this Washington group.
Pressman indicated that in at least one meeting of his group, and perhaps two, he had met Soviet intelligence agent J. Peters
. Although Pressman made no mention of having himself conducted intelligence-gathering activities, his 1950 testimony provided the first corroboration of Chambers' allegation that a Washington, DC communist group around Harold Ware existed, with federal officials Nathan Witt
, John Abt
and Charles Kramer
named as members of this party cell.
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, archival information on Soviet espionage activity in America began to emerge. Working in Soviet intelligence archives in the middle 1990s, Russian journalist Alexander Vassiliev
discovered that Lee Pressman, code-named "Vig," had only told fragments of the truth to Congressional inquisitors in 1950. Working with historians John Earl Haynes
and Harvey Klehr
, Vassiliev revealed that Pressman had actually remained "part of the KGB's support network" by providing legal aid and funneling financial support to exposed intelligence assets. As late as September 1949, Soviet intelligence had paid $250 through Pressman to Victor Perlo
for an analysis of the American economic situation, followed by an additional $1,000 in October.
A 1951 Soviet intelligence report indicated that "Vig" had "chosen to betray us," apparently a reference to his 1950 public statements and Congressional testimony. Historians Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev indicate that this assessment was an overstatement, however. With his carefully limited testimony before HUAC and in his unpublicized interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
it is instead charged that Pressman
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
foreign intelligence network during the middle 1930s. Pressman lost his job as counsel for the Congress of Industrial Organizations
Congress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
in 1948 as a result of a purge of Communist Party
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
members and fellow travelers from that organization.
Early years
Lee Pressman was born July 1, 1906 in New York City to Harry and Clara Pressman.Pressman received his Bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
from Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...
in Ithaca, New York
Ithaca, New York
The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...
, and a law degree from Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School
Harvard Law School is one of the professional graduate schools of Harvard University. Located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, it is the oldest continually-operating law school in the United States and is home to the largest academic law library in the world. The school is routinely ranked by the U.S...
.
On June 28, 1931, Pressman married the former Sophia Platnich. The couple had two daughters.
Pressman was a member of the National Lawyers Guild
National Lawyers Guild
The National Lawyers Guild is an advocacy group in the United States "dedicated to the need for basic and progressive change in the structure of our political and economic system . ....
and the New York Bar Association.
Government career
Pressman was appointed assistant general counselGeneral Counsel
A general counsel is the chief lawyer of a legal department, usually in a corporation or government department. The term is most used in the United States...
of the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA) in 1933 by Secretary of Agriculture Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
. Early in 1934, while he was an official of the Federal government, Pressman quietly joined the Communist Party USA
Communist Party USA
The Communist Party USA is a Marxist political party in the United States, established in 1919. It has a long, complex history that is closely related to the histories of similar communist parties worldwide and the U.S. labor movement....
at the invitation of Harold Ware
Harold Ware
Harold Maskell "Hal" Ware was an American Marxist regarded as one of the Communist Party's top experts on agriculture....
, a Communist agricultural journalist in Washington, DC.
In 1935, Pressman left the AAA post and was appointed general counsel in the Works Progress Administration
Works Progress Administration
The Works Progress Administration was the largest and most ambitious New Deal agency, employing millions of unskilled workers to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads, and operated large arts, drama, media, and literacy projects...
by Harry L. Hopkins. Later that year Rexford G. Tugwell appointed him general counsel of the Resettlement Administration
Resettlement Administration
The Resettlement Administration was a U.S. federal agency that, between April 1935 and December 1936, relocated struggling urban and rural families to communities planned by the federal government....
.
Union career
Pressman left government service in the winter of 1935-36 and went into private law practice in New York City. In June 1936, he was named a counsel of the Congress of Industrial OrganizationsCongress of Industrial Organizations
The Congress of Industrial Organizations, or CIO, proposed by John L. Lewis in 1932, was a federation of unions that organized workers in industrial unions in the United States and Canada from 1935 to 1955. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 required union leaders to swear that they were not...
(CIO) for the Steel Workers Organizing Committee
Steel Workers Organizing Committee
The Steel Workers Organizing Committee was one of two precursor labor organizations to the United Steelworkers. It was formed by the CIO in 1936. It disbanded in 1942 to become the United Steel Workers of America....
(SWOC), appointed by union chief John L. Lewis
John L. Lewis
John Llewellyn Lewis was an American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960...
as part of a conscious attempt to mobilize left wing activists on behalf of the new labor federation. In 1938, Pressman moved back to Washington, DC to become full time general counsel for the CIO and the SWOC. He remained in this position for the next decade.
In his role as the CIO's general counsel, Pressman was influential in helping to stop the attempt to deport Communist Longshoreman's Union
International Longshore and Warehouse Union
The International Longshore and Warehouse Union is a labor union which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast of the United States, Hawaii and Alaska, and in British Columbia, Canada. It also represents hotel workers in Hawaii, cannery workers in Alaska, warehouse workers throughout...
official Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges
Harry Bridges was an Australian-American union leader, in the International Longshore and Warehouse Union , a longshore and warehouse workers' union on the West Coast, Hawaii and Alaska which he helped form and led for over 40 years...
. He also wrote an influential critique of the Taft-Hartley Act
Taft-Hartley Act
The Labor–Management Relations Act is a United States federal law that monitors the activities and power of labor unions. The act, still effective, was sponsored by Senator Robert Taft and Representative Fred A. Hartley, Jr. and became law by overriding U.S. President Harry S...
which was used by President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman
Harry S. Truman was the 33rd President of the United States . As President Franklin D. Roosevelt's third vice president and the 34th Vice President of the United States , he succeeded to the presidency on April 12, 1945, when President Roosevelt died less than three months after beginning his...
as background material to justify his veto
Veto
A veto, Latin for "I forbid", is the power of an officer of the state to unilaterally stop an official action, especially enactment of a piece of legislation...
of the measure.
In 1948 Pressman was fired from his job as CIO counsel, reportedly as a byproduct of a factional struggle within the federation in which anti-Communist labor leader Walter Reuther
Walter Reuther
Walter Philip Reuther was an American labor union leader, who made the United Automobile Workers a major force not only in the auto industry but also in the Democratic Party in the mid 20th century...
emerged triumphant. Pressman went into private legal practice in New York City following his firing. He also became a close adviser of Progressive Party
Progressive Party (United States, 1948)
The United States Progressive Party of 1948 was a left-wing political party that ran former Vice President Henry A. Wallace of Iowa for president and U.S. Senator Glen H. Taylor of Idaho for vice president in 1948.-Foundation:...
1948 presidential candidate Henry A. Wallace
Henry A. Wallace
Henry Agard Wallace was the 33rd Vice President of the United States , the Secretary of Agriculture , and the Secretary of Commerce . In the 1948 presidential election, Wallace was the nominee of the Progressive Party.-Early life:Henry A...
, until he was reportedly "forced out because of his Communist line."
Pressman did stand for election himself in the fall of 1948, running as the candidate of the American Labor Party
American Labor Party
The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...
for U.S. Congress in the 14th District of New York.
Espionage allegations
In 1939, former underground Communist Whittaker ChambersWhittaker Chambers
Whittaker Chambers was born Jay Vivian Chambers and also known as David Whittaker Chambers , was an American writer and editor. After being a Communist Party USA member and Soviet spy, he later renounced communism and became an outspoken opponent later testifying in the perjury and espionage trial...
privately identified Pressman to Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle as a member of a so-called "Ware group" of Communist government officials supplying information to the secret Soviet intelligence network.
In 1948, Anatoly Gorsky
Anatoly Gorsky
Anatoly Veniaminovich Gorsky , was a Soviet spy who, under cover as First Secretary "Anatoly Borisovich Gromov" of the Soviet Embassy in Washington, was secretly rezident in the United States at the end of World War II.-Career:Gorsky joined the Soviet secret police in 1928 and worked in the...
, former chief of Soviet intelligence
Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies
There was a succession of Soviet secret police agencies over time. The first secret police after the Russian Revolution, created by Vladimir Lenin's decree on December 20, 1917, was called "Cheka"...
operations in the United States, listed Pressman, code-named "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
Elizabeth Bentley
Elizabeth Terrill Bentley was an American spy for the Soviet Union from 1938 until 1945. In 1945 she defected from the Communist Party and Soviet intelligence and became an informer for the U.S. She exposed two networks of spies, ultimately naming over 80 Americans who had engaged in espionage for...
three years earlier. In August of that same year, in testimony before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) Chambers this time publicly identified Pressman as a member of the Ware group. On his own behalf, Pressman declined to answer questions regarding Communist Party membership, citing grounds of potential self-incrimination.
During the superheated political environment which surrounded the Korean War
Korean War
The Korean War was a conventional war between South Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China , with military material aid from the Soviet Union...
, Pressman seems to have stepped back from his previous communist affinities. In 1950, Pressman resigned from the American Labor Party
American Labor Party
The American Labor Party was a political party in the United States established in 1936 which was active almost exclusively in the state of New York. The organization was founded by labor leaders and former members of the Socialist Party who had established themselves as the Social Democratic...
due to "Communist control of that organization," an action which was reported in the press and which signaled HUAC that Pressman was at last ready to talk. Called again before Congress to give testimony on Communist Party activities, Pressman reversed his previous decision to exercise his Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...
rights and gave testimony against his former comrades.
Pressman stated that he had been a member of "a Communist group in Washington, DC" from early 1934 to the latter part of 1935, at which time he left government service to begin private legal practice and discontinued participation. Pressman stated that he had no information about the political views of his former law school classmate Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss
Alger Hiss was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official...
and specifically denied that Hiss was a participant in this Washington group.
Pressman indicated that in at least one meeting of his group, and perhaps two, he had met Soviet intelligence agent J. Peters
J. Peters
J. Peters was the most commonly known pseudonym of a man who last went by the name "Alexander Stevens" in 1949. Peters was an ethnic Jewish journalist and political activist who was a leading figure of the Hungarian language section of the Communist Party USA in the 1920s and 1930s...
. Although Pressman made no mention of having himself conducted intelligence-gathering activities, his 1950 testimony provided the first corroboration of Chambers' allegation that a Washington, DC communist group around Harold Ware existed, with federal officials Nathan Witt
Nathan Witt
Nathan Witt was an American lawyer who is best known as being the Secretary of the National Labor Relations Board from 1937 to 1940...
, John Abt
John Abt
John Jacob Abt was an American lawyer and politician. He spent most of his career as chief counsel to the Communist Party USA ....
and Charles Kramer
Charles Kramer
Charles Kramer, originally Charles Krevisky, was an American economist who worked for U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt as part of his brain trust. Among other contributions, he wrote the original idea for the Point Four Program. He also worked for several congressional committees and hired...
named as members of this party cell.
Following the fall of the Soviet Union, archival information on Soviet espionage activity in America began to emerge. Working in Soviet intelligence archives in the middle 1990s, Russian journalist Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Vassiliev
Alexander Vassiliev is a Russian journalist, writer, and espionage historian living in London. A former officer in the Soviet Committee for State Security , Vassiliev is known for his two books based upon KGB archival documents: Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America, co-authored with John...
discovered that Lee Pressman, code-named "Vig," had only told fragments of the truth to Congressional inquisitors in 1950. Working with historians John Earl Haynes
John Earl Haynes
John Earl Haynes is an American historian who is a specialist in 20th century political history in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress...
and Harvey Klehr
Harvey Klehr
Harvey E. Klehr is a professor of politics and history at Emory University; he is known for his books on the subject of the American Communist movement, and on Soviet espionage in America ....
, Vassiliev revealed that Pressman had actually remained "part of the KGB's support network" by providing legal aid and funneling financial support to exposed intelligence assets. As late as September 1949, Soviet intelligence had paid $250 through Pressman to Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo
Victor Perlo was a Marxist economist, government functionary, and a longtime member of the governing National Committee of the Communist Party USA...
for an analysis of the American economic situation, followed by an additional $1,000 in October.
A 1951 Soviet intelligence report indicated that "Vig" had "chosen to betray us," apparently a reference to his 1950 public statements and Congressional testimony. Historians Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev indicate that this assessment was an overstatement, however. With his carefully limited testimony before HUAC and in his unpublicized interviews with the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...
it is instead charged that Pressman
"...sidestepped most of his knowledge of the early days of the Communist underground in Washington and his own involvement with Soviet intelligence, first with Chambers's GRUGRUGRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
network in the 1930s and later with the KGBKGBThe KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
. He had never been the classic 'spy' who stole documents. Neither his work in domestically oriented New DealNew DealThe New Deal was a series of economic programs implemented in the United States between 1933 and 1936. They were passed by the U.S. Congress during the first term of President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The programs were Roosevelt's responses to the Great Depression, and focused on what historians call...
agencies in the early 1930s nor his later role as a labor lawyer gave him access to information of Soviet interest. Instead, he functioned as part of the KGB espionage support network, assisting and facilitating its officers and agents. He gambled that there would not be anyone to contradict his evasions and that government investigators would not be able to charge him with perjuryPerjuryPerjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...
. He won his bet..."
Congressional testimony
- Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government (Alger Hiss Case), Part 1, Committee on Un-American Activities, US House of Representatives. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1948; pp. 1022-1028. —Testimony of August 20, 1948.
- Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government — Part 2," Committee on Un-American Activities, US House of Representatives. Washington: US Government Printing Office, 1950; pp. 2844-2901. —Testimony of August 28, 1950.
Additional reading
- Gilbert J. Gall, "A Note on Lee Pressman and the FBI," Labor History, vol. 32, no. 4 (Autumn 1991), pp. 551-561.
- Pursuing Justice: Lee Pressman, the New Deal, and the CIO. New York: SUNY Press, 1999.
- John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1999.
- John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev, Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2009.
- Lee Pressman, The Reminiscences of Lee Pressman. Glen Rock, NJ: Microfilming Corp. of America, 1975. —Microfiche transcript of Columbia oral history interview.