TRIALS: I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back

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Acheson, borrowing a scandal from the Roosevelt Administration, had hung Hiss so tightly around the Truman Administration's neck that it would be next to impossible to shake him off. He had given further embarrassment to Harry Truman, who had himself called the Hiss case "a red herring." Worse than that, he had jeopardized his foreign policy by giving its opponents a new weapon, and the doubtful fresh grounds for distrust of the State Department. Wrote Pundit Arthur Krock: "Mr. Acheson should weigh the effects of what his conscience as a man might prompt him to say or do against the consequences of these on the great public duty he has accepted."