On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers testified before HUAC: MR. CHAMBERS: The apparatus was organized with a leading group of seven men, each of whom was a leader of the cell. MR. STRIPLING: Could you name the seven individuals ? MR. CHAMBERS: The head of the group as I have said was at first Nathan Witt. Other members of the group were Lee Pressman, Alger Hiss, Donald Hiss, Victor Perlo, Charles Kramer... MR. STRIPLING: When Miss Bentley testified before the committee last Saturday, Mr. Chambers, she mentioned the name of Victor Perlo as being the head of an espionage group. You have named Victor Perlo as a member of the apparatus. MR. CHAMBERS: Yes. MR. STRIPLING: At that time do you know whether or not Victor Perlo was employed in the Government? MR. CHAMBERS: I believe at that time Victor Perlo was employed by the Brookings Institution. MR. MUNDT: I think we read his employment record into the record of the hearing while Miss Bentley was testifying, did we not? MR. STRIPLING: Yes, Mr. Chairman. I have his employment history here. It is already in the record. MR. MUNDT: He was employed with the Government several times? MR. STRIPLING: That is true, and was with the Brookings Institution, also. In his memoir (1952), Chambers recalled: A crisis, he (J. Peters) said, had developed in the (Harold Ware) Group (following Ware's accidental death). Victor Perlo believed that he should succeed Ware as Group leader. He was being stubborn and surly about it. All the other members of the leadership believed that Nathan Witt was Ware's natural heir. A deadlock had resulted, for, though the rest might easily have outvoted Perlo, they did not wish to risk trouble in the Group by alienating him. Peters was also for Witt. So was I. But Peters did not wish to use his authority to act against any member of the Group in favor of another member. Peters asked me if I would come in and, since my personal authority was high with the Group, give my reasons why I was for Witt. I went in. I said that we must first of all treat the problem that had arisen as Communists, without personalities, and bearing in mind the peculiar nature of underground work and its unusual requirements, especially in the personal character of leadership. I asked Perlo's pardon for observing that he was a tense and nervous man, and that his very belief in his own qualifications for leadership, while perhaps quite justified, would actually be a handicap so long as it was not shared by the rest of the Group. Of course, we Communists did not believe in any mystical rightness of majorities over minorities, but we did believe in practical solutions to practical problems. Witt was acknowledged to be quiet, firm and solid. He had the confidence of all the members of the Group except Perlo. Therefore, I was for Witt. Perlo, of course, was unconvinced, but he agreed to abide by discipline. Thereafter, he would scarcely speak to me. Later, according to Elizabeth Bentley, he rose to the leadership he coveted in her espionage group.
