During the Truman administration also the President adhered to the traditional Executive view that the President’s discretion must govern the surrender of Executive files. Some of the major incidents during the administration of President Truman in which information, records, and files were denied to Congressional Committees were as follows:
| Date | Type of Document Refused |
| Mar. 4, 1948 | FBI letter-report on Dr. Condon, Director of National Bureau of Standards, refused by Secretary of Commerce. |
| Mar. 15, 1948 | President issued directive forbidding all Executive departments and agencies to furnish information or reports concerning loyalty of their employees to any court or committee of Congress, unless President approves. |
| March 1948 | Dr. John R. Steelman, Confidential Adviser to the President, refused to appear before Committee on Education and Labor of the House, following the service of two subpoenas upon him. President directed him not to appear. |
| Aug. 5, 1948 | Attorney General wrote Senator Ferguson, Chairman of Senate Investigations Subcommittee, that he would not furnish letters, memoranda, and other notices which the Justice Department had furnished to other government agencies concerning W. W. Remington. |
| Feb. 22, 1950 | Senate Res. 231 directing Senate Subcommittee to procure State Department loyalty files was met with President Truman’s refusal, following vigorous opposition of J. Edgar Hoover. |
| Mar. 27, 1950 | Attorney General and Director of FBI appeared before Senate Subcommittee. Mr. Hoovers historic statement of reasons for refusing to furnish raw files approved by Attorney General. |
| May 16, 1951 | General Bradley refused to divulge conversations between President and his advisers to combined Senate Foreign Relations and Armed Services Committees. |
| Jan. 31, 1952 | President Truman directed Secretary of State to refuse to Senate Internal Security Subcommittee the reports and views of foreign service officers. |
| Apr. 22, 1952 | Acting Attorney General Perlman laid down procedure for complying with requests for inspection of Department of Justice files by Committee on Judiciary: |
| Requests on open cases would not be honored. Status report will be furnished. | |
| As to closed cases, files would be made available. All FBI reports and confidential information would not be made available. | |
| As to personnel files, they are never disclosed. | |
| Apr. 3, 1952 | President Truman instructed Secretary of State to withhold from Senate Appropriations Subcommittee files on loyalty and security investigations of employees—policy to apply to all Executive agencies. The names of individuals determined to be security risks would not be divulged. The voting record of members of an agency loyalty board would not be divulged. |
Thus, you can see that the Presidents of the United States have withheld information of Executive departments or agencies whenever it was found that the information sought was confidential or that its disclosure would be incompatible with the public interest or jeopardize the safety of the Nation. The courts too have held that the question whether the production of the papers was contrary to the public interest was a matter for the Executive to determine.
By keeping the lines which separate and divide the three great branches of our Government clearly defined, no one branch has been able to encroach upon the powers of the other.
Upon this firm principle our country’s strength, liberty, and democratic form of government will continue to endure.
APPENDIX B
Letters Regarding the Presidential Letter of May 17, 1954
October 9, 1956
Hon. Dwight D. Eisenhower,
The President of the United States,
The White House, Washington, D.C.
Dear Mr. President: At your press conference on Thursday, September 27, 1956, you were asked whether your letter of May 17, 1954, to Secretary of Defense Charles E. Wilson was being misused as authority to restrict information from the public.
This question was posed by Mr. Clark Mollenhoff of the Des Moines Register and Tribune.