Word: matusow
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Dates: during 1955-1955
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Speaking of Harvey Matusow the liar, Mississippi's Senator James Eastland recently linked the man's weapon and his crime. "His mouth," said the Senator, "has been used against his country." Matusow has quite a mouth, and he was busily using it again last week to his country's detriment and the Communist Party's advantage...
Whom the Boom. Matusow, expelled from the Communist Party in 1951 as a cheat and informer, has become a party hero since repudiating the testimony that he once copiously volunteered against Communists (TIME. Feb. 14). Questioned by Senator Eastland's Internal Security Subcommittee, Matusow alternately peddled the party line and his own brand of humor. With a sly smile he told of writing a poem, For Whom the Boom Dooms, about the H-bomb...
Senator Eastland mentioned that a Communist-assigned bodyguard was staying with Matusow almost every night. "With whom," he asked, "did you spend the other nights?" "It was a lady friend," replied Matusow. He refused to name her, not out of gallantry alone but because "if you force me to tell. I'll never be able to return there." It was "no lady," shouted Eastland, but "a Communist bodyguard." Matusow insisted that it was a lady. "I did," he snapped, "play chess with a lady on Thursday night...
...firmest conclusion to be drawn from the testimony of Harvey Matusow before the Senate Internal Security Subcommittee is that nothing he says is worthy of belief. It follows from this that if testimony by Matusow has been material in the conviction of any person, that conviction should be set aside. Certainly no one should be held guilty of any offense on the testimony of a self-confessed liar. It does not follow, however, that testimony from all former Communists is in the same category as Matusow's testimony. All such witnesses are suspect, and the Government should...
Senator Watkins may be right in saying that Matusow apparently is "deliberately trying to destroy" other former Communists who have testified for the Government. Certainly, if this is his purpose and if he were to succeed in it, it would be a master stroke for the Communists. But the Matusow case, as it has unfolded to date, does not call for any conclusion on this point. What it does call for is recognition of the dangers involved in using the testimony of informers, and of the need to take every possible precaution against giving the liars among them a chance...