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Line 3: + + + + − {{Cquote |Belief in the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in American intellectual life. Parts of the American government had conclusive evidence of his guilt, but they never told. <ref>Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998), pg. 146.</ref> }}+ + + + + + − Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he was educated at Baltimore City College high school and Johns Hopkins University, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In 1929 he received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was a protégé of [[Felix Frankfurter]], the future Supreme Court justice. Before joining a Boston law firm, he served for a year as clerk to [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court Justice]] [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]]. The same year Hiss married the former Mrs. Priscilla Hobson who later worked for the [[Library of Congress]]. − − In 1933, Hiss entered government service, working in several areas as an attorney in President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]], starting with the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]. Hiss worked for the [[Nye Committee]], which investigated wartime profiteering by military contractors during World War I. He served briefly in the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], and became a member of the [[Harold Ware|Ware group]] of underground Communists, a Soviet espionage group. In August or September of 1934, Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]] and started paying Communist Party dues. He began working with the [[GRU]] in 1935 and Chambers acted as courier. GRU ''Illegal Rezident'' [[Boris Bykov]] recommended espionage procedures, followed by Hiss, that included bringing files home nightly and retyping them. [[Harold Glasser]] was transfered to GRU in 1937. Hiss's membership was later corroborated by [[Nathaniel Weyl]] who also worked in the AAA and was a member of the Ware group in testimony before the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee|McCarran Committee]]. <ref>[[Wikisource:Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus| Nathaniel Weyl testimony, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], 23 February 1953. </ref> − − In 1936, Hiss and his brother [[Donald Hiss|Donald]] began working in the US State Department, where he served as assistant to [[Francis B. Sayre]], a son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]], and later as an assistant to Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]]. Hiss became special assistant to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs, then in 1944 special assitant to the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (OSPA), a policy-making office that concentrated on postwar planning for international organization and later became its director. As such he was executive secretary at the [[Dumbarton Oaks Conference]], which drafted plans for the organization that would become the [[United Nations]].
Nye Committee & GRU
Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], who was instrumental in securing the release of the long-awaited [[FBI]] and the [[Venona project]] files which had been classified for nearly 50 years, in his 1998 book, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'' wrote,
Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], who was instrumental in securing the release of the long-awaited [[FBI]] and the [[Venona project]] files which had been classified for nearly 50 years, in his 1998 book, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'' wrote,
{{Cquote |Belief in the guilt or innocence of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in American intellectual life. Parts of the American government had conclusive evidence of his guilt, but they never told. <ref>Moynihan, Daniel Patrick, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998), pg. 146.</ref> }}
==Early life==
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, he was educated at Baltimore City College high school and Johns Hopkins University, where he was a member of Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In 1929 he received his law degree from Harvard Law School, where he was a protégé of [[Felix Frankfurter]], the future Supreme Court justice. Before joining a Boston law firm, he served for a year as clerk to [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court Justice]] [[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]] The same year Hiss married the former Mrs. Priscilla Hobson who later worked for the [[Library of Congress]].
==New Deal==
In 1933, Hiss entered government service, working in several areas as an attorney in President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]], starting with the [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]. He served briefly in the [[United States Department of Justice|Justice Department]], and became a member of the [[Harold Ware|Ware group]] of underground Communists, a Soviet espionage group. In August or September of 1934, Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]] and started paying Communist Party dues. He began working with the [[GRU]] in 1935 and Chambers acted as courier. GRU ''Illegal Rezident'' [[Boris Bykov]] recommended espionage procedures, followed by Hiss, that included bringing files home nightly and retyping them. [[Harold Glasser]] was transfered to GRU in 1937. Hiss's membership was later corroborated by [[Nathaniel Weyl]] who also worked in the AAA and was a member of the Ware group in testimony before the [[Senate Internal Security Subcommittee|McCarran Committee]]. <ref>[[Wikisource:Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus| Nathaniel Weyl testimony, Senate Internal Security Subcommittee]], 23 February 1953. </ref>
In 1936, Hiss and his brother [[Donald Hiss|Donald]] began working in the US State Department, where he served as assistant to [[Francis B. Sayre]], a son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]], and later as an assistant to Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]]. Hiss became special assistant to the Director of the Office of Far Eastern Affairs, then in 1944 special assitant to the Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs (OSPA), a policy-making office that concentrated on postwar planning for international organization and later became its director. As such he was executive secretary at the [[Dumbarton Oaks Conference]], which drafted plans for the organization that would become the [[United Nations]].
==Nye Committee==
Hiss, now an agent of [[Soviet Military Intelligence]] (GRU), won the recommendation [[Lee Pressman]] was appointment General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]] [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry]], or Nye Committe as it came to be known.
== Yalta and the United Nations ==
== Yalta and the United Nations ==
[[Image:Hisstruman.jpg|thumb|300px|right|President Truman at the rostrum of the [[United Nations]] Charter Meeting with Secretary General of the Conference Alger Hiss seated second from Truman's left.]]
[[Image:Hisstruman.jpg|thumb|300px|right|President Truman at the rostrum of the [[United Nations]] Charter Meeting with Secretary General of the Conference Alger Hiss seated second from Truman's left.]]
In 1945 he went with the president to the meeting of Roosevelt, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] in [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], which precipitated the [[Western betrayal]] of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union and its client states behind the [[Iron Curtain]]. At Yalta, Hiss negotiated the final agreement to give the Soviet Union three seats in the United Nations. <ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, [http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 ''Seeds of Treason''], (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), pgs. 107-109.</ref> After the Yalta conference Hiss traveled on to Moscow with Secretary of State Stettinius, [[Venona project]] transcript #1822 dated 30 March 1945 reads in part
In 1945 he went with the president to the meeting of Roosevelt, [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]], and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] in [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], which precipitated the [[Western betrayal]] of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union and its client states behind the [[Iron Curtain]]. At Yalta, Hiss negotiated the final agreement to give the Soviet Union three seats in the United Nations. <ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, [http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 ''Seeds of Treason''], (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), pgs. 107-109.</ref> After the Yalta conference Hiss traveled on to Moscow with Secretary of State Stettinius, [[Venona project]] transcript #1822 dated 30 March 1945 reads in part