Changes

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], a confessed [[OGPU]] recruiter, but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to Czechoslovakia, ending up in Hungary.

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], a confessed [[OGPU]] recruiter, but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to Czechoslovakia, ending up in Hungary.

In 1952, Bullitt testified before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee as to what French Premier Daladier had told him in 1938.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952</ref>,<ref>Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002]</ref> Also at that hearing, Nathaniel Weyl, a confessed former member of the Ware group, testified that he attended secret Communist meetings with Alger Hiss, and saw Hiss pay his party dues.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952]</ref>

In 1952, Bullitt testified before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee as to what French Premier Daladier had told him in 1938.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952</ref>,<ref>Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002</ref> Also at that hearing, Nathaniel Weyl, a confessed former member of the Ware group, testified that he attended secret Communist meetings with Alger Hiss, and saw Hiss pay his party dues.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref>

== Conviction on perjury ==

== Conviction on perjury ==

Former [[KGB]] officer Alexander Vassiliev’s handwritten notes on a 5 March 1945 cable by [[Anatoly Gorsky]] reveal that Ales had been at Yalta, went briefly to Moscow, then back to the U.S. but then immediately went to Mexico City for an inter-American conference of foreign ministers, known as the Chapultepec Conference (21 February 8 March 1945).  Stettinius, Hiss, Mathews, and Foote went to Mexico City.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]," June 7, 2007</ref>

Former [[KGB]] officer Alexander Vassiliev’s handwritten notes on a 5 March 1945 cable by [[Anatoly Gorsky]] reveal that Ales had been at Yalta, went briefly to Moscow, then back to the U.S. but then immediately went to Mexico City for an inter-American conference of foreign ministers, known as the Chapultepec Conference (21 February 8 March 1945).  Stettinius, Hiss, Mathews, and Foote went to Mexico City.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]," June 7, 2007</ref>

An 25 April 1945 memo from [[KGB]] General [[Pavel Fitin]], head of foreign intelligence, to [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], overall head of the KGB, explained that [[Harold Glasser]] moved back and forth, sometimes working for the KGB, but at times also the [[GRU]].  Glasser learned from his friend Hiss that the latter's group had been decorated with honors. Glasser felt slighted, as the others in Hiss's group were decorated, but Glasser himself was not.<ref>Allan Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 ed.), ISBN 067977338X, pp. 326–27.</ref>

An 25 April 1945 memo from [[KGB]] General [[Pavel Fitin]], head of foreign intelligence, to [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], overall head of the KGB, explained that [[Harold Glasser]] moved back and forth, sometimes working for the KGB, but at times also the [[GRU]].  Glasser learned from his friend Hiss that the latter's group had been decorated with honors. Glasser felt slighted, as the others in Hiss's group were decorated, but Glasser himself was not.<ref>Allan Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 ed.), ISBN 067977338X, pp. 326–27.</ref>

After the exposure of several Soviet espionage networks in the United States, Stalin created the [[KI]], a centralized bureaucracy, modelled on the [[CIA]], to funnel information from both [[KGB]] and [[GRU]] to intelligence users.  During the KI's short existence (1947 - 1951), [[Anatoly Gorsky]], who served in the United States and Great Britain, wrote a memorandum on ''Compromised American Sources and Networks''.  This memo incontrovertibly identifies Alger Hiss as a longtime Soviet agent who worked in the U.S. State Department.

After the exposure of several Soviet espionage networks in the United States, Stalin created the [[KI]], a centralized bureaucracy, modelled on the [[CIA]], to funnel information from both [[KGB]] and [[GRU]] to intelligence users.  During the KI's short existence (1947 - 1951), [[Anatoly Gorsky]], who served in the United States and Great Britain, wrote a memorandum on ''Compromised American Sources and Networks''.  This memo incontrovertibly identifies Alger Hiss as a longtime Soviet agent who worked in the U.S. State Department.

In 1996 the United States government released the Venona papers, decoded Russian intelligence intercepts dating from the mid-1940s.  These documents reference a Soviet spy at the State Department, code-named "Ales", whose biographical details matched those of Hiss.

In 1996 the United States government released the Venona papers, decoded Russian intelligence intercepts dating from the mid-1940s.  These documents reference a Soviet spy at the State Department, code-named "Ales", whose biographical details matched those of Hiss.

Alger Hiss's known [[cryptonym]]s were "Lawyer" <ref> Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' New York: Random House, (1952); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997); "Lawyer" in 1936, Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America�the Stalin Era'', New York: Random House, (1999), pg. 43.</ref> ("Advocate" <ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997)</ref> or "Advokat" <ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'', New York: Random House, (1952).</ref> which was assigned during his brief time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] between 1935 and 1936, and "Ales" <ref>Venona; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America�the Stalin Era'', New York: Random House, (1999);  Eduard Mark, ''Who Was Venona's Ales? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case'', Intelligence and National Security 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).</ref> in 1945. "Leonard" <ref>KGB file 43173 vol.2 (v) pp. 49-55, ''The Gorsky Memo'', 1948.</ref> did not occur as a cover name in the World War II deciphered [[KGB]] Venona traffic and may be a later (or possibly earlier) cryptonym, or a [[GRU]] covername.

Alger Hiss's known [[cryptonym]]s were "Lawyer" <ref> Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' New York: Random House, (1952); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997); "Lawyer" in 1936, Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America�the Stalin Era'', New York: Random House, (1999), pg. 43.</ref> ("Advocate" <ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997)</ref> or "Advokat" <ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'', New York: Random House, (1952).</ref> which was assigned during his brief time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] between 1935 and 1936, and "Ales" <ref>Venona; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America�the Stalin Era'', New York: Random House, (1999);  Eduard Mark, "Who Was Venona's Ales? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).</ref> in 1945. "Leonard" <ref>KGB file 43173 vol.2 (v) pp. 49-55, "The Gorsky Memo," 1948.</ref> did not occur as a cover name in the World War II deciphered [[KGB]] Venona traffic and may be a later (or possibly earlier) cryptonym, or a [[GRU]] covername.

Few serious historians still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, author of who had begun his research intending to prove Hiss innocent, concluded, "the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref> The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further -- not just on perjury, but on espionage, the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled.<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> More recently G. Edward White slammed the door on any serious question of Hiss's guilt with his meticulously researched "Alger Hiss's Looking Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy," published in 2004.

Few serious historians still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who began his research believing Hiss innocent, and had the cooperation of Hiss,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> concluded, "the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref> The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further&mdash;not just on perjury, but on espionage, the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> Referring to Hiss in a review of ''The Haunted Wood,'' Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, wrote, "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1  Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> More recently, University of Virginia professor of law G. Edward White, son-in-law of one of Hiss' lawyers, conceded Hiss' guilt in ''Alger Hiss's Looking Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'', published in 2004.

==References==

==References==