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Line 5: − + − + − + − + − + − + − In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman]] (according to [[Gardner Jackson]]),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman [[Gerald P. Nye]] (R.-N.D.) called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the U.S. into war with Germany. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive capitalists," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref>+ − + + + − − During the early and middle thirties, Hiss was a source of agent information for a Soviet spy ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to a former [[GRU]] station chief in London and New York, as reported by [[Pavel Sudoplatov]], former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref> Line 38:
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Line 56: − + − + − During the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]], Communist Party official [[Roy Hudson]] and Soviet agent [[Robert Minor]] were discussing an attack on the Communist Party organ ''The Daily Worker'' at the National Headquarters of the [[Communist Party]]. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under attack at the time; Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful, according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz, editor of the ''Daily Worker''.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30</ref>+ − + Line 78:
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Line 90: − In February 1945, Hiss was selected to accompany FDR to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]]<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref>+ + + Line 98:
Line 100: − + − In 1945, [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member [[Jack Stachel]] that State Department liaison [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence (who had been arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case) suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30</ref>+ − + − The following month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. Former KGB agent [[Alexander Vassiliev]]'s notes on a cable of the era, ([[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] to Moscow Center, 5 March 1945, which Vassiliev discovered in the Soviet archives) report that "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales" at the upcoming founding conference of the United Nations. It also notes that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> According to Vassiliev's notes, the cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00036.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>+ Line 122:
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Line 136: − When Secretary of State James F. Byrnes put Hiss under surveillance at the State Department<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> that year it was discovered he had obtained top secret reports "on atomic energy ... and other matters relating to military intelligence" that were outside the scope of his Office of Special Political Affairs, which dealt largely with United Nations diplomacy."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref> Shortly thereafter, a State Department internal security probe (made public in 1993) revealed that Alger Hiss had purloined several highly classified documents on matters of national security, including China policy and atomic energy—documents Hiss was not authorized to access, which were unrelated to his official duties at State, but of obvious interest to Soviet intelligence.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref>+ Line 143:
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tons more stuff, lots of twekaing
{{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>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998), pg. 146.</ref>}}
{{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>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''Secrecy: The American Experience'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998), pg. 146.</ref>}}
==Early life==
==Early life==
Alger Hiss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 1904,<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a financially comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> WASP family.<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397</ref> When Alger was two years old, his father, an executive with a dry goods firm,<ref>Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed suicide by slashing his throat with his own razor.<ref>Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Alger was 25, his sister Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 5</ref> Hiss’s older brother Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by his excessive alcohol consumption.<ref>Tony Hiss, ''Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 158</ref><ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>
Alger Hiss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, November 11, 1904,<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a financially comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> WASP family.<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397</ref> When Alger was two years old, his father, an executive with a dry goods firm,<ref>Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed suicide by slashing his throat with his own razor.<ref>Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Hiss was 25, his sister Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 5</ref> Alger's older brother Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by his excessive alcohol consumption.<ref>Tony Hiss, ''Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 158</ref><ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>
After graduation from Baltimore City College and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private prep school in Duxbury, Massachusetts) and the Maryland Institute of Art, Hiss attended Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University.<ref>Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> As an undergraduate, Hiss' favorite instructors included his economics professor, the well-known [[Socialist]]<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> [[Broadus Mitchell]]<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (unpublished manuscript, on file with the Harvard Law School Special Collections)</ref> (a former [[Socialist]] Party candidate for Governor of Maryland)<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-126505548.html The ongoing campaign of Alger Hiss: the sins of the father]," ''Modern Age'', Fall, 2004</ref> and [[José Robles]], a committed [[Stalinist]].<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> Hiss apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his home.<ref>Tony Hiss, ''Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> Robles would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as interpreter for General [[Jānis Bērziņš]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]],<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''The Spanish Civil War'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> but was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to Moscow<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in Stalin's [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Hiss would later say he too considered going to Spain to fight for the Soviet-backed Loyalist cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''Alger Hiss: The True Story'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>
After graduation from Baltimore City College and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private prep school in Duxbury, Massachusetts) and the Maryland Institute of Art, Hiss attended Baltimore's Johns Hopkins University.<ref>Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> As an undergraduate, Hiss' favorite instructors included his economics professor, the well-known [[Socialist]]<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> [[Broadus Mitchell]]<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (unpublished manuscript, on file with the Harvard Law School Special Collections)</ref> (a former [[Socialist]] Party candidate for Governor of Maryland)<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-126505548.html The ongoing campaign of Alger Hiss: the sins of the father]," ''Modern Age'', Fall, 2004</ref> and [[José Robles]], a committed [[Stalinist]].<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> Hiss apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his home.<ref>Tony Hiss, ''Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> Robles would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as interpreter for General [[Jānis Bērziņš]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]],<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''The Spanish Civil War'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> but was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Hiss would later say he too considered going to Spain to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed Loyalist cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''Alger Hiss: The True Story'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to Harvard Law School, where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]] (who was attending Harvard Business School) and served on the ''Harvard Law Review'' with classmate [[Lee Pressman]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> Hiss became the protégé of one instructor, future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this country."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> When Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, Frankfurter got him a job as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> The same year, Hiss married the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party presidential nominee [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref>
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to Harvard Law School, where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]] (who was attending Harvard Business School) and served on the ''Harvard Law Review''. Hiss became the protégé of one instructor, future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this country."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> When Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, Frankfurter got him a job as law clerk to Supreme Court Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> The same year, Hiss married the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party presidential nominee [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref>
Hiss went on to a law firm in Boston, then to another in New York where, by 1930, his wife Priscilla had joined the Morningside Heights branch of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref> G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> By 1932, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of [[American Labor Associates]], and Hiss was becoming "radicalized,"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining the [[International Juridical Association]] (IJA) (which "consistently followed the Communist Party line")<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref> along with [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]]<ref> G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> and [[Nathan Witt]].<ref>Martin Dies, ''The Trojan Horse in America'' (New York: Arno Press, 1977) ISBN 0405099452, p. 92</ref>
Hiss went on to a law firm in Boston, then to another in New York where, by 1930, his wife Priscilla had joined the Morningside Heights branch of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref> G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> By 1932, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of [[American Labor Associates]], and Hiss was becoming "radicalized,"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining the [[International Juridical Association]] (IJA) (which "consistently followed the [[Communist Party]] line")<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref> along with Harvard Law classmate (and ''Law Review'' colleague)<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> [[Lee Pressman]].<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref>
During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing radicalism. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[International Workers of the World]], writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a Wobbly with an I.W.W. tongue in thy socialistic (I couldn't bring myself to write “Communistic”) cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the legitimacy of the existing “capitalist order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's article on capitalism in last week's ''Saturday Review''? Felix [Frankfurter] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141</ref>
During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing radicalism. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[International Workers of the World]], writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a Wobbly with an I.W.W. tongue in thy socialistic (I couldn't bring myself to write “Communistic”) cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the legitimacy of the existing “capitalist order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's article on capitalism in last week's ''Saturday Review''? Felix [Frankfurter] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141</ref>
==New Deal==
==New Deal==
In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of Stalin's [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Robert Conquest, ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807)</ref> (during which the Soviets starved some three million [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]] to death through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, Page A14</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production in order to drive up food prices in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref><ref>James D. Hamilton, "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> The agency was the the brainchild of FDR's Secretary of Agriculture (and future Vice President),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]], who would finally recant his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>
In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join President [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Robert Conquest, ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807)</ref> (during which the [[Soviets]] starved some three million [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]] to death through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, Page A14</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production in order to drive up food prices in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref><ref>James D. Hamilton, "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> The agency was the brainchild of FDR's Secretary of Agriculture (and future Vice President),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]]—who would run for President on the [[Communist]]-inspired<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456</ref> Progressive Party ticket in 1948, finally recanting his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>
In response to a query about hiring him, [[Lee Pressman]], already at AAA, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and Witt as well as [[Henry Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> Even before the FBI would learn of [[Whittaker Chambers]]' charges, one of Hiss' colleagues at the AAA would tip off FBI investigators that Hiss and his circle were fellow travelers, if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Pressman would eventually testify that he had been a Communist and a member of the [[Ware group]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref><ref>[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953</ref><ref>Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>
In response to a query about candidates for employment at AAA, [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]], already at the agency, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] as well as [[Henry Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> Even before the FBI would learn of [[Whittaker Chambers]]' charges, one of Hiss' colleagues at the AAA would tip off FBI investigators that Hiss and his circle were fellow travelers, if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Pressman would eventually testify that he had been a Communist and a member of the [[Ware group]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref><ref>[http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953</ref><ref>Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>
A former [[GRU]] station chief in London and New York reported that during the early and middle thirties Hiss was a source of agent information for a Soviet spy ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to [[Pavel Sudoplatov]], former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref>
It was in this role that Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> They were introduced in 1934 by [[John Herrmann]], an AAA official who was a member of the [[Ware group]] and courier for the Communist underground (subordinate to Chambers), according to Herrmann's then wife, the radical<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]].<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> (Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> and would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.)<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>
In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (according to [[Gardner Jackson]]),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman [[Gerald P. Nye]] (R.-N.D.) called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the U.S. into war with Germany. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive capitalists," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref>
It was in this role that Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> They were introduced in 1934 by [[John Herrmann]], an AAA official who was a member of the [[Ware group]] and courier for the Communist underground (subordinate to Chambers), according to Herrmann's then wife, the radical<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]].<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> (Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story;<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.)<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>
The following year, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the [[Solictor General of the United States|Solictor General]], where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA unconstitutional in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>
The following year, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the [[Solictor General of the United States|Solictor General]], where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA unconstitutional in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>
At a 1935 dinner at the home of State Department official [[Noel Field]], Hiss argued with [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]] that Field should work with Hiss' [[GRU]] group, rather than Massing's OGPU group, according to Massing.<ref>Hede Massing, ''This Deception'' (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951), p. 335</ref>
At a 1935 dinner at the home of State Department official [[Noel Field]], Hiss argued with [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]] that Field should work with Hiss' [[GRU]] group, rather than Massing's OGPU group, according to Massing.<ref>Hede Massing, ''This Deception'' (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951), p. 335</ref>
In 1936, Hiss joined the [[State Department]] as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Agreements [[Francis B. Sayre]], son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, his younger brother [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed Alger to Johns Hopkins, Harvard Law, and a clerkship for Justice Holmes, would join him there.<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>
In 1936, Hiss joined the [[State Department]] as special assistant to Assistant Secretary of State for Trade Agreements [[Francis B. Sayre]], son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, his younger brother [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed Alger to Johns Hopkins, Harvard Law, and a clerkship for Justice Holmes, would join him there.<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>
In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [[Alexander Vassiliev]], [[NKVD]] illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to Moscow that [[J.Peters]] (code-named "Storm') told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [CPUSA underground] who had been implanted into "Surrogate" [cover name for the State Department] and sent to the Neighbors [GRU]...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>
In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by [[Alexander Vassiliev|Vassiliev]], [[NKVD]] illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to Moscow that Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> [[J. Peters]] (code-named "Storm') told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [CPUSA underground]<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> who had been implanted into "Surrogate" [cover name for the State Department]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [GRU]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00036.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 32)</ref>...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>
The year before, at the funeral of Marshal [[Jozsef Pilsudski]] in [[Warsaw]], U.S. Ambassador to [[Moscow]] [[William C. Bullitt]] had confidentially assured the Polish government that the United States would stand by Poland in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But when he reported back to the State Department that he had done so, someone there passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to German intelligence (with which Soviet intelligence had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]). Nazi propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[NKVD]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
The year before, at the funeral of Marshal [[Jozsef Pilsudski]] in [[Warsaw]], U.S. Ambassador to [[Moscow]] [[William C. Bullitt]] had confidentially assured the Polish government that the United States would stand by Poland in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But when he reported back to the State Department that he had done so, someone there passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to German intelligence (with which Soviet intelligence had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]). Nazi propaganda minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[NKVD]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
In the summer of 1936, Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> J. Peters arranged a dummy transaction, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]], according to Chambers. Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had given the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993
In the summer of 1936, [[J. Peters]] arranged a dummy transaction, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]], according to Chambers. Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had given the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. But Hiss did not buy a new car until some three months after this, and he continued to pay insurance on the Ford for a year after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993
</ref> Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936 to the Cherner Motor Company, which sold it the same day for $24 to the Communist<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen, according to the car's certificate of title.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library </ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transaction or in the Communist Party on grounds of potential self-incrimination.<ref>''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>
</ref> Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936 to the Cherner Motor Company, which sold it the same day for $24 to the Communist<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen, according to the car's certificate of title.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library </ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transaction or in the Communist Party on grounds of potential self-incrimination.<ref>''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>
The same year, French Premier [[Édouard Daladier]] informed Bullitt that two brothers named Hiss, both in the U.S. government, were Soviet agents.<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>"French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says", ''Washington Post'', April 9, 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> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “The Last Word,” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>
The same year, French Premier [[Édouard Daladier]] informed Bullitt that two brothers named Hiss, both in the U.S. government, were Soviet agents.<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>"French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says", ''Washington Post'', April 9, 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> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “The Last Word,” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>
Also that year, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] cabled Moscow that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an American member of the NKVD's [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future FDR speech writer and publisher of ''The New Republic''), then working at the State Department, mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "progressive" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>
Also that year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled Moscow that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an American member of the NKVD's [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future FDR speech writer and publisher of ''The New Republic''), then working at the State Department, mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "progressive" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>
Also in 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the Communists.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Conscious of the murder of [[Ignace Reiss]]<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents to be produced in the event of his death or disappearance.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref>
Also in 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the Communists.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Conscious of the murder of [[Ignace Reiss]]<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents to be produced in the event of his death or disappearance.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref>
In 1939, Sayre became United States High Commissioner to the Philippines, and Hiss transferred to become personal aide to [[Stanley Hornbeck]], political advisor to the State Department's Far Eastern Division. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire Soviet Intelligence source<ref>[http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United ingdom "Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence."</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various Red front groups starting in 1926, and as a Communist Party member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the Iron Curtain, Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss new he was a Communist when he recommended him for the post.
In 1939, Sayre became United States High Commissioner to the Philippines, and Hiss transferred to become personal aide to [[Stanley Hornbeck]], political advisor to the State Department's Far Eastern Division. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire Soviet Intelligence source<ref>[http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United ingdom "Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence."</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various Red front groups starting in 1926, and as a Communist Party member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the Iron Curtain, Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss knew he was a Communist when he recommended him for the post.
Communist Party official [[Roy Hudson]] discussed an attack (during the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]]) on the Communist Party organ ''The Daily Worker'' with Soviet agent [[Robert Minor]] at the National Headquarters of the [[Communist Party]], according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz, editor of the ''Daily Worker''. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under attack at the time, according to Budenz; Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30.</ref>
The year before, in Paris, defecting former [[GRU]] chief in Europe [[Walter Krivitsky]]<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN:0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to [[Alexander Barmine]], former Charge d'Affairs at the Soviet Embassy in Athens, who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Isaac Don Levine]], "Everything that went on in the [U.S.] embassy [in Moscow], especially the major communications between Washington and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet secret police."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been murdered,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor],"
The year before, in Paris, defecting former [[GRU]] chief in Europe [[Walter Krivitsky]]<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN:0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to [[Alexander Barmine]], former Charge d'Affairs at the Soviet Embassy in Athens, who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Isaac Don Levine]], "Everything that went on in the [U.S.] embassy [in Moscow], especially the major communications between Washington and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet secret police."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been murdered,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor],"
''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a suicide.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the NKVD's Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet espionage official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the [[Hoover Institution]]).<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>
''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a suicide.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the NKVD's Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet espionage official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the [[Hoover Institution]].)<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the Communist underground. On September 2, 1939, as the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland was gearing up, Levine arranged a dinner with Chambers and Assistant Secretary of State for Security [[Adolf Berle]], at which Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the Communist Party for employees of the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the Communist underground. On September 2, 1939, as the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland was gearing up, Levine arranged a dinner with Chambers and Assistant Secretary of State for Security [[Adolf Berle]], at which Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the Communist Party for employees of the Federal government in Washington, D.C. Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>
Levine also told [[David Dubinsky]], president of the [[International Ladies Garment Workers Union]], about Chambers' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the President at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist [[Walter Winchell]] of "a ring of six Soviet agents operating within the State Department alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>
Levine also told [[David Dubinsky]], president of the [[International Ladies Garment Workers Union]], about Chambers' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the President at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist [[Walter Winchell]] of "a ring of six Soviet agents operating within the State Department alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>
Hiss was now among a handful of the Soviets' most important agents, who were run individually and not through spy networks, according to [[Oleg Gordievsky]]. Hiss' wartime controller, wrote Gordievsky, was the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the United States, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]],<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during World War II.<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>
Hiss was now among a handful of the Soviets' most important agents, who were run individually and not through spy networks, according to [[Oleg Gordievsky]]. Hiss' wartime controller, wrote Gordievsky, was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the United States,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during World War II.<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>
In 1941, the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities|Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the [[Washington Committee for Democratic Action]], which would be identified the following year by Roosevelt's Attorney General [[Francis Biddle]] as a Communist front.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007) ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 55, n. 6 (p. 610)</ref> Included on the roster was the name of Priscilla Hiss,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 48</ref> with the notation appended, "Husband with State Department."<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)]</ref> In 1941-42 the FBI conducted a [[Hatch Act]] investigation of Hiss, in the course of which one of Hiss' former colleagues at the AAA told investigators that Hiss and his circle were fellow travelers, if not Communists. Hiss denied everything, although he said he thought his wife might have been a member of the [[League of Women Shoppers]], a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified as a Communist front by the committee in 1939.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-century America'' (Princeton University Press, 2005) ISBN 0691086648, p. 171</ref> In 1942, the FBI sent a report of this investigation to the Secretary of State,<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> the first of what would become a veritable avalanche of FBI memos and reports on Hiss disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and White House over the ensuing five years.
In 1941, the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities|Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the [[Washington Committee for Democratic Action]], which would be identified the following year by Roosevelt's Attorney General [[Francis Biddle]] as a Communist front.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007) ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 55, n. 6 (p. 610)</ref> Included on the roster was the name of Priscilla Hiss,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 48</ref> with the notation appended, "Husband with State Department."<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)]</ref> In 1941-42 the FBI conducted a [[Hatch Act]] investigation of Hiss, in the course of which one of Hiss' former colleagues at the AAA told investigators that Hiss and his circle were fellow travelers, if not Communists. Hiss denied everything, although he said he thought his wife might have been a member of the [[League of Women Shoppers]], a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified as a Communist front by the committee in 1939.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-century America'' (Princeton University Press, 2005) ISBN 0691086648, p. 171</ref> In 1942, the FBI sent a report of this investigation to the Secretary of State,<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> the first of what would become a veritable avalanche of FBI memos and reports on Hiss disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and White House over the ensuing five years.
[[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.]]
A State Department internal security probe of Hiss (made public in 1993)<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> ordered Secretary of State James F. Byrnes<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> revealed that in February 1945, Hiss requested top-secret files from the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (precursor of the CIA) on British, Soviet, French and Chinese internal security policies, as well as Far East policy;<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 361-362</ref> FBI surveillance at this time found that Hiss also developed "a keen interest in atomic energy," and other matters relating to military intelligence,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref>—all of which was well outside the purview of his office.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 363</ref>
Also in February 1945, Hiss was selected to accompany FDR to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]]<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref>
According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. , p. 227</ref> He added:
According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. , p. 227</ref> He added:
After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow, where he was decorated with the Order of the Red Star<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “The Last Word,” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]] that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned about this from his friend, code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles"), a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow, where he was decorated with the Order of the Red Star<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “The Last Word,” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]] that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned about this from his friend, code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles"), a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 268-269</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 226</ref>}}
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 268-269</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 226</ref>}}
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935;" that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00036.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17 (PDF p. 20)</ref> of the [[GRU|neighbors]], for the most part drawn from his relatives;" that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the [[United States Department of State|Bank]]"; that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/30_Mar_1945_R3_m4_p1.gif Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935;" that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00036.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17, 29 (PDF pp. 20, 32)</ref> of the [[GRU|neighbors]], for the most part drawn from his relatives;" that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the [[United States Department of State|Bank]]"; that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/venona/releases/30_Mar_1945_R3_m4_p1.gif Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11)</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11)</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<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-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS)</ref> Former NSA analyst John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College, concurs that "the identification of ALES as Alger Hiss, made by the U.S. Government more than a half-century ago, seems exceptionally solid based on the evidence now available; message 1822 is only one piece of that evidence, yet a compelling one."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref>
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<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-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS)</ref> Former NSA analyst John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College, concurs that "the identification of ALES as Alger Hiss, made by the U.S. Government more than a half-century ago, seems exceptionally solid based on the evidence now available; message 1822 is only one piece of that evidence, yet a compelling one."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref>
Also in 1945, [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member [[Jack Stachel]] that State Department liaison [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence (who had been arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case) suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30. See also FBI Report: (REDACTED), Security Matter—C, June 8, 1950, p. 9 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR29.pdf FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Vol 29], PDF p. 16)</ref>
In March 1945, State Department security officer Raymond Murphy interviewed Chambers. Murphy's notes record that Chambers reiterated his identification of Hiss as a member of the Communist Party underground apparatus, but added that he was also the leader of a cell and not merely a Communist but, said Chambers, an espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</ref>
In March 1945, State Department security officer Raymond Murphy interviewed Chambers. Murphy's notes record that Chambers reiterated his identification of Hiss as a member of the Communist Party underground apparatus, but added that he was also the leader of a cell and not merely a Communist but, said Chambers, an espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</ref>
On March 24, FBI agent E.A. Tamm, assistant to FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], alerted Robert Lynch, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, to Chambers' allegations that Hiss had been a member of the underground organization of the [[Communist Party]], and to Hiss' links to [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]]. Three days later, FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, a summary memorandum outlining this information.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref>
On March 24, FBI agent E.A. Tamm, assistant to FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], alerted Robert Lynch, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State, to Chambers' allegations that Hiss had been a member of the underground organization of the [[Communist Party]], and to Hiss' links to [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]]. After interviewing Hiss the next day,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, a summary memorandum outlining this information.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> On March 26, State Department security officer Robert Bannerman sent Donald Russell, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, a comprehensive secret report on Chambers' and Bentley's allegations regarding Hiss, recommending "that immediate action be taken to terminate Mr. Hiss's services with the Department."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 364</ref>
===United Nations===
===United Nations===
That month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. [[Alexander Vassiliev|Vassiliev]]'s notes on a cable of the era, ([[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] to Moscow Center, 5 March 1945, which he discovered in the Soviet archives) report that "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales" at the upcoming founding conference of the United Nations. It also notes that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> According to Vassiliev's notes, the cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/publications/publi00036.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>
Shortly thereafter, Hiss presided as Secretary General over the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|United Nations Charter Conference]] in San Francisco. [[James F. Byrnes]], who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
Shortly thereafter, Hiss presided as Secretary General over the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|United Nations Charter Conference]] in San Francisco. [[James F. Byrnes]], who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>
Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>
On November 27, 1945, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.” She said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref>
On September 25, journalist [[Walter Winchell]] again broached the subject on his broadcast, reporting, "It can be categorically stated that the question of the loyalty and integrity of one high American official has been called to the attention of the President." Weinstein calls this "a clear reference to Hiss," adding that Winchell was FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s "most intimate journalistic confidante."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>
On November 27, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.” She said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref>
Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by an April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by an April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
In 1946, the FBI again interviewed Hiss. Hiss denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</ref> That year, British intelligence supplied its order of battle against Soviet-led guerrillas in Greece to the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, this top-secret information appeared in the column of [[Drew Pearson]] (whose reporter, [[David Karr|David Carr]], was a "competent KGB source"),<ref>Yevgenia Albats, ''The State Within a State: The KGB And Its Hold on Russia Past, Present and Future'' (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1994), pp. 250-251</ref> forcing the British army to withdraw, a move that would have delivered Greece to the [[Kremlin]] had not the U.S. intervened. According to de Toledano, “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, tracked down the source of the leak. He discovered that Hiss had asked the Pentagon for this information, though it had nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” Insight on the News, January 27, 1997</ref>
In 1946, the FBI again interviewed Hiss. Hiss denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</ref> That year, British intelligence supplied its order of battle against Soviet-led guerrillas in Greece to the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, this top-secret information appeared in the column of [[Drew Pearson]] (whose reporter, [[David Karr|David Carr]], was a "competent KGB source"),<ref>Yevgenia Albats, ''The State Within a State: The KGB And Its Hold on Russia Past, Present and Future'' (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1994), pp. 250-251</ref> forcing the British army to withdraw, a move that would have delivered Greece to the [[Kremlin]] had not the U.S. intervened. According to de Toledano, “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, tracked down the source of the leak. He discovered that Hiss had asked the Pentagon for this information, though it had nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” Insight on the News, January 27, 1997</ref>
State Department security officers discovered that Hiss' desk calendar for September 14, 1946, recorded a meeting Hiss did not schedule through the department (and for which he made no official record) with "McLean [sic], British Emb."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 363-364</ref> [[Donald Maclean]] was diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington who was also a [[Soviet agent]] and member of the [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]. He would defect to the [[Soviet Union]] in 1951,<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355048/Donald-Maclean Donald Maclean]," ''The Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2008</ref> where he would be rewarded with the rank of Colonel in the KGB.<ref>"[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald3.html Agent: Maclean, D.]," The Spy Museum</ref>
In November 1946, the FBI disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>
In November 1946, the FBI disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>
On August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department officials Berle and Murphy, and the FBI, about the [[Ware group]], starting in 1939.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>
On August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department officials Berle and Murphy, and the FBI, about the [[Ware group]], starting in 1939.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-3testimony.html Testimony of Whittaker Chambers] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 3, 1948)</ref> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>
Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
The same day, President Truman reviewed Hiss’ FBI file and pronounced Hiss “guilty as hell,” telling White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring.”<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
The same day, President Truman reviewed Hiss’ FBI file and pronounced Hiss “guilty as hell,” telling White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring.”<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>
Kobyakov also claimed that former KGB General-Lieutenant [[Vitaly Pavlov]], who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Services Net, October 16, 2003</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1</ref><ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref><ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref><ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 167</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258), p. 140</ref>
Kobyakov also claimed that former KGB General-Lieutenant [[Vitaly Pavlov]], who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Services Net, October 16, 2003</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1</ref><ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref><ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref><ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150</ref><ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 167</ref><ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258), p. 140</ref>
After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>
After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent [[Alexander Vassiliev]] said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>
==Legacy==
==Legacy==
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James Gray of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James Gray, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James Gray of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James Gray, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein, who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
{{cquote|"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>}}
{{cquote|"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, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> Regarding Hiss, "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond the reasonable doubt," write former British MP Christopher Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin.<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former Clinton official, writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the "Ales" Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007</ref> (Another Clinton official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, actually went so far as to retract a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.)<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> Socialist<ref>Herbert Mitgang, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D6163AF931A3575BC0A96F948260 Michael Harrington, Socialist and Author, Is Dead]," ''The New York Times'', August 2, 1989</ref> Michael Harrington wrote upon Hiss' death, "We now know that Alger Hiss was not the victim of a miscarriage of justice...."<ref>Michael Harrington, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199611/ai_n8755452 Alger Hiss: A postscript]," ''The Spectator'' (London), November 30, 1996</ref> Even Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends Americans who assisted Soviet intelligence as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…." 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>
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, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> Regarding Hiss, "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond the reasonable doubt," write former British MP Christopher Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin.<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref> "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote Arthur Schlesinger (an "unabashedly liberal partisan"<ref>Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007</ref> who "equates capitalism with sexism and racism")<ref>Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000</ref> adding, "He must know I believe him to be guilty. I've written it often enough."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former Clinton official, writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the "Ales" Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007</ref> (Another Clinton official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake, actually went so far as to retract a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.)<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> Socialist<ref>Herbert Mitgang, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE6D6163AF931A3575BC0A96F948260 Michael Harrington, Socialist and Author, Is Dead]," ''The New York Times'', August 2, 1989</ref> Michael Harrington wrote upon Hiss' death, "We now know that Alger Hiss was not the victim of a miscarriage of justice...."<ref>Michael Harrington, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3724/is_199611/ai_n8755452 Alger Hiss: A postscript]," ''The Spectator'' (London), November 30, 1996</ref> Even Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends Americans who assisted Soviet intelligence as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…." 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>
===Scholarly Consensus===
===Scholarly Consensus===
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> Rutgers historian David Greenberg likewise refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times,'', August 16, 2001</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'', and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> (Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime.")<ref>Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> Rutgers historian David Greenberg likewise refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (Jun., 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'', and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> (Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime.")<ref>Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>
===Hiss in the Mass Media===
===Hiss in the Mass Media===
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times,'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''The New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> London's ''Independent'' reports that "some of the individuals defended by the 1950s left and savaged by McCarthy were actually Soviet spies. The most prominent is the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss."<ref>Johann Hari, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040326/ai_n12775721 The exhumation of Joe McCarthy]," ''The Independent'', March 26, 2004</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com adds that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and in another article concludes, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?sec=technology&res=9C00E2D8173EF935A2575BC0A9679C8B63 Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> ''The New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> London's ''Independent'' reports that "some of the individuals defended by the 1950s left and savaged by McCarthy were actually Soviet spies. The most prominent is the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss."<ref>Johann Hari, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20040326/ai_n12775721 The exhumation of Joe McCarthy]," ''The Independent'', March 26, 2004</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com adds that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and in another article concludes, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>
==References==
==References==