Changes

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>

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&mdash;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 this role, barely a month later,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America&mdash;the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 40</ref> 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> According to Chambers, they were introduced by 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]];<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 339</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>

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>

One of their mutual contacts at the time was [[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 later claim that he did not even know Herrmann&mdash;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 1935, 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 (and 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 Kingdom "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]], 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 (and 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 Kingdom "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]], 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, rising to the position of assistant to future Secreary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<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, rising to the position of assistant to future Secreary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<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 [[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&mdash;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>

In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by [[Alexander Vassiliev|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]<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&mdash;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 after Bullitt reported back to Washington that he had done so, someone at the State Department passed this information to [[Moscow]], 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 [[Kremlin]] 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 after Bullitt reported back to Washington that he had done so, someone at the State Department passed this information to [[Moscow]], 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 [[Kremlin]] 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>