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A former [[GRU]] station chief in London and New York reported that during the early and middle 1930s 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>

A former [[GRU]] station chief in London and New York reported that during the early and middle 1930s 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>

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> The Soviets took great interest in the work of the committee, due to both its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy<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> and its propaganda value.<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 115-116</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>

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>