Changes

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>

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>

As a result of his father's death, Alger inherited $10,000,<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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</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 (according to the personal site of Hiss' son, Tony)<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> 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.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</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>

As a result of his father's death, Alger inherited $10,000,<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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</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 (according to the personal site of Hiss' son, Tony)<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> 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.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</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''. Hiss became the protégé of one instructor, future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]&mdash;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 the coveted<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of 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> whom he had met when he was 19 years old on a steamship to Europe.<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. 11</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]]&mdash;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 the coveted<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of 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> whom he had met when he was 19 years old on a steamship to Europe.<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. 11</ref>

Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in Boston and 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>

Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in Boston and 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>

==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 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]]&mdash;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 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]]&mdash;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>

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> The Soviets took great interest in the work of the committee for 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> as well as 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>

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 for 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> as well as 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>

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>

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>

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>

That same month, at the San Francisco conference, Soviet UN Ambassador [[Andrei Gromyko]] nominated Hiss to be temporary secretary general of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an American for what was then the UN's highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In London that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the State Department create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<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>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

That same month, at the San Francisco conference, Soviet UN Ambassador [[Andrei Gromyko]] nominated Hiss to be temporary secretary general of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an American for what was then the UN's highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In London that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the State Department create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<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>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519</ref><ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

==Defections and Investigation==

==Defections and Investigations==

===Igor Gouzenko===

Two days before Hiss made that proposal, [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33</ref> Gouzenko suggested that the Bureau might identify the agent by determining who had advised Stettinius that the U.S. should turn over its atomic bomb to the UN Security Council.<ref>FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

Two days before Hiss made that proposal, [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33</ref> Gouzenko suggested that the Bureau might identify the agent by determining who had advised Stettinius that the U.S. should turn over its atomic bomb to the UN Security Council.<ref>FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</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 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>

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>

[[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [[Gorsky memo|memorandum]] three years later, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<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>

[[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] [[Gorsky memo|memorandum]] three years later, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<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>

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>

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==

Following up on testimony given by Bentley, 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>

Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], 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, p. 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: