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| | Field would defect in 1948 to Communist Czechoslovakia, where he would tell the secret police that he was fleeing to avoid testifying in the trial of Alger Hiss, whom he identified as a fellow Communist underground agent in the State Department during the mid-thirties, according to official records published in 1990 by Karel Kaplan, former archivist of the Central Committee of the Czech Communist Party.<ref>Karel Kaplan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=x3s6sBZw-YkC&pg=PA19&dq=%22noel+field%22&sig=d7XE7yhraGkrz6k4AP0ljIqXEvY#PPA19,M1, Report on the Murder of the General Secretary]'' (London: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 1990), ISBN 1-85043-211-2, pp. 19-25</ref> A 1955 Czechoslovak secret police reinvestigation (obtained in 2000 by Czech human rights activist Karel Skrabek) states, "Noel Field said that … Hiss worked for the USSR as a spy."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 133</ref> Field would end up in Communist Hungary, where in 1954 he would tell Hungarian secret police that he and Hiss "mutually realized we were Communists. Around the summer of 1935 Alger Hiss tried to induce me to do service for the Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135</ref><ref>Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- The American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge: From the Hungarian Archives,” ''American Communist History'' 3, no. 2 (December 2004)</ref><ref>Mária Schmidt, "The Hiss Dossier: A Historian's Report," ''The New Republic'', November 8, 1993, pp. 17-20</ref> | | Field would defect in 1948 to Communist Czechoslovakia, where he would tell the secret police that he was fleeing to avoid testifying in the trial of Alger Hiss, whom he identified as a fellow Communist underground agent in the State Department during the mid-thirties, according to official records published in 1990 by Karel Kaplan, former archivist of the Central Committee of the Czech Communist Party.<ref>Karel Kaplan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=x3s6sBZw-YkC&pg=PA19&dq=%22noel+field%22&sig=d7XE7yhraGkrz6k4AP0ljIqXEvY#PPA19,M1, Report on the Murder of the General Secretary]'' (London: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 1990), ISBN 1-85043-211-2, pp. 19-25</ref> A 1955 Czechoslovak secret police reinvestigation (obtained in 2000 by Czech human rights activist Karel Skrabek) states, "Noel Field said that … Hiss worked for the USSR as a spy."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 133</ref> Field would end up in Communist Hungary, where in 1954 he would tell Hungarian secret police that he and Hiss "mutually realized we were Communists. Around the summer of 1935 Alger Hiss tried to induce me to do service for the Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135</ref><ref>Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- The American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge: From the Hungarian Archives,” ''American Communist History'' 3, no. 2 (December 2004)</ref><ref>Mária Schmidt, "The Hiss Dossier: A Historian's Report," ''The New Republic'', November 8, 1993, pp. 17-20</ref> |
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| − | The transcripts also record Field saying that he turned over State Department documents to Hede Massing in the 1930s. In other statements Field twice said that although Hiss knew that Field “was a Communist,” he strongly supported Field at the State Department and even tried to help him obtain a job as a State Department adviser in the Philippines in 1940.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref> The dossier likewise records a statement by Field that he briefly visited Hiss in 1939 in America, where they agreed that if either's cover was ever blown, he would communicate to the other indirectly.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, “Hiss: Guilty as Charged,” ''Commentary'', April 1993</ref><ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref><ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> | + | The transcripts also record Field saying that he turned over State Department documents to Hede Massing in the 1930s. In other statements Field twice said that although Hiss knew that Field “was a Communist,” he strongly supported Field at the State Department and even tried to help him obtain a job as a State Department adviser in the Philippines in 1940.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref> The dossier likewise records a statement by Field that he briefly visited Hiss in 1939 in America, where they agreed that if either's cover was ever blown, he would communicate to the other indirectly.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, “Hiss: Guilty as Charged,” ''Commentary'', April 1993</ref><ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref><ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> |
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| | In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [[Alexander Vassiliev]], Massing complains to Moscow about Hiss (using his real name) talking to Field (whom she refers to by his code name "Ernst"): "Alger told him that he was a Communist," complains Massing, a serious breach of discipline.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 6</ref> As a result, noted [[Boris Bazarov]], OGPU "illegal" station chief for the United States, Field "and Hiss [Bazarov also used Hiss's real name] have been openly identified" as Soviet agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 7</ref><ref>Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89</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. 228</ref><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> | | In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [[Alexander Vassiliev]], Massing complains to Moscow about Hiss (using his real name) talking to Field (whom she refers to by his code name "Ernst"): "Alger told him that he was a Communist," complains Massing, a serious breach of discipline.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 6</ref> As a result, noted [[Boris Bazarov]], OGPU "illegal" station chief for the United States, Field "and Hiss [Bazarov also used Hiss's real name] have been openly identified" as Soviet agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), p. 7</ref><ref>Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89</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. 228</ref><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> |
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| | 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]," |
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| − | ''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'?]" ''The 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> |
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| | ===Chambers' meeting with Berle=== | | ===Chambers' meeting with Berle=== |
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| | At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him subsequently that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref> | | At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him subsequently that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref> |
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| − | The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> | + | The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> |
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| | == Conviction == | | == Conviction == |