Changes

In the summer of 1936, [[J. Peters]] arranged a dummy transaction, according to Chambers, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> 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>

In the summer of 1936, [[J. Peters]] arranged a dummy transaction, according to Chambers, in which Hiss donated his 1929 Ford to the [[Communist Party]].<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> 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>

According to the car's certificate of title, 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.<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>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

According to the car's certificate of title, 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.<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>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a dummy transaction concerning the Ford car.... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high Communist. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too but did not say so expressly.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>}}

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a dummy transaction concerning the Ford car.... [A]t some later date, a man came to see Rosen and told him that the title certificate to the Ford was in Rosen's name and asked Rosen to sign an assignment of it to some other person. Rosen did this. The man who came to see Rosen was a very high Communist. His name would be a sensation in this case. The man who ultimately got the car is also a Communist. Bloch implied that Rosen was a Communist too but did not say so expressly.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>}}

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own, notarized by Hiss' Justice Department colleague W. Marvin Smith. After testifying in 1948 that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, Smith would plunge to his death down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to the marble floor below; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1</ref>

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own, notarized by Hiss' Justice Department colleague W. Marvin Smith. After testifying in 1948 that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, Smith would plunge to his death down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to the marble floor below; there would be no witnesses.<ref>"U.S. Lawyer Who Figured In Hiss Case Killed in Fall," ''The Washington Post,'' October 21, 1948, p. 1</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 <ref>Vadim to Moscow Center, 5 March 1945</ref> 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>

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<ref>Vadim to Moscow Center, 5 March 1945</ref> 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>