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===Hatch Act Investigation===

===Hatch Act Investigation===

In 1941, during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]], the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities|Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the Washington Committee for Democratic Action, which would be confirmed as a [[Communist]] front the following year by [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[Attorney General]] Francis Biddle.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007) ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 55, n. 6 (p. 610)</ref> Included on the roster was the name of Priscilla Hiss,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329; G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 48</ref> with the notation appended, "[[Husband]] with [[State Department]]."<ref>FBI Report: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf p. 109 (PDF p. 120)]. FBI file: Silvermaster, Vol 82</ref> As mandated by the [[Hatch Act]], the [[FBI]] subsequently conducted an investigation of Hiss, in the course of which one of Hiss' former colleagues at the AAA told investigators that Hiss and his circle were [[fellow traveller|fellow travelers]], if not [[Communist]]s.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Hiss denied everything, although he said he thought his wife might have been a member of the League of Women Shoppers,<ref>[http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss134_main.html League of Women Shoppers Records, 1937 - 2001], Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College</ref> a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified as a Communist front by the committee in 1939.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-century America'' (Princeton University Press, 2005) ISBN 0691086648, p. 171</ref> In 1942, the FBI sent a report of this investigation to the [[Secretary of State]],<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> the first of what would become a veritable avalanche of FBI memos and reports on Hiss disseminated to the [[State Department]], Attorney General and [[White House]] over the ensuing five years.

 

[[Image:FBI-Hiss-chart.jpg|thumb|300 px|FBI chart illustrating the dissemination to the White House, State Department and Attorney General of dozens of secret memos and reports on Alger Hiss in 1942-47. ''Image source: J. Edgar Hoover Official & Confidential File #34, FOIA Reading Room, Federal Bureau of Investigation'']]In 1941, during the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]], the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities|Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the Washington Committee for Democratic Action, which would be confirmed as a [[Communist]] front the following year by [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[Attorney General]] Francis Biddle.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy and His Fight Against America's Enemies'' (New York: Crown Forum, 2007) ISBN 978-1-4000-8105-9, p. 55, n. 6 (p. 610)</ref> Included on the roster was the name of Priscilla Hiss,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329; G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 48</ref> with the notation appended, "[[Husband]] with [[State Department]]."<ref>FBI Report: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster082.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], October 21, 1946, [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf p. 109 (PDF p. 120)]. FBI file: Silvermaster, Vol 82</ref> As mandated by the [[Hatch Act]], the [[FBI]] subsequently conducted an investigation of Hiss, in the course of which one of Hiss' former colleagues at the AAA told investigators that Hiss and his circle were [[fellow traveller|fellow travelers]], if not [[Communist]]s.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Hiss denied everything, although he said he thought his wife might have been a member of the League of Women Shoppers,<ref>[http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss134_main.html League of Women Shoppers Records, 1937 - 2001], Sophia Smith Collection, Smith College</ref> a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified as a Communist front by the committee in 1939.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''Pocketbook Politics: Economic Citizenship in Twentieth-century America'' (Princeton University Press, 2005) ISBN 0691086648, p. 171</ref> In 1942, the FBI sent a report of this investigation to the [[Secretary of State]],<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> the first of what would become a veritable avalanche of FBI memos and reports on Hiss disseminated to the [[State Department]], Attorney General and [[White House]] over the ensuing five years.

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; 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> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; 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> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

In March 1943, Maj. George R. Jordan, [[American]] liaison officer to the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission at Gore Field (Great Falls, [[Montana]]),<ref>Katherine A. S. Sibley, ''Red Spies in America'' (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2007) ISBN 0700615555, p. 94</ref> opened several diplomatic cases bound for the [[Soviet Union]] as part of the [[Lend-Lease]] program.<ref>"Dark Doings," ''Time'', December 12, 1949</ref> He found "hundreds of maps, patent documents, blueprints of industrial plants, railroad tables, and top-secret [[U.S. government]] documents,"<ref>Gary Glynn, "[http://www.missoulian.com/specials/salute/Salute3-espionage.html Espionage on the High Plains]," A Salute to the Greatest Generation, Part III, ''The Missoulian'', November 18, 2001</ref> including "five or six [[State Department]] folders, bound with stout rubber bands. Clipped to each was a tab." From one tab, said Jordan, he copied the legend: “From Hiss.” According to Jordan, "I had never heard of Alger Hiss, and made the entry because the folder bearing his name happened to be second in the pile. It contained hundreds of Photostats of what seemed to be military reports."<ref>George Racey Jordan with Richard L. Stokes, ''From Major Jordan's Diaries'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 42</ref>

[[Image: Soviet-poster.jpg|thumb|left|200 px|Defense Department propaganda poster, alleging Soviet Army "fights for FREEDOM." ''Courtesy [http://history.state.gov/milestones/1937-1945/USSoviet Office of the Historian], U.S. Department of State'']]In March 1943, Maj. George R. Jordan, [[American]] liaison officer to the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission at Gore Field (Great Falls, [[Montana]]),<ref>Katherine A. S. Sibley, ''Red Spies in America'' (Lawrence, Kan.: University Press of Kansas, 2007) ISBN 0700615555, p. 94</ref> opened several diplomatic cases bound for the [[Soviet Union]] as part of the [[Lend-Lease]] program.<ref>"Dark Doings," ''Time'', December 12, 1949</ref> He found "hundreds of maps, patent documents, blueprints of industrial plants, railroad tables, and top-secret [[U.S. government]] documents,"<ref>Gary Glynn, "[http://www.missoulian.com/specials/salute/Salute3-espionage.html Espionage on the High Plains]," A Salute to the Greatest Generation, Part III, ''The Missoulian'', November 18, 2001</ref> including "five or six [[State Department]] folders, bound with stout rubber bands. Clipped to each was a tab." From one tab, said Jordan, he copied the legend: “From Hiss.” According to Jordan, "I had never heard of Alger Hiss, and made the entry because the folder bearing his name happened to be second in the pile. It contained hundreds of Photostats of what seemed to be military reports."<ref>George Racey Jordan with Richard L. Stokes, ''From Major Jordan's Diaries'' (New York: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1952), p. 42</ref>

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning:

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning: