Changes

===Hatch Act Investigation===

===Hatch Act Investigation===

[[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'']]By 1940 Hiss was among a handful of the Soviets' most important agents, who were run individually and not through spy networks, according to Oleg Gordievsky. Hiss' wartime controller, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html wrote Gordievsky], was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]], who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=PfdGAQAACAAJ KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev]'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref> In 1941, Hiss first came to the attention of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]].

[[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'']]By 1940 Hiss was among a handful of the Soviets' most important agents, who were run individually and not through spy networks, according to Oleg Gordievsky. Hiss' wartime controller, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html wrote Gordievsky], was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]], who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=PfdGAQAACAAJ KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev]'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>

[[HUAC]] had grown out of a 1934 resolution (calling for the formation of a special committee to probe into "un-American activities") [http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/Dick.htm introduced by] Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein]] (D-N.Y.)&mdash;a [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/03/books/the-kremlin-connection.html?pagewanted=all Soviet agent] [http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/books/weinstein_vassiliev.htm code-named "Crook,"]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=jbMBAAAACAAJ The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America&mdash;The Stalin Era]'' (Random House, 1999), pp. 140-150</ref> who was paid by Moscow some $200,000 a year to persecute [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,929957,00.html American businessmen], [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/aug/01/00043/ Soviet refugees] and Trotskyites.<ref>John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 475-476</ref> During the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]], HUAC, now under Chairman [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000338 Martin Dies] (D-Tex.), included in its probes Communists as well.

In 1941, Hiss first came to the attention of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]. [[HUAC]] had grown out of a 1934 resolution (calling for the formation of a special committee to probe into "un-American activities") [http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/Dick.htm introduced by] Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein]] (D-N.Y.)&mdash;a [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/03/books/the-kremlin-connection.html?pagewanted=all Soviet agent] [http://www.boston.com/globe/search/stories/books/weinstein_vassiliev.htm code-named "Crook,"]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=jbMBAAAACAAJ The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America&mdash;The Stalin Era]'' (Random House, 1999), pp. 140-150</ref> who was paid by Moscow some $200,000 a year to persecute [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,929957,00.html American businessmen], [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/aug/01/00043/ Soviet refugees] and Trotskyites.<ref>John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 475-476</ref> During the [[Molotov-Ribbentrop pact]], HUAC, now under Chairman [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000338 Martin Dies] (D-Tex.), included in its probes Communists as well.

In 1941, [[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 [[Attorney General's list|Communist front]] the following year by [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[Attorney General]] Francis Biddle.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=tQt3AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 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 [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf 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, 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 [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss134_main.html League of Women Shoppers], a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QY8pUkLRM1YC The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century]'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified by the committee in 1939 as a Communist front.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M9kcixM1P6wC 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.<ref> As the [[SISS|Jenner subcommittee]] would conclude in 1953: "There is ample evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies learned the underlying fact of the Communist conspiracy, and time and again performed their duty and notified the proper administrative agencies of this information." (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://ia360607.us.archive.org/1/items/interlockingsubv16unit/interlockingsubv16unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments], Vol. 16 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 1110 [PDF p. 50])</ref>

In 1941, [[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 [[Attorney General's list|Communist front]] the following year by [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[Attorney General]] Francis Biddle.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=tQt3AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=dkeRKZOX2n4C&pgis=1 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 [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf 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, 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 [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss134_main.html League of Women Shoppers], a [[Popular Front]] group<ref>Michael Denning, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QY8pUkLRM1YC The Cultural Front: The Laboring of American Culture in the Twentieth Century]'' (New York: Verso, 1998) ISBN 1859841708, p. 410</ref> identified by the committee in 1939 as a Communist front.<ref>Meg Jacobs, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M9kcixM1P6wC 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.<ref> As the [[SISS|Jenner subcommittee]] would conclude in 1953: "There is ample evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other agencies learned the underlying fact of the Communist conspiracy, and time and again performed their duty and notified the proper administrative agencies of this information." (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://ia360607.us.archive.org/1/items/interlockingsubv16unit/interlockingsubv16unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments], Vol. 16 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 1110 [PDF p. 50])</ref>