Changes

[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''[http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html Farm Security Administration Collection], Library of Congress'']]At AAA, Hiss reunited with [[Henry Collins|Collins]], as well as IJA colleagues [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (who would join the [[Communist Party]] about this time)<ref>[[#refHUAC50.2|HUAC 1950, pt. 2]]: 2850 (PDF 16) </ref> and  [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] (who would be identified as a fellow [[Communist]] by Pressman),<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 612</ref> and became acquainted with [[#refCook91|secret Communist]] [[John Abt]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 643 (PDF 153)</ref> and [[#refBC07|the Communist]]<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 94</ref> [[Harold Ware]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 652 (PDF 162)</ref>&mdash;recently returned from several years in the [[Soviet Union]], where he had been instrumental in the organization of [http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/stalin/lectures/WarCom.html collective farms].<ref>[[Harold Ware|Ware]], the son of [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss8_bioghist.html American Communist Party founder] [[Ella Reeve Bloor|"Mother" Bloor]], reportedly "tricked" [[USSR|Soviet]] peasants into collective farms. (Deborah Kay Fitzgerald, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nQMNb6nGmPsC Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003] ISBN 0300088132, p. 161). "As the Soviet archives reveal, the experiment was a dystopian nightmare. Ware and [[Jessica Smith|Smith]] lured a group of unenthusiastic peasants into their grasp and proceeded to abuse them in a [http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=14209 brutal fashion]." For this Ware received a [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/oct/20b.htm commendation from Lenin], praise repeated by [[Stalin]] (J.V. Stalin, ''[http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/StWorks11.pdf Works, Vol. 11: 1928-March 1929]'' [Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954], pp. 195-196.) Back in the U.S., he founded the [[#refBerle|Communist-front]] Farm Research Incorporated, which published ''[[Facts for Farmers]]'',  a [[List of Communist publications|communist publication]] intended to influence decision makers in the Agricultural Department. [[#refTanenhaus97|Tanenhaus 1997]]: 92-93</ref> AAA administrator George Peek resigned in protest, writing:

[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''[http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html Farm Security Administration Collection], Library of Congress'']]At AAA, Hiss reunited with [[Henry Collins|Collins]], as well as IJA colleagues [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (who would join the [[Communist Party]] about this time)<ref>[[#refHUAC50.2|HUAC 1950, pt. 2]]: 2850 (PDF 16) </ref> and  [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] (who would be identified as a fellow [[Communist]] by Pressman),<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 612</ref> and became acquainted with [[#refCook91|secret Communist]] [[John Abt]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 643 (PDF 153)</ref> and [[#refBC07|the Communist]]<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 94</ref> [[Harold Ware]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 652 (PDF 162)</ref>&mdash;recently returned from several years in the [[Soviet Union]], where he had been instrumental in the organization of [http://mars.wnec.edu/~grempel/courses/stalin/lectures/WarCom.html collective farms].<ref>[[Harold Ware|Ware]], the son of [http://asteria.fivecolleges.edu/findaids/sophiasmith/mnsss8_bioghist.html American Communist Party founder] [[Ella Reeve Bloor|"Mother" Bloor]], reportedly "tricked" [[USSR|Soviet]] peasants into collective farms. (Deborah Kay Fitzgerald, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nQMNb6nGmPsC Every Farm a Factory: The Industrial Ideal in American Agriculture]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003] ISBN 0300088132, p. 161). "As the Soviet archives reveal, the experiment was a dystopian nightmare. Ware and [[Jessica Smith|Smith]] lured a group of unenthusiastic peasants into their grasp and proceeded to abuse them in a [http://www.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=14209 brutal fashion]." For this Ware received a [http://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1922/oct/20b.htm commendation from Lenin], praise repeated by [[Stalin]] (J.V. Stalin, ''[http://www.marx2mao.com/PDFs/StWorks11.pdf Works, Vol. 11: 1928-March 1929]'' [Moscow: Foreign Languages Publishing House, 1954], pp. 195-196.) Back in the U.S., he founded the [[#refBerle|Communist-front]] Farm Research Incorporated, which published ''[[Facts for Farmers]]'',  a [[List of Communist publications|communist publication]] intended to influence decision makers in the Agricultural Department. [[#refTanenhaus97|Tanenhaus 1997]]: 92-93</ref> AAA administrator George Peek resigned in protest, writing:

{{cquote|A plague of young lawyers on settled on Washington. They all claimed to be friends of somebody or other and mostly of Felix Frankfurter and Jerome Frank<ref>"....Jerome Frank, the leading liberal judge on the court; Jerome Frank, the intellectual leader of the New Deal and architect of its most progressive legislation; Jerome Frank, the idol of young progressive law students and leader of the liberals when he taught law at Yale, who had led the fight against the conservatism of the old-guard faculty...." Arthur Kinoy, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8IQaAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Rights on Trial: The Odyssey of a People's Lawyer]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983) ISBN 0674770137, p. 97</ref>... in the legal division were formed the plans which eventually turned the AAA from a device to aid the farmers into a device to introduce the collectivist system of agriculture into this country.<ref>George N. Peek with Samuel Crowther, “In and Out: the Experiences of the First AAA Administrator,” ''The Saturday Evening Post'', May 16, 1936, p. 5</ref>}}

{{cquote|A plague of young lawyers on settled on Washington. They all claimed to be friends of somebody or other and mostly of Felix Frankfurter and Jerome Frank<ref>"....Jerome Frank, the leading liberal judge on the court; Jerome Frank, the intellectual leader of the New Deal and architect of its most progressive legislation; Jerome Frank, the idol of young progressive law students and leader of the liberals when he taught law at Yale, who had led the fight against the conservatism of the old-guard faculty...." Arthur Kinoy, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8IQaAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Rights on Trial: The Odyssey of a People's Lawyer]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1983) ISBN 0674770137, p. 97</ref>... in the legal division were formed the plans which eventually turned the AAA from a device to aid the farmers into a device to introduce the collectivist system of agriculture into this country.<ref>George N. Peek with Samuel Crowther, “In and Out: the Experiences of the First AAA Administrator,” ''The Saturday Evening Post'', May 16, 1936, p. 5</ref>}}

Even before the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] would learn of [[Whittaker Chambers]]' charges, one of Hiss' colleagues at the AAA would tip off FBI investigators that Hiss and his circle were [[fellow traveller|fellow travelers]], if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> In February 1935, the "[[#refChronology|radicals]]" [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,748453,00.html were "purged"] from AAA. According to [[New Deal|New Dealer]] [http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/findingguides/xml/jackson.html Gardner Jackson]:

Even before the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] would learn of [[Whittaker Chambers]]' charges, one of Hiss's colleagues at the AAA would tip off FBI investigators that Hiss and his circle were [[fellow traveller|fellow travelers]], if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> In February 1935, the "[[#refChronology|radicals]]" [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,748453,00.html were "purged"] from AAA. According to [[New Deal|New Dealer]] [http://lts.brandeis.edu/research/archives-speccoll/findingguides/xml/jackson.html Gardner Jackson]:

{{cquote|Late in the day of our dismissal Wallace sent word that he would see two of the people on the dismissal list. Jerome Frank and a member of his legal staff, Alger Hiss, were delegated for the interview. Wallace haltingly greeted them (and, through them, others on the list) as "the best fighters in a good cause" he had ever worked with. But he said that he had to [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194808/henry-wallace fire them].}}

{{cquote|Late in the day of our dismissal Wallace sent word that he would see two of the people on the dismissal list. Jerome Frank and a member of his legal staff, Alger Hiss, were delegated for the interview. Wallace haltingly greeted them (and, through them, others on the list) as "the best fighters in a good cause" he had ever worked with. But he said that he had to [http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/194808/henry-wallace fire them].}}

As it turned out, Jackson, Frank and Pressman were indeed fired&mdash;but [[#refChronology|Hiss was not]]. "Alger must have known at least a week before the purge that it was coming," said Jackson. "He undoubtedly told Pressman, and Lee told him what to do in order to remain in the Department as his pipeline."<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60</ref>

As it turned out, Jackson, Frank and Pressman were indeed fired&mdash;but [[#refChronology|Hiss was not]]. "Alger must have known at least a week before the purge that it was coming," said Jackson. "He undoubtedly told Pressman, and Lee told him what to do in order to remain in the Department as his pipeline."<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60</ref>

Frank, believing Hiss to be closely linked to a coterie of Communist lawyers at the agency, would later refuse to appear as a character witness for him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 43</ref> According to reporters Ralph de Toledano (who covered the Hiss trials for ''Newsweek'') and Victor Lasky (who covered the trials for the ''New York World-Telegram''): "When Hiss' lawyers approached a well-known jurist to ask him if he would appear as a character witness [for Hiss]...he said tartly: 'I have no way of knowing whether or not Mr. Hiss was ever a Communist. But as to his character&mdash;Mr. Hiss has no character.'"<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60. [[Whittaker Chambers]] would testify that Hiss had "a great gentleness and sweetness of character," ([[#refHUAC8-7-48|HUAC August 7, 1948]]), although he would later admit glimpsing a "strange savagery" in Hiss' laughter at "the horrible old women of Baltimore" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 363), and "the obvious pleasure he took in the most simple and brutal references to the President's physical condition as a symbol of the middle-class breakdown." (Hiss was one of the few insiders who knew that [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was wheelchair-bound. See, e.g., Hugh Gregory Gallagher, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kFpgOgAACAAJ FDR's Splendid Deception: The Moving Story of Roosevelt's Massive Disability and the Intense Efforts to Conceal it from the Public]'' [St. Petersburg, Fla.: Vandamere Press, 1999] ISBN 0918339502. To Hiss, according to one scholar, the ailing FDR epitomized "feeble, illegitimate authority that ought to die or disappear but refuses to do so." Alan Fraser Davis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8bo8AAAAIAAJ Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics]'' [Cambridge University Press, 1980] ISBN 0521293499, p. 449, n. 13) That savagery took a distinctly political form, as when Chambers raised with Hiss the issue of the bloody [[Moscow]] [[Great purge|purge trials]]: according to Chambers, Hiss merely replied, "Yes, Stalin plays for keeps, doesn’t he?" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 41) Likewise, when reminded that the prominent [http://mises.org/journals/scholar/MacKenzie7.pdf Democratic Socialist] [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273508/Irving-Howe Irving Howe] had written that he was convinced of Hiss' guilt, Hiss snapped, "Howe? I don't consider him on the left." [[#refRemnick86|Remnick 1986]]</ref>

Frank, believing Hiss to be closely linked to a coterie of Communist lawyers at the agency, would later refuse to appear as a character witness for him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 43</ref> According to reporters Ralph de Toledano (who covered the Hiss trials for ''Newsweek'') and Victor Lasky (who covered the trials for the ''New York World-Telegram''): "When Hiss's lawyers approached a well-known jurist to ask him if he would appear as a character witness [for Hiss]...he said tartly: 'I have no way of knowing whether or not Mr. Hiss was ever a Communist. But as to his character&mdash;Mr. Hiss has no character.'"<ref>[[#refTL50|de Toledano, Lasky 1950]]: 60. [[Whittaker Chambers]] would testify that Hiss had "a great gentleness and sweetness of character," ([[#refHUAC8-7-48|HUAC August 7, 1948]]), although he would later admit glimpsing a "strange savagery" in Hiss's laughter at "the horrible old women of Baltimore" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 363), and "the obvious pleasure he took in the most simple and brutal references to the President's physical condition as a symbol of the middle-class breakdown." (Hiss was one of the few insiders who knew that [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was wheelchair-bound. See, e.g., Hugh Gregory Gallagher, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kFpgOgAACAAJ FDR's Splendid Deception: The Moving Story of Roosevelt's Massive Disability and the Intense Efforts to Conceal it from the Public]'' [St. Petersburg, Fla.: Vandamere Press, 1999] ISBN 0918339502. To Hiss, according to one scholar, the ailing FDR epitomized "feeble, illegitimate authority that ought to die or disappear but refuses to do so." Alan Fraser Davis, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=8bo8AAAAIAAJ Skills, Outlooks and Passions: A Psychoanalytic Contribution to the Study of Politics]'' [Cambridge University Press, 1980] ISBN 0521293499, p. 449, n. 13) That savagery took a distinctly political form, as when Chambers raised with Hiss the issue of the bloody [[Moscow]] [[Great purge|purge trials]]: according to Chambers, Hiss merely replied, "Yes, Stalin plays for keeps, doesn’t he?" ([[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 41) Likewise, when reminded that the prominent [http://mises.org/journals/scholar/MacKenzie7.pdf Democratic Socialist] [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/273508/Irving-Howe Irving Howe] had written that he was convinced of Hiss's guilt, Hiss snapped, "Howe? I don't consider him on the left." [[#refRemnick86|Remnick 1986]]</ref>

[[Henry Collins|Collins]] would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>Mr. Stripling. Are you a member of the Communist Party?

[[Henry Collins|Collins]] would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>Mr. Stripling. Are you a member of the Communist Party?

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 40</ref> [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html Hiss met] [[Whittaker Chambers]]. According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>[[#refHK03|Haynes, Klehr 2003]]: 143-146</ref> and veteran of the [[Bela Kuhn]] revolution,<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> [[J. Peters]];<ref>[[#refChambers52| Chambers 1952]]: 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a [[#refHissAppellate|free-lance]] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html writer] looking for a story.

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 40</ref> [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html Hiss met] [[Whittaker Chambers]]. According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>[[#refHK03|Haynes, Klehr 2003]]: 143-146</ref> and veteran of the [[Bela Kuhn]] revolution,<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> [[J. Peters]];<ref>[[#refChambers52| Chambers 1952]]: 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a [[#refHissAppellate|free-lance]] [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html writer] looking for a story.

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm radical] novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]]<ref>Philip A. Greasley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnuYKJSoHCMC Dictionary of Midwestern Literature: The Authors],'' (Indiana University Press, 2001) ISBN 0253336090, p. 264</ref> and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground<ref>[[#refHerman99|Herman 1999]]: 85</ref> subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756. Herbst would be the first journalist to learn that Hiss' friend and teacher, José Robles, had been secretly [http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/05/books/a-life-of-passionate-commitments.html?&pagewanted=all executed by the Communists].</ref> Correspondence between Herrmann and Herbst confirms Chambers' testimony "to the detriment of Hiss";<ref>David D. Anderson, "John Herrmann, Midwestern Modern, Part II: The Alger Hiss Case and the Midwestern Literary Connection," ''[http://www.ssml.org/publications/midwest/mm_1991.pdf Midwestern Miscellany'' XIX] (East Lansing, MI: The Midwestern Press, 1991), p. 46</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann&mdash;[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer a "lie,"] according to Herbst's biographer.

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm radical] novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]]<ref>Philip A. Greasley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZnuYKJSoHCMC Dictionary of Midwestern Literature: The Authors],'' (Indiana University Press, 2001) ISBN 0253336090, p. 264</ref> and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground<ref>[[#refHerman99|Herman 1999]]: 85</ref> subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756. Herbst would be the first journalist to learn that Hiss's friend and teacher, José Robles, had been secretly [http://www.nytimes.com/1984/08/05/books/a-life-of-passionate-commitments.html?&pagewanted=all executed by the Communists].</ref> Correspondence between Herrmann and Herbst confirms Chambers' testimony "to the detriment of Hiss";<ref>David D. Anderson, "John Herrmann, Midwestern Modern, Part II: The Alger Hiss Case and the Midwestern Literary Connection," ''[http://www.ssml.org/publications/midwest/mm_1991.pdf Midwestern Miscellany'' XIX] (East Lansing, MI: The Midwestern Press, 1991), p. 46</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann&mdash;[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer a "lie,"] according to Herbst's biographer.

===Justice Department===

===Justice Department===

In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the [http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Solictor General], where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 645 (PDF 155)</ref> ([http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 which ruled] the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).

In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the [http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Solictor General], where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 645 (PDF 155)</ref> ([http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 which ruled] the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).

====Hiss' 1929 Ford====

====Hiss's 1929 Ford====

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>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold<ref> "I sold him an automobile." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> or given<ref>Mr. Hiss...I don't think I got any

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>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold<ref> "I sold him an automobile." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> or given<ref>Mr. Hiss...I don't think I got any

compensation. Mr. Stripling. You just gave him the car? Mr. Hiss. I think the car just went right in with it... Mr. Stripling. What kind of a bill of sale did you give Crosley? Mr. Hiss. I think I just turned over&mdash;in the District you get a certificate of title, I think it is, I think I just simply turned it over to him. Mr. Stripling. Handed it to him? Mr. Hiss. Yes. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 958-959 (PDF 468-469)</ref> or loaned<ref>Hiss: "my letting Crosley use the Ford... it is even possible that he returned it to me after using it... Whether I gave him the car outright, whether the car came back, I don't know." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1093, 1095, 1104 (PDF 603, 605, 614)</ref> the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> 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 [[#refCohen93|after he claimed to have gotten rid of it]].

compensation. Mr. Stripling. You just gave him the car? Mr. Hiss. I think the car just went right in with it... Mr. Stripling. What kind of a bill of sale did you give Crosley? Mr. Hiss. I think I just turned over&mdash;in the District you get a certificate of title, I think it is, I think I just simply turned it over to him. Mr. Stripling. Handed it to him? Mr. Hiss. Yes. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 958-959 (PDF 468-469)</ref> or loaned<ref>Hiss: "my letting Crosley use the Ford... it is even possible that he returned it to me after using it... Whether I gave him the car outright, whether the car came back, I don't know." [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1093, 1095, 1104 (PDF 603, 605, 614)</ref> the car [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html to Chambers] in June 1935, after buying a new car.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 957 (PDF 467)</ref> 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 [[#refCohen93|after he claimed to have gotten rid of it]].

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1056 (PDF 566); [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 47</ref> Rosen would [[#refHissAppellate|refuse to answer]] questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[[#refHissAppellate|U.S. v Hiss]]</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

Chambers' version would be corroborated by the car's certificate of title, which showed that Hiss actually transferred the car on July 23, 1936, to the Cherner Motor Company, which [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html sold it the same day] to the [[Communist]]<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 60</ref> William Rosen for $25. The company's records of the transaction had vanished.<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1056 (PDF 566); [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 47</ref> Rosen would [[#refHissAppellate|refuse to answer]] questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[[#refHissAppellate|U.S. v Hiss]]</ref> Hiss's attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a [[#refNYRB|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>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53</ref>}}

{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a [[#refNYRB|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>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 53</ref>}}

The title transfer bore a signature Hiss acknowledged to be his own, notarized by Hiss' [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell the [[HUAC|Thomas committee]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer,<ref>Mr. STRIPLING. I show you a photostatic copy of an assignment of title which was... subpenaed from the files, of the Vehicles and Traffic Division of the District of Columbia... It states in part... "Assignment of title. For value received the undersigned hereby sells, assigns, or transfer unto (name of purchaser)"; then, written in is "Cherner Motor Company; address, 1781 Florida Avenue, Northwest"... It says, "Signature of Assignor, Alger Hiss." Then it says, "On the 23d day of July 1936, before me, the subscriber, a notary public of the District of Columbia, personally appeared Alger Hiss, who made oath in due form of law that the above statements are true. Witness my hand and notarial seal, W. Marvin Smith, Notary Public." Is that your signature, Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH. It sure does look like it. Mr. STRIPLING. You say it does? Mr. SMITH. Yes; I have no doubt it is. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1072 (PDF 582)</ref> but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would plunge down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to his [[death]]; 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's [[Justice Department]] colleague W. Marvin Smith. In 1948 Smith would tell the [[HUAC|Thomas committee]] that he had notarized Hiss's signature on the transfer,<ref>Mr. STRIPLING. I show you a photostatic copy of an assignment of title which was... subpenaed from the files, of the Vehicles and Traffic Division of the District of Columbia... It states in part... "Assignment of title. For value received the undersigned hereby sells, assigns, or transfer unto (name of purchaser)"; then, written in is "Cherner Motor Company; address, 1781 Florida Avenue, Northwest"... It says, "Signature of Assignor, Alger Hiss." Then it says, "On the 23d day of July 1936, before me, the subscriber, a notary public of the District of Columbia, personally appeared Alger Hiss, who made oath in due form of law that the above statements are true. Witness my hand and notarial seal, W. Marvin Smith, Notary Public." Is that your signature, Mr. Smith? Mr. SMITH. It sure does look like it. Mr. STRIPLING. You say it does? Mr. SMITH. Yes; I have no doubt it is. [[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1072 (PDF 582)</ref> but before he could so testify in the Hiss [[trial]], Smith would plunge down a five-story Justice Department stairwell to his [[death]]; 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>

====Hede Massing and Noel Field====

====Hede Massing and Noel Field====

[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Alexander Vassiliev's notes on an April 1936 report from Hede Massing to Moscow Center. ''Image source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[#refFieldUK|Soviet intelligence source]]) [[Noel Field]], Hiss argued with [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]] that Field should work with Hiss' [[GRU]] group, rather than Massing's OGPU group, according to Massing.<ref>Hede Massing, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=cogGAQAAIAAJ&pgis=1 This Deception]'' (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951), p. 335. Massing's account is corroborated by Czech archives. Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation: Revelations of Karel Kaplan, June 29, 1977, [http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000028650/0000028650_0015.gif p. 5] (CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room)</ref>

[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|250px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Alexander Vassiliev's notes on an April 1936 report from Hede Massing to Moscow Center. ''Image source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[#refFieldUK|Soviet intelligence source]]) [[Noel Field]], Hiss argued with [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]] that Field should work with Hiss's [[GRU]] group, rather than Massing's OGPU group, according to Massing.<ref>Hede Massing, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=cogGAQAAIAAJ&pgis=1 This Deception]'' (New York: Duell, Sloan and Pearce, 1951), p. 335. Massing's account is corroborated by Czech archives. Central Intelligence Agency memorandum for Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation: Revelations of Karel Kaplan, June 29, 1977, [http://www.foia.cia.gov/docs/DOC_0000028650/0000028650_0015.gif p. 5] (CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room)</ref>

[[Noel Field|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>[[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 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 [[USSR|Soviets]]."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''[http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/museum/about_us/curriculum_vitae.html Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe]'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field&mdash;The American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge: From the Hungarian Archives,” ''American Communist History'' 3, no. 2 (December 2004); Mária Schmidt, "The Hiss Dossier: A Historian's Report," ''The New Republic'', November 8, 1993, pp. 17-20</ref>

[[Noel Field|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>[[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 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 [[USSR|Soviets]]."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''[http://www.terrorhaza.hu/en/museum/about_us/curriculum_vitae.html Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe]'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field&mdash;The American Communist at the Center of Stalin’s East European Purge: From the Hungarian Archives,” ''American Communist History'' 3, no. 2 (December 2004); Mária Schmidt, "The Hiss Dossier: A Historian's Report," ''The New Republic'', November 8, 1993, pp. 17-20</ref>

The transcripts also record [[Noel Field|Field]] [[#refTanenhaus93|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; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> Shortly before his [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/arts/hermann-field-wartime-prisoner-and-novelist-90.html death in 2001], Field's brother Hermann said the dossier was accurate; Noel Field confirmed to him, said his brother, that [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0506&week=d&msg=TtrUE8GbtON64EPU7AQOzA&user=&pw= Hiss was a spy].

The transcripts also record [[Noel Field|Field]] [[#refTanenhaus93|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; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> Shortly before his [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/03/02/arts/hermann-field-wartime-prisoner-and-novelist-90.html death in 2001], Field's brother Hermann said the dossier was accurate; Noel Field confirmed to him, said his brother, that [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0506&week=d&msg=TtrUE8GbtON64EPU7AQOzA&user=&pw= Hiss was a spy].

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс&mdash;"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], [[Hede Massing|Massing]] complains to [[Moscow]] that [[Field]] (whom she refers to by his code name "Ernst")<ref>R.C.S. Trahair, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VNSMrps8mpcC Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations]'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0313319553, p. 76</ref> "was approached by Alger Hiss" (Massing uses his real name), who "informed him that he is a Communist" with "ties to an organization working for the Sov. Union" &mdash;a serious breach of discipline. (A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist.")<ref>[[#refVasYellow2|Vassiliev Yellow Notebook #2]]: Orig. 3; Trans. 4; cf. [[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 6; [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 6-7</ref> As a result, noted [[Boris Bazarov]], [[OGPU]] "illegal" station chief for the [[United States]], Field "and Hiss [Bazarov also used Hiss' real name] [[#refPowers2000|have been openly identified]]" as [[USSR|Soviet]] agents.<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 7; [[#refPowers04|Powers 2004]]: 89; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 228</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс&mdash;"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], [[Hede Massing|Massing]] complains to [[Moscow]] that [[Field]] (whom she refers to by his code name "Ernst")<ref>R.C.S. Trahair, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=VNSMrps8mpcC Encyclopedia of Cold War Espionage, Spies, and Secret Operations]'' (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0313319553, p. 76</ref> "was approached by Alger Hiss" (Massing uses his real name), who "informed him that he is a Communist" with "ties to an organization working for the Sov. Union" &mdash;a serious breach of discipline. (A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist.")<ref>[[#refVasYellow2|Vassiliev Yellow Notebook #2]]: Orig. 3; Trans. 4; cf. [[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 6; [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 6-7</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] [[#refPowers2000|have been openly identified]]" as [[USSR|Soviet]] agents.<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev  1999]]: 7; [[#refPowers04|Powers 2004]]: 89; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 228</ref>

According to [[Hede Massing|Massing]], Hiss also asked [[Noel Field|Field]] to use his connections to help Hiss get into the [[State Department]].<ref>[[#refHK03|Haynes, Klehr 2003]]: 150; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 228</ref>

According to [[Hede Massing|Massing]], Hiss also asked [[Noel Field|Field]] to use his connections to help Hiss get into the [[State Department]].<ref>[[#refHK03|Haynes, Klehr 2003]]: 150; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 228</ref>