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Alger Hiss (view source)

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By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>[[#refConquest91|Conquest 1991]]</ref> (whose victims would number [http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all over ten million]), Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to [http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Oleg Gordievsky], the [http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4126872,00.html highest-ranking] [[KGB]] officer ever to defect.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kksbT33Cb6wC Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War]'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65. In 2008, Gordievsky would become [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/7333382.stm partially paralyzed], as a result, he told Scotland Yard, of what he suspected was an assassination attempt.</ref>

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That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] ([http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1451875/Michael-Straight.html code-named "Nigel"])—an [[#refPlatt99|FDR protégé]] and intimate family friend of the President and First Lady, who was also a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa member of] the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]] (and would become an [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 153</ref> and [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/nyregion/michael-straight-who-wrote-of-connection-to-spy-ring-is-dead-at-87.html publisher of ''The New Republic'']), then working at the [[State Department]]—mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss [Akhmerov again used Hiss' real name] belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 155-156</ref>

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That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] ([http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/1451875/Michael-Straight.html code-named "Nigel"])—an [[#refPlatt99|FDR protégé]] and intimate family friend of the President and First Lady, who was also a [http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa member of] the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]] (and would become an [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 153</ref> and [http://www.nytimes.com/2004/01/05/nyregion/michael-straight-who-wrote-of-connection-to-spy-ring-is-dead-at-87.html publisher of ''The New Republic'']), then working at the [[State Department]]—mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 183-184</ref> Akhmerov worried that Straight "might guess that Hiss [Akhmerov again used Hiss's real name] belongs to our family" or "find out Hiss's nature" as a [[GRU]] agent.<ref>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 155-156</ref>

On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 [[#refHissAppellate|he said Alger Hiss loaned him]].<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 39</ref> Hiss would [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html deny making the loan], but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money [[#refNoe9|to buy furniture]] for a new house, but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 198-202</ref> and could not produce receipts for any purchases, nor explain why they had used cash from savings rather than the checking and charge accounts they otherwise used for such purchases.<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 73</ref>

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In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 25</ref> Wary after the [[#refSchwartz88|murder of Ignace Poretsky]]<ref>Poretsky ([http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 alias Ignace Reiss]) was murdered, apparently to protect the identity of Hiss' Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [[#refVenona1613|Soviet agent]] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] ([[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 105) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] ([[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 129) line is significantly diminished." ([[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat ([[#refKriv39|Krivitsky 1939]]: 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; [[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 47, 78-79), who would later go [[#refKlehr04|under cover as Vladimir Pravdin]], New York bureau chief of the Soviet government news agency TASS.</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>[[#refTanenhaus97|Tanenhaus 1997]]: 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 319. "Mr. Levine. He gave me an envelope to put away for him some 10 years ago… I asked what would happen in the event both he and Esther were liquidated, and he said, 'You would know what to do with it, you are an attorney.'" [http://ia360633.us.archive.org/0/items/hearingsregardin194802unit/hearingsregardin194802unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, Part Two], Hearings pursuant to Public Law 601, Section 121, Subsection Q (2), Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 1452 (PDF p. 80)</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of [[#refTime12.20.48|documents, hand-written memos and microfilm]].<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 40-41</ref> On the advice of [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow], former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement]'' (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991), ISBN 0-822-30975-0, p. 775</ref> Chambers made it known to the [[Soviet]] underground, via Schapiro and the ex-[[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Draper, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SlRc3KqcDygC American Communism and Soviet Russia]'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> (and former Soviet agent)<ref>[[#refKobyakov04|Kobyakov 2004]]</ref> [http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Ludwig Lore], that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would [[#refNYRB|seriously embarrass]] them," which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 318</ref>

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In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 25</ref> Wary after the [[#refSchwartz88|murder of Ignace Poretsky]]<ref>Poretsky ([http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 alias Ignace Reiss]) was murdered, apparently to protect the identity of Hiss's Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [[#refVenona1613|Soviet agent]] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] ([[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 105) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] ([[#refHaynes08|Haynes 2008]]: 129) line is significantly diminished." ([[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat ([[#refKriv39|Krivitsky 1939]]: 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; [[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 47, 78-79), who would later go [[#refKlehr04|under cover as Vladimir Pravdin]], New York bureau chief of the Soviet government news agency TASS.</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>[[#refTanenhaus97|Tanenhaus 1997]]: 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 319. "Mr. Levine. He gave me an envelope to put away for him some 10 years ago… I asked what would happen in the event both he and Esther were liquidated, and he said, 'You would know what to do with it, you are an attorney.'" [http://ia360633.us.archive.org/0/items/hearingsregardin194802unit/hearingsregardin194802unit_bw.pdf Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, Part Two], Hearings pursuant to Public Law 601, Section 121, Subsection Q (2), Committee on Un-American Activities, House of Representatives, 80th Cong., 2d Sess. (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1948), p. 1452 (PDF p. 80)</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of [[#refTime12.20.48|documents, hand-written memos and microfilm]].<ref>[[#refChambers52|Chambers 1952]]: 40-41</ref> On the advice of [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow], former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=_eUtQjseKaIC International Trotskyism, 1929-1985: A Documented Analysis of the Movement]'' (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1991), ISBN 0-822-30975-0, p. 775</ref> Chambers made it known to the [[Soviet]] underground, via Schapiro and the ex-[[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Draper, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SlRc3KqcDygC American Communism and Soviet Russia]'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> (and former Soviet agent)<ref>[[#refKobyakov04|Kobyakov 2004]]</ref> [http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Ludwig Lore], that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would [[#refNYRB|seriously embarrass]] them," which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 318</ref>

In 1939, Sayre became [[United States]] High Commissioner to the [[Philippines]], and Hiss transferred to become personal aide to Stanley Hornbeck, political advisor to the [[State Department]]'s Far Eastern Division. When Hiss first walked into the office, Hornbeck told him that he had been warned that Hiss was "a red."<ref>FBI Memorandum, March 25, 1946: Re Secretary of State James Byrnes interview with Hiss; Hiss’ response to allegations (pp. 121-124), FBI file: [[#refSilv|Silvermaster]], [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster032.pdf Vol. 32], [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster032_Folder/Silvermaster032_page123.pdf p. 2 (PDF p. 123)]</ref>

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Berle, in contrast, found his [[State Department]] career soon over. By 1948 he would be serving as chairman of [[New York]]'s Liberal Party, working for the reelection of [[President]] [[Harry Truman]]. That year, the New York bureau of the ''Christian Science Monitor'' would send a teletype to the home office in [[Boston]], relating a background interview with the party's publicity director, Arnold Beichman:

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{{cquote|From a thoroughly reliable contact: According to this informant Berle has said privately that classified material which Hiss was handling was reaching the [[Russians]]. It was coded stuff. Berle took the handling out of Hiss' hands and [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 the leaks stopped].<ref>Ralph de Toledano, "Foreward," in William F. Buckley, Jr., ed., ''[http://ia331327.us.archive.org/1/items/odysseyofafriend001922mbp/odysseyofafriend001922mbp.pdf Odyssey of a Friend: Whittaker Chambers' Letters to William F. Buckley, Jr., 1954-1961]'' (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969) ISBN 0895265672, pp. 38-39 (PDF pp. 42-43)</ref>}}

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{{cquote|From a thoroughly reliable contact: According to this informant Berle has said privately that classified material which Hiss was handling was reaching the [[Russians]]. It was coded stuff. Berle took the handling out of Hiss's hands and [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 the leaks stopped].<ref>Ralph de Toledano, "Foreward," in William F. Buckley, Jr., ed., ''[http://ia331327.us.archive.org/1/items/odysseyofafriend001922mbp/odysseyofafriend001922mbp.pdf Odyssey of a Friend: Whittaker Chambers' Letters to William F. Buckley, Jr., 1954-1961]'' (New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1969) ISBN 0895265672, pp. 38-39 (PDF pp. 42-43)</ref>}}

But in the wake of Dumbarton Oaks, Berle had been ousted as Assistant [[Secretary of State]] in charge of security, defeated by the [[State Department]]'s pro-[[Soviet]] faction, Hiss prominent among them. As Berle put it:

{{cquote|[I]n the fall of 1944 there was a difference of opinion in the [[State Department]]. I felt that the [[Russian]]s were not going to be sympathetic and cooperative....[I]ntelligence reports which were in my charge indicated a [http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3827/is_200002/ai_n8887974/ very aggressive] policy, not at all in line with the kind of cooperation everyone was hoping for. I was pressing for a pretty clean-cut showdown then when our position was strongest. The opposite group in the State Department was largely ... [[Dean Acheson|Mr. Acheson]]'s group ... with Mr. Hiss as his principal assistant in the matter.... [A]t that time Mr. Hiss did take what we would call today the pro-Russian point of view....<ref>[[#refSISS53|SISS 1953]]: 28 (PDF p. 34). J. Anthony Panuch concurred: “Mr. Acheson and Mr. Hiss at the time I was in the department were sympathetic to the Soviet policy.” (Chesly Manly, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/14_02/manly.pdf Acheson's Apologia]," ''Modern Age'', Spring 1970, pp. 203-204 [PDF pp. 1-2])</ref> I got trimmed in that fight, and, as a result, went to [[Brazil]], and that ended my diplomatic career.<ref>M. Stanton Evans, "[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=453 McCarthyism: Waging the Cold War in America]," ''Human Events'', May 30, 1997</ref>}}

===House Committee on Un-American Activities===

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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>[[#refAG90|Andrew, Gordievsky 1990]]: 287</ref> 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.)—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,"] who, under the pretext of investigating U.S. fascists,<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 78; Trans. 155</ref> was secretly paid by Moscow (during the Great Depression) more than $12,000<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 140-150</ref> (equivalent to more than [[#refBLS|$180,000 today]]) 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 [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/v011/11.3.fox.pdf Trotskyites].<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 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.<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 78; Trans. 155</ref>

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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's 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>[[#refAG90|Andrew, Gordievsky 1990]]: 287</ref> 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.)—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,"] who, under the pretext of investigating U.S. fascists,<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 78; Trans. 155</ref> was secretly paid by Moscow (during the Great Depression) more than $12,000<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 140-150</ref> (equivalent to more than [[#refBLS|$180,000 today]]) 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 [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/v011/11.3.fox.pdf Trotskyites].<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 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.<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 78; Trans. 155</ref>

In the midst of the [[Nazi-Soviet pact|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 [[Attorney General's list|Communist front]] the following year by [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]]'s [[Attorney General]] Francis Biddle.<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 55 (n. 6), 610</ref> Included on the roster was the name of Priscilla Hiss,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 329; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 48</ref> with the notation appended, "[[Husband]] with [[State Department]]."<ref>[[#refNKVD|NKVD]]: [[#refSilv82.120|109 (PDF 120)]], [[#refSilv|FBI Silvermaster file]]</ref>

===Federal Bureau of Investigation===

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[[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, [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm FOIA Reading Room], Federal Bureau of Investigation'']]As mandated by the [[Hatch Act]], this [[HUAC]] finding triggered an [[FBI]] background investigation of Hiss,<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 971 (PDF 481)</ref> 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." ([[#refSISS53|SISS 1953]]: 1110 [PDF 50])</ref>

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[[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, [http://foia.fbi.gov/foiaindex/foiaindex.htm FOIA Reading Room], Federal Bureau of Investigation'']]As mandated by the [[Hatch Act]], this [[HUAC]] finding triggered an [[FBI]] background investigation of Hiss,<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 971 (PDF 481)</ref> in the course of which one of Hiss's 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." ([[#refSISS53|SISS 1953]]: 1110 [PDF 50])</ref>

After ex-[[OGPU]] agent<ref>[[#refKobyakov04|Kobyakov 2004]]</ref> Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] to the [[FBI]] as a former [[USSR|Soviet]] agent,<ref>Edith Tiger, ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=NKrwQAAACAAJ In Re Alger Hiss Volume II]'' (New York: Hill and Wang, 1980), pp. 208-209; [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 156-158</ref> the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers [[#refChronology|for the first time]] in 1942.<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 340</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>FBI Memorandum: Conroy to Hoover, March 28, 1946, FBI file: [http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm Silvermaster], [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster031.pdf Vol. 31], [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster031_Folder/Silvermaster031_page50.pdf p. 50]. Cf [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from the controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]] (code-named "Moliere"),<ref>[[#refVStory|Benson/NSA]]: 43 (PDF 45)</ref> who was under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]] "Pavel B. Mikhailov,"<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence Lt. Gen. [[Pavel Fitin]] ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf code-named "Viktor"]) in Moscow,<ref>[[#refRafalko2-4|Rafalko, Vol. 2, Ch. 4]]: 221 (PDF 6)</ref> identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors")<ref>[[#refVStory|Benson/NSA]]: 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref> reported someone "from the [[State Department]] [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf by the name of Hiss]."

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Privately, Roosevelt's cardiologist was more candid: At the conference, Roosevelt “was obviously greatly fatigued,” he observed. “His color was very poor (gray).”<ref>Edward Shorter, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=3scUP7B_R7kC Doctors and Their Patients: A Social History]'', 3rd Ed. (Transaction Publishers, 1991) ISBN 088738871X, p. 100</ref> Dr. Roger Lee, then president of the American Medical Association, wrote during Yalta that Roosevelt “was irascible and became very irritable if he had to concentrate his mind for long. If anything was brought up that wanted thinking out he would change the subject.”<ref>[[#refWilson2002|Wilson 2002]]: 276</ref>

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During pre-conference negotiations with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, regarding the war with Japan, "Mr. Hiss brought up the question of China," according to Stettinius, "and stressed the importance which the United States attaches to U.S.-British-Soviet encouragement and support for an agreement between the [[Comintern|Commintern]] [sic] and the Chinese Congress [sic]."<ref>[[#refStettinius75|Stettinius 1975]]: 229. The official State Department record uses the passive voice to expunge Hiss' role in this maneuver: "The desirability of unity being achieved between the [[Kuomintang]] and the [[Communists]] was raised, and reference was made to the President having some doubts as to whether the British desired this unity." Meeting of the Foreign Ministers, February 1, 1945, 10:30 A.M., on Board H. M. S. "Sirius" in Grand Harbor. [[#refFRUS45|FRUS 1945]]: [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS1945&isize=XL&submit=Go+to+page&page=502 502] Press accounts relying on this bowdlerized official account thus reported, e.g.: "Alger Hiss, whose role at the Yalta conference long has been a subject for hostile speculation, spent his time there [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40C11F6345A107A93CAA81788D85F418585F9 exclusively on planning for the United Nations]."</ref> The British, due to their interests in Hong Kong and Singapore, had influence with the [[Kuomintang]], but none with the [[Communists]]; the Soviets, who did have influence with the Communists, were not present (because they were [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/smenu.asp not at war with Japan]). The only effect Hiss had in bringing up the issue therefore was to co-opt the British to pressure the Chinese government into acquiescing to a [[Kremlin]]-backed power-sharing arrangement with the rebels, thus granting a measure of legitimacy to forces dedicated to its destruction—a policy that would prove [http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1c1d76bb-290c-447b-82dd-e295ff0d3d59 catastrophic for the Chinese].<ref>After the fall of the Nationalist Chinese government, Communist Chinese dictator Mao Zedong "was responsible for [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1069136,00.html well over 70 million] deaths in peacetime, more than any other 20th-century leader," according to Jung Chang, a former [http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/ommoverride/teacher_guide_wild_swans.pdf member of Mao's Red Guards]. [[#refChang05|Chang 2005]]: 3</ref>

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During pre-conference negotiations with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, regarding the war with Japan, "Mr. Hiss brought up the question of China," according to Stettinius, "and stressed the importance which the United States attaches to U.S.-British-Soviet encouragement and support for an agreement between the [[Comintern|Commintern]] [sic] and the Chinese Congress [sic]."<ref>[[#refStettinius75|Stettinius 1975]]: 229. The official State Department record uses the passive voice to expunge Hiss's role in this maneuver: "The desirability of unity being achieved between the [[Kuomintang]] and the [[Communists]] was raised, and reference was made to the President having some doubts as to whether the British desired this unity." Meeting of the Foreign Ministers, February 1, 1945, 10:30 A.M., on Board H. M. S. "Sirius" in Grand Harbor. [[#refFRUS45|FRUS 1945]]: [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS1945&isize=XL&submit=Go+to+page&page=502 502] Press accounts relying on this bowdlerized official account thus reported, e.g.: "Alger Hiss, whose role at the Yalta conference long has been a subject for hostile speculation, spent his time there [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40C11F6345A107A93CAA81788D85F418585F9 exclusively on planning for the United Nations]."</ref> The British, due to their interests in Hong Kong and Singapore, had influence with the [[Kuomintang]], but none with the [[Communists]]; the Soviets, who did have influence with the Communists, were not present (because they were [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/smenu.asp not at war with Japan]). The only effect Hiss had in bringing up the issue therefore was to co-opt the British to pressure the Chinese government into acquiescing to a [[Kremlin]]-backed power-sharing arrangement with the rebels, thus granting a measure of legitimacy to forces dedicated to its destruction—a policy that would prove [http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?1c1d76bb-290c-447b-82dd-e295ff0d3d59 catastrophic for the Chinese].<ref>After the fall of the Nationalist Chinese government, Communist Chinese dictator Mao Zedong "was responsible for [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1069136,00.html well over 70 million] deaths in peacetime, more than any other 20th-century leader," according to Jung Chang, a former [http://www.harpercollins.com/harperimages/ommoverride/teacher_guide_wild_swans.pdf member of Mao's Red Guards]. [[#refChang05|Chang 2005]]: 3</ref>

Ultimately, [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] made a secret agreement with [[Stalin]] ([[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] was [http://www.pbs.org/behindcloseddoors/in-depth/the-conferences.html#Argonaut2 not informed]), giving [[Moscow]] rights to the main Manchurian railroad and territory in northern China.<ref>Tsuyoshi Hasegawa, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=XjW49VTRhxQC The End of the Pacific War: Reappraisals]'' (Stanford University Press, 2007) ISBN 0804754276, p. 156</ref> U.S. Ambassador to China Patrick J. Hurley resigned in protest,<ref>Laura Tyson Li, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=tnbMSIL077wC Madame Chiang Kai-Shek: China's Eternal First Lady]'' (Open City Books, 2006) ISBN 0871139332, p. 267</ref> alleging the existence of a "Communist conspiracy within the State Department."<ref>Don Lohbeck, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=eJ44AAAAIAAJ Patrick J. Hurley]'' (H. Regnery Co., 1956), p. 447</ref> Hiss would later deny under oath any role in China policy at Yalta, or in the subsequent State Department proclamation calling for "peace and unity with the Communists in China," saying "It was not in my area of activity at all." Hiss admitted that he "had been connected with far eastern affairs before," but protested that after "about February 1944, [a year before he "stressed the importance" of unity with the Communists] I was assigned to United Nations work and specialized entirely in that field thereafter."<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 657 (PDF 167)</ref>

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[[Image:Hiss2.jpg|thumb|left|300 px|The name "Alger Hiss" in English, from Vassiliev's notes on Perlo's March 15, 1945 list to Moscow Center. ''Image courtesy [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]On March 15, [[Victor Perlo]] ([http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html code-named "Raid"]) gave Moscow (in English) a list of people not in his "[[Perlo group]]" whom he knew worked with [[Soviet]] intelligence. Included on that list was the name "Alger Hiss."<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 14. Cf. [[#refVasWhite3|Vassiliev White Notebook #3]]: Orig. 40; Trans. 78</ref> Five days later, [[State Department]] security officer Raymond Murphy interviewed Chambers. Murphy's notes record that Chambers reiterated his identification of Hiss as a member of the Communist Party underground apparatus, but added that he was also the leader of a cell and not merely a Communist but, said Chambers, an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party," as well as an [[espionage]] agent who "disclosed much confidential matter."<ref>[[#refSISS16|SISS pt. 16]]: 1182 (PDF 122)</ref>

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On March 24, [[FBI]] agent E.A. Tamm, assistant to FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], alerted Robert Lynch, Special Assistant to the [[Secretary of State]], to [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' allegations that Hiss had been a member of the underground organization of the [[Communist Party]], and to Hiss' links to [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]]. After interviewing Hiss the next day,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the [[State Department]] Division of Foreign Activity Correlation, a summary memorandum outlining this information.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> On March 26, State Department security officer Robert Bannerman sent Donald Russell, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, a comprehensive secret report on Chambers' allegations regarding Hiss, recommending "that immediate action be taken to terminate Mr. Hiss's services with the Department."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 364</ref>

+

On March 24, [[FBI]] agent E.A. Tamm, assistant to FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]], alerted Robert Lynch, Special Assistant to the [[Secretary of State]], to [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' allegations that Hiss had been a member of the underground organization of the [[Communist Party]], and to Hiss's links to [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]]. After interviewing Hiss the next day,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the [[State Department]] Division of Foreign Activity Correlation, a summary memorandum outlining this information.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> On March 26, State Department security officer Robert Bannerman sent Donald Russell, Assistant Secretary of State for Administration, a comprehensive secret report on Chambers' allegations regarding Hiss, recommending "that immediate action be taken to terminate Mr. Hiss's services with the Department."<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 364</ref>

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