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[[Image:Roach_to_Ladd_3-14-46.jpg|thumb|300px|FBI reports Byrnes' desire to dismiss Hiss, two years before Chambers' testimony. ''Source: [[#refSilv|FBI Silvermaster file]] [[#refSilv149|Vol. 149]], [[#refSilv149.40|p. 40]]'']][[Secretary of State]] Byrnes took seriously warnings from [[State Department]] security and the [[FBI]] that evidence existed suggesting that Hiss might be a security risk.<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 98-99</ref> By that spring, Byrnes was persuaded that Hiss was [[#refBogdanor08|working for the Communist Party]]. An FBI memo of March 14 relates a report that Byrnes "stated that HISS is to be given no further consideration for promotion or assignment to responsible duties in the Department," and that he wanted to know whether Hiss could be "dismissed summarily," adding, "Secretary BYRNES is of the definite opinion that ALGER HISS should be disposed of..."<ref>FBI memo: [[#refSilv149.40|Roach to Ladd, RE: Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, et al.]], March 14, 1946. Summary of File References to Alger Hiss, November 8, 1949, p. 20 (FBI file: [[#refSilv|Silvermaster]], [[#refSilv149|Vol. 149]], p. 40)</ref>

[[Image:Roach_to_Ladd_3-14-46.jpg|thumb|300px|FBI reports Byrnes' desire to dismiss Hiss, two years before Chambers' testimony. ''Source: [[#refSilv|FBI Silvermaster file]] [[#refSilv149|Vol. 149]], [[#refSilv149.40|p. 40]]'']][[Secretary of State]] Byrnes took seriously warnings from [[State Department]] security and the [[FBI]] that evidence existed suggesting that Hiss might be a security risk.<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 98-99</ref> By that spring, Byrnes was persuaded that Hiss was [[#refBogdanor08|working for the Communist Party]]. An FBI memo of March 14 relates a report that Byrnes "stated that HISS is to be given no further consideration for promotion or assignment to responsible duties in the Department," and that he wanted to know whether Hiss could be "dismissed summarily," adding, "Secretary BYRNES is of the definite opinion that ALGER HISS should be disposed of..."<ref>FBI memo: [[#refSilv149.40|Roach to Ladd, RE: Nathan Gregory Silvermaster, et al.]], March 14, 1946. Summary of File References to Alger Hiss, November 8, 1949, p. 20 (FBI file: [[#refSilv|Silvermaster]], [[#refSilv149|Vol. 149]], p. 40)</ref>

On May 15, the State Department prepared a Top Secret chart identifying 124 loyalty or security cases on the department payroll, broken down into categories: 77 "suspects," another 13 "[[Communist]]s," an additional 14 "sympathizers," and, most ominously, a further 20 personnel identified as "agents"&mdash;one of whom was Alger Hiss. On July 26, Secretary of State Byrnes wrote to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath (D-Ill.) that security screeners had identified 284 State Department employees as unfit for permanent employent; he added that 79 of these had since left the department<ref>[[#refHerman99|Herman 1999]]: 94</ref>&mdash;leaving [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23388 205 still on the payroll]. On August 3, State Department official Samuel Klaus prepared a [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23478 106-page confidential memo] summarizing security data on each of the cases listed on the May 15 chart.<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 152-154</ref>

On May 15, the State Department prepared a Top Secret chart identifying 124 loyalty or security cases on the department payroll, broken down into categories: 77 "suspects," another 13 "[[Communist]]s," an additional 14 "sympathizers," and, most ominously, a further 20 personnel identified as "agents"&mdash;one of whom was Alger Hiss. Two weeks later, FBI Special Agent Mickey Ladd reported to Director Hoover that Panuch reported to the bureau that Alger Hiss was part of “an enormous espionage ring in Washington” working for the Soviets.<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, Secrecy: the American Experience (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300080794, p. 69</ref> On July 26, Secretary of State Byrnes wrote to Congressman Adolph J. Sabath (D-Ill.) that security screeners had identified 284 State Department employees as unfit for permanent employent; he added that 79 of these had since left the department<ref>[[#refHerman99|Herman 1999]]: 94</ref>&mdash;leaving [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23388 205 still on the payroll]. On August 3, State Department official Samuel Klaus prepared a [http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23478 106-page confidential memo] summarizing security data on each of the cases listed on the May 15 chart.<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 152-154</ref>

That year, [[British]] intelligence supplied its order of battle against [[Soviet]]-led guerrillas in [[Greece]] to the [[Pentagon]]. Shortly thereafter, this top-secret information appeared in the column of Drew Pearson<ref>Jim Heintze, [http://www.library.american.edu/pearson/biography.html Biography of Drew Pearson], February 9, 2006 (Drew Pearson Papers, American University Library Collections)</ref> (whose reporter, [[David Karr]], was a "competent KGB source"),<ref>Yevgenia Albats, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9PBjk03E814C The State Within a State: The KGB And Its Hold on Russia Past, Present and Future]'' (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1994), pp. 250-251; Yevgenia Albats, "Senator Edward Kennedy Requested KGB Assistance With a Profitable Contract for his Businessman-Friend," ''Izvestia'', June 24, 1992, p. 5. Albats adds that Karr "submitted information to the KGB on the technical capabilities of the United States and other capitalist countries." Cf. [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 139; [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 247. See also Venona decrypt [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jul_sammuel_krafsur.pdf 998 KGB New York to Moscow 15 July 1944]. Another Pearson legman, Andrew Older, was identified under oath by FBI undercover operative Mary Markward as a secret member of the Communist Party in Washington, DC. [http://ia341033.us.archive.org/1/items/securitygovernme0102unit/securitygovernme0102unit_bw.pdf Security Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 1], Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 83rd Cong., 1st Sess., August 17-18, 1953 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 16 (PDF p. 20); cf. Westbrook Pegler, "Close Scansion of Record Discovers Curious Matter," King Features Syndicate and [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19510721&id=rs0KAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3702,4106542 ''The Deseret News'', July 21, 1951, p. 2B]</ref> forcing the British army to withdraw, a move that would have delivered Greece to the [[Kremlin]] had not the U.S. intervened. According to de Toledano, “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, tracked down the source of the leak. He discovered that Hiss had asked the Pentagon for this information, though it had [[#refToledano97|nothing to do]] with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”

That year, [[British]] intelligence supplied its order of battle against [[Soviet]]-led guerrillas in [[Greece]] to the [[Pentagon]]. Shortly thereafter, this top-secret information appeared in the column of Drew Pearson<ref>Jim Heintze, [http://www.library.american.edu/pearson/biography.html Biography of Drew Pearson], February 9, 2006 (Drew Pearson Papers, American University Library Collections)</ref> (whose reporter, [[David Karr]], was a "competent KGB source"),<ref>Yevgenia Albats, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9PBjk03E814C The State Within a State: The KGB And Its Hold on Russia Past, Present and Future]'' (New York: Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, 1994), pp. 250-251; Yevgenia Albats, "Senator Edward Kennedy Requested KGB Assistance With a Profitable Contract for his Businessman-Friend," ''Izvestia'', June 24, 1992, p. 5. Albats adds that Karr "submitted information to the KGB on the technical capabilities of the United States and other capitalist countries." Cf. [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 139; [[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 247. See also Venona decrypt [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jul_sammuel_krafsur.pdf 998 KGB New York to Moscow 15 July 1944]. Another Pearson legman, Andrew Older, was identified under oath by FBI undercover operative Mary Markward as a secret member of the Communist Party in Washington, DC. [http://ia341033.us.archive.org/1/items/securitygovernme0102unit/securitygovernme0102unit_bw.pdf Security Hearings Pursuant to S. Res. 40, Part 1], Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations, Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, 83rd Cong., 1st Sess., August 17-18, 1953 (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 16 (PDF p. 20); cf. Westbrook Pegler, "Close Scansion of Record Discovers Curious Matter," King Features Syndicate and [http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=336&dat=19510721&id=rs0KAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jE4DAAAAIBAJ&pg=3702,4106542 ''The Deseret News'', July 21, 1951, p. 2B]</ref> forcing the British army to withdraw, a move that would have delivered Greece to the [[Kremlin]] had not the U.S. intervened. According to de Toledano, “Deputy Assistant Secretary of State J. Anthony Panuch, in charge of security, tracked down the source of the leak. He discovered that Hiss had asked the Pentagon for this information, though it had [[#refToledano97|nothing to do]] with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”