Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Alger Hiss

2009-05-18T21:25:16Z

Wahida: /* Early life */ readability

[[Image:Hiss2.png|thumb|300px|right|Alger Hiss. ''Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Prisons'']]
'''Alger Hiss''' (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a high-ranking [[U.S. State Department]] official<ref>"....Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official...." Press Release: [http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2000/nr00-02.html National Archives to Make Available Alger Hiss Grand Jury Materials], United States National Archives and Records Administration, October 11, 1999</ref> and Secretary General of the founding conference of the [[United Nations]],<ref>"...served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945." [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00190 Hiss, Alger. Prison Correspondence, 1951-1954: Finding Aid], Harvard Law School Library</ref>. He was [[conviction|convicted]] of [[perjury]] in 1950, after denying that he had been a [[Soviet]] agent.

"Belief in the guilt or [[innocence]] of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in [[American]] intellectual life," wrote [[Senator]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] (D.-N.Y.), who was instrumental in securing the release of [[FBI]] and [[Venona project]] files on the case, which had been classified for half a century. Concluded the [[liberal]] [[Democrat]]<ref>"....Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat...." Louis Uchitelle, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all The Rehabilitation of Morning in America]," ''The New York Times'', February 23, 1997</ref> in 1998: "Parts of the [[United States government|American government]] had [[conclusion|conclusive]] [[evidence]] of his guilt, but they never told."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref>

==Early life==
Alger Hiss was born November 11, 1904, in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]],<ref>"I was born in Baltimore. Md., on November 11, 1904." [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a [[financial|financially]] comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>"...an upper-middle-class Presbyterian family. The Hiss family was financially comfortable...." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library. The Hisses were "prominent, respected people. They kept their own horse and carriage, and on occasion [Alger's father] would hire a private railroad car for a family outing. They were seen at concerts and art galleries, they cultivated a life of good taste and literary interests, they knew everyone they wanted to know in Baltimore, they belonged to the best clubs, and they were recognized wherever they went." (John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss, the True Story]'' [Geneva, Ill.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976] ISBN 0030137764, p. 34)</ref> WASP [[family]].<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397. "Alger's mother claimed descent from the Earl of Leicester and, on her mother's side, a leading Baltimore family, the Grundys." (Lance Morrow, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CEC30zxnXSMC The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948: Learning the Secrets of Power]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2005] ISBN 0465047238, P. 248)</ref> Alger's [[father]], who was an [[executive]] with a wholesale dry goods [[firm]],<ref>"...an executive in a wholesale dry-goods firm..." Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''The New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed [[suicide]] by slashing his throat with a razor when the boy was just two years old.<ref>"Alger Hiss's father committed suicide rather savagely, slashing his throat with his own razor." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Hiss was 25, his [[sister]] Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>"....Mary Ann... had swallowed a bottle of Lysol, killing herself." 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. 5</ref> Alger's older [[brother]] Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a [[kidney]] disorder aggravated by his excessive [[alcohol]] consumption.<ref>"Bos.... drank a lot... and contracted Bright's disease, an alcohol-induced kidney ailment...." Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in 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. 158; "Bosley... died... of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by Bosley's overindulgence in alcohol." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>

===Johns Hopkins University===
As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." 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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

===Harvard Law School===
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to [[Harvard Law School]], where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> who was attending [[Harvard]] Business School. Collins would later be identified as a [[Soviet]] agent by chief of [[Soviet intelligence]] in the U.S. [[Anatoly Gorsky]]<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> and by another friend at Harvard, [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] official [[Laurence Duggan]]<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 202. It was apparently to protect Duggan's identity that Ignace Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was murdered (Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 [October 24, 2005]): A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." (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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009] ISBN 0300123906, p 232) Poretsky was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004) Five days after Duggan's interview with the FBI (during which he would implicate [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]]), Hiss would be indicted by a grand jury; five days after that, Duggan would [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 jump or be thrown] from his New York office window to his death, ("[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html The Man in the Widow]," ''Time'', January 3, 1949) leading his friend (and father's protégé), Edward R. Murrow, to broadcast a [http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/murrow/exhibit/iie2.html scathing] denunciation of Red-hunters in the U.S. government for hounding an [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf allegedly] innocent man to his grave. (Stephen Hunter, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100602012.html 'Good Night': A Gray Era In Stark Black And White]," ''The Washington Post'', October 7, 2005, p. C01)</ref> (himself identified by [[Comintern]] courier [[Whittaker Chambers]],<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]],<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 202-203</ref> and [[Venona]] decrypts).<ref>e.g, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/30jun_british_invasion.pdf MGB 1025, 1035-6 New York to Moscow, June 30, 1943, p. 2]</ref> Hiss served on the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'' under editor [[Lee Pressman]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> who would eventually [[testify]] that he had been a member of an [[Ware group|underground group of Communists in the Federal government]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Hiss became the protégé of one [[instructor]], future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], [[Chief Justice]] of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this [[country]]."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> Frankfurter was at the time the leading champion of the [[conviction|convicted]] [[murder|murderers]] [[Sacco and Vanzetti]],<ref>Felix Frankfurter, "[http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/frankff.htm The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''The Atlantic'', March 1927; Felix Frankfurter, ''The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen'' (Buffalo: Wm. S. Hein & Co., 2003) ISBN 157588805X</ref> [[revolution|revolutionary]] [[terrorist|terrorists]] who became a Communist<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Enigma Books, rev. ed. 2004) ISBN 1929631200, pp. 31-37</ref> ''cause célèbre'',<ref>John F. Neville, ''Twentieth-Century Cause Celebre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0275977838 p. 101. Hiss' Harvard classmate, fellow State Department official and [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Soviet intelligence source] Noel Field would later write, "The shock of the Sacco-Vanzetti executions drove me leftward."(Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978], ISBN 0394495462, p. 199)</ref> and whom Alger Hiss would later emulate.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E3D7DC83-5DEE-4B84-857A-DF85A526E91C Alger Hiss: Recruiting Poster for the Left]," FrontPageMagazine.com, February 25, 2004. New evidence [http://hnn.us/articles/4527.html suggests] that Sacco and Vanzetti were [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/01/28/uptonsinclair-boston.html guilty].</ref>

==Early Career==
[[Sacco and Vanzetti]] had been members of a [[terrorist]] group known as the Galleanists,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, pp. 59-60; Annie Anderson, "[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3100/the_lessons_of_sacco_and_vanzetti/ The Lessons of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''In These Times'', March 27, 2007</ref> which was responsible for the May Day 1919 attempted bombing of a number of public figures,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 146; Paul Berman, "[http://www.slate.com/id/3135/ The Refractory Ones: Sacco, Vanzetti, and Timothy McVeigh]," Slate.com, August 20, 1997</ref> including [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 143; "[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9406E3D61238EE32A25752C0A9639C946896D6CF 36 Were Marked as Victims by Bomb Conspirers]," ''The New York Times'', May 1, 1919, p. 1; [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=438 The Postwar Red Scare], Digital History (University of Houston)</ref> Ironically, when Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, [[Felix Frankfurter|Frankfurter]] got him the [[covet|coveted]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of law clerk to Holmes.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949.</ref> Influential as Frankfurter was, Hiss said he was probably even more influenced by Holmes,<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/daynight.html James Day interview with Alger Hiss] for ''[http://www.cuny.tv/series/dayatnight/listen.lasso?year=1974 Day at Night]'' (CUNY-TV), 1974</ref> whom Hiss admired as "a [[skeptic]] of the first order" who "denied the [[existence]] of [[God]]."<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 58</ref> The same year, Hiss [[marriage|married]] the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party [[presidential]] [[nominee]] [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref> Hiss had had met her on a transatlantic cruise when he was nineteen,<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 11</ref> but since then she'd had a [[marriage]], a [[Mexican]] [[divorce]],<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Meyer Zeligs Papers] (October 13, 1963), Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, cited in Ivan Chen, [http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ivan_chen Alger Hiss, 1926-1929], p. 31</ref> a child by a married man and an [[abortion]].<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 158-159</ref>

[[Image:Wobbly boy.jpg|thumb|100px|right|I.W.W. Little Red Songbook. ''Image courtesy Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear)'']]Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in [[Boston]] and [[New York City|New York]] where, by 1932, his [[wife]] Priscilla had registered as a member of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003); Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> By then, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of American Labor Associates, and Hiss was becoming "[[radical|radicalized]],"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining (together with [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]])<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> the International Juridical Association (IJA), which "consistently followed the [[Communist Party]] line."<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref>

During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing [[radical|radicalism]]. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[terrorist]]<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9502E2DB1439E13ABC4D53DFBF668383609EDE I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four in Chicago]," ''The New York Times'', September 5, 1918</ref> [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (whose leader, "Big Bill" Haywood, had fled the [[U.S.]] for [[Moscow]] where he became a trusted advisor to the [[Bolshevik]] government),<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haywood/HAY_BHAY.HTM William D. Haywood], Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City)</ref> writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]] with an [[Industrial Workers of the World|I.W.W.]] tongue in thy [[socialist|socialistic]] (I couldn't bring myself to write '[[Communist|Communistic]]') cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the [[legitimacy]] of the existing “[[capitalist]] order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's<ref>MacLeish was a noted fellow traveler (David Caute, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zZ6YqBm3O2wC The Fellow-Travellers: Intellectual Friends of Communism]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988] ISBN 0300041950, p. 185). Following the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html death] of [[Laurence Duggan]]—ten days after Duggan implicated [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]], and five days after Hiss' indictment by a grand jury—MacLeish, a former Librarian of Congress, would dedicate a [http://books.google.com/books?id=KI0ESFOvi5QC&pg=PA403&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0 poem] to the late [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent], denouncing "informers" (apparently [[Hede Massing]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]], each of whom had identified Duggan) as liars.</ref> article on [[capitalism]] in last week's ''Saturday Review''? [[Felix Frankfurter|Felix]] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141. The reference is to Edmund Wilson, then an editor at ''The New Republic'' who embraced Marxism and welcomed the stock market crash of 1929 as a portent of the death of capitalism. In 1932 he voted for Communist Party presidential candidate William Z. Foster and signed a manifesto calling for "a temporary dictatorship of the class-conscious workers." (Alex Ross, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/24/030324crat_atlarge Ghost Sonata: Edmund Wilson’s adventure with Communism]," ''The New Yorker'', March 24, 2003)</ref>

==New Deal==
===Agricultural Adjustment Administration===
[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''Image courtesy Library of Congress'']]In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join [[President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, p. A14</ref> (during which the [[Soviets]] killed some 14 million people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807) p. 301</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production<ref>"...major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity by curtailing farm production..." "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, "...the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 ... designed with the specific goal of reducing agricultural production in order to raise agricultural prices..." "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States and hunger marches were taking place in cities across the country. For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.” Thomas Sowell, ''Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy'' (New York: Basic Books, 2007) 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref> The agency was the brainchild of FDR's [[Secretary of Agriculture]] (and future [[Vice President]]),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]]—who would run for President on the [[Communist]]-inspired<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456</ref> [[Progressive]] Party ticket in 1948, finally recanting his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>

In response to a query about candidates for employment at AAA, [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]], already at the agency, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] as well as [[Henry Collins|Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</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> Hiss' superior at AAA, [[New Deal]]er 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> 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> Collins would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> but another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss<ref>
:Mr. COHN. Did you know Alger Hiss to be a member of the Communist
party?
:Mr. WEYL. Yes, I did.
:Mr. COHN. Were you in the same Communist cell with Alger Hiss at one time?
:Mr. WEYL. That is correct.
…
:Mr. WEYL. ...Hiss and I were among the eight or nine people who met with the first meeting of that organization, I presume. So I was in this Communist cell with him for a period of approximately nine months.
:[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83869.pdf Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953, pp. 619-620 (PDF pp. 658-659)</ref> and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952; Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>

Ex-Communists Ralph de Sola and George Hewitt would both also testify to having seen Hiss at [[Communist Party]] meetings,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360</ref> and a former [[GRU]] station chief in [[London]] and [[New York]] reported that during the early and middle 1930s Hiss was a source of agent information for a [[Soviet]] [[espionage|spy]] ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to Pavel Sudoplatov,<ref>David Stout, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/world/pavel-sudoplatov-89-dies-top-soviet-spy-who-accused-oppenheimer.html Pavel Sudoplatov, 89, Dies; Top Soviet Spy Who Accused Oppenheimer]," ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1996</ref> former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref>

===Nye Committee===
In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (according to [[New Deal|New Dealer]]<ref>Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/books/the-truest-believer.html?pagewanted=all The Truest Believer]," ''The New York Times'', March 9, 1997</ref> Gardner Jackson),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman Gerald P. Nye (R.-N.D.)<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=n000176 Nye, Gerald Prentice (1892-1971)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the [[United States|U.S.]] into war with [[Germany]]. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive [[capitalist]]s," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref> The [[Soviets]] took great interest in the work of the committee for its [[propaganda]] value<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 115-116</ref> as well as its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> [[Moscow]] had at least one source on the staff of the committee, who provided valuable documents to the [[Kremlin]] in 1935,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 28-29</ref> the same year an agent later code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") began working for [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Nye would tell FBI investigators that he believed Hiss was a [[Communist]] at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43-44</ref> and would later say he believed Hiss used his position on the committee for [[espionage]].<ref>John E. Wiltz, ''In Search of Peace: The Senate Munitions Inquiry, 1934-1936'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963) ISBN B000GX1RX0, p. 53</ref>

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> [[J. Peters]];<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref>

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [[radical]]<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]] and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>

===Justice Department===
In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the Solictor General,<ref>[http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Office of the Solicitor General], United States Department of Justice</ref> where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>

====Hiss' 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>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold or loaned or given<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 17, 1948); [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 25, 1948)</ref> the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. 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 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

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 sold it the same day to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library</ref> The company made no record of the transaction.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:
{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53; "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</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 [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, 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====
[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|300px|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: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[Soviet intelligence]] source)<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[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, ''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/ CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room], p. 16</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>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 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 Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- 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]] 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, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс—"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent Alexander Vassiliev,<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], Authors - Random House, Inc.</ref> [[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" —a serious breach of discipline. A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist."<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6; Cf. Vassiliev's notebooks, Yellow Notebook No. 2, p. 23 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Original], PDF p. 3; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], PDF p. 4; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Translated.pdf Translated], PDF p. 4), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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] have been openly identified" as [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 7; Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89; 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. 228; Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 228</ref>

==State Department==
Hiss took a pay cut<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 5</ref> to transfer into the [[State Department]] in September 1936, the same month a [[GRU]] agent designated by the code name "Jurist" began working there.<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 12</ref> Hiss was now special assistant to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Trade Agreements Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, Alger's younger [[brother]] [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed him to [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Harvard Law School|Harvard Law]], and a clerkship for [[Oliver Wendell Holmes|Justice Holmes]], would join him at State, rising to the position of assistant to future Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>

In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by Vassiliev, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to [[Moscow]] that [[J. Peters]] (code-named "Storm")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 163; Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007; [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref> told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [the [[CPUSA]] underground]<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> who had been implanted into 'Surrogate' [cover name for the [[State Department]]]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [the [[GRU]]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref>...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>

The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four Bokhara rugs for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky]," The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>

That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an [[American]] member of the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 153</ref> and publisher of ''The New Republic''),<ref>Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07EFDB1531F936A35752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87]," ''The New York Times'', January 5, 2004</ref> then working at the [[State Department]], mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>

On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 he said Alger Hiss loaned him.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 39; ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss would deny making the loan,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html Counterattack]," ''Time'', January 2, 1950</ref> but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money to buy furniture for a new house,<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref>

In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Wary after the [[murder]] of Ignace Poretsky<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005). Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was apparently murdered to protect the identity of Hiss' Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." 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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799517,00.html Three Rings]," ''Time'', December 20, 1948; Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref> On the advice of Herbert Solow,<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow, Fortune Editor; John Dewey Aide in Trotsky Investigation Dies at 61]," ''The New York Times'', November 27, 1964, p. 35</ref> former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''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, ''American Communism and Soviet Russia'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> Ludwig Lore,<ref>[http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Letter to Eugene V. Debs in New York City from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 9, 1917]. Eugene V. Debs papers, microfilm edition: reel 2, frames 0309A-0309B. Published in J. Robert Constantine (ed.): ''Letters of Eugene V. Debs'', v. 2, pp. 292-293</ref> that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would seriously embarrass them,"<ref>David Levin, Stephen W. Salant, Athan Theoharis, Reply by Allen Weinstein, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 The Hiss Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 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. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire [[Soviet]] Intelligence source<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various [[Communist|Red]] front groups starting in 1926, and as a [[Communist Party]] member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the [[Iron Curtain]], Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss knew he was a Communist when he recommended Field as his replacement.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref>

===Nazi-Soviet Pact===
[[Image:Molotov signs.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin stand behind him, Moscow, August 23, 1939. ''Image courtesy National Archives and Records Administration'']]When in the wake of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] the [[Communist Party]] organ ''The Daily Worker'' came under suspicion for reversing its anti-[[Nazi]] posturing, [[Politburo]] member Roy Hudson<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> discussed what to do about it with Soviet agent<ref>Scotland Yard (London) Secret Special Report, No. 4, "The Case of Philip Price and Robert Minor," U.S. State Department Decimal File, 316-23-1184 9, Washington, D.C.</ref> [[Robert Minor]], according to ''Daily Worker'' editor Louis Budenz. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under suspicion at the time. According to Budenz, Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30.</ref>

That year, French Premier Édouard Daladier<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150071/Edouard-Daladier Édouard Daladier]," ''The Encyclopædia Brittanica''</ref> informed Bullitt (now [[Ambassador]] to [[France]]) that two brothers named Hiss, both in the [[U.S. government]], were [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952; "French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says," ''Washington Post'', April 9, 1952; Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002</ref> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

The year before, in [[Paris]], defecting former [[GRU]] chief in [[Europe]] Walter Krivitsky<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN 0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to Alexander Barmine,<ref>Esther Iverem, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/28/obituaries/alexander-g-barmine-88-dies-early-high-level-soviet-defector.html Alexander G. Barmine, 88, Dies; Early High-Level Soviet Defector]," ''The New York Times'', December 28, 1987</ref> former Charge d'Affairs at the [[Soviet]] [[Embassy]] in [[Athens]], who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Russian]] emigré Isaac Don Levine,<ref>[http://marbl.library.emory.edu/findingaids/content.php?id=levine700_102547 Isaac Don Levine papers, circa 1914-1978], Emory University: Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library</ref> "Everything that went on in the embassy, especially the major communications between [[Washington]] and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet [[secret police]]."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191. Loy Henderson, then charge d'affaires at the [[U.S.]] Embassy in [[Moscow]], would later confirm that at that time "in the [State] Department were a number of persons who did not hesitate to give [Litvinov] copies of my secret memoranda relating to United States-Soviet relations." (Richard D. McKinzie, "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/hendrson.htm#transcript Oral History Interview with Loy W. Henderson]," p. 22, Harry S. Truman Library)</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been [[murder]]ed,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor]," ''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a [[suicide]].<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the [[NKVD]]'s Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet [[espionage]] official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233; see also Flora Lewis, "[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/186559502.html?dids=186559502:186559502&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&fmac=&date=Feb+13%2C+1966&author=By+Flora+Lewis+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&desc=Who+Killed+Krivitsky%3F Who Killed Krivitsky?]" ''The Washington Post'', February 13, 1966, p. E1</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the Hoover Institution.)<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>

===Chambers' meeting with Berle===
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the [[Communist]] underground. As the joint [[Nazi]]-[[Soviet]] invasion of [[Poland]]<ref>William Fortescue, ''The Third Republic in France, 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2000) ISBN 0415169445, p. 231</ref> was gearing up, Levine sought to get Chambers an appointment with [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], but was diverted by the [[White House]] to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Security Adolf Berle.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 105</ref> On September 2, 1939, Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the [[Communist Party]] for employees of the [[Federal government]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<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> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>

While [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] talked, Berle took notes. Under the heading “Underground [[Espionage]] Agent,” he listed several names, including “Alger Hiss,” with the notation, “Ass’t. to Sayre—CP—1937,” and “Member of the Underground Com.—Active.”<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> In Berle's diary, the first entry after his meeting with Levine and Chambers reads:
{{cquote|Saturday night ... Isaac Don Levine ... brought a Mr. X around to my house ... Through a long evening, I slowly manipulated Mr. X to a point where he had told some of the ramifications hereabout; and it becomes necessary to take a few simple measures. I expect more of this kind of thing, later. A good deal of the [[Russian]] [[espionage]] was carried on by [[Jews]]; we know now that they are exchanging information with [[Berlin]]; and the [[Jewish]] units are furious to find out they are, in substance, working for the [[Gestapo]]...<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 55-58)</ref>}}
After Berle relayed this information to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], Levine asked Berle how FDR responded. In his 1973 memoir, Levine wrote, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an expletive remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-8</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised Alice Roosevelt Longworth<ref>Lawrence L. Knutson, "[http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wild thing]," Salon.com, June 7, 1999</ref> and de Toledano that he also took this information directly to FDR.<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

Levine also told David Dubinsky,<ref>[http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm 1993 Honoree David Dubinsky, 1892-1982], Labor Hall of Fame Honoree, United Stated Department of Labor</ref> president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1900-1995)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist Walter Winchell<ref>[http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell], Radio Hall of Fame</ref> of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>

By 1944, Hiss would be deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>Gregor Dallas, ''1945: The War that Never Ended'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300109806), p. 412</ref> In August, he organized the Dumbarton Oaks Conference,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003). Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. (Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' [Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001] ISBN 0807849502, p. 67)</ref> where he served as executive secretary,<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> presiding over the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.<ref>[http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta], History of the Charter of the United Nations (UN.org)</ref>

By 1948 Berle, ousted from the [[State Department]], would be serving as chairman of [[New York]]'s Liberal Party. 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:
{{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 the leaks stopped.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>}}
But in the wake of Dumbarton Oaks, Berle was 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 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>Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 28 (PDF p. 34)</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>}}

===Hatch Act Investigation===

In September 1940, the [[Nazi]] and [[Soviet]] armies staged a joint victory parade through the streets of occupied Brest-Litovsk, [[Poland]].<ref>Olaf Groehler, ''Selbstmorderische Allianz: Deutsch-russische Militarbeziehungen, 1920-1941'' (Berlin: Vision Verlag 1993), pp. 21-22, 123-124; Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (Columbia University Press, 1997), both cited in Benjamin B. Fischer, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter 1999–2000</ref> Hiss was at this time 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, wrote Gordievsky, was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]],<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>

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

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

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

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning:
{{cquote|I cannot keep silent any longer.... I can no longer support double-faced political maneuvers... toward collaboration with the [[United States]] and [[Britain]] while pursuing aims incompatible with such collaboration.
The [[Soviet]] Government has dissolved the [[Communist International]] but only in form.... The new democratic terminology is only a maneuver... to promote the inclusion of [[Communist]]s, obedient to the [[Kremlin]], in the future Governments... of Italy, Austria and other countries.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885439,00.html The Kravchenko Case]," ''Time'', April 17, 1944. In 1966, Kravchenko would be found [http://www.americansterling.com/ASPL_Film_Defector.asp shot] to death in his Manhattan apartment. Although his [[death]] would be ruled a [[suicide]], his son Andrew maintains that he was executed by a SMERSH assassination squad.</ref>}}

===Yalta===
A State Department internal security probe of Hiss (made public in 1993)<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> ordered by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> revealed that in February 1945, Hiss requested top-secret files from the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (precursor of the CIA) on British, Soviet, French and Chinese internal security policies, as well as Far East policy;<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 361-362</ref> FBI surveillance at this time found that Hiss also developed "a keen interest in atomic energy," and other matters relating to military intelligence,<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 519; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref>—all of which was well outside the purview of his office.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 363</ref> Loy Henderson, director of the State Department Office of Near East Affairs (NEA), quietly ordered members of NEA to keep confidential materials and information from Hiss.<ref>H. W. Brands, ''Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire, 1918-1961'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-506707-X, pp. 297-298</ref>

On February 4, 1945,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref> Hiss accompanied [[FDR]] to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> over whom Hiss exercised "Svengali-like influence," according to J. Anthony Panuch, Assistant Secretary of State for Security.<ref>Panuch to Russell, March 7, 1946, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, June 25, 1953 [http://ia311318.us.archive.org/0/items/interlockingsubv13unit/interlockingsubv13unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Part 13] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 853. (Cf. Louis Francis Budenz, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' (New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977) ISBN 0405099428, p. 287) Dean Acheson subsequently forced Panuch, not Hiss, out of the State Department. (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] [Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953], pp. 9-10)</ref> Stettinius gave Hiss remarkable control over [[FDR]]'s access to information, directing that "all memoranda for the President on topics to be discussed at the Meeting of the Big Three should be in the hands of Mr. Alger Hiss not later than Monday, January 15."<ref>Rothwell to Rockefeller, January 10, 1945, United States Department of State, ''[http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/reference/frus.frus1945.i0010.pdf Foreign relations of the United States. Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945]'' (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0124.gif 42]. Cf. p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0527.gif 441] (PDF p. 445), University of Wisconsin Digital Collections</ref> Nor did Hiss' influence stop there: When Roosevelt asked the Secretary of State "to get a lawyer to consult with him over the wording of the Polish boundary statement," wrote Stettinius, "I called Alger Hiss."<ref>Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IjhQ_gsiCzwC Roosevelt and the Russians]'' (Whitefish, Mont.: Kettinger Publishing, 2005) ISBN 1419103105, p. 270</ref>

According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref> According to confidential [[GRU]] sources, during the conference, Hiss gave daily briefings to General Mikhail Abramovich Milshtein, a military adviser to Stalin and the deputy director of the [[GRU]], revealing not only the American negotiating strategy but insights into the attitudes of the American negotiators.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 130</ref> Sudoplatov added:
{{cquote|In conversation, Hiss disclosed to Oumansky,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851866,00.html Ambassador Extraordinary]," ''Time'', November 22, 1943</ref> and then Litvinov,<ref>Hugh D. Phillips, ''Between the revolution and the West: a political biography of Maxim M. Litvinov'' (New York: Westview Press, 1992) ISBN 0813310385</ref> official U.S. attitudes and plans; he was also very close to our sources who were cooperating with Soviet intelligence and to our active intelligence operators in the United States. Within this framework of exchange of confidential information were references to Hiss as the source who told us the Americans were prepared to make a deal in Europe.<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref>}}
At the conference, the U.S. ceded hegemony over Eastern Europe to Stalin and made a secret agreement giving the Soviet Union three votes in the UN to one for the U.S.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 107-109.</ref> The conference ended February 11; the next day, [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was dead.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

[[Image:Hissetal.jpg|thumb|300 px|Vishinskii (2nd from left), Molotov (5th from left), Stettinius (7th from left), Alger Hiss (right), ca. January 1945. ''Image courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf The Mystery of 'ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Vol. 51, no. 4 (2007), p. ; John F. Fox, Jr., "[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence]," 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, October 27, 2005; Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54-55, 57-88, 62, 64</ref> where he was reportedly decorated with the Order of the Red Star<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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 278; Robert L. Beisner, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D9Zb_feBUdkC Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War]''' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282; 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. 226; Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> and honored by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858400-1,00.html Policeman on Trial]," ''Time'', December 28, 1953</ref> that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned of the award from his friend, "Ales," a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]. Cf. Eric
Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996), pp. [http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03644.pdf H03644]-[http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03645.pdf H03645]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935"; that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17, 29 (PDF pp. 19, 31)</ref> of the neighbors [GRU],<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0501&week=a&msg=obaTGXSrsBmHu2ps7TI6fA&user=&pw= KGB sources and the Hiss/'Ales' dispute], H-Diplo Discussion Logs, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (Michigan State University), January 5, 2005</ref> for the most part drawn from his relatives"; that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the Bank [United States Department of State]";<ref>"A Word About the Covernames," [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps33230/www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations] (National Security Agency)</ref> that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed regarding Ales, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<ref>[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> U.S. Air Force historian Eduard Mark calls the FBI and NSA's conclusions "eminently reasonable," agreeing that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original).</ref> John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, concurs, calling this identification "exceptionally solid" and the evidence "compelling."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref> John Ehrman, a foreign affairs analyst for the federal government,<ref>John Ehrman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uBEXFfOwW9IC The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300106629, p. 299 ("About the Author")</ref> concludes, "it is clear that Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES."<ref>John Ehrman, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf 'The Mystery of ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' Vol. 51, No. 4 (December 2007), PDF p. 9</ref>

On March 15, [[Victor Perlo]] (code-named "Raid")<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html Russian Archival Identification of Real Names Behind Cover Names in VENONA]," Cryptology and the Cold War:
Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, October 27, 2005</ref> 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>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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 14. Cf. Vassiliev's White Notebook No. 3 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Original.pdf original], p. 40; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Transcribed.pdf transcribed], p.78; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Translated.pdf translated], p. 78), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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 espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</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 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 364</ref>

===United Nations===
[[Image:HissCountsVotes.JPG|thumb|300px|right|"Secretary General Alger Hiss counts votes of the UN Charter. June 25, 1945." ''Source: [http://zombietime.com/un60/ The United Nations' 60th Anniversary Celebration], June 25, 2005, University Club, San Francisco'']] That month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was named Secretary-General of the upcoming [[United Nations]] Charter Conference in San Francisco. "As Secretary-General, managing the agenda," reported ''Time'', Hiss "will have a lot to say behind the scenes about who gets the breaks."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775560,00.html Chief Clerk]," ''Time'', April 16, 1945</ref>

At the conference, "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales," according to a cable<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Vadim to Moscow Center], 5 March 1945</ref> Vassiliev discovered in the Soviet archives. His notes indicate that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html#_ftnref5 Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> The cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124; "Pravdin" was actually Rolland Abbiat, murderer of Ignace Reiss. Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12, 2004</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>

James F. Byrnes,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/byrnes-james.htm James Byrnes (1882-1972)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997. Cf. 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. 1072</ref> Meanwhile, Stettinius' ghost-writer at the conference was Dalton Trumbo, the Communist<ref>Victor Navasky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=wg0ypcai-osC Naming Names]'' (New York: Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 0809001837, p. 367</ref> screen writer, who would become infamous two years later as one of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>"To Elsie McKeough," Helen Manfull, Ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (New York: M. Evans and Company, 1970), p. 37</ref> Press accounts attributed Trumbo's hiring to Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A p. 110; Westbrook Pegler, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19500703&id=SrILAAAAIBAJ&sjid=elUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1706,274693 New U.N. Building is Monument to Men Who Betrayed U.S.]," ''The Evening Independent'', July 3, 1950</ref>

In April 1945, [[Harold Glasser|Glasser]] slipped a warning to [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S., that the FBI had notified Stettinius that Bureau surveillance had followed a bundle of State Department documents from Washington to New York, where they were photographed, then returned within 24 hours to Washington. Only three people had access to these documents, one of whom was "Ales." Stettinius told "Ales": "I hope it is not you."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 267-268</ref>

That same month, at the [[San Francisco]] conference, [[Soviet]] [[UN]] [[Ambassador]] Andrei Gromyko<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947456,00.html Andrei Gromyko]," ''Time'', October 1, 1979</ref> nominated Hiss temporary secretary general (and thus a candidate for the first permanent Secretary General)<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=635 Harry Truman, President 1945-1953] (From ''Roosevelt to Bush: The American Presidency, Transformation and Change''), Lecture, Gresham College, London, January 29, 2008</ref> of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an [[American]] for what was then the [[UN]]'s highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In [[London]] that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the [[State Department]] create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

On June 4, 1945, six weeks after becoming [[President]], [[Harry Truman]] was briefed about [[Venona project|Venona]], according to former National Security Agency officer Oliver Kirby, deputy director of the [[Russian]] code-breaking project.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 147</ref> Based on notes Kirby made at the time, Jerrold Schecter, former National Security Council spokesman for the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, reported that Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, chief of the Army Security Agency (precursor of the [[NSA]]), advised President Truman that the code-breakers were decrypting messages that revealed massive [[Soviet]] intelligence operations in the [[United States]], though it was too early to identify operatives or operations.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 110</ref> According to Kirby, Clarke described this meeting as "NDG" (no damn good),<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> the president telling the general that his account of code-breaking sounded "like a fairy story."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref> On June 26, The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

Two days later, State Department liaison Lt. [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence was arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case. [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member Jack Stachel<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> that Roth suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30. See also FBI Report: (REDACTED), Security Matter—C, June 8, 1950, p. 9 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR29.pdf FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Vol 29], PDF p. 16)</ref>

==Defections and Investigations==
===Igor Gouzenko===
[[Image:StetHiss.jpg|thumb|300 px|Stettinius (foreground left) with Alger Hiss (center), ca. January 1945. ''Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]Two days before Hiss proposed the creation of a "special assistant for military affairs," [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33; FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

On September 25, Walter Winchell again broached the subject on his broadcast, reporting, "It can be categorically stated that the question of the loyalty and integrity of one high American official has been called to the attention of the President." Weinstein calls this "a clear reference to Hiss," adding that Winchell was FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s "most intimate journalistic confidante."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

===Elizabeth Bentley===
On November 27, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.”

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by the previously-cited April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov, noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
Bentley said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> She said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1995) ISBN 0865544778, p. 296</ref> asked her who Hiss was, she clipped an article in which Hiss was mentioned from the New York daily ''PM'', whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was (according to Oleg Kalugin, former head of KGB operations in the United States) a [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne, ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence & Espionage Against the West'' (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company, 1994), ISBN 0788151118, p. 74. As Stone put it, "In a way, I was half a Jeffersonian and half a Marxist. I never saw a contradiction between the two, and I still don't." (''The Nation'', July 10, 1989, cited in L. Brent Baker and Tim Graham, eds., "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/1989/nq19890710.asp Notable Quotables]," Media Research Center, July 10, 1989)</ref> who cooperated with Soviet intelligence<ref>Paul Berman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Berman.t.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all The Watchdog]," ''The New York Times'', October 1, 2006</ref> as an "agent of influence."<ref>Myra MacPherson, '''All Governments Lie': The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006) ISBN 0684807130, p. 327. MacPherson goes on to quote Kalugin explaining that such agents "could shape public opinion, manipulate public opinion," and that Stone "was willing to perform tasks." Stone was identified in the Venona project with the code name "Blin" (Pancake) ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_ny_moscow.pdf Index of Cover Names, New York-Moscow Communications], p. 10), an identification confirmed by a 13 April 1936 KGB New York station report. The following month, the station reported that "Relations with 'Pancake' have entered 'the channel of normal operational work,'" meaning that Stone had become a "fully active agent." [Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewpdf.cfm?article_id=15120 I.F. Stone, Soviet Agent—Case Closed]," ''Commentary''; Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 150] Stone also met with "Sergei" ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/23oct_stone_fears_fbi.pdf 1506 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 October 1944]) (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]], (Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] [Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History], p. 31 [PDF p. 34]), who, under cover as head of the Soviet government news agency TASS (Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, p. 124), was actually Roland Abbiat (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004), murderer of Ignace Reiss. (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287])</ref> Bentley said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref> This was consistent with the above-cited March 5, 1945 cable,<ref>Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"</ref> in which Gorsky reports: "‘Ales’ and ‘Ruble’ [Harold Glasser]<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_wash_moscow.pdf Index of KGB Covernames: Washington-Moscow Communications], p. 3 (National Security Agency)</ref> used to work in ‘Karl’s’ [Whittaker Chambers]<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors [GRU]."<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref> Before the end of 1945, a State Department Security memorandum summarized:
[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Image courtesy John Earl Haynes, Library of Congress'']]{{cquote|Bentley advised that members of this group had told her that Hiss of the State Department had taken Harold Glasser of the Treasury Department, and 2 or 3 others, and had turned them over to direct control by the Soviet representatives in this country. In this regard, attention is directed to Whittaker Chambers' statement regarding Alger Hiss and to the statement by Gouzenko, regarding an assistant to the Secretary of State who was a Soviet agent.<ref>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] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), Vol. 16, p. 1072 (PDF p. 12)</ref>}}

Three years later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] memorandum, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Black Notebook] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77; cf. [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref>

===Investigations===
On February 9, 1946, [[Stalin]] declared that war was inevitable as long as [[capitalism]] existed, in a speech regarded by some as the open declaration of [[Cold War]].<ref>Walter LaFeber, ''America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945-1984'' (New York: Knopf, 1985) ISBN 0394343913, p. 38</ref> Two days later, ex-[[Communist]] Benjamin Mandel, former manager of the ''Daily Worker'',<ref>Conrad Black, ''Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full'' (Jackson, Tenn.: PublicAffairs, 2008), ISBN 1586486748, p. 93</ref> identified Alger Hiss to the [[FBI]] as "a [[Communist Party]] member," and one of a "high level group of [[government]] employees who would not be found openly connected with the Party or with any Front organizations and who were specifically instructed not to display such connections."<ref>FBI memo: Hottel to Hoover, February 11, 1946, pp. [http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page55.pdf 2]-[http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page56.pdf 3] ([http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm FBI file: Silvermaster], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster042.pdf Vol. 42], pp. 55-56)</ref> The Bureau again interviewed Hiss, who denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</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, ''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. Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 139; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 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 nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

State Department security officers discovered that Hiss' desk calendar for September 14, 1946, recorded a meeting Hiss did not schedule through the department (and for which he made no official record) with "McLean [sic], British Emb."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 363-364</ref> Donald Maclean<ref>[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald.html Donald Maclean], The Spy Museum</ref> was a diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington who was also a [[Soviet]] agent<ref>Statement of Vladimir Petrov (defected from Soviet Embassy, Canberra, 1954), [http://ia341032.us.archive.org/0/items/scopeofsovietact2730unit/scopeofsovietact2730unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States]," Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, June 6, 1956, p. 1521 (PDF p. 79)</ref> and member of the [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]. He would defect in 1951 to the [[Soviet Union]],<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355048/Donald-Maclean Donald Maclean]," ''The Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2008</ref> where he would be rewarded with the rank of Colonel in the KGB.<ref>"[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald3.html Agent: Maclean, D.]," The Spy Museum</ref> Another member of that ring, [[Kim Philby]], would likewise defect to [[Moscow]], later writing in his memoir, "it was also the era of Hiss, [[Judith Coplon|Coplon]],<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no2_2003/article09.html The Judith Coplon Story]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', vol. 47, no. 2, 2003; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_judith_coplon.pdf 27 New York to Moscow 8 January 1945]</ref> [[Klaus Fuchs|Fuchs]],<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/fuchsstatement.html Fuchs' confession], "Race for the Bomb" ''The American Experience'' (PBS); [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jun_departure_agent_rest.pdf 850 New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944]; </ref> [[Harry Gold|Gold]],<ref>Greg Barker, Director, "[http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_bios_detail.htm#Gold The Red Files: Secrets of the Russian Archives Revealed]," PBS, 1999
ISBN 0-7806-2796-2; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/16nov_klaus_fuchs_harry_gold.pdf 1606(a) New York to Moscow 16 November 1944]</ref> [[David Greenglass|Greenglass]],<ref>Rebecca Leung, "[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/14/60II/main563126.shtml The Traitor: David Greenglass Testified Against His Own Sister], CBS News, July 16, 2003</ref> and the brave [[Julius Rosenberg|Rosenbergs]]<ref>Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QpKjGSHAcaYC The Rosenberg File]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0300072058, pp. 53-58; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/21sep_recruitment_by_rosenbergs.pdf 1340 New York to Moscow 21 September 1944]</ref>—not to mention others who are still nameless."<ref>Kim Philby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=duU2kp3RS0gC My Silent War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2002) ISBN 0375759832, p. 150</ref> Such praise from a Soviet master spy is "suggestive," writes Weinstein, that Philby "evidently either knew or believed" that Hiss was a fellow agent.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360, footnote</ref>

That year, over strenuous objections on national-security grounds from the State Department's Office of American Republics Affairs (and the government of Panama), Hiss submitted (with the approval of Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson) to the United Nations the annual report of the Governor of Panama to the War Department, a propaganda coup for the Soviets.<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://www.archive.org/download/interlockingsubv1920unit/interlockingsubv1920unit_bw.pdf Interlocking subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), Part 19-20, 1357-66 (PDF pp. 17-26)</ref>

Secretary of State James Byrnes told the FBI he would have fired Hiss, but for the mandatory Civil Service Commission hearing, which would have revealed confidential sources on the case.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> In November 1946, the Bureau disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman (according to former chief of [[CIA]] [[Soviet]] bloc counterintelligence)<ref>[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games], Yale University Press</ref> remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>

After a 1946 grand jury began looking into Soviet espionage, Congress took an interest in Hiss, finally forcing the State Department to remove him from access to secrets.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> In January, 1947, Byrnes quietly eased Hiss out of the State Department.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, serving also as a trustee on the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]].<ref>Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, [[SISS]] report (July 30, 1953), pp. 8-10.</ref>

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==
Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department security officials and the FBI about the [[Ware group]] for a decade.<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> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> (a characterization he would repeat as late as 1956).<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html The Old Familiar Fish]," ''Time'', September 17, 1956</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> (That year, referring to Venona,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "too many unknowns" in the partially decoded Soviet messages,<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, it would open up the whole red panic again.")<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004. The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>

So strong was Hiss' denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either Chambers or Hiss was lying about whether they had known one another,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Alger Hiss Trials: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50. Famous Trials (University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law)</ref> and he asked the committee to appoint him to head a subcommittee to find out which one.<ref>"[http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm House Un-American Activities Committee]," Mundt Archives (Dakota State University); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 15-16</ref>

On August 16, Chambers offered to take a lie-detector test.<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948</ref> Hiss refused (a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life),<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> but he dared<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> Chambers to repeat his charges outside of the immunity afforded in congressional hearings, so Hiss could sue him. In her newspaper column that day, Eleanor Roosevelt set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>Eleanor Roosevelt, ''Washington Daily News'', August 16th, 1948</ref> (Currie was the NKVD agent<ref>Robert J. Hanyok, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945]'' (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005), pp. 118-119 (PDF p. 123-124), n. 185; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 146</ref> in the White House<ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol3/Vol3Chap1.pdf "Cold War Counterintelligence," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 3, Chapter 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive) pp. 30-31 (PDF pp. 29-30); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 167</ref> who tipped the Kremlin off in 1944 that the U.S. was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 130; Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), pp. xiv, xxiv; FBI memo: Belmont to Boardman, February 1, 1956, p. 9 ([http://foia.fbi.gov/venona/venona.pdf FBI file: Venona], p. 71) Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>

The next day, Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [[Clark Clifford]], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if Hiss might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' confinement in a mental institution."<ref>George M. Elsey, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif Memorandum for Mr. Clifford], 16 August 1948, Harry S. Truman Library, Clark M. Clifford Papers, "Loyalty Investigations," box 11</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss' mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 15</ref>

On August 27, on NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' Chambers called Hiss' bluff, saying, "Alger Hiss was a Communist and may be now."<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17982730/page/5/ Meet the Press Transcript for April 8, 2007, p. 5]</ref> Embarrassment mounted among Hiss' supporters as a month dragged by and still no suit was filed. Even the ''Washington Post'' began to have doubts.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 162</ref> Finally, on September 28, Hiss filed his long-threatened slander suit against Chambers.

==Hiss' suit against Chambers==
===The Baltimore Documents===
In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss's attorneys told Chambers to produce "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss. Chambers retrieved the packet he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden in a dumbwaiter shaft.<ref>"Three Rings," ''Time'', December 20, 1948</ref> Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss' attorneys 43 typewritten documents (65 pages) and five handwritten memoranda, some so sensitive that for security reasons they could not safely be made public, though already a decade old.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that four of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref>

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Donegan told the FBI that Assistant Attorney General Alexander M. Campbell, head of the Criminal Division at Truman Justice, “now wants to institute perjury charges against Chambers” for not revealing the documents before this. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten addendum comments, “I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also.”<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, November 23, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> The Truman administration's determination to indict Chambers rather than Hiss was unusual, as two leading scholars of the case note:
{{cquote|Usually … when a witness gives false testimony and then later comes forward and provides a truthful account, no perjury charge is brought. To charge perjury … in such a case would be a disincentive for a witness to provide a subsequent truthful account…. [A] perjury count is rarely brought if a witness corrects false testimony in a timely fashion…. Chambers corrected his false sworn testimony within two months of his grand jury testimony ... and his false testimony had not produced any miscarriage of justice.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, p. 108</ref>}}

===The Pumpkin Papers===
[[Image:1626 Page1.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]
On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC investigators on his Maryland farm to a pumpkin he had hollowed out the night before and in which he had secreted five rolls (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been lightstruck)<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> of 35 milimeter film.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917670,00.html The Pumpkin Papers], ''Time'', August 11, 1975</ref> The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers"). The State Department documents dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria.<ref>Doulglas O. Linder, “[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkinp.html The Pumpkin Papers: Key Evidence in the Alger Hiss Trials],” Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> Some of the documents on the film were initialed by Hiss and came from his office.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> Some were of a highly sensitive, classified nature.<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html The Pumpkin Papers],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Some State Department cables bearing Hiss' handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 116</ref>

According to Chambers, some of the microfilm was made by a contact he knew only as "Felix," who would photograph documents with a Leica purchased by the Communist underground. For such work, said Chambers, Felix had been trained in Moscow, where he traveled on a forged U.S. passport. In 1949 Chambers would lead FBI investigators to the Baltimore block in which he thought Felix had lived in the 1930s. The Bureau discovered that a Felix Inslerman had lived on the block, later moving to Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked on a secret guided-missile project, in 1946 becoming one of the few civilians to attend the atomic tests at Bikini.

Both before the grand jury and in the second Hiss trial, Inslerman would refuse to answer questions on grounds of potential self-incrimination. But in Inslerman's Schenectady home, the FBI found a Leica whose imperfections matched the scratch marks on Chambers' famed pumpkin film. In 1954, Inslerman would corroborate Chambers' story under oath.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,819479,00.html New Witness]," ''Time'', March 1, 1954</ref>

The day Chambers revealed the "pumpkin papers," on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Truman Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> As late as December 6, Truman Justice was still contemplating "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref>

On that day, Hiss's attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a Woodstock typewriter, Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss's 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss' lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss continued to swear under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition of the typewriter.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Hiss would later change his story, testifying that he gave the typewriter to the Catletts in 1937, before the date of the documents produced by Chambers. Pat Catlett, however, would tell defense lawyers that Hiss gave the Catletts the typewriter in the spring of 1938, just after the dates of the documents.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>

On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss's typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, a Woodstock.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss's attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099"—the Hiss' machine.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8747 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: Another Exchange!"] ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 14 (September 16, 1976)</ref>

On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss' typewriter,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 300</ref>

Hiss testified that he never gave any documents to Whittaker Chambers, and that he had no contact with Chambers after January 1, 1937. The grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury, charging that he lied under oath in both these statements. Because the statute of limitations had expired, the grand jury could not consider espionage charges.

Since Chambers had gained the upper hand by voluntarily waiving immunity from slander, ex-[[Socialist]]<ref>"Joined the Harvard Socialist Club and later became president... Elected to Executive Committee, Intercollegiate Socialist Society... Joined the Socialist Party, New York County, and the Socialist Press Club of New York City." [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9034000C.rtf Walter Lippmann Papers. Part 4: Early Papers, 1904-1920 (Reels 164-170)]: Chronology. Manuscript and Archives Division, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; Neil Smith ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=quAgnHLkKm8C American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization]'' (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004) ISBN 0520243382, p. 120; cf. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2v9aAAAAMAAJ The Intercollegiate Socialist]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1918), p. 36. Even after ending his formal membership, Lippmann remained a loyal fellow-traveler: In the midst of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, "WJL" (Walter J. Lippmann) wrote to "ECC" (Edward C. Carter, head of the American Russian Institute and [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]), urging "cooperation with the European revolutionaries and the Soviet Union in their attempt to build a socialist Europe as a nucleus for a world socialist order, with the obvious corollary of the establishment of socialism in this country." Walter Lippmann to Edward C. Carter, June 10, 1940, p. 5 (PDF p. 100), FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR54.11.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 54, Part 11], pp. 96-101.</ref> and [[Soviet]] intelligence source<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9sep_lippman_views_churchill_roosevelt.pdf 1289 New York to Moscow], September 9, 1944. According to Eric Alterman, a columnist and [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation blogger] for ''The Nation'', Lippmann "offered much more useful information to the Soviets than [I.F.] Stone ever did." (Eric Alterman, "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=stone_cold_untruths Stone Cold Untruths]," ''The American Prospect'', October 3, 2006)</ref> Walter Lippman (whose secretary, [[Mary Price]], was a Soviet agent)<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/8jun_dir_courier.pdf 868 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 June 1943]. Cf. [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/29apr_recruits.pdf 588 New York to Moscow, 29 April 1944]. See also [http://ia311343.us.archive.org/2/items/instituteofpacif02unit/instituteofpacif02unit_bw.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations Hearings, Part 2], Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 82nd Cong., 1st Sess., August 9, 14, 16, 20, 22, and 23, 1951 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 406; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 439 and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 99</ref> suggested that Hiss turn the tables by waiving the statute of limitations on espionage. Hiss never took him up on that suggestion.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 384</ref>

==The Trials==
On May 31, 1949, Alger Hiss went on trial for perjury in New York City.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> At trial, Hiss provided an all-star cast of character witnesses, including such notables as [[Adlai Stevenson]], Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]], and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000121 Davis, John W. (1873-1955)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> However, both Under Secretary Welles and Sayre testified that delivering the classifed documents to a foreign power would enable them to break America's most secret codes.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 221-223.</ref>

At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref>

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref>

Hiss's friend and former colleague, Charles Wyzanski, Senior District Judge of the U.S. District Court in Boston, testified in both trials in defense of Hiss. Wyzanski, who "initially had supposed [Hiss] innocent," later concluded that "Hiss was guilty," as did Hiss' own attorney, William L. Marbury.<ref>Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., to Francis Russell, March 31, 1986. Francis Russell Papers, Boston Athenaeum. Cited in Richard Newby, [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.1/letters.html Letters to the Editor], ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000)</ref>

== Conviction ==
The first trial ended June 8, 1949 in a hung jury,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> with eight for conviction and four against. The second trial began on November 17, 1949. In January, 1950, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: Guilty on both counts.<ref>''United States v. Hiss'', 88 F. Supp. 559 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> In his pre-sentencing statement, Hiss said, "I am confident that in the future the full facts showing how Whittaker Chambers was able to carry out forgery by typewriter will be developed."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822033,00.html Trial by Typewriter]," ''Time'', February 4, 1952</ref>

Hiss was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms in federal prison. Secretary of State Dean Acheson provoked outrage by commenting, "Whatever the outcome of any appeal which Mr. Hiss or his lawyer may take, I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss." Eleanor Roosevelt added to the furor with her comment, "It seems rather horrible to condemn someone on the word of someone else who admits to guilt." ''Time'' magazine commented that she "obviously had not been paying much attention," being "unaware of, or determined to ignore, the [[corroborating evidence]] introduced by the Government."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811795,00.html 'I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back']," ''Time'', February 6, 1950</ref>

That year, General of the Army Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed President Truman that Venona had "positively identified" Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] as Soviet agents.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 149</ref> According to Bradley, Truman said, "That G—D— stuff. Every time it bumps into us it gets bigger and bigger. It's likely to take us down."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref>

Hiss appealed, but in December 1950 his conviction was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979], Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society; [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] denied him ''certiorari'', as well as his repeated petitions for a writ of error ''coram nobis'' (orchestrated by long-time Communist Party member<ref>Rabinowitz claimed to have joined the Party in 1942, adding "There was no formal act marking the end of the relationship.... though I continued to meet with party members to discuss both political and legal matters for many years thereafter." (Victor Rabinowitz, ''Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir'' [Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996] ISBN 025202253X, pp. 73, 87). Rabinowitz' law partner (representing Cuba's Communist Castro regime) was Leonard Boudin, father of convicted Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin (Michael Law, [http://lawvibe.com/leftist-lawyer-victor-rabinowitz-passes-away-at-96/ Leftist Lawyer Victor Rabinowitz Passes Away at 96], Law Vibe: International Law News, November 21, 2007), whose son was adopted and raised by William Ayers (Jodi Wilgoren, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/us/from-a-radical-background-a-rhodes-scholar-emerges.html?pagewanted=all From a Radical Background, A Rhodes Scholar Emerges]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 2002), political booster of Barack Obama (Scott Shane, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?pagewanted=all Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths]," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 2008).</ref> Victor Rabinowitz).<ref>Eric Breindel, "[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+faithful+traitor:+Alger+Hiss%27s+refusal+to+recant+helped+create...-a019100539 The faithful traitor: Alger Hiss's refusal to recant helped create the myth of his innocence]," ''National Review'', February 10, 1997</ref> Hiss served 44 months of his five-year sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison.

In prison, Hiss' best fiends were the Mafia gangsters,<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> whom he later compared to prisoners of war in terms of solidarity, hierarchy and discipline.<ref>Alger Hiss, ''Recollections of a Life'' (Arcade, 1989) ISBN 1559700246, p. 168</ref> He called them “the most stable group in any prison”<ref> Brock Brower, “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/brower.html The Problems of Alger Hiss],” ''Esquire'', December 1960</ref> and “the healthiest inmates of the prison” because they “had absolutely no sense of guilt.”<ref>Hiss to C. Vann Woodward, May 2, 1959, quoted in Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 581; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2005) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 87-88. Cf. Arianna Huffington, “[http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/printer_friendly.php?id=684 Alger Hiss and O.J. Simpson],” Arianna Online, November 21, 1996</ref> Hiss admitted that he, too, never felt guilt about anything he had ever done—as one Hiss biographer comments, “an incredible statement from anyone.”<ref>Ron Capshaw, “[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon],” FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref>

== Later Life ==
Hiss was released in 1954. Disbarred, he became a salesman. Five years later, Alger and Priscilla Hiss separated.<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," Modern Age, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 309 (PDF p. 3)</ref> In the late '60s, Hiss met Mrs. Isabel Dowden Johnson, a former editor at ''The New York Times'' and ex-wife of the Communist<ref>Cole, who titled his 1981 memoir ''Hollywood Red'', "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death in 1985. Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=J_BkAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Red Star Over Hollywood]'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005) ISBN 1893554961, p. 29; Cf. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YWtZAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s]'' (Rocklin, Calif: Prima Publishing, 1998) ISBN 0761513760, pp. 266-267; [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170660/bio Biography for Lester Cole], IMDb: The Internet Movie Database</ref> screen writer Lester Cole, a member of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00103 Hiss, Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, 1908-2000]. Papers, 1907-2000: A Finding Aid. Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University</ref> Priscilla reportedly had a breakdown, in which she said she was “tired of all the lies and cover-ups,”<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1858F750-23F1-43DF-93C8-86E30C5224E2 Framing Alger: A Communist Plot]," FrontPageMagazine.com, June 12, 2007</ref> and complained that "Alger was willing to sacrifice us all on the altar of his vindication."<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=445F476F-9BFF-4E61-AED9-733CFFE94E65 Portrait of an American Traitor]," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 24, 2007</ref> Following Priscilla's death in 1984, Alger and Isabel married.<ref>"[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/nyregion/isabel-j-hiss-91-widow-of-alger-hiss.html Isabel J. Hiss, 91, Widow of Alger Hiss]," ''The New York Times'', May 7, 2000</ref>

In 1974, the [[Watergate]] scandal forced [[Richard M. Nixon|President Nixon]] to resign, giving "some credence to a wide spectrum of conspiracy theories involving fake typewriters, phony microfilm, and various collusions among the FBI, Nixon, HUAC, the CIA, the radical right, and the KGB."<ref>"[http://www.historynet.com/the-alger-hiss-spy-case.htm/4 The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," HistoryNet.com</ref> In 1975, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the State Bar of Massachusetts, although the court's ruling stated "nothing we have said here should be construed as detracting one iota from the fact that in considering Hiss's petition we consider him to be guilty as charged."<ref>''[http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/368/368mass447.html In the Matter of Alger Hiss'', 368 Mass. 447], 1975; [http://books.google.com/books?id=xcA2AAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 333 N.E.2d 429]; [http://www.loris.net/onken/nationalcases/Masshiss(goodmercycase).htm 1975 Mass. LEXIS 1014]</ref> In 1981, Bard College established an Alger Hiss Distinguished Professorship<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=tamwag/haury.xml&style=tamwag/tamwag.xsl&part=body Guide to the Agnese Nelms Haury Papers], Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University</ref> in Social Studies, formerly held by socialist<ref>Kovel advocates what he calls "ecosocialism," which he defines as Marxian communism—the "realization" of what he calls "'first-epoch' socialism" (that is, "neither more nor less than the original announcement of the ''Communist Manifesto''")—not in pursuit of "unfettered productivity' ''a la'' Marx, but to further fetter productivity in the interest of environmentalism. Joel Kovel, "[http://www.joelkovel.org/messages.html#socialism A Socialism for the Next Epoch]," On Ecology and Socialism. Congres Marx International Paris, September 29, 2001</ref> Joel Kovel,<ref>[http://www.joelkovel.org/joelkovel.html About Joel Kovel]</ref> who declared that America's obsession with anti-Communism during the Cold War led the U.S. to become “the enemy of humanity.”<ref>Steven G. Marks, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/in-denial-by-john-earl-haynes-and-harvey-klehr-9668 In Denial by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr]," ''Commentary'', October 2003</ref> Despite the mountains of evidence against him that only increased as incriminatory Soviet bloc documents came to light following the collapse of Communism, Hiss continued for the rest of his life to claim innocence.

==The Volkogonov affair==
After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, petitioned the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> appealed to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref> (This despite the fact that the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.)<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 44; Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 272; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 167; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

At a 1992 press conference, Lowenthal released to the media a statement from Volkogonov claiming that "Alger Hiss was never an agent of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union." Hiss dubbed this a "final verdict," adding, "I can't imagine a more authoritative source than the files of the old Soviet Union." Lowenthal said Volkogonov was apparently "willing to stake his reputation as a general, historian and politician" on this statement.<ref>David Margolick, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DE113BF93AA15753C1A964958260 After 40 Years, a Postscript on Hiss: Russian Official Calls Him Innocent]," ''The New York Times'', October 29, 1992</ref> Lowenthal showed reporters a videotape of an interview he did with Volkogonov, prompting "an extraordinary, emotional reaction from the world's press," according to one account. "Some reporters gulped back tears."<ref>Alex Kershaw, "Framed: The Rehabilitation of Alger Hiss," ''[http://www.guardian.co.uk/ The Guardian]'', January 9, 1993, pp.6-10</ref>

The CBS Morning News reported that Hiss was "apparently exonerated."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref> On NBC's ''Today'', co-host Scott Simon said, "This week's revelations about Alger Hiss may help us remember how vulnerable something as real as a reputation may be... So Mr. Hiss may have lived long enough to feel vindicated, but no one lives so long that they have years to give away to suspicions and mistakes."<ref>"[http://www.mrc.org/mediawatch/1992/watch19921201.asp Sticking Up for Hiss]," ''MediaWatch'' (Media Research Center), December 1992</ref> CNN's Gary Tuchman asked why "Hiss's own government has not exonerated him." ''The New Yorker'' ran a seven-page essay by Tony Hiss on "My Father's Honor."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref>

But when questioned Volkogonov admitted that he spent only two days in the Foreign Intelligence Archive,<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> and that he had not actually examined any archives. Instead, according to the former director of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>J. Michael Waller, ''Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War: Messages to Defeat the Terrorists'' (Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com, 2007) ISBN 0615144632, p. 45, n. 36</ref> he asked Yevgeny Primakov,<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23725 A Terrorist State in the G8?]," ''[[Human Events]]'', December 3, 2007</ref> head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the KGB), to provide him with the information.<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''Human Events'', November 28, 1992</ref> Volkogonov said that Primakov said that employees of the foreign intelligence archive said that "A. Hiss was not registered in the documents as a recruited agent."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140</ref>

According to the Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, Volkogonov admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>Mark Kramer, [http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky "The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article]," ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov. "There's no guarantee... that it was not in other channels….”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not had the opportunity to see these documents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref> In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” concluded Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> Volkogonov added that he felt he had been "deceived" by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article],” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref>

Finally, after almost a month, ''The New York Times'', which had devoted half a page to Volkogonov's alleged "vindication" of Hiss, gave one column to his retraction.<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 141</ref>

== Corroboration from Soviet archives ==
According to [[Library of Congress]] [[Cold War]] historian John Earl Haynes,<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> Alger Hiss’s known cryptonyms were "Jurist"<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6</ref> or "Lawyer"<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 43</ref> ("Advocate"<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997)</ref> or "Advokat")<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1952)</ref> during his time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] (1935-36), "Ales"<ref>Venona decrypts (e.g., [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999); Eduard Mark, "Who Was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003)</ref> in 1945, and "Leonard" in the "Gorsky memo."<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html KGB file 43173] vol. 2 (v) pp. 49-55</ref>

==Venona, Hiss' Death and the Battle for History==
In October 1996, the [[CIA]] and [[NSA]] released the [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts, including the "Ales" transmission of March 30, 1945.<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' (Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency), Winter-Spring 2001, No. 10, pp. 9-10</ref> The following month, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Meanwhile, Volkogonov had also died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say—although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>

Kobyakov also said that former KGB General-Lieutenant Vitaly Pavlov,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809717-1,00.html Artist in Brooklyn]," ''Time'', August 19, 1957</ref> who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Sciences Net, October 16, 2003. According to the [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?&pagewanted=all personal Web site] of Hiss' son Tony, Pavlov [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/pavlov.html denounced] Soviet defectors Guzenko, Golitsyn, Levchenko and Gordievsky as "traitors," and their revelations as "fabrications."</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; 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. 167; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>

==Legacy==
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> TruTV's Crime Library concludes, "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html The Hiss-Nixon Seesaw],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James T. Gay of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James T. Gay, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Stephen Koch writes, "I for one have been brought close to certainty, on the basis of archival information, that Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Free Press, 1994) ISBN 0-02-918730-3, p. 326</ref> In ''American Heritage'' magazine, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of [the Hiss case] is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref>

Former Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein,<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Biography of Dr. Allen Weinstein, Ninth Archivist of the United States], The National Archives</ref> who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
{{cquote|"the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}
The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further—not just on perjury, but on espionage—the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref>

"Part of Hiss's KGB file has come out that proves the obvious point he was guilty as charged," says Christopher Andrew of Cambridge University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin conclude that "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> University of Virginia Law School Professor G. Edward White, a son-in-law of Hiss' attorney John F. Davis,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes, "recently released evidence in U.S. and Soviet archives, taken together with some previously available testimony of persons connected with Soviet intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, supports Chambers's charges against Hiss."<ref>White, G. Edward, "[http://ssrn.com/abstract=311869 Hiss and Holmes]," ''Ohio Northern University Law Review'', May 2002</ref> "In August 1948, Alger Hiss lied before HUAC," writes Ryan Ervin of Eastern Illinois University. "His testimony before HUAC proves this beyond any doubt. Intercepted Soviet cables during the Cold War, released in 1996, further prove Hiss’s Communist ties."<ref>Ryan Ervin, "[http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/archives/2005/2005Journal.pdf The Hiss-Chambers Case: Three Acts of Espionage Theater]," ''Historia'' (History Department, Eastern Illinois University and Epsilon Mu Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta), Vol. 14 (2005), p. 14 (PDF p. 7)</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> "Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White are among those whose long-suspected involvement in such [Soviet espionage] seems to be confirmed by the Venona cables," writes Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman.<ref>Maurice Isserman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09issermt.html They Led Two Lives], ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1999</ref> Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press (and—ironically—holder of the "Alger Hiss" chair at Bard College), says, "We're 99 percent certain that Hiss was a spy."<ref>John J. Miller, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_9_58/ai_n16619085/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 The Annals of Jonathan Brent: One Man and a Great Publishing Project], ''National Review'', May 22, 2006</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref>

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who, it was said, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref> Thomas Reed, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and professed "social democrat"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''Alger Hiss and the Battle for History'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, p. 20. Elsewhere, Jacoby writes, "I believe that Hiss was guilty of perjury and am about 98 percent certain that he did pass on government documents to more professional spies." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=5735 Who Owns American History?]" PowellsBooks.Blog, March 21, 2009) She adds: "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 181; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>

Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> (tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia"),<ref> Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] (April 18, 1996), p. H3645</ref> the ardor for Hiss seems to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Militant atheist"<ref>Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009</ref> Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'"<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' (London: Verso, 2000) ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106. Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that the answer is, "because he thought he was onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

===Scholarly Consensus===
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "Soviet files made public in 1995 convinced most observers that he had been guilty," says ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''.<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hiss-Alg.html The Columbia Encyclopedia]'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07.</ref> By 2006, "most historians had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," said Richard Aldrich of Britain's Nottingham University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," write Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen.<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> Columbia University historian David Greenberg refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> Thomas Powers writes that "no serious scholar of the subject any longer dismisses" the "voluminous and explicit claims by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 47, No. 8 (May 11, 2000)</ref> Even Obama supporter<ref>Cass R. Sunstein, "[http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/24/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama.aspx Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama]," ''The New Republic'' October 24, 2008</ref> Charles Fried, a professor at Hiss' ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to all but the most obdurate that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent..."<ref>Geoffrey Stone, Patricia M. Wald, Charles Fried, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Constitutions Under Stress: International and Historical Perspectives," ''[http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf Bulletin]'' (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 39</ref>

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime." (Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007)</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History], Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>

===Hiss in the Mass Media===
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996. Elsewhere, ''Time'' reports, "Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message [1822] seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html Alger, 'Ales' And Joe]," ''Time'', June 6, 1999</ref> "For... Alger Hiss," ''Newsweek'' reports, "a richly detailed new book, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.... provides irrefutable confirmation of guilt."<ref>David J. Garrow, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 From Russia, With Love]," ''Newsweek'', May 25, 2009</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

== Further reading ==
* Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SISS report July 30, 1953),
* [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/home.html The Alger Hiss Story: Search for the Truth]
* [http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericanHistory/articles/1998/0698_text.htm Gay, James Thomas. "The Alger Hiss Spy Case." ''American History'' (May-June 1998)]
* Eduard Mark, �Who Was �Venona�s� �Ales?� Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,� Intelligence and National Security 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).
* Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999).
*Weinstein, Allen "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case" (Random House, 1997) ISBN 0394495462.
* [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page44.html#_ftnref5 Alexander Vassiliev�s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky�s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks (Annotated)]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus], 23 February 1953
* Fitin to Merkulov 25 April 1945, File #43072, Vol. 1, pp. 96-97, KGB Archives.
* Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Secrecy: Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. VI. Appendices: A. ''Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience''. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1997, pgs. 36, 39. (PDF 746K) [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf]

== External links ==
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/1.html Crime Library]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html The Alger Hiss Trials: An Account]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci3/ch2.pdf Cold War Counterintelligence]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]
* [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf 1579 New York to Moscow 28 September 1943] Five NKVD sources are named. Milton Schwartz needs a loan to pay off debts. GRU has mentioned a person from State Department named Hiss.
* Memoranda on interview of Alger Hiss with Secretary of State James Byrnes, Hiss’ response to allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster032.pdf Vol. 32, pgs. 121 - 124] pdf, March 25, 1946.
* Memo E.E. Conroy to the Director on Hiss based on Whittaker Chambers allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster031.pdf Vol. 31, pgs. 50 - 54] pdf, March 28, 1946.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html ''The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York Times, 12 June 1949]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiss, Alger}}

[[Category:Espionage]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]
[[Category:United States History]]

Alger Hiss

2009-05-18T21:17:24Z

Wahida: /* Early life */ readability

[[Image:Hiss2.png|thumb|300px|right|Alger Hiss. ''Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Prisons'']]
'''Alger Hiss''' (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a high-ranking [[U.S. State Department]] official<ref>"....Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official...." Press Release: [http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2000/nr00-02.html National Archives to Make Available Alger Hiss Grand Jury Materials], United States National Archives and Records Administration, October 11, 1999</ref> and Secretary General of the founding conference of the [[United Nations]],<ref>"...served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945." [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00190 Hiss, Alger. Prison Correspondence, 1951-1954: Finding Aid], Harvard Law School Library</ref>. He was [[conviction|convicted]] of [[perjury]] in 1950, after denying that he had been a [[Soviet]] agent.

"Belief in the guilt or [[innocence]] of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in [[American]] intellectual life," wrote [[Senator]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] (D.-N.Y.), who was instrumental in securing the release of [[FBI]] and [[Venona project]] files on the case, which had been classified for half a century. Concluded the [[liberal]] [[Democrat]]<ref>"....Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat...." Louis Uchitelle, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all The Rehabilitation of Morning in America]," ''The New York Times'', February 23, 1997</ref> in 1998: "Parts of the [[United States government|American government]] had [[conclusion|conclusive]] [[evidence]] of his guilt, but they never told."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref>

==Early life==
Alger Hiss was born November 11, 1904, in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]],<ref>"I was born in Baltimore. Md., on November 11, 1904." [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a [[financial|financially]] comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>"...an upper-middle-class Presbyterian family. The Hiss family was financially comfortable...." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library. The Hisses were "prominent, respected people. They kept their own horse and carriage, and on occasion [Alger's father] would hire a private railroad car for a family outing. They were seen at concerts and art galleries, they cultivated a life of good taste and literary interests, they knew everyone they wanted to know in Baltimore, they belonged to the best clubs, and they were recognized wherever they went." (John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss, the True Story]'' [Geneva, Ill.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976] ISBN 0030137764, p. 34)</ref> WASP [[family]].<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397. "Alger's mother claimed descent from the Earl of Leicester and, on her mother's side, a leading Baltimore family, the Grundys." (Lance Morrow, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CEC30zxnXSMC The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948: Learning the Secrets of Power]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2005] ISBN 0465047238, P. 248)</ref> When Alger was two years old, his [[father]], who was an [[executive]] with a wholesale dry goods [[firm]],<ref>"...an executive in a wholesale dry-goods firm..." Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''The New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed [[suicide]] by slashing his throat with his own razor.<ref>"Alger Hiss's father committed suicide rather savagely, slashing his throat with his own razor." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Hiss was 25, his [[sister]] Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>"....Mary Ann... had swallowed a bottle of Lysol, killing herself." 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. 5</ref> Alger's older [[brother]] Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a [[kidney]] disorder aggravated by his excessive [[alcohol]] consumption.<ref>"Bos.... drank a lot... and contracted Bright's disease, an alcohol-induced kidney ailment...." Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in 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. 158; "Bosley... died... of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by Bosley's overindulgence in alcohol." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>

===Johns Hopkins University===
As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." 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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

===Harvard Law School===
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to [[Harvard Law School]], where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> who was attending [[Harvard]] Business School. Collins would later be identified as a [[Soviet]] agent by chief of [[Soviet intelligence]] in the U.S. [[Anatoly Gorsky]]<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> and by another friend at Harvard, [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] official [[Laurence Duggan]]<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 202. It was apparently to protect Duggan's identity that Ignace Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was murdered (Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 [October 24, 2005]): A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." (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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009] ISBN 0300123906, p 232) Poretsky was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004) Five days after Duggan's interview with the FBI (during which he would implicate [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]]), Hiss would be indicted by a grand jury; five days after that, Duggan would [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 jump or be thrown] from his New York office window to his death, ("[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html The Man in the Widow]," ''Time'', January 3, 1949) leading his friend (and father's protégé), Edward R. Murrow, to broadcast a [http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/murrow/exhibit/iie2.html scathing] denunciation of Red-hunters in the U.S. government for hounding an [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf allegedly] innocent man to his grave. (Stephen Hunter, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100602012.html 'Good Night': A Gray Era In Stark Black And White]," ''The Washington Post'', October 7, 2005, p. C01)</ref> (himself identified by [[Comintern]] courier [[Whittaker Chambers]],<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]],<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 202-203</ref> and [[Venona]] decrypts).<ref>e.g, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/30jun_british_invasion.pdf MGB 1025, 1035-6 New York to Moscow, June 30, 1943, p. 2]</ref> Hiss served on the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'' under editor [[Lee Pressman]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> who would eventually [[testify]] that he had been a member of an [[Ware group|underground group of Communists in the Federal government]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Hiss became the protégé of one [[instructor]], future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], [[Chief Justice]] of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this [[country]]."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> Frankfurter was at the time the leading champion of the [[conviction|convicted]] [[murder|murderers]] [[Sacco and Vanzetti]],<ref>Felix Frankfurter, "[http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/frankff.htm The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''The Atlantic'', March 1927; Felix Frankfurter, ''The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen'' (Buffalo: Wm. S. Hein & Co., 2003) ISBN 157588805X</ref> [[revolution|revolutionary]] [[terrorist|terrorists]] who became a Communist<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Enigma Books, rev. ed. 2004) ISBN 1929631200, pp. 31-37</ref> ''cause célèbre'',<ref>John F. Neville, ''Twentieth-Century Cause Celebre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0275977838 p. 101. Hiss' Harvard classmate, fellow State Department official and [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Soviet intelligence source] Noel Field would later write, "The shock of the Sacco-Vanzetti executions drove me leftward."(Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978], ISBN 0394495462, p. 199)</ref> and whom Alger Hiss would later emulate.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E3D7DC83-5DEE-4B84-857A-DF85A526E91C Alger Hiss: Recruiting Poster for the Left]," FrontPageMagazine.com, February 25, 2004. New evidence [http://hnn.us/articles/4527.html suggests] that Sacco and Vanzetti were [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/01/28/uptonsinclair-boston.html guilty].</ref>

==Early Career==
[[Sacco and Vanzetti]] had been members of a [[terrorist]] group known as the Galleanists,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, pp. 59-60; Annie Anderson, "[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3100/the_lessons_of_sacco_and_vanzetti/ The Lessons of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''In These Times'', March 27, 2007</ref> which was responsible for the May Day 1919 attempted bombing of a number of public figures,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 146; Paul Berman, "[http://www.slate.com/id/3135/ The Refractory Ones: Sacco, Vanzetti, and Timothy McVeigh]," Slate.com, August 20, 1997</ref> including [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 143; "[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9406E3D61238EE32A25752C0A9639C946896D6CF 36 Were Marked as Victims by Bomb Conspirers]," ''The New York Times'', May 1, 1919, p. 1; [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=438 The Postwar Red Scare], Digital History (University of Houston)</ref> Ironically, when Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, [[Felix Frankfurter|Frankfurter]] got him the [[covet|coveted]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of law clerk to Holmes.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949.</ref> Influential as Frankfurter was, Hiss said he was probably even more influenced by Holmes,<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/daynight.html James Day interview with Alger Hiss] for ''[http://www.cuny.tv/series/dayatnight/listen.lasso?year=1974 Day at Night]'' (CUNY-TV), 1974</ref> whom Hiss admired as "a [[skeptic]] of the first order" who "denied the [[existence]] of [[God]]."<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 58</ref> The same year, Hiss [[marriage|married]] the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party [[presidential]] [[nominee]] [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref> Hiss had had met her on a transatlantic cruise when he was nineteen,<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 11</ref> but since then she'd had a [[marriage]], a [[Mexican]] [[divorce]],<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Meyer Zeligs Papers] (October 13, 1963), Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, cited in Ivan Chen, [http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ivan_chen Alger Hiss, 1926-1929], p. 31</ref> a child by a married man and an [[abortion]].<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 158-159</ref>

[[Image:Wobbly boy.jpg|thumb|100px|right|I.W.W. Little Red Songbook. ''Image courtesy Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear)'']]Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in [[Boston]] and [[New York City|New York]] where, by 1932, his [[wife]] Priscilla had registered as a member of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003); Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> By then, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of American Labor Associates, and Hiss was becoming "[[radical|radicalized]],"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining (together with [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]])<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> the International Juridical Association (IJA), which "consistently followed the [[Communist Party]] line."<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref>

During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing [[radical|radicalism]]. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[terrorist]]<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9502E2DB1439E13ABC4D53DFBF668383609EDE I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four in Chicago]," ''The New York Times'', September 5, 1918</ref> [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (whose leader, "Big Bill" Haywood, had fled the [[U.S.]] for [[Moscow]] where he became a trusted advisor to the [[Bolshevik]] government),<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haywood/HAY_BHAY.HTM William D. Haywood], Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City)</ref> writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]] with an [[Industrial Workers of the World|I.W.W.]] tongue in thy [[socialist|socialistic]] (I couldn't bring myself to write '[[Communist|Communistic]]') cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the [[legitimacy]] of the existing “[[capitalist]] order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's<ref>MacLeish was a noted fellow traveler (David Caute, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zZ6YqBm3O2wC The Fellow-Travellers: Intellectual Friends of Communism]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988] ISBN 0300041950, p. 185). Following the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html death] of [[Laurence Duggan]]—ten days after Duggan implicated [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]], and five days after Hiss' indictment by a grand jury—MacLeish, a former Librarian of Congress, would dedicate a [http://books.google.com/books?id=KI0ESFOvi5QC&pg=PA403&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0 poem] to the late [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent], denouncing "informers" (apparently [[Hede Massing]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]], each of whom had identified Duggan) as liars.</ref> article on [[capitalism]] in last week's ''Saturday Review''? [[Felix Frankfurter|Felix]] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141. The reference is to Edmund Wilson, then an editor at ''The New Republic'' who embraced Marxism and welcomed the stock market crash of 1929 as a portent of the death of capitalism. In 1932 he voted for Communist Party presidential candidate William Z. Foster and signed a manifesto calling for "a temporary dictatorship of the class-conscious workers." (Alex Ross, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/24/030324crat_atlarge Ghost Sonata: Edmund Wilson’s adventure with Communism]," ''The New Yorker'', March 24, 2003)</ref>

==New Deal==
===Agricultural Adjustment Administration===
[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''Image courtesy Library of Congress'']]In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join [[President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, p. A14</ref> (during which the [[Soviets]] killed some 14 million people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807) p. 301</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production<ref>"...major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity by curtailing farm production..." "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, "...the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 ... designed with the specific goal of reducing agricultural production in order to raise agricultural prices..." "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States and hunger marches were taking place in cities across the country. For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.” Thomas Sowell, ''Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy'' (New York: Basic Books, 2007) 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref> The agency was the brainchild of FDR's [[Secretary of Agriculture]] (and future [[Vice President]]),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]]—who would run for President on the [[Communist]]-inspired<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456</ref> [[Progressive]] Party ticket in 1948, finally recanting his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>

In response to a query about candidates for employment at AAA, [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]], already at the agency, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] as well as [[Henry Collins|Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</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> Hiss' superior at AAA, [[New Deal]]er 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> 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> Collins would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> but another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss<ref>
:Mr. COHN. Did you know Alger Hiss to be a member of the Communist
party?
:Mr. WEYL. Yes, I did.
:Mr. COHN. Were you in the same Communist cell with Alger Hiss at one time?
:Mr. WEYL. That is correct.
…
:Mr. WEYL. ...Hiss and I were among the eight or nine people who met with the first meeting of that organization, I presume. So I was in this Communist cell with him for a period of approximately nine months.
:[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83869.pdf Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953, pp. 619-620 (PDF pp. 658-659)</ref> and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952; Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>

Ex-Communists Ralph de Sola and George Hewitt would both also testify to having seen Hiss at [[Communist Party]] meetings,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360</ref> and a former [[GRU]] station chief in [[London]] and [[New York]] reported that during the early and middle 1930s Hiss was a source of agent information for a [[Soviet]] [[espionage|spy]] ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to Pavel Sudoplatov,<ref>David Stout, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/world/pavel-sudoplatov-89-dies-top-soviet-spy-who-accused-oppenheimer.html Pavel Sudoplatov, 89, Dies; Top Soviet Spy Who Accused Oppenheimer]," ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1996</ref> former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref>

===Nye Committee===
In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (according to [[New Deal|New Dealer]]<ref>Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/books/the-truest-believer.html?pagewanted=all The Truest Believer]," ''The New York Times'', March 9, 1997</ref> Gardner Jackson),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman Gerald P. Nye (R.-N.D.)<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=n000176 Nye, Gerald Prentice (1892-1971)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the [[United States|U.S.]] into war with [[Germany]]. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive [[capitalist]]s," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref> The [[Soviets]] took great interest in the work of the committee for its [[propaganda]] value<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 115-116</ref> as well as its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> [[Moscow]] had at least one source on the staff of the committee, who provided valuable documents to the [[Kremlin]] in 1935,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 28-29</ref> the same year an agent later code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") began working for [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Nye would tell FBI investigators that he believed Hiss was a [[Communist]] at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43-44</ref> and would later say he believed Hiss used his position on the committee for [[espionage]].<ref>John E. Wiltz, ''In Search of Peace: The Senate Munitions Inquiry, 1934-1936'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963) ISBN B000GX1RX0, p. 53</ref>

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> [[J. Peters]];<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref>

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [[radical]]<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]] and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>

===Justice Department===
In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the Solictor General,<ref>[http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Office of the Solicitor General], United States Department of Justice</ref> where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>

====Hiss' 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>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold or loaned or given<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 17, 1948); [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 25, 1948)</ref> the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. 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 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

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 sold it the same day to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library</ref> The company made no record of the transaction.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:
{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53; "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</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 [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, 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====
[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|300px|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: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[Soviet intelligence]] source)<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[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, ''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/ CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room], p. 16</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>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 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 Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- 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]] 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, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс—"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent Alexander Vassiliev,<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], Authors - Random House, Inc.</ref> [[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" —a serious breach of discipline. A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist."<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6; Cf. Vassiliev's notebooks, Yellow Notebook No. 2, p. 23 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Original], PDF p. 3; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], PDF p. 4; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Translated.pdf Translated], PDF p. 4), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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] have been openly identified" as [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 7; Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89; 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. 228; Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 228</ref>

==State Department==
Hiss took a pay cut<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 5</ref> to transfer into the [[State Department]] in September 1936, the same month a [[GRU]] agent designated by the code name "Jurist" began working there.<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 12</ref> Hiss was now special assistant to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Trade Agreements Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, Alger's younger [[brother]] [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed him to [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Harvard Law School|Harvard Law]], and a clerkship for [[Oliver Wendell Holmes|Justice Holmes]], would join him at State, rising to the position of assistant to future Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>

In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by Vassiliev, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to [[Moscow]] that [[J. Peters]] (code-named "Storm")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 163; Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007; [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref> told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [the [[CPUSA]] underground]<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> who had been implanted into 'Surrogate' [cover name for the [[State Department]]]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [the [[GRU]]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref>...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>

The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four Bokhara rugs for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky]," The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>

That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an [[American]] member of the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 153</ref> and publisher of ''The New Republic''),<ref>Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07EFDB1531F936A35752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87]," ''The New York Times'', January 5, 2004</ref> then working at the [[State Department]], mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>

On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 he said Alger Hiss loaned him.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 39; ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss would deny making the loan,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html Counterattack]," ''Time'', January 2, 1950</ref> but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money to buy furniture for a new house,<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref>

In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Wary after the [[murder]] of Ignace Poretsky<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005). Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was apparently murdered to protect the identity of Hiss' Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." 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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799517,00.html Three Rings]," ''Time'', December 20, 1948; Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref> On the advice of Herbert Solow,<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow, Fortune Editor; John Dewey Aide in Trotsky Investigation Dies at 61]," ''The New York Times'', November 27, 1964, p. 35</ref> former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''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, ''American Communism and Soviet Russia'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> Ludwig Lore,<ref>[http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Letter to Eugene V. Debs in New York City from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 9, 1917]. Eugene V. Debs papers, microfilm edition: reel 2, frames 0309A-0309B. Published in J. Robert Constantine (ed.): ''Letters of Eugene V. Debs'', v. 2, pp. 292-293</ref> that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would seriously embarrass them,"<ref>David Levin, Stephen W. Salant, Athan Theoharis, Reply by Allen Weinstein, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 The Hiss Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 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. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire [[Soviet]] Intelligence source<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various [[Communist|Red]] front groups starting in 1926, and as a [[Communist Party]] member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the [[Iron Curtain]], Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss knew he was a Communist when he recommended Field as his replacement.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref>

===Nazi-Soviet Pact===
[[Image:Molotov signs.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin stand behind him, Moscow, August 23, 1939. ''Image courtesy National Archives and Records Administration'']]When in the wake of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] the [[Communist Party]] organ ''The Daily Worker'' came under suspicion for reversing its anti-[[Nazi]] posturing, [[Politburo]] member Roy Hudson<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> discussed what to do about it with Soviet agent<ref>Scotland Yard (London) Secret Special Report, No. 4, "The Case of Philip Price and Robert Minor," U.S. State Department Decimal File, 316-23-1184 9, Washington, D.C.</ref> [[Robert Minor]], according to ''Daily Worker'' editor Louis Budenz. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under suspicion at the time. According to Budenz, Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30.</ref>

That year, French Premier Édouard Daladier<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150071/Edouard-Daladier Édouard Daladier]," ''The Encyclopædia Brittanica''</ref> informed Bullitt (now [[Ambassador]] to [[France]]) that two brothers named Hiss, both in the [[U.S. government]], were [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952; "French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says," ''Washington Post'', April 9, 1952; Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002</ref> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

The year before, in [[Paris]], defecting former [[GRU]] chief in [[Europe]] Walter Krivitsky<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN 0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to Alexander Barmine,<ref>Esther Iverem, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/28/obituaries/alexander-g-barmine-88-dies-early-high-level-soviet-defector.html Alexander G. Barmine, 88, Dies; Early High-Level Soviet Defector]," ''The New York Times'', December 28, 1987</ref> former Charge d'Affairs at the [[Soviet]] [[Embassy]] in [[Athens]], who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Russian]] emigré Isaac Don Levine,<ref>[http://marbl.library.emory.edu/findingaids/content.php?id=levine700_102547 Isaac Don Levine papers, circa 1914-1978], Emory University: Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library</ref> "Everything that went on in the embassy, especially the major communications between [[Washington]] and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet [[secret police]]."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191. Loy Henderson, then charge d'affaires at the [[U.S.]] Embassy in [[Moscow]], would later confirm that at that time "in the [State] Department were a number of persons who did not hesitate to give [Litvinov] copies of my secret memoranda relating to United States-Soviet relations." (Richard D. McKinzie, "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/hendrson.htm#transcript Oral History Interview with Loy W. Henderson]," p. 22, Harry S. Truman Library)</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been [[murder]]ed,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor]," ''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a [[suicide]].<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the [[NKVD]]'s Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet [[espionage]] official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233; see also Flora Lewis, "[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/186559502.html?dids=186559502:186559502&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&fmac=&date=Feb+13%2C+1966&author=By+Flora+Lewis+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&desc=Who+Killed+Krivitsky%3F Who Killed Krivitsky?]" ''The Washington Post'', February 13, 1966, p. E1</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the Hoover Institution.)<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>

===Chambers' meeting with Berle===
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the [[Communist]] underground. As the joint [[Nazi]]-[[Soviet]] invasion of [[Poland]]<ref>William Fortescue, ''The Third Republic in France, 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2000) ISBN 0415169445, p. 231</ref> was gearing up, Levine sought to get Chambers an appointment with [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], but was diverted by the [[White House]] to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Security Adolf Berle.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 105</ref> On September 2, 1939, Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the [[Communist Party]] for employees of the [[Federal government]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<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> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>

While [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] talked, Berle took notes. Under the heading “Underground [[Espionage]] Agent,” he listed several names, including “Alger Hiss,” with the notation, “Ass’t. to Sayre—CP—1937,” and “Member of the Underground Com.—Active.”<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> In Berle's diary, the first entry after his meeting with Levine and Chambers reads:
{{cquote|Saturday night ... Isaac Don Levine ... brought a Mr. X around to my house ... Through a long evening, I slowly manipulated Mr. X to a point where he had told some of the ramifications hereabout; and it becomes necessary to take a few simple measures. I expect more of this kind of thing, later. A good deal of the [[Russian]] [[espionage]] was carried on by [[Jews]]; we know now that they are exchanging information with [[Berlin]]; and the [[Jewish]] units are furious to find out they are, in substance, working for the [[Gestapo]]...<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 55-58)</ref>}}
After Berle relayed this information to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], Levine asked Berle how FDR responded. In his 1973 memoir, Levine wrote, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an expletive remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-8</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised Alice Roosevelt Longworth<ref>Lawrence L. Knutson, "[http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wild thing]," Salon.com, June 7, 1999</ref> and de Toledano that he also took this information directly to FDR.<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

Levine also told David Dubinsky,<ref>[http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm 1993 Honoree David Dubinsky, 1892-1982], Labor Hall of Fame Honoree, United Stated Department of Labor</ref> president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1900-1995)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist Walter Winchell<ref>[http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell], Radio Hall of Fame</ref> of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>

By 1944, Hiss would be deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>Gregor Dallas, ''1945: The War that Never Ended'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300109806), p. 412</ref> In August, he organized the Dumbarton Oaks Conference,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003). Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. (Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' [Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001] ISBN 0807849502, p. 67)</ref> where he served as executive secretary,<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> presiding over the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.<ref>[http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta], History of the Charter of the United Nations (UN.org)</ref>

By 1948 Berle, ousted from the [[State Department]], would be serving as chairman of [[New York]]'s Liberal Party. 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:
{{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 the leaks stopped.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>}}
But in the wake of Dumbarton Oaks, Berle was 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 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>Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 28 (PDF p. 34)</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>}}

===Hatch Act Investigation===

In September 1940, the [[Nazi]] and [[Soviet]] armies staged a joint victory parade through the streets of occupied Brest-Litovsk, [[Poland]].<ref>Olaf Groehler, ''Selbstmorderische Allianz: Deutsch-russische Militarbeziehungen, 1920-1941'' (Berlin: Vision Verlag 1993), pp. 21-22, 123-124; Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (Columbia University Press, 1997), both cited in Benjamin B. Fischer, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter 1999–2000</ref> Hiss was at this time 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, wrote Gordievsky, was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]],<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>

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

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

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

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning:
{{cquote|I cannot keep silent any longer.... I can no longer support double-faced political maneuvers... toward collaboration with the [[United States]] and [[Britain]] while pursuing aims incompatible with such collaboration.
The [[Soviet]] Government has dissolved the [[Communist International]] but only in form.... The new democratic terminology is only a maneuver... to promote the inclusion of [[Communist]]s, obedient to the [[Kremlin]], in the future Governments... of Italy, Austria and other countries.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885439,00.html The Kravchenko Case]," ''Time'', April 17, 1944. In 1966, Kravchenko would be found [http://www.americansterling.com/ASPL_Film_Defector.asp shot] to death in his Manhattan apartment. Although his [[death]] would be ruled a [[suicide]], his son Andrew maintains that he was executed by a SMERSH assassination squad.</ref>}}

===Yalta===
A State Department internal security probe of Hiss (made public in 1993)<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> ordered by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> revealed that in February 1945, Hiss requested top-secret files from the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (precursor of the CIA) on British, Soviet, French and Chinese internal security policies, as well as Far East policy;<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 361-362</ref> FBI surveillance at this time found that Hiss also developed "a keen interest in atomic energy," and other matters relating to military intelligence,<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 519; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref>—all of which was well outside the purview of his office.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 363</ref> Loy Henderson, director of the State Department Office of Near East Affairs (NEA), quietly ordered members of NEA to keep confidential materials and information from Hiss.<ref>H. W. Brands, ''Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire, 1918-1961'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-506707-X, pp. 297-298</ref>

On February 4, 1945,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref> Hiss accompanied [[FDR]] to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> over whom Hiss exercised "Svengali-like influence," according to J. Anthony Panuch, Assistant Secretary of State for Security.<ref>Panuch to Russell, March 7, 1946, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, June 25, 1953 [http://ia311318.us.archive.org/0/items/interlockingsubv13unit/interlockingsubv13unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Part 13] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 853. (Cf. Louis Francis Budenz, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' (New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977) ISBN 0405099428, p. 287) Dean Acheson subsequently forced Panuch, not Hiss, out of the State Department. (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] [Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953], pp. 9-10)</ref> Stettinius gave Hiss remarkable control over [[FDR]]'s access to information, directing that "all memoranda for the President on topics to be discussed at the Meeting of the Big Three should be in the hands of Mr. Alger Hiss not later than Monday, January 15."<ref>Rothwell to Rockefeller, January 10, 1945, United States Department of State, ''[http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/reference/frus.frus1945.i0010.pdf Foreign relations of the United States. Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945]'' (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0124.gif 42]. Cf. p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0527.gif 441] (PDF p. 445), University of Wisconsin Digital Collections</ref> Nor did Hiss' influence stop there: When Roosevelt asked the Secretary of State "to get a lawyer to consult with him over the wording of the Polish boundary statement," wrote Stettinius, "I called Alger Hiss."<ref>Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IjhQ_gsiCzwC Roosevelt and the Russians]'' (Whitefish, Mont.: Kettinger Publishing, 2005) ISBN 1419103105, p. 270</ref>

According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref> According to confidential [[GRU]] sources, during the conference, Hiss gave daily briefings to General Mikhail Abramovich Milshtein, a military adviser to Stalin and the deputy director of the [[GRU]], revealing not only the American negotiating strategy but insights into the attitudes of the American negotiators.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 130</ref> Sudoplatov added:
{{cquote|In conversation, Hiss disclosed to Oumansky,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851866,00.html Ambassador Extraordinary]," ''Time'', November 22, 1943</ref> and then Litvinov,<ref>Hugh D. Phillips, ''Between the revolution and the West: a political biography of Maxim M. Litvinov'' (New York: Westview Press, 1992) ISBN 0813310385</ref> official U.S. attitudes and plans; he was also very close to our sources who were cooperating with Soviet intelligence and to our active intelligence operators in the United States. Within this framework of exchange of confidential information were references to Hiss as the source who told us the Americans were prepared to make a deal in Europe.<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref>}}
At the conference, the U.S. ceded hegemony over Eastern Europe to Stalin and made a secret agreement giving the Soviet Union three votes in the UN to one for the U.S.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 107-109.</ref> The conference ended February 11; the next day, [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was dead.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

[[Image:Hissetal.jpg|thumb|300 px|Vishinskii (2nd from left), Molotov (5th from left), Stettinius (7th from left), Alger Hiss (right), ca. January 1945. ''Image courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf The Mystery of 'ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Vol. 51, no. 4 (2007), p. ; John F. Fox, Jr., "[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence]," 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, October 27, 2005; Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54-55, 57-88, 62, 64</ref> where he was reportedly decorated with the Order of the Red Star<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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 278; Robert L. Beisner, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D9Zb_feBUdkC Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War]''' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282; 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. 226; Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> and honored by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858400-1,00.html Policeman on Trial]," ''Time'', December 28, 1953</ref> that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned of the award from his friend, "Ales," a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]. Cf. Eric
Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996), pp. [http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03644.pdf H03644]-[http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03645.pdf H03645]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935"; that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17, 29 (PDF pp. 19, 31)</ref> of the neighbors [GRU],<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0501&week=a&msg=obaTGXSrsBmHu2ps7TI6fA&user=&pw= KGB sources and the Hiss/'Ales' dispute], H-Diplo Discussion Logs, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (Michigan State University), January 5, 2005</ref> for the most part drawn from his relatives"; that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the Bank [United States Department of State]";<ref>"A Word About the Covernames," [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps33230/www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations] (National Security Agency)</ref> that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed regarding Ales, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<ref>[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> U.S. Air Force historian Eduard Mark calls the FBI and NSA's conclusions "eminently reasonable," agreeing that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original).</ref> John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, concurs, calling this identification "exceptionally solid" and the evidence "compelling."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref> John Ehrman, a foreign affairs analyst for the federal government,<ref>John Ehrman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uBEXFfOwW9IC The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300106629, p. 299 ("About the Author")</ref> concludes, "it is clear that Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES."<ref>John Ehrman, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf 'The Mystery of ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' Vol. 51, No. 4 (December 2007), PDF p. 9</ref>

On March 15, [[Victor Perlo]] (code-named "Raid")<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html Russian Archival Identification of Real Names Behind Cover Names in VENONA]," Cryptology and the Cold War:
Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, October 27, 2005</ref> 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>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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 14. Cf. Vassiliev's White Notebook No. 3 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Original.pdf original], p. 40; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Transcribed.pdf transcribed], p.78; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Translated.pdf translated], p. 78), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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 espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</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 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 364</ref>

===United Nations===
[[Image:HissCountsVotes.JPG|thumb|300px|right|"Secretary General Alger Hiss counts votes of the UN Charter. June 25, 1945." ''Source: [http://zombietime.com/un60/ The United Nations' 60th Anniversary Celebration], June 25, 2005, University Club, San Francisco'']] That month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was named Secretary-General of the upcoming [[United Nations]] Charter Conference in San Francisco. "As Secretary-General, managing the agenda," reported ''Time'', Hiss "will have a lot to say behind the scenes about who gets the breaks."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775560,00.html Chief Clerk]," ''Time'', April 16, 1945</ref>

At the conference, "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales," according to a cable<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Vadim to Moscow Center], 5 March 1945</ref> Vassiliev discovered in the Soviet archives. His notes indicate that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html#_ftnref5 Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> The cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124; "Pravdin" was actually Rolland Abbiat, murderer of Ignace Reiss. Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12, 2004</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>

James F. Byrnes,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/byrnes-james.htm James Byrnes (1882-1972)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997. Cf. 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. 1072</ref> Meanwhile, Stettinius' ghost-writer at the conference was Dalton Trumbo, the Communist<ref>Victor Navasky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=wg0ypcai-osC Naming Names]'' (New York: Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 0809001837, p. 367</ref> screen writer, who would become infamous two years later as one of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>"To Elsie McKeough," Helen Manfull, Ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (New York: M. Evans and Company, 1970), p. 37</ref> Press accounts attributed Trumbo's hiring to Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A p. 110; Westbrook Pegler, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19500703&id=SrILAAAAIBAJ&sjid=elUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1706,274693 New U.N. Building is Monument to Men Who Betrayed U.S.]," ''The Evening Independent'', July 3, 1950</ref>

In April 1945, [[Harold Glasser|Glasser]] slipped a warning to [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S., that the FBI had notified Stettinius that Bureau surveillance had followed a bundle of State Department documents from Washington to New York, where they were photographed, then returned within 24 hours to Washington. Only three people had access to these documents, one of whom was "Ales." Stettinius told "Ales": "I hope it is not you."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 267-268</ref>

That same month, at the [[San Francisco]] conference, [[Soviet]] [[UN]] [[Ambassador]] Andrei Gromyko<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947456,00.html Andrei Gromyko]," ''Time'', October 1, 1979</ref> nominated Hiss temporary secretary general (and thus a candidate for the first permanent Secretary General)<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=635 Harry Truman, President 1945-1953] (From ''Roosevelt to Bush: The American Presidency, Transformation and Change''), Lecture, Gresham College, London, January 29, 2008</ref> of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an [[American]] for what was then the [[UN]]'s highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In [[London]] that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the [[State Department]] create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

On June 4, 1945, six weeks after becoming [[President]], [[Harry Truman]] was briefed about [[Venona project|Venona]], according to former National Security Agency officer Oliver Kirby, deputy director of the [[Russian]] code-breaking project.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 147</ref> Based on notes Kirby made at the time, Jerrold Schecter, former National Security Council spokesman for the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, reported that Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, chief of the Army Security Agency (precursor of the [[NSA]]), advised President Truman that the code-breakers were decrypting messages that revealed massive [[Soviet]] intelligence operations in the [[United States]], though it was too early to identify operatives or operations.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 110</ref> According to Kirby, Clarke described this meeting as "NDG" (no damn good),<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> the president telling the general that his account of code-breaking sounded "like a fairy story."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref> On June 26, The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

Two days later, State Department liaison Lt. [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence was arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case. [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member Jack Stachel<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> that Roth suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30. See also FBI Report: (REDACTED), Security Matter—C, June 8, 1950, p. 9 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR29.pdf FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Vol 29], PDF p. 16)</ref>

==Defections and Investigations==
===Igor Gouzenko===
[[Image:StetHiss.jpg|thumb|300 px|Stettinius (foreground left) with Alger Hiss (center), ca. January 1945. ''Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]Two days before Hiss proposed the creation of a "special assistant for military affairs," [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33; FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

On September 25, Walter Winchell again broached the subject on his broadcast, reporting, "It can be categorically stated that the question of the loyalty and integrity of one high American official has been called to the attention of the President." Weinstein calls this "a clear reference to Hiss," adding that Winchell was FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s "most intimate journalistic confidante."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

===Elizabeth Bentley===
On November 27, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.”

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by the previously-cited April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov, noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
Bentley said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> She said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1995) ISBN 0865544778, p. 296</ref> asked her who Hiss was, she clipped an article in which Hiss was mentioned from the New York daily ''PM'', whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was (according to Oleg Kalugin, former head of KGB operations in the United States) a [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne, ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence & Espionage Against the West'' (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company, 1994), ISBN 0788151118, p. 74. As Stone put it, "In a way, I was half a Jeffersonian and half a Marxist. I never saw a contradiction between the two, and I still don't." (''The Nation'', July 10, 1989, cited in L. Brent Baker and Tim Graham, eds., "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/1989/nq19890710.asp Notable Quotables]," Media Research Center, July 10, 1989)</ref> who cooperated with Soviet intelligence<ref>Paul Berman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Berman.t.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all The Watchdog]," ''The New York Times'', October 1, 2006</ref> as an "agent of influence."<ref>Myra MacPherson, '''All Governments Lie': The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006) ISBN 0684807130, p. 327. MacPherson goes on to quote Kalugin explaining that such agents "could shape public opinion, manipulate public opinion," and that Stone "was willing to perform tasks." Stone was identified in the Venona project with the code name "Blin" (Pancake) ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_ny_moscow.pdf Index of Cover Names, New York-Moscow Communications], p. 10), an identification confirmed by a 13 April 1936 KGB New York station report. The following month, the station reported that "Relations with 'Pancake' have entered 'the channel of normal operational work,'" meaning that Stone had become a "fully active agent." [Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewpdf.cfm?article_id=15120 I.F. Stone, Soviet Agent—Case Closed]," ''Commentary''; Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 150] Stone also met with "Sergei" ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/23oct_stone_fears_fbi.pdf 1506 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 October 1944]) (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]], (Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] [Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History], p. 31 [PDF p. 34]), who, under cover as head of the Soviet government news agency TASS (Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, p. 124), was actually Roland Abbiat (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004), murderer of Ignace Reiss. (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287])</ref> Bentley said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref> This was consistent with the above-cited March 5, 1945 cable,<ref>Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"</ref> in which Gorsky reports: "‘Ales’ and ‘Ruble’ [Harold Glasser]<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_wash_moscow.pdf Index of KGB Covernames: Washington-Moscow Communications], p. 3 (National Security Agency)</ref> used to work in ‘Karl’s’ [Whittaker Chambers]<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors [GRU]."<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref> Before the end of 1945, a State Department Security memorandum summarized:
[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Image courtesy John Earl Haynes, Library of Congress'']]{{cquote|Bentley advised that members of this group had told her that Hiss of the State Department had taken Harold Glasser of the Treasury Department, and 2 or 3 others, and had turned them over to direct control by the Soviet representatives in this country. In this regard, attention is directed to Whittaker Chambers' statement regarding Alger Hiss and to the statement by Gouzenko, regarding an assistant to the Secretary of State who was a Soviet agent.<ref>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] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), Vol. 16, p. 1072 (PDF p. 12)</ref>}}

Three years later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] memorandum, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Black Notebook] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77; cf. [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref>

===Investigations===
On February 9, 1946, [[Stalin]] declared that war was inevitable as long as [[capitalism]] existed, in a speech regarded by some as the open declaration of [[Cold War]].<ref>Walter LaFeber, ''America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945-1984'' (New York: Knopf, 1985) ISBN 0394343913, p. 38</ref> Two days later, ex-[[Communist]] Benjamin Mandel, former manager of the ''Daily Worker'',<ref>Conrad Black, ''Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full'' (Jackson, Tenn.: PublicAffairs, 2008), ISBN 1586486748, p. 93</ref> identified Alger Hiss to the [[FBI]] as "a [[Communist Party]] member," and one of a "high level group of [[government]] employees who would not be found openly connected with the Party or with any Front organizations and who were specifically instructed not to display such connections."<ref>FBI memo: Hottel to Hoover, February 11, 1946, pp. [http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page55.pdf 2]-[http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page56.pdf 3] ([http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm FBI file: Silvermaster], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster042.pdf Vol. 42], pp. 55-56)</ref> The Bureau again interviewed Hiss, who denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</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, ''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. Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 139; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 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 nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

State Department security officers discovered that Hiss' desk calendar for September 14, 1946, recorded a meeting Hiss did not schedule through the department (and for which he made no official record) with "McLean [sic], British Emb."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 363-364</ref> Donald Maclean<ref>[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald.html Donald Maclean], The Spy Museum</ref> was a diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington who was also a [[Soviet]] agent<ref>Statement of Vladimir Petrov (defected from Soviet Embassy, Canberra, 1954), [http://ia341032.us.archive.org/0/items/scopeofsovietact2730unit/scopeofsovietact2730unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States]," Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, June 6, 1956, p. 1521 (PDF p. 79)</ref> and member of the [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]. He would defect in 1951 to the [[Soviet Union]],<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355048/Donald-Maclean Donald Maclean]," ''The Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2008</ref> where he would be rewarded with the rank of Colonel in the KGB.<ref>"[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald3.html Agent: Maclean, D.]," The Spy Museum</ref> Another member of that ring, [[Kim Philby]], would likewise defect to [[Moscow]], later writing in his memoir, "it was also the era of Hiss, [[Judith Coplon|Coplon]],<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no2_2003/article09.html The Judith Coplon Story]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', vol. 47, no. 2, 2003; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_judith_coplon.pdf 27 New York to Moscow 8 January 1945]</ref> [[Klaus Fuchs|Fuchs]],<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/fuchsstatement.html Fuchs' confession], "Race for the Bomb" ''The American Experience'' (PBS); [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jun_departure_agent_rest.pdf 850 New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944]; </ref> [[Harry Gold|Gold]],<ref>Greg Barker, Director, "[http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_bios_detail.htm#Gold The Red Files: Secrets of the Russian Archives Revealed]," PBS, 1999
ISBN 0-7806-2796-2; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/16nov_klaus_fuchs_harry_gold.pdf 1606(a) New York to Moscow 16 November 1944]</ref> [[David Greenglass|Greenglass]],<ref>Rebecca Leung, "[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/14/60II/main563126.shtml The Traitor: David Greenglass Testified Against His Own Sister], CBS News, July 16, 2003</ref> and the brave [[Julius Rosenberg|Rosenbergs]]<ref>Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QpKjGSHAcaYC The Rosenberg File]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0300072058, pp. 53-58; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/21sep_recruitment_by_rosenbergs.pdf 1340 New York to Moscow 21 September 1944]</ref>—not to mention others who are still nameless."<ref>Kim Philby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=duU2kp3RS0gC My Silent War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2002) ISBN 0375759832, p. 150</ref> Such praise from a Soviet master spy is "suggestive," writes Weinstein, that Philby "evidently either knew or believed" that Hiss was a fellow agent.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360, footnote</ref>

That year, over strenuous objections on national-security grounds from the State Department's Office of American Republics Affairs (and the government of Panama), Hiss submitted (with the approval of Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson) to the United Nations the annual report of the Governor of Panama to the War Department, a propaganda coup for the Soviets.<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://www.archive.org/download/interlockingsubv1920unit/interlockingsubv1920unit_bw.pdf Interlocking subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), Part 19-20, 1357-66 (PDF pp. 17-26)</ref>

Secretary of State James Byrnes told the FBI he would have fired Hiss, but for the mandatory Civil Service Commission hearing, which would have revealed confidential sources on the case.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> In November 1946, the Bureau disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman (according to former chief of [[CIA]] [[Soviet]] bloc counterintelligence)<ref>[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games], Yale University Press</ref> remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>

After a 1946 grand jury began looking into Soviet espionage, Congress took an interest in Hiss, finally forcing the State Department to remove him from access to secrets.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> In January, 1947, Byrnes quietly eased Hiss out of the State Department.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, serving also as a trustee on the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]].<ref>Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, [[SISS]] report (July 30, 1953), pp. 8-10.</ref>

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==
Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department security officials and the FBI about the [[Ware group]] for a decade.<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> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> (a characterization he would repeat as late as 1956).<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html The Old Familiar Fish]," ''Time'', September 17, 1956</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> (That year, referring to Venona,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "too many unknowns" in the partially decoded Soviet messages,<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, it would open up the whole red panic again.")<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004. The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>

So strong was Hiss' denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either Chambers or Hiss was lying about whether they had known one another,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Alger Hiss Trials: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50. Famous Trials (University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law)</ref> and he asked the committee to appoint him to head a subcommittee to find out which one.<ref>"[http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm House Un-American Activities Committee]," Mundt Archives (Dakota State University); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 15-16</ref>

On August 16, Chambers offered to take a lie-detector test.<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948</ref> Hiss refused (a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life),<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> but he dared<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> Chambers to repeat his charges outside of the immunity afforded in congressional hearings, so Hiss could sue him. In her newspaper column that day, Eleanor Roosevelt set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>Eleanor Roosevelt, ''Washington Daily News'', August 16th, 1948</ref> (Currie was the NKVD agent<ref>Robert J. Hanyok, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945]'' (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005), pp. 118-119 (PDF p. 123-124), n. 185; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 146</ref> in the White House<ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol3/Vol3Chap1.pdf "Cold War Counterintelligence," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 3, Chapter 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive) pp. 30-31 (PDF pp. 29-30); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 167</ref> who tipped the Kremlin off in 1944 that the U.S. was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 130; Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), pp. xiv, xxiv; FBI memo: Belmont to Boardman, February 1, 1956, p. 9 ([http://foia.fbi.gov/venona/venona.pdf FBI file: Venona], p. 71) Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>

The next day, Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [[Clark Clifford]], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if Hiss might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' confinement in a mental institution."<ref>George M. Elsey, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif Memorandum for Mr. Clifford], 16 August 1948, Harry S. Truman Library, Clark M. Clifford Papers, "Loyalty Investigations," box 11</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss' mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 15</ref>

On August 27, on NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' Chambers called Hiss' bluff, saying, "Alger Hiss was a Communist and may be now."<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17982730/page/5/ Meet the Press Transcript for April 8, 2007, p. 5]</ref> Embarrassment mounted among Hiss' supporters as a month dragged by and still no suit was filed. Even the ''Washington Post'' began to have doubts.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 162</ref> Finally, on September 28, Hiss filed his long-threatened slander suit against Chambers.

==Hiss' suit against Chambers==
===The Baltimore Documents===
In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss's attorneys told Chambers to produce "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss. Chambers retrieved the packet he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden in a dumbwaiter shaft.<ref>"Three Rings," ''Time'', December 20, 1948</ref> Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss' attorneys 43 typewritten documents (65 pages) and five handwritten memoranda, some so sensitive that for security reasons they could not safely be made public, though already a decade old.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that four of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref>

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Donegan told the FBI that Assistant Attorney General Alexander M. Campbell, head of the Criminal Division at Truman Justice, “now wants to institute perjury charges against Chambers” for not revealing the documents before this. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten addendum comments, “I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also.”<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, November 23, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> The Truman administration's determination to indict Chambers rather than Hiss was unusual, as two leading scholars of the case note:
{{cquote|Usually … when a witness gives false testimony and then later comes forward and provides a truthful account, no perjury charge is brought. To charge perjury … in such a case would be a disincentive for a witness to provide a subsequent truthful account…. [A] perjury count is rarely brought if a witness corrects false testimony in a timely fashion…. Chambers corrected his false sworn testimony within two months of his grand jury testimony ... and his false testimony had not produced any miscarriage of justice.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, p. 108</ref>}}

===The Pumpkin Papers===
[[Image:1626 Page1.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]
On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC investigators on his Maryland farm to a pumpkin he had hollowed out the night before and in which he had secreted five rolls (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been lightstruck)<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> of 35 milimeter film.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917670,00.html The Pumpkin Papers], ''Time'', August 11, 1975</ref> The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers"). The State Department documents dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria.<ref>Doulglas O. Linder, “[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkinp.html The Pumpkin Papers: Key Evidence in the Alger Hiss Trials],” Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> Some of the documents on the film were initialed by Hiss and came from his office.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> Some were of a highly sensitive, classified nature.<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html The Pumpkin Papers],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Some State Department cables bearing Hiss' handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 116</ref>

According to Chambers, some of the microfilm was made by a contact he knew only as "Felix," who would photograph documents with a Leica purchased by the Communist underground. For such work, said Chambers, Felix had been trained in Moscow, where he traveled on a forged U.S. passport. In 1949 Chambers would lead FBI investigators to the Baltimore block in which he thought Felix had lived in the 1930s. The Bureau discovered that a Felix Inslerman had lived on the block, later moving to Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked on a secret guided-missile project, in 1946 becoming one of the few civilians to attend the atomic tests at Bikini.

Both before the grand jury and in the second Hiss trial, Inslerman would refuse to answer questions on grounds of potential self-incrimination. But in Inslerman's Schenectady home, the FBI found a Leica whose imperfections matched the scratch marks on Chambers' famed pumpkin film. In 1954, Inslerman would corroborate Chambers' story under oath.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,819479,00.html New Witness]," ''Time'', March 1, 1954</ref>

The day Chambers revealed the "pumpkin papers," on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Truman Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> As late as December 6, Truman Justice was still contemplating "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref>

On that day, Hiss's attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a Woodstock typewriter, Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss's 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss' lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss continued to swear under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition of the typewriter.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Hiss would later change his story, testifying that he gave the typewriter to the Catletts in 1937, before the date of the documents produced by Chambers. Pat Catlett, however, would tell defense lawyers that Hiss gave the Catletts the typewriter in the spring of 1938, just after the dates of the documents.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>

On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss's typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, a Woodstock.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss's attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099"—the Hiss' machine.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8747 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: Another Exchange!"] ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 14 (September 16, 1976)</ref>

On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss' typewriter,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 300</ref>

Hiss testified that he never gave any documents to Whittaker Chambers, and that he had no contact with Chambers after January 1, 1937. The grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury, charging that he lied under oath in both these statements. Because the statute of limitations had expired, the grand jury could not consider espionage charges.

Since Chambers had gained the upper hand by voluntarily waiving immunity from slander, ex-[[Socialist]]<ref>"Joined the Harvard Socialist Club and later became president... Elected to Executive Committee, Intercollegiate Socialist Society... Joined the Socialist Party, New York County, and the Socialist Press Club of New York City." [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9034000C.rtf Walter Lippmann Papers. Part 4: Early Papers, 1904-1920 (Reels 164-170)]: Chronology. Manuscript and Archives Division, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; Neil Smith ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=quAgnHLkKm8C American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization]'' (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004) ISBN 0520243382, p. 120; cf. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2v9aAAAAMAAJ The Intercollegiate Socialist]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1918), p. 36. Even after ending his formal membership, Lippmann remained a loyal fellow-traveler: In the midst of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, "WJL" (Walter J. Lippmann) wrote to "ECC" (Edward C. Carter, head of the American Russian Institute and [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]), urging "cooperation with the European revolutionaries and the Soviet Union in their attempt to build a socialist Europe as a nucleus for a world socialist order, with the obvious corollary of the establishment of socialism in this country." Walter Lippmann to Edward C. Carter, June 10, 1940, p. 5 (PDF p. 100), FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR54.11.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 54, Part 11], pp. 96-101.</ref> and [[Soviet]] intelligence source<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9sep_lippman_views_churchill_roosevelt.pdf 1289 New York to Moscow], September 9, 1944. According to Eric Alterman, a columnist and [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation blogger] for ''The Nation'', Lippmann "offered much more useful information to the Soviets than [I.F.] Stone ever did." (Eric Alterman, "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=stone_cold_untruths Stone Cold Untruths]," ''The American Prospect'', October 3, 2006)</ref> Walter Lippman (whose secretary, [[Mary Price]], was a Soviet agent)<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/8jun_dir_courier.pdf 868 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 June 1943]. Cf. [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/29apr_recruits.pdf 588 New York to Moscow, 29 April 1944]. See also [http://ia311343.us.archive.org/2/items/instituteofpacif02unit/instituteofpacif02unit_bw.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations Hearings, Part 2], Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 82nd Cong., 1st Sess., August 9, 14, 16, 20, 22, and 23, 1951 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 406; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 439 and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 99</ref> suggested that Hiss turn the tables by waiving the statute of limitations on espionage. Hiss never took him up on that suggestion.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 384</ref>

==The Trials==
On May 31, 1949, Alger Hiss went on trial for perjury in New York City.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> At trial, Hiss provided an all-star cast of character witnesses, including such notables as [[Adlai Stevenson]], Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]], and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000121 Davis, John W. (1873-1955)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> However, both Under Secretary Welles and Sayre testified that delivering the classifed documents to a foreign power would enable them to break America's most secret codes.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 221-223.</ref>

At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref>

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref>

Hiss's friend and former colleague, Charles Wyzanski, Senior District Judge of the U.S. District Court in Boston, testified in both trials in defense of Hiss. Wyzanski, who "initially had supposed [Hiss] innocent," later concluded that "Hiss was guilty," as did Hiss' own attorney, William L. Marbury.<ref>Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., to Francis Russell, March 31, 1986. Francis Russell Papers, Boston Athenaeum. Cited in Richard Newby, [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.1/letters.html Letters to the Editor], ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000)</ref>

== Conviction ==
The first trial ended June 8, 1949 in a hung jury,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> with eight for conviction and four against. The second trial began on November 17, 1949. In January, 1950, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: Guilty on both counts.<ref>''United States v. Hiss'', 88 F. Supp. 559 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> In his pre-sentencing statement, Hiss said, "I am confident that in the future the full facts showing how Whittaker Chambers was able to carry out forgery by typewriter will be developed."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822033,00.html Trial by Typewriter]," ''Time'', February 4, 1952</ref>

Hiss was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms in federal prison. Secretary of State Dean Acheson provoked outrage by commenting, "Whatever the outcome of any appeal which Mr. Hiss or his lawyer may take, I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss." Eleanor Roosevelt added to the furor with her comment, "It seems rather horrible to condemn someone on the word of someone else who admits to guilt." ''Time'' magazine commented that she "obviously had not been paying much attention," being "unaware of, or determined to ignore, the [[corroborating evidence]] introduced by the Government."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811795,00.html 'I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back']," ''Time'', February 6, 1950</ref>

That year, General of the Army Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed President Truman that Venona had "positively identified" Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] as Soviet agents.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 149</ref> According to Bradley, Truman said, "That G—D— stuff. Every time it bumps into us it gets bigger and bigger. It's likely to take us down."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref>

Hiss appealed, but in December 1950 his conviction was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979], Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society; [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] denied him ''certiorari'', as well as his repeated petitions for a writ of error ''coram nobis'' (orchestrated by long-time Communist Party member<ref>Rabinowitz claimed to have joined the Party in 1942, adding "There was no formal act marking the end of the relationship.... though I continued to meet with party members to discuss both political and legal matters for many years thereafter." (Victor Rabinowitz, ''Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir'' [Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996] ISBN 025202253X, pp. 73, 87). Rabinowitz' law partner (representing Cuba's Communist Castro regime) was Leonard Boudin, father of convicted Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin (Michael Law, [http://lawvibe.com/leftist-lawyer-victor-rabinowitz-passes-away-at-96/ Leftist Lawyer Victor Rabinowitz Passes Away at 96], Law Vibe: International Law News, November 21, 2007), whose son was adopted and raised by William Ayers (Jodi Wilgoren, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/us/from-a-radical-background-a-rhodes-scholar-emerges.html?pagewanted=all From a Radical Background, A Rhodes Scholar Emerges]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 2002), political booster of Barack Obama (Scott Shane, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?pagewanted=all Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths]," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 2008).</ref> Victor Rabinowitz).<ref>Eric Breindel, "[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+faithful+traitor:+Alger+Hiss%27s+refusal+to+recant+helped+create...-a019100539 The faithful traitor: Alger Hiss's refusal to recant helped create the myth of his innocence]," ''National Review'', February 10, 1997</ref> Hiss served 44 months of his five-year sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison.

In prison, Hiss' best fiends were the Mafia gangsters,<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> whom he later compared to prisoners of war in terms of solidarity, hierarchy and discipline.<ref>Alger Hiss, ''Recollections of a Life'' (Arcade, 1989) ISBN 1559700246, p. 168</ref> He called them “the most stable group in any prison”<ref> Brock Brower, “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/brower.html The Problems of Alger Hiss],” ''Esquire'', December 1960</ref> and “the healthiest inmates of the prison” because they “had absolutely no sense of guilt.”<ref>Hiss to C. Vann Woodward, May 2, 1959, quoted in Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 581; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2005) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 87-88. Cf. Arianna Huffington, “[http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/printer_friendly.php?id=684 Alger Hiss and O.J. Simpson],” Arianna Online, November 21, 1996</ref> Hiss admitted that he, too, never felt guilt about anything he had ever done—as one Hiss biographer comments, “an incredible statement from anyone.”<ref>Ron Capshaw, “[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon],” FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref>

== Later Life ==
Hiss was released in 1954. Disbarred, he became a salesman. Five years later, Alger and Priscilla Hiss separated.<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," Modern Age, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 309 (PDF p. 3)</ref> In the late '60s, Hiss met Mrs. Isabel Dowden Johnson, a former editor at ''The New York Times'' and ex-wife of the Communist<ref>Cole, who titled his 1981 memoir ''Hollywood Red'', "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death in 1985. Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=J_BkAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Red Star Over Hollywood]'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005) ISBN 1893554961, p. 29; Cf. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YWtZAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s]'' (Rocklin, Calif: Prima Publishing, 1998) ISBN 0761513760, pp. 266-267; [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170660/bio Biography for Lester Cole], IMDb: The Internet Movie Database</ref> screen writer Lester Cole, a member of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00103 Hiss, Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, 1908-2000]. Papers, 1907-2000: A Finding Aid. Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University</ref> Priscilla reportedly had a breakdown, in which she said she was “tired of all the lies and cover-ups,”<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1858F750-23F1-43DF-93C8-86E30C5224E2 Framing Alger: A Communist Plot]," FrontPageMagazine.com, June 12, 2007</ref> and complained that "Alger was willing to sacrifice us all on the altar of his vindication."<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=445F476F-9BFF-4E61-AED9-733CFFE94E65 Portrait of an American Traitor]," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 24, 2007</ref> Following Priscilla's death in 1984, Alger and Isabel married.<ref>"[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/nyregion/isabel-j-hiss-91-widow-of-alger-hiss.html Isabel J. Hiss, 91, Widow of Alger Hiss]," ''The New York Times'', May 7, 2000</ref>

In 1974, the [[Watergate]] scandal forced [[Richard M. Nixon|President Nixon]] to resign, giving "some credence to a wide spectrum of conspiracy theories involving fake typewriters, phony microfilm, and various collusions among the FBI, Nixon, HUAC, the CIA, the radical right, and the KGB."<ref>"[http://www.historynet.com/the-alger-hiss-spy-case.htm/4 The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," HistoryNet.com</ref> In 1975, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the State Bar of Massachusetts, although the court's ruling stated "nothing we have said here should be construed as detracting one iota from the fact that in considering Hiss's petition we consider him to be guilty as charged."<ref>''[http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/368/368mass447.html In the Matter of Alger Hiss'', 368 Mass. 447], 1975; [http://books.google.com/books?id=xcA2AAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 333 N.E.2d 429]; [http://www.loris.net/onken/nationalcases/Masshiss(goodmercycase).htm 1975 Mass. LEXIS 1014]</ref> In 1981, Bard College established an Alger Hiss Distinguished Professorship<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=tamwag/haury.xml&style=tamwag/tamwag.xsl&part=body Guide to the Agnese Nelms Haury Papers], Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University</ref> in Social Studies, formerly held by socialist<ref>Kovel advocates what he calls "ecosocialism," which he defines as Marxian communism—the "realization" of what he calls "'first-epoch' socialism" (that is, "neither more nor less than the original announcement of the ''Communist Manifesto''")—not in pursuit of "unfettered productivity' ''a la'' Marx, but to further fetter productivity in the interest of environmentalism. Joel Kovel, "[http://www.joelkovel.org/messages.html#socialism A Socialism for the Next Epoch]," On Ecology and Socialism. Congres Marx International Paris, September 29, 2001</ref> Joel Kovel,<ref>[http://www.joelkovel.org/joelkovel.html About Joel Kovel]</ref> who declared that America's obsession with anti-Communism during the Cold War led the U.S. to become “the enemy of humanity.”<ref>Steven G. Marks, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/in-denial-by-john-earl-haynes-and-harvey-klehr-9668 In Denial by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr]," ''Commentary'', October 2003</ref> Despite the mountains of evidence against him that only increased as incriminatory Soviet bloc documents came to light following the collapse of Communism, Hiss continued for the rest of his life to claim innocence.

==The Volkogonov affair==
After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, petitioned the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> appealed to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref> (This despite the fact that the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.)<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 44; Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 272; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 167; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

At a 1992 press conference, Lowenthal released to the media a statement from Volkogonov claiming that "Alger Hiss was never an agent of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union." Hiss dubbed this a "final verdict," adding, "I can't imagine a more authoritative source than the files of the old Soviet Union." Lowenthal said Volkogonov was apparently "willing to stake his reputation as a general, historian and politician" on this statement.<ref>David Margolick, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DE113BF93AA15753C1A964958260 After 40 Years, a Postscript on Hiss: Russian Official Calls Him Innocent]," ''The New York Times'', October 29, 1992</ref> Lowenthal showed reporters a videotape of an interview he did with Volkogonov, prompting "an extraordinary, emotional reaction from the world's press," according to one account. "Some reporters gulped back tears."<ref>Alex Kershaw, "Framed: The Rehabilitation of Alger Hiss," ''[http://www.guardian.co.uk/ The Guardian]'', January 9, 1993, pp.6-10</ref>

The CBS Morning News reported that Hiss was "apparently exonerated."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref> On NBC's ''Today'', co-host Scott Simon said, "This week's revelations about Alger Hiss may help us remember how vulnerable something as real as a reputation may be... So Mr. Hiss may have lived long enough to feel vindicated, but no one lives so long that they have years to give away to suspicions and mistakes."<ref>"[http://www.mrc.org/mediawatch/1992/watch19921201.asp Sticking Up for Hiss]," ''MediaWatch'' (Media Research Center), December 1992</ref> CNN's Gary Tuchman asked why "Hiss's own government has not exonerated him." ''The New Yorker'' ran a seven-page essay by Tony Hiss on "My Father's Honor."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref>

But when questioned Volkogonov admitted that he spent only two days in the Foreign Intelligence Archive,<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> and that he had not actually examined any archives. Instead, according to the former director of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>J. Michael Waller, ''Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War: Messages to Defeat the Terrorists'' (Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com, 2007) ISBN 0615144632, p. 45, n. 36</ref> he asked Yevgeny Primakov,<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23725 A Terrorist State in the G8?]," ''[[Human Events]]'', December 3, 2007</ref> head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the KGB), to provide him with the information.<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''Human Events'', November 28, 1992</ref> Volkogonov said that Primakov said that employees of the foreign intelligence archive said that "A. Hiss was not registered in the documents as a recruited agent."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140</ref>

According to the Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, Volkogonov admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>Mark Kramer, [http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky "The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article]," ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov. "There's no guarantee... that it was not in other channels….”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not had the opportunity to see these documents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref> In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” concluded Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> Volkogonov added that he felt he had been "deceived" by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article],” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref>

Finally, after almost a month, ''The New York Times'', which had devoted half a page to Volkogonov's alleged "vindication" of Hiss, gave one column to his retraction.<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 141</ref>

== Corroboration from Soviet archives ==
According to [[Library of Congress]] [[Cold War]] historian John Earl Haynes,<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> Alger Hiss’s known cryptonyms were "Jurist"<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6</ref> or "Lawyer"<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 43</ref> ("Advocate"<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997)</ref> or "Advokat")<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1952)</ref> during his time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] (1935-36), "Ales"<ref>Venona decrypts (e.g., [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999); Eduard Mark, "Who Was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003)</ref> in 1945, and "Leonard" in the "Gorsky memo."<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html KGB file 43173] vol. 2 (v) pp. 49-55</ref>

==Venona, Hiss' Death and the Battle for History==
In October 1996, the [[CIA]] and [[NSA]] released the [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts, including the "Ales" transmission of March 30, 1945.<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' (Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency), Winter-Spring 2001, No. 10, pp. 9-10</ref> The following month, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Meanwhile, Volkogonov had also died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say—although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>

Kobyakov also said that former KGB General-Lieutenant Vitaly Pavlov,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809717-1,00.html Artist in Brooklyn]," ''Time'', August 19, 1957</ref> who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Sciences Net, October 16, 2003. According to the [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?&pagewanted=all personal Web site] of Hiss' son Tony, Pavlov [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/pavlov.html denounced] Soviet defectors Guzenko, Golitsyn, Levchenko and Gordievsky as "traitors," and their revelations as "fabrications."</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; 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. 167; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>

==Legacy==
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> TruTV's Crime Library concludes, "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html The Hiss-Nixon Seesaw],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James T. Gay of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James T. Gay, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Stephen Koch writes, "I for one have been brought close to certainty, on the basis of archival information, that Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Free Press, 1994) ISBN 0-02-918730-3, p. 326</ref> In ''American Heritage'' magazine, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of [the Hiss case] is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref>

Former Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein,<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Biography of Dr. Allen Weinstein, Ninth Archivist of the United States], The National Archives</ref> who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
{{cquote|"the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}
The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further—not just on perjury, but on espionage—the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref>

"Part of Hiss's KGB file has come out that proves the obvious point he was guilty as charged," says Christopher Andrew of Cambridge University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin conclude that "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> University of Virginia Law School Professor G. Edward White, a son-in-law of Hiss' attorney John F. Davis,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes, "recently released evidence in U.S. and Soviet archives, taken together with some previously available testimony of persons connected with Soviet intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, supports Chambers's charges against Hiss."<ref>White, G. Edward, "[http://ssrn.com/abstract=311869 Hiss and Holmes]," ''Ohio Northern University Law Review'', May 2002</ref> "In August 1948, Alger Hiss lied before HUAC," writes Ryan Ervin of Eastern Illinois University. "His testimony before HUAC proves this beyond any doubt. Intercepted Soviet cables during the Cold War, released in 1996, further prove Hiss’s Communist ties."<ref>Ryan Ervin, "[http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/archives/2005/2005Journal.pdf The Hiss-Chambers Case: Three Acts of Espionage Theater]," ''Historia'' (History Department, Eastern Illinois University and Epsilon Mu Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta), Vol. 14 (2005), p. 14 (PDF p. 7)</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> "Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White are among those whose long-suspected involvement in such [Soviet espionage] seems to be confirmed by the Venona cables," writes Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman.<ref>Maurice Isserman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09issermt.html They Led Two Lives], ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1999</ref> Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press (and—ironically—holder of the "Alger Hiss" chair at Bard College), says, "We're 99 percent certain that Hiss was a spy."<ref>John J. Miller, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_9_58/ai_n16619085/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 The Annals of Jonathan Brent: One Man and a Great Publishing Project], ''National Review'', May 22, 2006</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref>

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who, it was said, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref> Thomas Reed, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and professed "social democrat"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''Alger Hiss and the Battle for History'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, p. 20. Elsewhere, Jacoby writes, "I believe that Hiss was guilty of perjury and am about 98 percent certain that he did pass on government documents to more professional spies." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=5735 Who Owns American History?]" PowellsBooks.Blog, March 21, 2009) She adds: "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 181; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>

Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> (tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia"),<ref> Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] (April 18, 1996), p. H3645</ref> the ardor for Hiss seems to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Militant atheist"<ref>Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009</ref> Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'"<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' (London: Verso, 2000) ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106. Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that the answer is, "because he thought he was onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

===Scholarly Consensus===
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "Soviet files made public in 1995 convinced most observers that he had been guilty," says ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''.<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hiss-Alg.html The Columbia Encyclopedia]'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07.</ref> By 2006, "most historians had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," said Richard Aldrich of Britain's Nottingham University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," write Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen.<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> Columbia University historian David Greenberg refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> Thomas Powers writes that "no serious scholar of the subject any longer dismisses" the "voluminous and explicit claims by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 47, No. 8 (May 11, 2000)</ref> Even Obama supporter<ref>Cass R. Sunstein, "[http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/24/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama.aspx Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama]," ''The New Republic'' October 24, 2008</ref> Charles Fried, a professor at Hiss' ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to all but the most obdurate that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent..."<ref>Geoffrey Stone, Patricia M. Wald, Charles Fried, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Constitutions Under Stress: International and Historical Perspectives," ''[http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf Bulletin]'' (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 39</ref>

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime." (Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007)</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History], Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>

===Hiss in the Mass Media===
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996. Elsewhere, ''Time'' reports, "Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message [1822] seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html Alger, 'Ales' And Joe]," ''Time'', June 6, 1999</ref> "For... Alger Hiss," ''Newsweek'' reports, "a richly detailed new book, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.... provides irrefutable confirmation of guilt."<ref>David J. Garrow, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 From Russia, With Love]," ''Newsweek'', May 25, 2009</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

== Further reading ==
* Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SISS report July 30, 1953),
* [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/home.html The Alger Hiss Story: Search for the Truth]
* [http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericanHistory/articles/1998/0698_text.htm Gay, James Thomas. "The Alger Hiss Spy Case." ''American History'' (May-June 1998)]
* Eduard Mark, �Who Was �Venona�s� �Ales?� Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,� Intelligence and National Security 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).
* Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999).
*Weinstein, Allen "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case" (Random House, 1997) ISBN 0394495462.
* [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page44.html#_ftnref5 Alexander Vassiliev�s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky�s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks (Annotated)]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus], 23 February 1953
* Fitin to Merkulov 25 April 1945, File #43072, Vol. 1, pp. 96-97, KGB Archives.
* Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Secrecy: Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. VI. Appendices: A. ''Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience''. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1997, pgs. 36, 39. (PDF 746K) [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf]

== External links ==
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/1.html Crime Library]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html The Alger Hiss Trials: An Account]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci3/ch2.pdf Cold War Counterintelligence]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]
* [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf 1579 New York to Moscow 28 September 1943] Five NKVD sources are named. Milton Schwartz needs a loan to pay off debts. GRU has mentioned a person from State Department named Hiss.
* Memoranda on interview of Alger Hiss with Secretary of State James Byrnes, Hiss’ response to allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster032.pdf Vol. 32, pgs. 121 - 124] pdf, March 25, 1946.
* Memo E.E. Conroy to the Director on Hiss based on Whittaker Chambers allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster031.pdf Vol. 31, pgs. 50 - 54] pdf, March 28, 1946.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html ''The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York Times, 12 June 1949]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiss, Alger}}

[[Category:Espionage]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]
[[Category:United States History]]

Alger Hiss

2009-05-18T21:14:24Z

Wahida: improve readability

[[Image:Hiss2.png|thumb|300px|right|Alger Hiss. ''Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Prisons'']]
'''Alger Hiss''' (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a high-ranking [[U.S. State Department]] official<ref>"....Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official...." Press Release: [http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2000/nr00-02.html National Archives to Make Available Alger Hiss Grand Jury Materials], United States National Archives and Records Administration, October 11, 1999</ref> and Secretary General of the founding conference of the [[United Nations]],<ref>"...served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945." [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00190 Hiss, Alger. Prison Correspondence, 1951-1954: Finding Aid], Harvard Law School Library</ref>. He was [[conviction|convicted]] of [[perjury]] in 1950, after denying that he had been a [[Soviet]] agent.

"Belief in the guilt or [[innocence]] of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in [[American]] intellectual life," wrote [[Senator]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] (D.-N.Y.), who was instrumental in securing the release of [[FBI]] and [[Venona project]] files on the case, which had been classified for half a century. Concluded the [[liberal]] [[Democrat]]<ref>"....Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat...." Louis Uchitelle, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all The Rehabilitation of Morning in America]," ''The New York Times'', February 23, 1997</ref> in 1998: "Parts of the [[United States government|American government]] had [[conclusion|conclusive]] [[evidence]] of his guilt, but they never told."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref>

==Early life==
Alger Hiss was born November 11, 1904, in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]],<ref>"I was born in Baltimore. Md., on November 11, 1904." [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a [[financial|financially]] comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>"...an upper-middle-class Presbyterian family. The Hiss family was financially comfortable...." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library. The Hisses were "prominent, respected people. They kept their own horse and carriage, and on occasion [Alger's father] would hire a private railroad car for a family outing. They were seen at concerts and art galleries, they cultivated a life of good taste and literary interests, they knew everyone they wanted to know in Baltimore, they belonged to the best clubs, and they were recognized wherever they went." (John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss, the True Story]'' [Geneva, Ill.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976] ISBN 0030137764, p. 34)</ref> WASP [[family]].<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397. "Alger's mother claimed descent from the Earl of Leicester and, on her mother's side, a leading Baltimore family, the Grundys." (Lance Morrow, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CEC30zxnXSMC The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948: Learning the Secrets of Power]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2005] ISBN 0465047238, P. 248)</ref> When Alger was two years old, his [[father]], an [[executive]] with a wholesale dry goods [[firm]],<ref>"...an executive in a wholesale dry-goods firm..." Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''The New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed [[suicide]] by slashing his throat with his own razor.<ref>"Alger Hiss's father committed suicide rather savagely, slashing his throat with his own razor." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Hiss was 25, his [[sister]] Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>"....Mary Ann... had swallowed a bottle of Lysol, killing herself." 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. 5</ref> Alger's older [[brother]] Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a [[kidney]] disorder aggravated by his excessive [[alcohol]] consumption.<ref>"Bos.... drank a lot... and contracted Bright's disease, an alcohol-induced kidney ailment...." Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in 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. 158; "Bosley... died... of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by Bosley's overindulgence in alcohol." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>

===Johns Hopkins University===
As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." 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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

===Harvard Law School===
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to [[Harvard Law School]], where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> who was attending [[Harvard]] Business School. Collins would later be identified as a [[Soviet]] agent by chief of [[Soviet intelligence]] in the U.S. [[Anatoly Gorsky]]<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> and by another friend at Harvard, [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] official [[Laurence Duggan]]<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 202. It was apparently to protect Duggan's identity that Ignace Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was murdered (Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 [October 24, 2005]): A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." (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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009] ISBN 0300123906, p 232) Poretsky was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004) Five days after Duggan's interview with the FBI (during which he would implicate [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]]), Hiss would be indicted by a grand jury; five days after that, Duggan would [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 jump or be thrown] from his New York office window to his death, ("[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html The Man in the Widow]," ''Time'', January 3, 1949) leading his friend (and father's protégé), Edward R. Murrow, to broadcast a [http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/murrow/exhibit/iie2.html scathing] denunciation of Red-hunters in the U.S. government for hounding an [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf allegedly] innocent man to his grave. (Stephen Hunter, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100602012.html 'Good Night': A Gray Era In Stark Black And White]," ''The Washington Post'', October 7, 2005, p. C01)</ref> (himself identified by [[Comintern]] courier [[Whittaker Chambers]],<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]],<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 202-203</ref> and [[Venona]] decrypts).<ref>e.g, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/30jun_british_invasion.pdf MGB 1025, 1035-6 New York to Moscow, June 30, 1943, p. 2]</ref> Hiss served on the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'' under editor [[Lee Pressman]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> who would eventually [[testify]] that he had been a member of an [[Ware group|underground group of Communists in the Federal government]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Hiss became the protégé of one [[instructor]], future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], [[Chief Justice]] of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this [[country]]."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> Frankfurter was at the time the leading champion of the [[conviction|convicted]] [[murder|murderers]] [[Sacco and Vanzetti]],<ref>Felix Frankfurter, "[http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/frankff.htm The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''The Atlantic'', March 1927; Felix Frankfurter, ''The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen'' (Buffalo: Wm. S. Hein & Co., 2003) ISBN 157588805X</ref> [[revolution|revolutionary]] [[terrorist|terrorists]] who became a Communist<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Enigma Books, rev. ed. 2004) ISBN 1929631200, pp. 31-37</ref> ''cause célèbre'',<ref>John F. Neville, ''Twentieth-Century Cause Celebre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0275977838 p. 101. Hiss' Harvard classmate, fellow State Department official and [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Soviet intelligence source] Noel Field would later write, "The shock of the Sacco-Vanzetti executions drove me leftward."(Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978], ISBN 0394495462, p. 199)</ref> and whom Alger Hiss would later emulate.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E3D7DC83-5DEE-4B84-857A-DF85A526E91C Alger Hiss: Recruiting Poster for the Left]," FrontPageMagazine.com, February 25, 2004. New evidence [http://hnn.us/articles/4527.html suggests] that Sacco and Vanzetti were [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/01/28/uptonsinclair-boston.html guilty].</ref>

==Early Career==
[[Sacco and Vanzetti]] had been members of a [[terrorist]] group known as the Galleanists,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, pp. 59-60; Annie Anderson, "[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3100/the_lessons_of_sacco_and_vanzetti/ The Lessons of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''In These Times'', March 27, 2007</ref> which was responsible for the May Day 1919 attempted bombing of a number of public figures,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 146; Paul Berman, "[http://www.slate.com/id/3135/ The Refractory Ones: Sacco, Vanzetti, and Timothy McVeigh]," Slate.com, August 20, 1997</ref> including [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 143; "[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9406E3D61238EE32A25752C0A9639C946896D6CF 36 Were Marked as Victims by Bomb Conspirers]," ''The New York Times'', May 1, 1919, p. 1; [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=438 The Postwar Red Scare], Digital History (University of Houston)</ref> Ironically, when Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, [[Felix Frankfurter|Frankfurter]] got him the [[covet|coveted]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of law clerk to Holmes.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949.</ref> Influential as Frankfurter was, Hiss said he was probably even more influenced by Holmes,<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/daynight.html James Day interview with Alger Hiss] for ''[http://www.cuny.tv/series/dayatnight/listen.lasso?year=1974 Day at Night]'' (CUNY-TV), 1974</ref> whom Hiss admired as "a [[skeptic]] of the first order" who "denied the [[existence]] of [[God]]."<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 58</ref> The same year, Hiss [[marriage|married]] the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party [[presidential]] [[nominee]] [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref> Hiss had had met her on a transatlantic cruise when he was nineteen,<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 11</ref> but since then she'd had a [[marriage]], a [[Mexican]] [[divorce]],<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Meyer Zeligs Papers] (October 13, 1963), Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, cited in Ivan Chen, [http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ivan_chen Alger Hiss, 1926-1929], p. 31</ref> a child by a married man and an [[abortion]].<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 158-159</ref>

[[Image:Wobbly boy.jpg|thumb|100px|right|I.W.W. Little Red Songbook. ''Image courtesy Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear)'']]Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in [[Boston]] and [[New York City|New York]] where, by 1932, his [[wife]] Priscilla had registered as a member of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003); Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> By then, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of American Labor Associates, and Hiss was becoming "[[radical|radicalized]],"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining (together with [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]])<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> the International Juridical Association (IJA), which "consistently followed the [[Communist Party]] line."<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref>

During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing [[radical|radicalism]]. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[terrorist]]<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9502E2DB1439E13ABC4D53DFBF668383609EDE I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four in Chicago]," ''The New York Times'', September 5, 1918</ref> [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (whose leader, "Big Bill" Haywood, had fled the [[U.S.]] for [[Moscow]] where he became a trusted advisor to the [[Bolshevik]] government),<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haywood/HAY_BHAY.HTM William D. Haywood], Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City)</ref> writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]] with an [[Industrial Workers of the World|I.W.W.]] tongue in thy [[socialist|socialistic]] (I couldn't bring myself to write '[[Communist|Communistic]]') cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the [[legitimacy]] of the existing “[[capitalist]] order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's<ref>MacLeish was a noted fellow traveler (David Caute, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zZ6YqBm3O2wC The Fellow-Travellers: Intellectual Friends of Communism]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988] ISBN 0300041950, p. 185). Following the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html death] of [[Laurence Duggan]]—ten days after Duggan implicated [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]], and five days after Hiss' indictment by a grand jury—MacLeish, a former Librarian of Congress, would dedicate a [http://books.google.com/books?id=KI0ESFOvi5QC&pg=PA403&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0 poem] to the late [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent], denouncing "informers" (apparently [[Hede Massing]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]], each of whom had identified Duggan) as liars.</ref> article on [[capitalism]] in last week's ''Saturday Review''? [[Felix Frankfurter|Felix]] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141. The reference is to Edmund Wilson, then an editor at ''The New Republic'' who embraced Marxism and welcomed the stock market crash of 1929 as a portent of the death of capitalism. In 1932 he voted for Communist Party presidential candidate William Z. Foster and signed a manifesto calling for "a temporary dictatorship of the class-conscious workers." (Alex Ross, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/24/030324crat_atlarge Ghost Sonata: Edmund Wilson’s adventure with Communism]," ''The New Yorker'', March 24, 2003)</ref>

==New Deal==
===Agricultural Adjustment Administration===
[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''Image courtesy Library of Congress'']]In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join [[President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, p. A14</ref> (during which the [[Soviets]] killed some 14 million people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807) p. 301</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production<ref>"...major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity by curtailing farm production..." "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, "...the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 ... designed with the specific goal of reducing agricultural production in order to raise agricultural prices..." "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States and hunger marches were taking place in cities across the country. For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.” Thomas Sowell, ''Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy'' (New York: Basic Books, 2007) 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref> The agency was the brainchild of FDR's [[Secretary of Agriculture]] (and future [[Vice President]]),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]]—who would run for President on the [[Communist]]-inspired<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456</ref> [[Progressive]] Party ticket in 1948, finally recanting his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>

In response to a query about candidates for employment at AAA, [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]], already at the agency, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] as well as [[Henry Collins|Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</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> Hiss' superior at AAA, [[New Deal]]er 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> 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> Collins would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> but another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss<ref>
:Mr. COHN. Did you know Alger Hiss to be a member of the Communist
party?
:Mr. WEYL. Yes, I did.
:Mr. COHN. Were you in the same Communist cell with Alger Hiss at one time?
:Mr. WEYL. That is correct.
…
:Mr. WEYL. ...Hiss and I were among the eight or nine people who met with the first meeting of that organization, I presume. So I was in this Communist cell with him for a period of approximately nine months.
:[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83869.pdf Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953, pp. 619-620 (PDF pp. 658-659)</ref> and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952; Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>

Ex-Communists Ralph de Sola and George Hewitt would both also testify to having seen Hiss at [[Communist Party]] meetings,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360</ref> and a former [[GRU]] station chief in [[London]] and [[New York]] reported that during the early and middle 1930s Hiss was a source of agent information for a [[Soviet]] [[espionage|spy]] ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to Pavel Sudoplatov,<ref>David Stout, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/world/pavel-sudoplatov-89-dies-top-soviet-spy-who-accused-oppenheimer.html Pavel Sudoplatov, 89, Dies; Top Soviet Spy Who Accused Oppenheimer]," ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1996</ref> former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref>

===Nye Committee===
In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (according to [[New Deal|New Dealer]]<ref>Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/books/the-truest-believer.html?pagewanted=all The Truest Believer]," ''The New York Times'', March 9, 1997</ref> Gardner Jackson),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman Gerald P. Nye (R.-N.D.)<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=n000176 Nye, Gerald Prentice (1892-1971)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the [[United States|U.S.]] into war with [[Germany]]. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive [[capitalist]]s," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref> The [[Soviets]] took great interest in the work of the committee for its [[propaganda]] value<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 115-116</ref> as well as its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> [[Moscow]] had at least one source on the staff of the committee, who provided valuable documents to the [[Kremlin]] in 1935,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 28-29</ref> the same year an agent later code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") began working for [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Nye would tell FBI investigators that he believed Hiss was a [[Communist]] at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43-44</ref> and would later say he believed Hiss used his position on the committee for [[espionage]].<ref>John E. Wiltz, ''In Search of Peace: The Senate Munitions Inquiry, 1934-1936'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963) ISBN B000GX1RX0, p. 53</ref>

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> [[J. Peters]];<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref>

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [[radical]]<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]] and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>

===Justice Department===
In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the Solictor General,<ref>[http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Office of the Solicitor General], United States Department of Justice</ref> where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>

====Hiss' 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>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold or loaned or given<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 17, 1948); [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 25, 1948)</ref> the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. 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 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

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 sold it the same day to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library</ref> The company made no record of the transaction.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:
{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53; "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</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 [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, 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====
[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|300px|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: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[Soviet intelligence]] source)<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[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, ''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/ CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room], p. 16</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>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 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 Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- 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]] 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, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс—"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent Alexander Vassiliev,<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], Authors - Random House, Inc.</ref> [[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" —a serious breach of discipline. A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist."<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6; Cf. Vassiliev's notebooks, Yellow Notebook No. 2, p. 23 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Original], PDF p. 3; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], PDF p. 4; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Translated.pdf Translated], PDF p. 4), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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] have been openly identified" as [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 7; Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89; 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. 228; Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 228</ref>

==State Department==
Hiss took a pay cut<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 5</ref> to transfer into the [[State Department]] in September 1936, the same month a [[GRU]] agent designated by the code name "Jurist" began working there.<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 12</ref> Hiss was now special assistant to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Trade Agreements Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, Alger's younger [[brother]] [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed him to [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Harvard Law School|Harvard Law]], and a clerkship for [[Oliver Wendell Holmes|Justice Holmes]], would join him at State, rising to the position of assistant to future Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>

In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by Vassiliev, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to [[Moscow]] that [[J. Peters]] (code-named "Storm")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 163; Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007; [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref> told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [the [[CPUSA]] underground]<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> who had been implanted into 'Surrogate' [cover name for the [[State Department]]]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [the [[GRU]]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref>...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>

The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four Bokhara rugs for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky]," The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>

That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an [[American]] member of the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 153</ref> and publisher of ''The New Republic''),<ref>Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07EFDB1531F936A35752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87]," ''The New York Times'', January 5, 2004</ref> then working at the [[State Department]], mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>

On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 he said Alger Hiss loaned him.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 39; ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss would deny making the loan,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html Counterattack]," ''Time'', January 2, 1950</ref> but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money to buy furniture for a new house,<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref>

In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Wary after the [[murder]] of Ignace Poretsky<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005). Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was apparently murdered to protect the identity of Hiss' Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." 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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799517,00.html Three Rings]," ''Time'', December 20, 1948; Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref> On the advice of Herbert Solow,<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow, Fortune Editor; John Dewey Aide in Trotsky Investigation Dies at 61]," ''The New York Times'', November 27, 1964, p. 35</ref> former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''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, ''American Communism and Soviet Russia'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> Ludwig Lore,<ref>[http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Letter to Eugene V. Debs in New York City from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 9, 1917]. Eugene V. Debs papers, microfilm edition: reel 2, frames 0309A-0309B. Published in J. Robert Constantine (ed.): ''Letters of Eugene V. Debs'', v. 2, pp. 292-293</ref> that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would seriously embarrass them,"<ref>David Levin, Stephen W. Salant, Athan Theoharis, Reply by Allen Weinstein, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 The Hiss Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 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. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire [[Soviet]] Intelligence source<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various [[Communist|Red]] front groups starting in 1926, and as a [[Communist Party]] member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the [[Iron Curtain]], Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss knew he was a Communist when he recommended Field as his replacement.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref>

===Nazi-Soviet Pact===
[[Image:Molotov signs.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin stand behind him, Moscow, August 23, 1939. ''Image courtesy National Archives and Records Administration'']]When in the wake of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] the [[Communist Party]] organ ''The Daily Worker'' came under suspicion for reversing its anti-[[Nazi]] posturing, [[Politburo]] member Roy Hudson<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> discussed what to do about it with Soviet agent<ref>Scotland Yard (London) Secret Special Report, No. 4, "The Case of Philip Price and Robert Minor," U.S. State Department Decimal File, 316-23-1184 9, Washington, D.C.</ref> [[Robert Minor]], according to ''Daily Worker'' editor Louis Budenz. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under suspicion at the time. According to Budenz, Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30.</ref>

That year, French Premier Édouard Daladier<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150071/Edouard-Daladier Édouard Daladier]," ''The Encyclopædia Brittanica''</ref> informed Bullitt (now [[Ambassador]] to [[France]]) that two brothers named Hiss, both in the [[U.S. government]], were [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952; "French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says," ''Washington Post'', April 9, 1952; Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002</ref> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

The year before, in [[Paris]], defecting former [[GRU]] chief in [[Europe]] Walter Krivitsky<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN 0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to Alexander Barmine,<ref>Esther Iverem, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/28/obituaries/alexander-g-barmine-88-dies-early-high-level-soviet-defector.html Alexander G. Barmine, 88, Dies; Early High-Level Soviet Defector]," ''The New York Times'', December 28, 1987</ref> former Charge d'Affairs at the [[Soviet]] [[Embassy]] in [[Athens]], who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Russian]] emigré Isaac Don Levine,<ref>[http://marbl.library.emory.edu/findingaids/content.php?id=levine700_102547 Isaac Don Levine papers, circa 1914-1978], Emory University: Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library</ref> "Everything that went on in the embassy, especially the major communications between [[Washington]] and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet [[secret police]]."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191. Loy Henderson, then charge d'affaires at the [[U.S.]] Embassy in [[Moscow]], would later confirm that at that time "in the [State] Department were a number of persons who did not hesitate to give [Litvinov] copies of my secret memoranda relating to United States-Soviet relations." (Richard D. McKinzie, "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/hendrson.htm#transcript Oral History Interview with Loy W. Henderson]," p. 22, Harry S. Truman Library)</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been [[murder]]ed,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor]," ''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a [[suicide]].<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the [[NKVD]]'s Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet [[espionage]] official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233; see also Flora Lewis, "[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/186559502.html?dids=186559502:186559502&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&fmac=&date=Feb+13%2C+1966&author=By+Flora+Lewis+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&desc=Who+Killed+Krivitsky%3F Who Killed Krivitsky?]" ''The Washington Post'', February 13, 1966, p. E1</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the Hoover Institution.)<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>

===Chambers' meeting with Berle===
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the [[Communist]] underground. As the joint [[Nazi]]-[[Soviet]] invasion of [[Poland]]<ref>William Fortescue, ''The Third Republic in France, 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2000) ISBN 0415169445, p. 231</ref> was gearing up, Levine sought to get Chambers an appointment with [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], but was diverted by the [[White House]] to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Security Adolf Berle.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 105</ref> On September 2, 1939, Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the [[Communist Party]] for employees of the [[Federal government]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<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> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>

While [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] talked, Berle took notes. Under the heading “Underground [[Espionage]] Agent,” he listed several names, including “Alger Hiss,” with the notation, “Ass’t. to Sayre—CP—1937,” and “Member of the Underground Com.—Active.”<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> In Berle's diary, the first entry after his meeting with Levine and Chambers reads:
{{cquote|Saturday night ... Isaac Don Levine ... brought a Mr. X around to my house ... Through a long evening, I slowly manipulated Mr. X to a point where he had told some of the ramifications hereabout; and it becomes necessary to take a few simple measures. I expect more of this kind of thing, later. A good deal of the [[Russian]] [[espionage]] was carried on by [[Jews]]; we know now that they are exchanging information with [[Berlin]]; and the [[Jewish]] units are furious to find out they are, in substance, working for the [[Gestapo]]...<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 55-58)</ref>}}
After Berle relayed this information to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], Levine asked Berle how FDR responded. In his 1973 memoir, Levine wrote, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an expletive remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-8</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised Alice Roosevelt Longworth<ref>Lawrence L. Knutson, "[http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wild thing]," Salon.com, June 7, 1999</ref> and de Toledano that he also took this information directly to FDR.<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

Levine also told David Dubinsky,<ref>[http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm 1993 Honoree David Dubinsky, 1892-1982], Labor Hall of Fame Honoree, United Stated Department of Labor</ref> president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1900-1995)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist Walter Winchell<ref>[http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell], Radio Hall of Fame</ref> of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>

By 1944, Hiss would be deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>Gregor Dallas, ''1945: The War that Never Ended'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300109806), p. 412</ref> In August, he organized the Dumbarton Oaks Conference,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003). Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. (Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' [Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001] ISBN 0807849502, p. 67)</ref> where he served as executive secretary,<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> presiding over the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.<ref>[http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta], History of the Charter of the United Nations (UN.org)</ref>

By 1948 Berle, ousted from the [[State Department]], would be serving as chairman of [[New York]]'s Liberal Party. 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:
{{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 the leaks stopped.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>}}
But in the wake of Dumbarton Oaks, Berle was 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 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>Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 28 (PDF p. 34)</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>}}

===Hatch Act Investigation===

In September 1940, the [[Nazi]] and [[Soviet]] armies staged a joint victory parade through the streets of occupied Brest-Litovsk, [[Poland]].<ref>Olaf Groehler, ''Selbstmorderische Allianz: Deutsch-russische Militarbeziehungen, 1920-1941'' (Berlin: Vision Verlag 1993), pp. 21-22, 123-124; Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (Columbia University Press, 1997), both cited in Benjamin B. Fischer, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter 1999–2000</ref> Hiss was at this time 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, wrote Gordievsky, was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]],<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>

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

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

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

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning:
{{cquote|I cannot keep silent any longer.... I can no longer support double-faced political maneuvers... toward collaboration with the [[United States]] and [[Britain]] while pursuing aims incompatible with such collaboration.
The [[Soviet]] Government has dissolved the [[Communist International]] but only in form.... The new democratic terminology is only a maneuver... to promote the inclusion of [[Communist]]s, obedient to the [[Kremlin]], in the future Governments... of Italy, Austria and other countries.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885439,00.html The Kravchenko Case]," ''Time'', April 17, 1944. In 1966, Kravchenko would be found [http://www.americansterling.com/ASPL_Film_Defector.asp shot] to death in his Manhattan apartment. Although his [[death]] would be ruled a [[suicide]], his son Andrew maintains that he was executed by a SMERSH assassination squad.</ref>}}

===Yalta===
A State Department internal security probe of Hiss (made public in 1993)<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> ordered by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> revealed that in February 1945, Hiss requested top-secret files from the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (precursor of the CIA) on British, Soviet, French and Chinese internal security policies, as well as Far East policy;<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 361-362</ref> FBI surveillance at this time found that Hiss also developed "a keen interest in atomic energy," and other matters relating to military intelligence,<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 519; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref>—all of which was well outside the purview of his office.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 363</ref> Loy Henderson, director of the State Department Office of Near East Affairs (NEA), quietly ordered members of NEA to keep confidential materials and information from Hiss.<ref>H. W. Brands, ''Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire, 1918-1961'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-506707-X, pp. 297-298</ref>

On February 4, 1945,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref> Hiss accompanied [[FDR]] to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> over whom Hiss exercised "Svengali-like influence," according to J. Anthony Panuch, Assistant Secretary of State for Security.<ref>Panuch to Russell, March 7, 1946, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, June 25, 1953 [http://ia311318.us.archive.org/0/items/interlockingsubv13unit/interlockingsubv13unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Part 13] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 853. (Cf. Louis Francis Budenz, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' (New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977) ISBN 0405099428, p. 287) Dean Acheson subsequently forced Panuch, not Hiss, out of the State Department. (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] [Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953], pp. 9-10)</ref> Stettinius gave Hiss remarkable control over [[FDR]]'s access to information, directing that "all memoranda for the President on topics to be discussed at the Meeting of the Big Three should be in the hands of Mr. Alger Hiss not later than Monday, January 15."<ref>Rothwell to Rockefeller, January 10, 1945, United States Department of State, ''[http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/reference/frus.frus1945.i0010.pdf Foreign relations of the United States. Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945]'' (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0124.gif 42]. Cf. p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0527.gif 441] (PDF p. 445), University of Wisconsin Digital Collections</ref> Nor did Hiss' influence stop there: When Roosevelt asked the Secretary of State "to get a lawyer to consult with him over the wording of the Polish boundary statement," wrote Stettinius, "I called Alger Hiss."<ref>Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IjhQ_gsiCzwC Roosevelt and the Russians]'' (Whitefish, Mont.: Kettinger Publishing, 2005) ISBN 1419103105, p. 270</ref>

According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref> According to confidential [[GRU]] sources, during the conference, Hiss gave daily briefings to General Mikhail Abramovich Milshtein, a military adviser to Stalin and the deputy director of the [[GRU]], revealing not only the American negotiating strategy but insights into the attitudes of the American negotiators.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 130</ref> Sudoplatov added:
{{cquote|In conversation, Hiss disclosed to Oumansky,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851866,00.html Ambassador Extraordinary]," ''Time'', November 22, 1943</ref> and then Litvinov,<ref>Hugh D. Phillips, ''Between the revolution and the West: a political biography of Maxim M. Litvinov'' (New York: Westview Press, 1992) ISBN 0813310385</ref> official U.S. attitudes and plans; he was also very close to our sources who were cooperating with Soviet intelligence and to our active intelligence operators in the United States. Within this framework of exchange of confidential information were references to Hiss as the source who told us the Americans were prepared to make a deal in Europe.<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref>}}
At the conference, the U.S. ceded hegemony over Eastern Europe to Stalin and made a secret agreement giving the Soviet Union three votes in the UN to one for the U.S.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 107-109.</ref> The conference ended February 11; the next day, [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was dead.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

[[Image:Hissetal.jpg|thumb|300 px|Vishinskii (2nd from left), Molotov (5th from left), Stettinius (7th from left), Alger Hiss (right), ca. January 1945. ''Image courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf The Mystery of 'ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Vol. 51, no. 4 (2007), p. ; John F. Fox, Jr., "[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence]," 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, October 27, 2005; Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54-55, 57-88, 62, 64</ref> where he was reportedly decorated with the Order of the Red Star<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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 278; Robert L. Beisner, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D9Zb_feBUdkC Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War]''' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282; 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. 226; Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> and honored by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858400-1,00.html Policeman on Trial]," ''Time'', December 28, 1953</ref> that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned of the award from his friend, "Ales," a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]. Cf. Eric
Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996), pp. [http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03644.pdf H03644]-[http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03645.pdf H03645]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935"; that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17, 29 (PDF pp. 19, 31)</ref> of the neighbors [GRU],<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0501&week=a&msg=obaTGXSrsBmHu2ps7TI6fA&user=&pw= KGB sources and the Hiss/'Ales' dispute], H-Diplo Discussion Logs, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (Michigan State University), January 5, 2005</ref> for the most part drawn from his relatives"; that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the Bank [United States Department of State]";<ref>"A Word About the Covernames," [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps33230/www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations] (National Security Agency)</ref> that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed regarding Ales, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<ref>[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> U.S. Air Force historian Eduard Mark calls the FBI and NSA's conclusions "eminently reasonable," agreeing that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original).</ref> John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, concurs, calling this identification "exceptionally solid" and the evidence "compelling."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref> John Ehrman, a foreign affairs analyst for the federal government,<ref>John Ehrman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uBEXFfOwW9IC The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300106629, p. 299 ("About the Author")</ref> concludes, "it is clear that Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES."<ref>John Ehrman, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf 'The Mystery of ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' Vol. 51, No. 4 (December 2007), PDF p. 9</ref>

On March 15, [[Victor Perlo]] (code-named "Raid")<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html Russian Archival Identification of Real Names Behind Cover Names in VENONA]," Cryptology and the Cold War:
Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, October 27, 2005</ref> 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>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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 14. Cf. Vassiliev's White Notebook No. 3 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Original.pdf original], p. 40; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Transcribed.pdf transcribed], p.78; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Translated.pdf translated], p. 78), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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 espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</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 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 364</ref>

===United Nations===
[[Image:HissCountsVotes.JPG|thumb|300px|right|"Secretary General Alger Hiss counts votes of the UN Charter. June 25, 1945." ''Source: [http://zombietime.com/un60/ The United Nations' 60th Anniversary Celebration], June 25, 2005, University Club, San Francisco'']] That month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was named Secretary-General of the upcoming [[United Nations]] Charter Conference in San Francisco. "As Secretary-General, managing the agenda," reported ''Time'', Hiss "will have a lot to say behind the scenes about who gets the breaks."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775560,00.html Chief Clerk]," ''Time'', April 16, 1945</ref>

At the conference, "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales," according to a cable<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Vadim to Moscow Center], 5 March 1945</ref> Vassiliev discovered in the Soviet archives. His notes indicate that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html#_ftnref5 Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> The cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124; "Pravdin" was actually Rolland Abbiat, murderer of Ignace Reiss. Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12, 2004</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>

James F. Byrnes,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/byrnes-james.htm James Byrnes (1882-1972)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997. Cf. 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. 1072</ref> Meanwhile, Stettinius' ghost-writer at the conference was Dalton Trumbo, the Communist<ref>Victor Navasky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=wg0ypcai-osC Naming Names]'' (New York: Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 0809001837, p. 367</ref> screen writer, who would become infamous two years later as one of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>"To Elsie McKeough," Helen Manfull, Ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (New York: M. Evans and Company, 1970), p. 37</ref> Press accounts attributed Trumbo's hiring to Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A p. 110; Westbrook Pegler, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19500703&id=SrILAAAAIBAJ&sjid=elUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1706,274693 New U.N. Building is Monument to Men Who Betrayed U.S.]," ''The Evening Independent'', July 3, 1950</ref>

In April 1945, [[Harold Glasser|Glasser]] slipped a warning to [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S., that the FBI had notified Stettinius that Bureau surveillance had followed a bundle of State Department documents from Washington to New York, where they were photographed, then returned within 24 hours to Washington. Only three people had access to these documents, one of whom was "Ales." Stettinius told "Ales": "I hope it is not you."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 267-268</ref>

That same month, at the [[San Francisco]] conference, [[Soviet]] [[UN]] [[Ambassador]] Andrei Gromyko<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947456,00.html Andrei Gromyko]," ''Time'', October 1, 1979</ref> nominated Hiss temporary secretary general (and thus a candidate for the first permanent Secretary General)<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=635 Harry Truman, President 1945-1953] (From ''Roosevelt to Bush: The American Presidency, Transformation and Change''), Lecture, Gresham College, London, January 29, 2008</ref> of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an [[American]] for what was then the [[UN]]'s highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In [[London]] that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the [[State Department]] create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

On June 4, 1945, six weeks after becoming [[President]], [[Harry Truman]] was briefed about [[Venona project|Venona]], according to former National Security Agency officer Oliver Kirby, deputy director of the [[Russian]] code-breaking project.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 147</ref> Based on notes Kirby made at the time, Jerrold Schecter, former National Security Council spokesman for the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, reported that Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, chief of the Army Security Agency (precursor of the [[NSA]]), advised President Truman that the code-breakers were decrypting messages that revealed massive [[Soviet]] intelligence operations in the [[United States]], though it was too early to identify operatives or operations.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 110</ref> According to Kirby, Clarke described this meeting as "NDG" (no damn good),<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> the president telling the general that his account of code-breaking sounded "like a fairy story."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref> On June 26, The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

Two days later, State Department liaison Lt. [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence was arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case. [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member Jack Stachel<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> that Roth suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30. See also FBI Report: (REDACTED), Security Matter—C, June 8, 1950, p. 9 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR29.pdf FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Vol 29], PDF p. 16)</ref>

==Defections and Investigations==
===Igor Gouzenko===
[[Image:StetHiss.jpg|thumb|300 px|Stettinius (foreground left) with Alger Hiss (center), ca. January 1945. ''Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]Two days before Hiss proposed the creation of a "special assistant for military affairs," [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33; FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

On September 25, Walter Winchell again broached the subject on his broadcast, reporting, "It can be categorically stated that the question of the loyalty and integrity of one high American official has been called to the attention of the President." Weinstein calls this "a clear reference to Hiss," adding that Winchell was FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s "most intimate journalistic confidante."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

===Elizabeth Bentley===
On November 27, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.”

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by the previously-cited April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov, noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
Bentley said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> She said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1995) ISBN 0865544778, p. 296</ref> asked her who Hiss was, she clipped an article in which Hiss was mentioned from the New York daily ''PM'', whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was (according to Oleg Kalugin, former head of KGB operations in the United States) a [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne, ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence & Espionage Against the West'' (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company, 1994), ISBN 0788151118, p. 74. As Stone put it, "In a way, I was half a Jeffersonian and half a Marxist. I never saw a contradiction between the two, and I still don't." (''The Nation'', July 10, 1989, cited in L. Brent Baker and Tim Graham, eds., "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/1989/nq19890710.asp Notable Quotables]," Media Research Center, July 10, 1989)</ref> who cooperated with Soviet intelligence<ref>Paul Berman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Berman.t.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all The Watchdog]," ''The New York Times'', October 1, 2006</ref> as an "agent of influence."<ref>Myra MacPherson, '''All Governments Lie': The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006) ISBN 0684807130, p. 327. MacPherson goes on to quote Kalugin explaining that such agents "could shape public opinion, manipulate public opinion," and that Stone "was willing to perform tasks." Stone was identified in the Venona project with the code name "Blin" (Pancake) ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_ny_moscow.pdf Index of Cover Names, New York-Moscow Communications], p. 10), an identification confirmed by a 13 April 1936 KGB New York station report. The following month, the station reported that "Relations with 'Pancake' have entered 'the channel of normal operational work,'" meaning that Stone had become a "fully active agent." [Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewpdf.cfm?article_id=15120 I.F. Stone, Soviet Agent—Case Closed]," ''Commentary''; Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 150] Stone also met with "Sergei" ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/23oct_stone_fears_fbi.pdf 1506 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 October 1944]) (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]], (Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] [Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History], p. 31 [PDF p. 34]), who, under cover as head of the Soviet government news agency TASS (Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, p. 124), was actually Roland Abbiat (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004), murderer of Ignace Reiss. (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287])</ref> Bentley said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref> This was consistent with the above-cited March 5, 1945 cable,<ref>Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"</ref> in which Gorsky reports: "‘Ales’ and ‘Ruble’ [Harold Glasser]<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_wash_moscow.pdf Index of KGB Covernames: Washington-Moscow Communications], p. 3 (National Security Agency)</ref> used to work in ‘Karl’s’ [Whittaker Chambers]<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors [GRU]."<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref> Before the end of 1945, a State Department Security memorandum summarized:
[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Image courtesy John Earl Haynes, Library of Congress'']]{{cquote|Bentley advised that members of this group had told her that Hiss of the State Department had taken Harold Glasser of the Treasury Department, and 2 or 3 others, and had turned them over to direct control by the Soviet representatives in this country. In this regard, attention is directed to Whittaker Chambers' statement regarding Alger Hiss and to the statement by Gouzenko, regarding an assistant to the Secretary of State who was a Soviet agent.<ref>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] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), Vol. 16, p. 1072 (PDF p. 12)</ref>}}

Three years later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] memorandum, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Black Notebook] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77; cf. [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref>

===Investigations===
On February 9, 1946, [[Stalin]] declared that war was inevitable as long as [[capitalism]] existed, in a speech regarded by some as the open declaration of [[Cold War]].<ref>Walter LaFeber, ''America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945-1984'' (New York: Knopf, 1985) ISBN 0394343913, p. 38</ref> Two days later, ex-[[Communist]] Benjamin Mandel, former manager of the ''Daily Worker'',<ref>Conrad Black, ''Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full'' (Jackson, Tenn.: PublicAffairs, 2008), ISBN 1586486748, p. 93</ref> identified Alger Hiss to the [[FBI]] as "a [[Communist Party]] member," and one of a "high level group of [[government]] employees who would not be found openly connected with the Party or with any Front organizations and who were specifically instructed not to display such connections."<ref>FBI memo: Hottel to Hoover, February 11, 1946, pp. [http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page55.pdf 2]-[http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page56.pdf 3] ([http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm FBI file: Silvermaster], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster042.pdf Vol. 42], pp. 55-56)</ref> The Bureau again interviewed Hiss, who denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</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, ''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. Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 139; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 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 nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

State Department security officers discovered that Hiss' desk calendar for September 14, 1946, recorded a meeting Hiss did not schedule through the department (and for which he made no official record) with "McLean [sic], British Emb."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 363-364</ref> Donald Maclean<ref>[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald.html Donald Maclean], The Spy Museum</ref> was a diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington who was also a [[Soviet]] agent<ref>Statement of Vladimir Petrov (defected from Soviet Embassy, Canberra, 1954), [http://ia341032.us.archive.org/0/items/scopeofsovietact2730unit/scopeofsovietact2730unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States]," Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, June 6, 1956, p. 1521 (PDF p. 79)</ref> and member of the [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]. He would defect in 1951 to the [[Soviet Union]],<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355048/Donald-Maclean Donald Maclean]," ''The Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2008</ref> where he would be rewarded with the rank of Colonel in the KGB.<ref>"[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald3.html Agent: Maclean, D.]," The Spy Museum</ref> Another member of that ring, [[Kim Philby]], would likewise defect to [[Moscow]], later writing in his memoir, "it was also the era of Hiss, [[Judith Coplon|Coplon]],<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no2_2003/article09.html The Judith Coplon Story]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', vol. 47, no. 2, 2003; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_judith_coplon.pdf 27 New York to Moscow 8 January 1945]</ref> [[Klaus Fuchs|Fuchs]],<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/fuchsstatement.html Fuchs' confession], "Race for the Bomb" ''The American Experience'' (PBS); [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jun_departure_agent_rest.pdf 850 New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944]; </ref> [[Harry Gold|Gold]],<ref>Greg Barker, Director, "[http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_bios_detail.htm#Gold The Red Files: Secrets of the Russian Archives Revealed]," PBS, 1999
ISBN 0-7806-2796-2; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/16nov_klaus_fuchs_harry_gold.pdf 1606(a) New York to Moscow 16 November 1944]</ref> [[David Greenglass|Greenglass]],<ref>Rebecca Leung, "[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/14/60II/main563126.shtml The Traitor: David Greenglass Testified Against His Own Sister], CBS News, July 16, 2003</ref> and the brave [[Julius Rosenberg|Rosenbergs]]<ref>Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QpKjGSHAcaYC The Rosenberg File]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0300072058, pp. 53-58; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/21sep_recruitment_by_rosenbergs.pdf 1340 New York to Moscow 21 September 1944]</ref>—not to mention others who are still nameless."<ref>Kim Philby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=duU2kp3RS0gC My Silent War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2002) ISBN 0375759832, p. 150</ref> Such praise from a Soviet master spy is "suggestive," writes Weinstein, that Philby "evidently either knew or believed" that Hiss was a fellow agent.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360, footnote</ref>

That year, over strenuous objections on national-security grounds from the State Department's Office of American Republics Affairs (and the government of Panama), Hiss submitted (with the approval of Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson) to the United Nations the annual report of the Governor of Panama to the War Department, a propaganda coup for the Soviets.<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://www.archive.org/download/interlockingsubv1920unit/interlockingsubv1920unit_bw.pdf Interlocking subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), Part 19-20, 1357-66 (PDF pp. 17-26)</ref>

Secretary of State James Byrnes told the FBI he would have fired Hiss, but for the mandatory Civil Service Commission hearing, which would have revealed confidential sources on the case.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> In November 1946, the Bureau disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman (according to former chief of [[CIA]] [[Soviet]] bloc counterintelligence)<ref>[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games], Yale University Press</ref> remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>

After a 1946 grand jury began looking into Soviet espionage, Congress took an interest in Hiss, finally forcing the State Department to remove him from access to secrets.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> In January, 1947, Byrnes quietly eased Hiss out of the State Department.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, serving also as a trustee on the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]].<ref>Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, [[SISS]] report (July 30, 1953), pp. 8-10.</ref>

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==
Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department security officials and the FBI about the [[Ware group]] for a decade.<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> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> (a characterization he would repeat as late as 1956).<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html The Old Familiar Fish]," ''Time'', September 17, 1956</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> (That year, referring to Venona,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "too many unknowns" in the partially decoded Soviet messages,<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, it would open up the whole red panic again.")<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004. The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>

So strong was Hiss' denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either Chambers or Hiss was lying about whether they had known one another,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Alger Hiss Trials: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50. Famous Trials (University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law)</ref> and he asked the committee to appoint him to head a subcommittee to find out which one.<ref>"[http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm House Un-American Activities Committee]," Mundt Archives (Dakota State University); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 15-16</ref>

On August 16, Chambers offered to take a lie-detector test.<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948</ref> Hiss refused (a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life),<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> but he dared<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> Chambers to repeat his charges outside of the immunity afforded in congressional hearings, so Hiss could sue him. In her newspaper column that day, Eleanor Roosevelt set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>Eleanor Roosevelt, ''Washington Daily News'', August 16th, 1948</ref> (Currie was the NKVD agent<ref>Robert J. Hanyok, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945]'' (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005), pp. 118-119 (PDF p. 123-124), n. 185; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 146</ref> in the White House<ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol3/Vol3Chap1.pdf "Cold War Counterintelligence," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 3, Chapter 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive) pp. 30-31 (PDF pp. 29-30); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 167</ref> who tipped the Kremlin off in 1944 that the U.S. was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 130; Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), pp. xiv, xxiv; FBI memo: Belmont to Boardman, February 1, 1956, p. 9 ([http://foia.fbi.gov/venona/venona.pdf FBI file: Venona], p. 71) Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>

The next day, Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [[Clark Clifford]], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if Hiss might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' confinement in a mental institution."<ref>George M. Elsey, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif Memorandum for Mr. Clifford], 16 August 1948, Harry S. Truman Library, Clark M. Clifford Papers, "Loyalty Investigations," box 11</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss' mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 15</ref>

On August 27, on NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' Chambers called Hiss' bluff, saying, "Alger Hiss was a Communist and may be now."<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17982730/page/5/ Meet the Press Transcript for April 8, 2007, p. 5]</ref> Embarrassment mounted among Hiss' supporters as a month dragged by and still no suit was filed. Even the ''Washington Post'' began to have doubts.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 162</ref> Finally, on September 28, Hiss filed his long-threatened slander suit against Chambers.

==Hiss' suit against Chambers==
===The Baltimore Documents===
In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss's attorneys told Chambers to produce "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss. Chambers retrieved the packet he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden in a dumbwaiter shaft.<ref>"Three Rings," ''Time'', December 20, 1948</ref> Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss' attorneys 43 typewritten documents (65 pages) and five handwritten memoranda, some so sensitive that for security reasons they could not safely be made public, though already a decade old.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that four of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref>

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Donegan told the FBI that Assistant Attorney General Alexander M. Campbell, head of the Criminal Division at Truman Justice, “now wants to institute perjury charges against Chambers” for not revealing the documents before this. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten addendum comments, “I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also.”<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, November 23, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> The Truman administration's determination to indict Chambers rather than Hiss was unusual, as two leading scholars of the case note:
{{cquote|Usually … when a witness gives false testimony and then later comes forward and provides a truthful account, no perjury charge is brought. To charge perjury … in such a case would be a disincentive for a witness to provide a subsequent truthful account…. [A] perjury count is rarely brought if a witness corrects false testimony in a timely fashion…. Chambers corrected his false sworn testimony within two months of his grand jury testimony ... and his false testimony had not produced any miscarriage of justice.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, p. 108</ref>}}

===The Pumpkin Papers===
[[Image:1626 Page1.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]
On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC investigators on his Maryland farm to a pumpkin he had hollowed out the night before and in which he had secreted five rolls (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been lightstruck)<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> of 35 milimeter film.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917670,00.html The Pumpkin Papers], ''Time'', August 11, 1975</ref> The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers"). The State Department documents dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria.<ref>Doulglas O. Linder, “[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkinp.html The Pumpkin Papers: Key Evidence in the Alger Hiss Trials],” Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> Some of the documents on the film were initialed by Hiss and came from his office.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> Some were of a highly sensitive, classified nature.<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html The Pumpkin Papers],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Some State Department cables bearing Hiss' handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 116</ref>

According to Chambers, some of the microfilm was made by a contact he knew only as "Felix," who would photograph documents with a Leica purchased by the Communist underground. For such work, said Chambers, Felix had been trained in Moscow, where he traveled on a forged U.S. passport. In 1949 Chambers would lead FBI investigators to the Baltimore block in which he thought Felix had lived in the 1930s. The Bureau discovered that a Felix Inslerman had lived on the block, later moving to Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked on a secret guided-missile project, in 1946 becoming one of the few civilians to attend the atomic tests at Bikini.

Both before the grand jury and in the second Hiss trial, Inslerman would refuse to answer questions on grounds of potential self-incrimination. But in Inslerman's Schenectady home, the FBI found a Leica whose imperfections matched the scratch marks on Chambers' famed pumpkin film. In 1954, Inslerman would corroborate Chambers' story under oath.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,819479,00.html New Witness]," ''Time'', March 1, 1954</ref>

The day Chambers revealed the "pumpkin papers," on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Truman Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> As late as December 6, Truman Justice was still contemplating "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref>

On that day, Hiss's attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a Woodstock typewriter, Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss's 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss' lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss continued to swear under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition of the typewriter.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Hiss would later change his story, testifying that he gave the typewriter to the Catletts in 1937, before the date of the documents produced by Chambers. Pat Catlett, however, would tell defense lawyers that Hiss gave the Catletts the typewriter in the spring of 1938, just after the dates of the documents.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>

On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss's typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, a Woodstock.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss's attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099"—the Hiss' machine.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8747 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: Another Exchange!"] ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 14 (September 16, 1976)</ref>

On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss' typewriter,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 300</ref>

Hiss testified that he never gave any documents to Whittaker Chambers, and that he had no contact with Chambers after January 1, 1937. The grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury, charging that he lied under oath in both these statements. Because the statute of limitations had expired, the grand jury could not consider espionage charges.

Since Chambers had gained the upper hand by voluntarily waiving immunity from slander, ex-[[Socialist]]<ref>"Joined the Harvard Socialist Club and later became president... Elected to Executive Committee, Intercollegiate Socialist Society... Joined the Socialist Party, New York County, and the Socialist Press Club of New York City." [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9034000C.rtf Walter Lippmann Papers. Part 4: Early Papers, 1904-1920 (Reels 164-170)]: Chronology. Manuscript and Archives Division, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; Neil Smith ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=quAgnHLkKm8C American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization]'' (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004) ISBN 0520243382, p. 120; cf. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2v9aAAAAMAAJ The Intercollegiate Socialist]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1918), p. 36. Even after ending his formal membership, Lippmann remained a loyal fellow-traveler: In the midst of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, "WJL" (Walter J. Lippmann) wrote to "ECC" (Edward C. Carter, head of the American Russian Institute and [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]), urging "cooperation with the European revolutionaries and the Soviet Union in their attempt to build a socialist Europe as a nucleus for a world socialist order, with the obvious corollary of the establishment of socialism in this country." Walter Lippmann to Edward C. Carter, June 10, 1940, p. 5 (PDF p. 100), FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR54.11.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 54, Part 11], pp. 96-101.</ref> and [[Soviet]] intelligence source<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9sep_lippman_views_churchill_roosevelt.pdf 1289 New York to Moscow], September 9, 1944. According to Eric Alterman, a columnist and [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation blogger] for ''The Nation'', Lippmann "offered much more useful information to the Soviets than [I.F.] Stone ever did." (Eric Alterman, "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=stone_cold_untruths Stone Cold Untruths]," ''The American Prospect'', October 3, 2006)</ref> Walter Lippman (whose secretary, [[Mary Price]], was a Soviet agent)<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/8jun_dir_courier.pdf 868 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 June 1943]. Cf. [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/29apr_recruits.pdf 588 New York to Moscow, 29 April 1944]. See also [http://ia311343.us.archive.org/2/items/instituteofpacif02unit/instituteofpacif02unit_bw.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations Hearings, Part 2], Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 82nd Cong., 1st Sess., August 9, 14, 16, 20, 22, and 23, 1951 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 406; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 439 and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 99</ref> suggested that Hiss turn the tables by waiving the statute of limitations on espionage. Hiss never took him up on that suggestion.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 384</ref>

==The Trials==
On May 31, 1949, Alger Hiss went on trial for perjury in New York City.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> At trial, Hiss provided an all-star cast of character witnesses, including such notables as [[Adlai Stevenson]], Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]], and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000121 Davis, John W. (1873-1955)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> However, both Under Secretary Welles and Sayre testified that delivering the classifed documents to a foreign power would enable them to break America's most secret codes.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 221-223.</ref>

At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref>

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref>

Hiss's friend and former colleague, Charles Wyzanski, Senior District Judge of the U.S. District Court in Boston, testified in both trials in defense of Hiss. Wyzanski, who "initially had supposed [Hiss] innocent," later concluded that "Hiss was guilty," as did Hiss' own attorney, William L. Marbury.<ref>Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., to Francis Russell, March 31, 1986. Francis Russell Papers, Boston Athenaeum. Cited in Richard Newby, [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.1/letters.html Letters to the Editor], ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000)</ref>

== Conviction ==
The first trial ended June 8, 1949 in a hung jury,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> with eight for conviction and four against. The second trial began on November 17, 1949. In January, 1950, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: Guilty on both counts.<ref>''United States v. Hiss'', 88 F. Supp. 559 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> In his pre-sentencing statement, Hiss said, "I am confident that in the future the full facts showing how Whittaker Chambers was able to carry out forgery by typewriter will be developed."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822033,00.html Trial by Typewriter]," ''Time'', February 4, 1952</ref>

Hiss was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms in federal prison. Secretary of State Dean Acheson provoked outrage by commenting, "Whatever the outcome of any appeal which Mr. Hiss or his lawyer may take, I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss." Eleanor Roosevelt added to the furor with her comment, "It seems rather horrible to condemn someone on the word of someone else who admits to guilt." ''Time'' magazine commented that she "obviously had not been paying much attention," being "unaware of, or determined to ignore, the [[corroborating evidence]] introduced by the Government."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811795,00.html 'I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back']," ''Time'', February 6, 1950</ref>

That year, General of the Army Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed President Truman that Venona had "positively identified" Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] as Soviet agents.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 149</ref> According to Bradley, Truman said, "That G—D— stuff. Every time it bumps into us it gets bigger and bigger. It's likely to take us down."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref>

Hiss appealed, but in December 1950 his conviction was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979], Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society; [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] denied him ''certiorari'', as well as his repeated petitions for a writ of error ''coram nobis'' (orchestrated by long-time Communist Party member<ref>Rabinowitz claimed to have joined the Party in 1942, adding "There was no formal act marking the end of the relationship.... though I continued to meet with party members to discuss both political and legal matters for many years thereafter." (Victor Rabinowitz, ''Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir'' [Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996] ISBN 025202253X, pp. 73, 87). Rabinowitz' law partner (representing Cuba's Communist Castro regime) was Leonard Boudin, father of convicted Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin (Michael Law, [http://lawvibe.com/leftist-lawyer-victor-rabinowitz-passes-away-at-96/ Leftist Lawyer Victor Rabinowitz Passes Away at 96], Law Vibe: International Law News, November 21, 2007), whose son was adopted and raised by William Ayers (Jodi Wilgoren, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/us/from-a-radical-background-a-rhodes-scholar-emerges.html?pagewanted=all From a Radical Background, A Rhodes Scholar Emerges]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 2002), political booster of Barack Obama (Scott Shane, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?pagewanted=all Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths]," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 2008).</ref> Victor Rabinowitz).<ref>Eric Breindel, "[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+faithful+traitor:+Alger+Hiss%27s+refusal+to+recant+helped+create...-a019100539 The faithful traitor: Alger Hiss's refusal to recant helped create the myth of his innocence]," ''National Review'', February 10, 1997</ref> Hiss served 44 months of his five-year sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison.

In prison, Hiss' best fiends were the Mafia gangsters,<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> whom he later compared to prisoners of war in terms of solidarity, hierarchy and discipline.<ref>Alger Hiss, ''Recollections of a Life'' (Arcade, 1989) ISBN 1559700246, p. 168</ref> He called them “the most stable group in any prison”<ref> Brock Brower, “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/brower.html The Problems of Alger Hiss],” ''Esquire'', December 1960</ref> and “the healthiest inmates of the prison” because they “had absolutely no sense of guilt.”<ref>Hiss to C. Vann Woodward, May 2, 1959, quoted in Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 581; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2005) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 87-88. Cf. Arianna Huffington, “[http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/printer_friendly.php?id=684 Alger Hiss and O.J. Simpson],” Arianna Online, November 21, 1996</ref> Hiss admitted that he, too, never felt guilt about anything he had ever done—as one Hiss biographer comments, “an incredible statement from anyone.”<ref>Ron Capshaw, “[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon],” FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref>

== Later Life ==
Hiss was released in 1954. Disbarred, he became a salesman. Five years later, Alger and Priscilla Hiss separated.<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," Modern Age, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 309 (PDF p. 3)</ref> In the late '60s, Hiss met Mrs. Isabel Dowden Johnson, a former editor at ''The New York Times'' and ex-wife of the Communist<ref>Cole, who titled his 1981 memoir ''Hollywood Red'', "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death in 1985. Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=J_BkAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Red Star Over Hollywood]'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005) ISBN 1893554961, p. 29; Cf. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YWtZAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s]'' (Rocklin, Calif: Prima Publishing, 1998) ISBN 0761513760, pp. 266-267; [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170660/bio Biography for Lester Cole], IMDb: The Internet Movie Database</ref> screen writer Lester Cole, a member of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00103 Hiss, Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, 1908-2000]. Papers, 1907-2000: A Finding Aid. Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University</ref> Priscilla reportedly had a breakdown, in which she said she was “tired of all the lies and cover-ups,”<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1858F750-23F1-43DF-93C8-86E30C5224E2 Framing Alger: A Communist Plot]," FrontPageMagazine.com, June 12, 2007</ref> and complained that "Alger was willing to sacrifice us all on the altar of his vindication."<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=445F476F-9BFF-4E61-AED9-733CFFE94E65 Portrait of an American Traitor]," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 24, 2007</ref> Following Priscilla's death in 1984, Alger and Isabel married.<ref>"[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/nyregion/isabel-j-hiss-91-widow-of-alger-hiss.html Isabel J. Hiss, 91, Widow of Alger Hiss]," ''The New York Times'', May 7, 2000</ref>

In 1974, the [[Watergate]] scandal forced [[Richard M. Nixon|President Nixon]] to resign, giving "some credence to a wide spectrum of conspiracy theories involving fake typewriters, phony microfilm, and various collusions among the FBI, Nixon, HUAC, the CIA, the radical right, and the KGB."<ref>"[http://www.historynet.com/the-alger-hiss-spy-case.htm/4 The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," HistoryNet.com</ref> In 1975, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the State Bar of Massachusetts, although the court's ruling stated "nothing we have said here should be construed as detracting one iota from the fact that in considering Hiss's petition we consider him to be guilty as charged."<ref>''[http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/368/368mass447.html In the Matter of Alger Hiss'', 368 Mass. 447], 1975; [http://books.google.com/books?id=xcA2AAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 333 N.E.2d 429]; [http://www.loris.net/onken/nationalcases/Masshiss(goodmercycase).htm 1975 Mass. LEXIS 1014]</ref> In 1981, Bard College established an Alger Hiss Distinguished Professorship<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=tamwag/haury.xml&style=tamwag/tamwag.xsl&part=body Guide to the Agnese Nelms Haury Papers], Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University</ref> in Social Studies, formerly held by socialist<ref>Kovel advocates what he calls "ecosocialism," which he defines as Marxian communism—the "realization" of what he calls "'first-epoch' socialism" (that is, "neither more nor less than the original announcement of the ''Communist Manifesto''")—not in pursuit of "unfettered productivity' ''a la'' Marx, but to further fetter productivity in the interest of environmentalism. Joel Kovel, "[http://www.joelkovel.org/messages.html#socialism A Socialism for the Next Epoch]," On Ecology and Socialism. Congres Marx International Paris, September 29, 2001</ref> Joel Kovel,<ref>[http://www.joelkovel.org/joelkovel.html About Joel Kovel]</ref> who declared that America's obsession with anti-Communism during the Cold War led the U.S. to become “the enemy of humanity.”<ref>Steven G. Marks, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/in-denial-by-john-earl-haynes-and-harvey-klehr-9668 In Denial by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr]," ''Commentary'', October 2003</ref> Despite the mountains of evidence against him that only increased as incriminatory Soviet bloc documents came to light following the collapse of Communism, Hiss continued for the rest of his life to claim innocence.

==The Volkogonov affair==
After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, petitioned the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> appealed to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref> (This despite the fact that the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.)<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 44; Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 272; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 167; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

At a 1992 press conference, Lowenthal released to the media a statement from Volkogonov claiming that "Alger Hiss was never an agent of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union." Hiss dubbed this a "final verdict," adding, "I can't imagine a more authoritative source than the files of the old Soviet Union." Lowenthal said Volkogonov was apparently "willing to stake his reputation as a general, historian and politician" on this statement.<ref>David Margolick, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DE113BF93AA15753C1A964958260 After 40 Years, a Postscript on Hiss: Russian Official Calls Him Innocent]," ''The New York Times'', October 29, 1992</ref> Lowenthal showed reporters a videotape of an interview he did with Volkogonov, prompting "an extraordinary, emotional reaction from the world's press," according to one account. "Some reporters gulped back tears."<ref>Alex Kershaw, "Framed: The Rehabilitation of Alger Hiss," ''[http://www.guardian.co.uk/ The Guardian]'', January 9, 1993, pp.6-10</ref>

The CBS Morning News reported that Hiss was "apparently exonerated."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref> On NBC's ''Today'', co-host Scott Simon said, "This week's revelations about Alger Hiss may help us remember how vulnerable something as real as a reputation may be... So Mr. Hiss may have lived long enough to feel vindicated, but no one lives so long that they have years to give away to suspicions and mistakes."<ref>"[http://www.mrc.org/mediawatch/1992/watch19921201.asp Sticking Up for Hiss]," ''MediaWatch'' (Media Research Center), December 1992</ref> CNN's Gary Tuchman asked why "Hiss's own government has not exonerated him." ''The New Yorker'' ran a seven-page essay by Tony Hiss on "My Father's Honor."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref>

But when questioned Volkogonov admitted that he spent only two days in the Foreign Intelligence Archive,<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> and that he had not actually examined any archives. Instead, according to the former director of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>J. Michael Waller, ''Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War: Messages to Defeat the Terrorists'' (Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com, 2007) ISBN 0615144632, p. 45, n. 36</ref> he asked Yevgeny Primakov,<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23725 A Terrorist State in the G8?]," ''[[Human Events]]'', December 3, 2007</ref> head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the KGB), to provide him with the information.<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''Human Events'', November 28, 1992</ref> Volkogonov said that Primakov said that employees of the foreign intelligence archive said that "A. Hiss was not registered in the documents as a recruited agent."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140</ref>

According to the Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, Volkogonov admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>Mark Kramer, [http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky "The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article]," ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov. "There's no guarantee... that it was not in other channels….”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not had the opportunity to see these documents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref> In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” concluded Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> Volkogonov added that he felt he had been "deceived" by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article],” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref>

Finally, after almost a month, ''The New York Times'', which had devoted half a page to Volkogonov's alleged "vindication" of Hiss, gave one column to his retraction.<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 141</ref>

== Corroboration from Soviet archives ==
According to [[Library of Congress]] [[Cold War]] historian John Earl Haynes,<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> Alger Hiss’s known cryptonyms were "Jurist"<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6</ref> or "Lawyer"<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 43</ref> ("Advocate"<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997)</ref> or "Advokat")<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1952)</ref> during his time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] (1935-36), "Ales"<ref>Venona decrypts (e.g., [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999); Eduard Mark, "Who Was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003)</ref> in 1945, and "Leonard" in the "Gorsky memo."<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html KGB file 43173] vol. 2 (v) pp. 49-55</ref>

==Venona, Hiss' Death and the Battle for History==
In October 1996, the [[CIA]] and [[NSA]] released the [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts, including the "Ales" transmission of March 30, 1945.<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' (Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency), Winter-Spring 2001, No. 10, pp. 9-10</ref> The following month, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Meanwhile, Volkogonov had also died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say—although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>

Kobyakov also said that former KGB General-Lieutenant Vitaly Pavlov,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809717-1,00.html Artist in Brooklyn]," ''Time'', August 19, 1957</ref> who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Sciences Net, October 16, 2003. According to the [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?&pagewanted=all personal Web site] of Hiss' son Tony, Pavlov [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/pavlov.html denounced] Soviet defectors Guzenko, Golitsyn, Levchenko and Gordievsky as "traitors," and their revelations as "fabrications."</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; 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. 167; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>

==Legacy==
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> TruTV's Crime Library concludes, "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html The Hiss-Nixon Seesaw],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James T. Gay of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James T. Gay, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Stephen Koch writes, "I for one have been brought close to certainty, on the basis of archival information, that Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Free Press, 1994) ISBN 0-02-918730-3, p. 326</ref> In ''American Heritage'' magazine, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of [the Hiss case] is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref>

Former Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein,<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Biography of Dr. Allen Weinstein, Ninth Archivist of the United States], The National Archives</ref> who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
{{cquote|"the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}
The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further—not just on perjury, but on espionage—the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref>

"Part of Hiss's KGB file has come out that proves the obvious point he was guilty as charged," says Christopher Andrew of Cambridge University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin conclude that "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> University of Virginia Law School Professor G. Edward White, a son-in-law of Hiss' attorney John F. Davis,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes, "recently released evidence in U.S. and Soviet archives, taken together with some previously available testimony of persons connected with Soviet intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, supports Chambers's charges against Hiss."<ref>White, G. Edward, "[http://ssrn.com/abstract=311869 Hiss and Holmes]," ''Ohio Northern University Law Review'', May 2002</ref> "In August 1948, Alger Hiss lied before HUAC," writes Ryan Ervin of Eastern Illinois University. "His testimony before HUAC proves this beyond any doubt. Intercepted Soviet cables during the Cold War, released in 1996, further prove Hiss’s Communist ties."<ref>Ryan Ervin, "[http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/archives/2005/2005Journal.pdf The Hiss-Chambers Case: Three Acts of Espionage Theater]," ''Historia'' (History Department, Eastern Illinois University and Epsilon Mu Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta), Vol. 14 (2005), p. 14 (PDF p. 7)</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> "Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White are among those whose long-suspected involvement in such [Soviet espionage] seems to be confirmed by the Venona cables," writes Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman.<ref>Maurice Isserman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09issermt.html They Led Two Lives], ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1999</ref> Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press (and—ironically—holder of the "Alger Hiss" chair at Bard College), says, "We're 99 percent certain that Hiss was a spy."<ref>John J. Miller, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_9_58/ai_n16619085/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 The Annals of Jonathan Brent: One Man and a Great Publishing Project], ''National Review'', May 22, 2006</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref>

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who, it was said, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref> Thomas Reed, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and professed "social democrat"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''Alger Hiss and the Battle for History'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, p. 20. Elsewhere, Jacoby writes, "I believe that Hiss was guilty of perjury and am about 98 percent certain that he did pass on government documents to more professional spies." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=5735 Who Owns American History?]" PowellsBooks.Blog, March 21, 2009) She adds: "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 181; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>

Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> (tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia"),<ref> Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] (April 18, 1996), p. H3645</ref> the ardor for Hiss seems to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Militant atheist"<ref>Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009</ref> Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'"<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' (London: Verso, 2000) ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106. Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that the answer is, "because he thought he was onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

===Scholarly Consensus===
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "Soviet files made public in 1995 convinced most observers that he had been guilty," says ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''.<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hiss-Alg.html The Columbia Encyclopedia]'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07.</ref> By 2006, "most historians had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," said Richard Aldrich of Britain's Nottingham University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," write Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen.<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> Columbia University historian David Greenberg refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> Thomas Powers writes that "no serious scholar of the subject any longer dismisses" the "voluminous and explicit claims by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 47, No. 8 (May 11, 2000)</ref> Even Obama supporter<ref>Cass R. Sunstein, "[http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/24/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama.aspx Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama]," ''The New Republic'' October 24, 2008</ref> Charles Fried, a professor at Hiss' ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to all but the most obdurate that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent..."<ref>Geoffrey Stone, Patricia M. Wald, Charles Fried, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Constitutions Under Stress: International and Historical Perspectives," ''[http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf Bulletin]'' (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 39</ref>

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime." (Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007)</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History], Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>

===Hiss in the Mass Media===
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996. Elsewhere, ''Time'' reports, "Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message [1822] seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html Alger, 'Ales' And Joe]," ''Time'', June 6, 1999</ref> "For... Alger Hiss," ''Newsweek'' reports, "a richly detailed new book, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.... provides irrefutable confirmation of guilt."<ref>David J. Garrow, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 From Russia, With Love]," ''Newsweek'', May 25, 2009</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

== Further reading ==
* Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SISS report July 30, 1953),
* [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/home.html The Alger Hiss Story: Search for the Truth]
* [http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericanHistory/articles/1998/0698_text.htm Gay, James Thomas. "The Alger Hiss Spy Case." ''American History'' (May-June 1998)]
* Eduard Mark, �Who Was �Venona�s� �Ales?� Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,� Intelligence and National Security 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).
* Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999).
*Weinstein, Allen "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case" (Random House, 1997) ISBN 0394495462.
* [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page44.html#_ftnref5 Alexander Vassiliev�s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky�s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks (Annotated)]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus], 23 February 1953
* Fitin to Merkulov 25 April 1945, File #43072, Vol. 1, pp. 96-97, KGB Archives.
* Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Secrecy: Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. VI. Appendices: A. ''Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience''. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1997, pgs. 36, 39. (PDF 746K) [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf]

== External links ==
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/1.html Crime Library]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html The Alger Hiss Trials: An Account]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci3/ch2.pdf Cold War Counterintelligence]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]
* [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf 1579 New York to Moscow 28 September 1943] Five NKVD sources are named. Milton Schwartz needs a loan to pay off debts. GRU has mentioned a person from State Department named Hiss.
* Memoranda on interview of Alger Hiss with Secretary of State James Byrnes, Hiss’ response to allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster032.pdf Vol. 32, pgs. 121 - 124] pdf, March 25, 1946.
* Memo E.E. Conroy to the Director on Hiss based on Whittaker Chambers allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster031.pdf Vol. 31, pgs. 50 - 54] pdf, March 28, 1946.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html ''The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York Times, 12 June 1949]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiss, Alger}}

[[Category:Espionage]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]
[[Category:United States History]]

Alger Hiss

2009-05-18T21:07:52Z

Wahida: improve readability

[[Image:Hiss2.png|thumb|300px|right|Alger Hiss. ''Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Prisons'']]
'''Alger Hiss''' (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a high-ranking [[U.S. State Department]] official<ref>"....Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official...." Press Release: [http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2000/nr00-02.html National Archives to Make Available Alger Hiss Grand Jury Materials], United States National Archives and Records Administration, October 11, 1999</ref> and Secretary General of the founding conference of the [[United Nations]],<ref>"...served as the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on International Organization in San Francisco in 1945." [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00190 Hiss, Alger. Prison Correspondence, 1951-1954: Finding Aid], Harvard Law School Library</ref>. He was [[conviction|convicted]] of [[perjury]] in 1950, after denying that he had been a [[Soviet]] agent.

"Belief in the guilt or [[innocence]] of Alger Hiss became a defining issue in [[American]] intellectual life," wrote [[Senator]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] (D.-N.Y.), who was instrumental in securing the release of [[FBI]] and [[Venona project]] files on the case, which had been classified for half a century. Concluded the [[liberal]] [[Democrat]]<ref>"....Daniel Patrick Moynihan, a liberal Democrat...." Louis Uchitelle, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all The Rehabilitation of Morning in America]," ''The New York Times'', February 23, 1997</ref> in 1998: "Parts of the [[United States government|American government]] had [[conclusion|conclusive]] [[evidence]] of his guilt, but they never told."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'', New Haven: Yale University Press (1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref>

==Early life==
Alger Hiss was born in [[Baltimore]], [[Maryland]], November 11, 1904,<ref>"I was born in Baltimore. Md., on November 11, 1904." [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> to a [[financial|financially]] comfortable upper-middle-class<ref>"...an upper-middle-class Presbyterian family. The Hiss family was financially comfortable...." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library. The Hisses were "prominent, respected people. They kept their own horse and carriage, and on occasion [Alger's father] would hire a private railroad car for a family outing. They were seen at concerts and art galleries, they cultivated a life of good taste and literary interests, they knew everyone they wanted to know in Baltimore, they belonged to the best clubs, and they were recognized wherever they went." (John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss, the True Story]'' [Geneva, Ill.: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976] ISBN 0030137764, p. 34)</ref> WASP [[family]].<ref>Aaron Beim and Gary Alan Fine, "The Cultural Frameworks of Prejudice: Reputational Images and the Postwar Disjuncture of Jews and Communism," ''The Sociological Quarterly'', Summer 2007, Volume 48, Issue 3, pp. 373-397. "Alger's mother claimed descent from the Earl of Leicester and, on her mother's side, a leading Baltimore family, the Grundys." (Lance Morrow, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=CEC30zxnXSMC The Best Year of Their Lives: Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon in 1948: Learning the Secrets of Power]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2005] ISBN 0465047238, P. 248)</ref> When Alger was two years old, his [[father]], an [[executive]] with a wholesale dry goods [[firm]],<ref>"...an executive in a wholesale dry-goods firm..." Janny Scott, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/hiss-obit.html Alger Hiss, 92, Central Figure in Long-Running Cold War Controversy]," ''The New York Times'', November 16, 1996</ref> committed [[suicide]] by slashing his throat with his own razor.<ref>"Alger Hiss's father committed suicide rather savagely, slashing his throat with his own razor." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985608,00.html Fred Astaire Meets the Sad-Sack Dostoevskian Pudge]," ''Time'', November 25, 1996</ref> When Hiss was 25, his [[sister]] Mary Ann also committed suicide, by drinking a bottle of Lysol.<ref>"....Mary Ann... had swallowed a bottle of Lysol, killing herself." 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. 5</ref> Alger's older [[brother]] Bosley had died two and a half years before from Bright’s disease, a [[kidney]] disorder aggravated by his excessive [[alcohol]] consumption.<ref>"Bos.... drank a lot... and contracted Bright's disease, an alcohol-induced kidney ailment...." Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, cited in 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. 158; "Bosley... died... of Bright's disease, a kidney disorder aggravated by Bosley's overindulgence in alcohol." Denise Noe, "[http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/ The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref>

===Johns Hopkins University===
As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." 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. 9</ref> the equivalent of more than $200,000 today.<ref>[http://data.bls.gov/cgi-bin/cpicalc.pl Inflation Calculator], United States Bureau of Labor Statistics</ref> After graduation from [[Baltimore]] [[City]] [[College]] and a year at Powder Point Academy (a private [[prep school]] in Duxbury, [[Massachusetts]])<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), p. 32</ref> and the [[Maryland]] Institute of [[Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." Historical Note: Chronology of Alger Hiss. [http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Zeligs, Meyer Aaron. Papers, 1923-1978: Finding Aid] (Harvard Law School Library)</ref> Hiss attended Baltimore's [[Johns Hopkins University]], where he was voted "best hand-shaker" in his class.<ref>[http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 ''The New Yorker'', May 13, 1950]; Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> As an [[undergraduate]], Hiss was drawn to the work of (among others) the [[Fabian socialism|Fabian]]<ref>Archibald Henderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=twQBAAAAYAAJ George Bernard Shaw: His Life and Works]'' (Cincinnati: Stewart & Kidd, 1911) ISBN 1417961775, p. 102. Shaw became a loyal apologist for [[Stalinism]], penning a 1933 [http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/bernard_shaw.htm Letter to the Editor] of the ''Manchester Guardian'', denouncing Malcolm Muggeridge's reporting on [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] as a "lie" and a "slander"; the following year he published a 16,000-word ''[http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks03/0300561h.html#p01 apologia]'' for Stalin's mass murders. In 1949, he even wrote a [http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/shaw/works/lysenko.htm defense] of Stalin's pseudo-scientific [[Lysenkoism]].</ref> George Bernard Shaw, the [[Socialist]]<ref>"To John M. Gillette," September 15, 1912, in Maxwell Anderson (Laurence G. Avery, Ed.), ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=iINNqp6FxU0C Dramatist in America: Letters of Maxwell Anderson, 1912-1958]'' (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001) ISBN 0807849405, p. 3</ref> Maxwell Anderson, the "card-carrying socialist"<ref>Gore Vidal, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2805 The Romance of Sinclair Lewis]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 39, No. 16 (October 8, 1992)</ref> Sinclair Lewis, and the [[Communist]]<ref>Theodore Dreiser, "Request to Become a Communist," ''The Daily Worker'', July 30, 1945, reprinted in Albert Fried, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mLJbT3NMbN4C Communism in America: A History in Documents]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231102356, p. 348-350</ref> Theodore Dreiser.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 52</ref> His favorite [[instructor|instructors]] included Broadus Mitchell,<ref>Joan Cook, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/04/30/obituaries/broadus-mitchell-95-professor-historian-and-hamilton-authority.html Broadus Mitchell, 95, Professor, Historian and Hamilton Authority]," ''The New York Times'', April 30, 1988</ref> whom Hiss would later describe as a "gifted" [[economics]] [[professor]] with "mildly socialistic" views.<ref>Alger Hiss, Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism (Alger Hiss papers, Small Manuscript Collection, Special Collections, Harvard Law School)</ref> But Mitchell, according to the personal site of Hiss' [[son]], Tony,<ref>After Hiss' son, a visiting scholar at New York University, originally set up the site on an NYU server, the university requested that he move it elsewhere "to designate it more clearly as a personal site rather than an academic one." Columbia University historian David Greenberg says Hiss' Web site is "the best defense mustered of Hiss by the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss," but "I don't think anyone is going to treat this site as the repository of truth, except for those who have already made up their minds that Hiss was innocent." James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> was a well-known Socialist.<ref> Jeff Kisseloff, "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html Distorted Reflections]," The Alger Hiss Story</ref> He served as [[candidate]] for [[Governor]] of Maryland for the Socialist Party<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761370,00.html Head on a Platter]," ''Time'', May 22, 1939; [http://www.hofstra.edu/Libraries/WestCampus/SpecialCollections/sc_afc_broadus_mitchell.cfm Broadus Mitchell (1892-1988): Author, Professor, Economist], Hoftra University Special Collections</ref> (U.S. supporter of the [[Comintern]]),<ref>Document No. 7: "Minority Report Adopted by Overwhelming Party Vote on Referendum on Submission to the Emergency National Convention Held at Chicago, September, 1919," reprinted in Joint Legislative Committee of the State of New York Investigating Seditious Activities, ''Revolutionary Radicalism: Its History, Purpose and Tactics'', Part I, Vol. I (Albany: J.B. Lyon Company, 1920), p. 626</ref> and distinguished socialism from [[communism]] as differing only in "[[strategy]] and [[procedure]]," not "essential [[theory]]."<ref>Broadus Mitchell, ''A Preface to Economics'' (Henry Holt & Co., 1932-34), pp. 556-557</ref> Another favorite was José Robles,<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," ''Modern Age'', Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 310 (PDF p. 4)</ref> a committed [[Stalinist]]<ref>Jason Powell, "[http://ehistory.osu.edu/osu/reviews/reviewview.cfm?id=2 Review: ''The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles'']," eHistory (Ohio State University), January 2006</ref> who would go on to serve in the [[Spanish Civil War]] as a [[Colonel]] in the [[Red Army]] and interpreter for [[General]] Jānis Bērziņš,<ref>[http://www.latfilma.lv/d/106/ The Head of Intelligence Service: Janis Berzins], Films in Latvia</ref> head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>Hugh Thomas, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6I126r99NQ4C The Spanish Civil War]'' (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994) ISBN 0671758764, pp. 705-706</ref> Robles was never seen again<ref>George Packer, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2005/10/31/051031crbo_books The Spanish Prisoner]," ''The New Yorker'', October 31, 2005</ref> after Bērziņš was recalled to [[Moscow]]<ref>Roy Aleksandrovich Medvedev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zQ8BO3cenfoC Let History Judge: The Origins and Consequences of Stalinism]'' (tr. George Shriver) (New York: Columbia University Press, 1989) ISBN 0231063504, p. 428</ref> and shot in [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''[http://books.google.com/books?id=KzIfHQAACAAJ The Great Terror: A Reassessment]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> in 1938.<ref>David J. Nordlander, "Origins of a Gulag Capital: Magadan and Stalinist Control in the Early 1930s," ''Slavic Review'', Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 791-812</ref> Robles had apparently been [[execution|executed]] by a Communist "special section,"<ref>"The earliest sign of the existence of the special unit seems to be... in Barcelona early in 1937.... On June 16, thanks to Soviet pressure on the Spanish Republican Government, the leaders of the POUM, [Andreu] Nin included, were arrested and charged with high treason. Nin disappeared within days and was never seen again. Even the leaders of the Communist Party in Spain today admit that Nin was murdered on Stalin's orders.... George Orwell, who was in Barcelona soon after the arrests... fled Spain in fear of arrest himself...." Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988</ref> according to former [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Alice Béja,"[http://reconstruction.eserver.org/081/beja.shtml Radically American: John Dos Passos, Culture and Politics]," ''Reconstruction: Studies in Contemporary Culture'' Vol. 8, No. 1 (2008)</ref> John Dos Passos,<ref>Paul P. Reuben, [http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap7/dospassos.html Chapter 7: John Dos Passos (1896-1970)], PAL: Perspectives in American Literature - A Research and Reference Guide (University of California Stanislaus)</ref> because he "knew too much about the relations between the [[Spain|Spanish]] war ministry and the [[Kremlin]]."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=buhlAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 The Breaking Point: Hemingway, Dos Passos, and the Murder of Jose Robles]'' (Madrid: Ediciones Palabra, 2006) ISBN 1582432813, p. 272</ref> Hiss, who apparently knew Robles well enough to spend time at his [[home]],<ref>Tony Hiss, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SPV2AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Laughing Last: Alger Hiss by Tony Hiss]'' (Boston: Haughton Mifflin, 1977), ISBN 039524899X, pp. 37-38</ref> would later say he too considered going to [[Spain]] to fight for the [[Soviet]]-backed "[[Loyalist]]" cause.<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1976), ISBN 0030137764, p. 104</ref>

===Harvard Law School===
After graduating in 1926, Hiss went on to [[Harvard Law School]], where he resumed his friendship with boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> who was attending [[Harvard]] Business School. Collins would later be identified as a [[Soviet]] agent by chief of [[Soviet intelligence]] in the U.S. [[Anatoly Gorsky]]<ref>[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> and by another friend at Harvard, [[U.S. State Department|State Department]] official [[Laurence Duggan]]<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 202. It was apparently to protect Duggan's identity that Ignace Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was murdered (Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 [October 24, 2005]): A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." (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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009] ISBN 0300123906, p 232) Poretsky was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004) Five days after Duggan's interview with the FBI (during which he would implicate [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]]), Hiss would be indicted by a grand jury; five days after that, Duggan would [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 jump or be thrown] from his New York office window to his death, ("[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html The Man in the Widow]," ''Time'', January 3, 1949) leading his friend (and father's protégé), Edward R. Murrow, to broadcast a [http://dca.lib.tufts.edu/features/murrow/exhibit/iie2.html scathing] denunciation of Red-hunters in the U.S. government for hounding an [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf allegedly] innocent man to his grave. (Stephen Hunter, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/10/06/AR2005100602012.html 'Good Night': A Gray Era In Stark Black And White]," ''The Washington Post'', October 7, 2005, p. C01)</ref> (himself identified by [[Comintern]] courier [[Whittaker Chambers]],<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> [[OGPU]] recruiter [[Hede Massing]],<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 202-203</ref> and [[Venona]] decrypts).<ref>e.g, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/30jun_british_invasion.pdf MGB 1025, 1035-6 New York to Moscow, June 30, 1943, p. 2]</ref> Hiss served on the ''[[Harvard Law Review]]'' under editor [[Lee Pressman]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> who would eventually [[testify]] that he had been a member of an [[Ware group|underground group of Communists in the Federal government]].<ref>Testimony of Lee Pressman. Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government—Part 2. United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D.C., August 28, 1950. Reprinted as Exhibit No. 1402, U.S. Congress, Senate, 82nd Cong., Committee on the Judiciary, Hearings to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Second Session on the Institute of Pacific Relations (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1952), 5503.</ref> Hiss became the protégé of one [[instructor]], future [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]]—who, said former [[President of the United States|U.S. President]] [[William Howard Taft]], [[Chief Justice]] of the Supreme Court, "seems to be closely in touch with every [[Bolshevik|Bolshevist]], [[Communist]] movement in this [[country]]."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,870087.html Felix Frankfurter]," ''Time'', September 7, 1962</ref> Frankfurter was at the time the leading champion of the [[conviction|convicted]] [[murder|murderers]] [[Sacco and Vanzetti]],<ref>Felix Frankfurter, "[http://www.theatlantic.com/unbound/flashbks/oj/frankff.htm The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''The Atlantic'', March 1927; Felix Frankfurter, ''The Case of Sacco and Vanzetti: A Critical Analysis for Lawyers and Laymen'' (Buffalo: Wm. S. Hein & Co., 2003) ISBN 157588805X</ref> [[revolution|revolutionary]] [[terrorist|terrorists]] who became a Communist<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Enigma Books, rev. ed. 2004) ISBN 1929631200, pp. 31-37</ref> ''cause célèbre'',<ref>John F. Neville, ''Twentieth-Century Cause Celebre: Sacco, Vanzetti, and the Press, 1920-1927'' (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004) ISBN 0275977838 p. 101. Hiss' Harvard classmate, fellow State Department official and [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Soviet intelligence source] Noel Field would later write, "The shock of the Sacco-Vanzetti executions drove me leftward."(Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' [New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978], ISBN 0394495462, p. 199)</ref> and whom Alger Hiss would later emulate.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E3D7DC83-5DEE-4B84-857A-DF85A526E91C Alger Hiss: Recruiting Poster for the Left]," FrontPageMagazine.com, February 25, 2004. New evidence [http://hnn.us/articles/4527.html suggests] that Sacco and Vanzetti were [http://www.cbc.ca/arts/story/2006/01/28/uptonsinclair-boston.html guilty].</ref>

==Early Career==
[[Sacco and Vanzetti]] had been members of a [[terrorist]] group known as the Galleanists,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, pp. 59-60; Annie Anderson, "[http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/3100/the_lessons_of_sacco_and_vanzetti/ The Lessons of Sacco and Vanzetti]," ''In These Times'', March 27, 2007</ref> which was responsible for the May Day 1919 attempted bombing of a number of public figures,<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 146; Paul Berman, "[http://www.slate.com/id/3135/ The Refractory Ones: Sacco, Vanzetti, and Timothy McVeigh]," Slate.com, August 20, 1997</ref> including [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] Justice [[Oliver Wendell Holmes]].<ref>Paul Avrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=lm0SCspDOjQC Sacco and Vanzetti: The Anarchist Background]'' (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1996) ISBN 0691026041, p. 143; "[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?res=9406E3D61238EE32A25752C0A9639C946896D6CF 36 Were Marked as Victims by Bomb Conspirers]," ''The New York Times'', May 1, 1919, p. 1; [http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/database/article_display.cfm?HHID=438 The Postwar Red Scare], Digital History (University of Houston)</ref> Ironically, when Hiss graduated from law school in 1929, [[Felix Frankfurter|Frankfurter]] got him the [[covet|coveted]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> job of law clerk to Holmes.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949.</ref> Influential as Frankfurter was, Hiss said he was probably even more influenced by Holmes,<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/daynight.html James Day interview with Alger Hiss] for ''[http://www.cuny.tv/series/dayatnight/listen.lasso?year=1974 Day at Night]'' (CUNY-TV), 1974</ref> whom Hiss admired as "a [[skeptic]] of the first order" who "denied the [[existence]] of [[God]]."<ref>John Chabot Smith, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=bCYrAAAAIAAJ Alger Hiss: The True Story]'' (New York: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, 1976) ISBN 0030137764, p. 58</ref> The same year, Hiss [[marriage|married]] the former Mrs. Priscilla Fansler Hobson, a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party [[presidential]] [[nominee]] [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 457</ref> Hiss had had met her on a transatlantic cruise when he was nineteen,<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 11</ref> but since then she'd had a [[marriage]], a [[Mexican]] [[divorce]],<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~law00092 Meyer Zeligs Papers] (October 13, 1963), Harvard Law School Library Special Collections, cited in Ivan Chen, [http://works.bepress.com/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ivan_chen Alger Hiss, 1926-1929], p. 31</ref> a child by a married man and an [[abortion]].<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 158-159</ref>

[[Image:Wobbly boy.jpg|thumb|100px|right|I.W.W. Little Red Songbook. ''Image courtesy Hunter Gray [Hunter Bear)'']]Hiss went on to prestigious<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 97</ref> law firms in [[Boston]] and [[New York City|New York]] where, by 1932, his [[wife]] Priscilla had registered as a member of the [[Socialist]] Party.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003); Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> By then, Priscilla Hiss was an active member of American Labor Associates, and Hiss was becoming "[[radical|radicalized]],"<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> joining (together with [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]])<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 27</ref> the International Juridical Association (IJA), which "consistently followed the [[Communist Party]] line."<ref>"[http://ia360638.us.archive.org/2/items/reportonnational1950unit/reportonnational1950unit.pdf Report on the National Lawyers Guild, legal bulwark of the Communist Party]," United States Congress. House Committee on Un-American Activities (1950), p. 12</ref>

During this period, Hiss' letters to his wife reflected his increasing [[radical|radicalism]]. In 1930, he made a coy reference to the [[terrorist]]<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/mem/archive-free/pdf?_r=1&res=9502E2DB1439E13ABC4D53DFBF668383609EDE I.W.W. Bomb Kills Four in Chicago]," ''The New York Times'', September 5, 1918</ref> [[Industrial Workers of the World]] (whose leader, "Big Bill" Haywood, had fled the [[U.S.]] for [[Moscow]] where he became a trusted advisor to the [[Bolshevik]] government),<ref>Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/haywood/HAY_BHAY.HTM William D. Haywood], Famous Trials (University of Missouri-Kansas City)</ref> writing to Priscilla, "[D]id thee call thyself a [[Industrial Workers of the World|Wobbly]] with an [[Industrial Workers of the World|I.W.W.]] tongue in thy [[socialist|socialistic]] (I couldn't bring myself to write '[[Communist|Communistic]]') cheek." Suggesting that an article questioning the [[legitimacy]] of the existing “[[capitalist]] order”<ref>Archibald MacLeish, “To the Young Men of Wall Street,” ''Saturday Review'', January 16, 1932</ref> did not go far enough, Hiss wrote to Priscilla in 1932, “Has thee seen Archibald MacLeish's<ref>MacLeish was a noted fellow traveler (David Caute, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=zZ6YqBm3O2wC The Fellow-Travellers: Intellectual Friends of Communism]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988] ISBN 0300041950, p. 185). Following the [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799590,00.html death] of [[Laurence Duggan]]—ten days after Duggan implicated [[Henry Collins|Collins]] and [[Frederick Vanderbilt Field]], and five days after Hiss' indictment by a grand jury—MacLeish, a former Librarian of Congress, would dedicate a [http://books.google.com/books?id=KI0ESFOvi5QC&pg=PA403&source=gbs_toc_r&cad=0_0 poem] to the late [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent], denouncing "informers" (apparently [[Hede Massing]] and [[Whittaker Chambers]], each of whom had identified Duggan) as liars.</ref> article on [[capitalism]] in last week's ''Saturday Review''? [[Felix Frankfurter|Felix]] says it is soft thinking after Wilson.”<ref>Tony Hiss, ''The View From Alger's Window'' (New York: Vintage Books, 2000) ISBN 0375701281, pp. 140-141. The reference is to Edmund Wilson, then an editor at ''The New Republic'' who embraced Marxism and welcomed the stock market crash of 1929 as a portent of the death of capitalism. In 1932 he voted for Communist Party presidential candidate William Z. Foster and signed a manifesto calling for "a temporary dictatorship of the class-conscious workers." (Alex Ross, "[http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2003/03/24/030324crat_atlarge Ghost Sonata: Edmund Wilson’s adventure with Communism]," ''The New Yorker'', March 24, 2003)</ref>

==New Deal==
===Agricultural Adjustment Administration===
[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|right|Mother of seven children without food, California, ca. February 1936. ''Image courtesy Library of Congress'']]In 1933, Frankfurter sent Hiss a telegram<ref>Dan Cryer, "[http://www.salon.com/books/feature/1999/06/01/hiss/index.html We're a long way from the end of this]," Salon.com, June 1, 1999</ref> urging him to join [[President]] [[Franklin Delano Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] as assistant general counsel to the Agricultural Adjustment Administration (AAA).<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]]<ref>Peter Finn, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039.html?sub=new Aftermath of a Soviet Famine]," ''The Washington Post'', April 27, 2008, p. A14</ref> (during which the [[Soviets]] killed some 14 million people through collectivization of agriculture),<ref>Robert Conquest, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Bp31GmfH-6YC The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807) p. 301</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production<ref>"...major New Deal program to restore agricultural prosperity by curtailing farm production..." "[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> in order to drive up food prices<ref>James D. Hamilton, "...the Agricultural Adjustment Act of 1933 ... designed with the specific goal of reducing agricultural production in order to raise agricultural prices..." "[http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html The New Deal and the Great Depression]," Econbrowser: Analysis of current economic conditions and policy (Blog of James D. Hamilton, Professor of Economics at the University of California, San Diego and Menzie Chinn, Professor of Public Affairs and Economics at the University of Wisconsin, Madison)</ref> in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>“During the Great Depression of the 1930s, agricultural price support programs led to vast amounts of food being deliberately destroyed at a time when malnutrition was a serious problem in the United States and hunger marches were taking place in cities across the country. For example, the federal government bought 6 million hogs in 1933 alone and destroyed them. Huge amounts of farm produce were plowed under, in order to keep it off the market and maintain prices at the officially fixed level, and vast amounts of milk were poured down the sewers for the same reason. Meanwhile, many American children were suffering from diseases caused by malnutrition.” Thomas Sowell, ''Basic Economics: A Common Sense Guide to the Economy'' (New York: Basic Books, 2007) 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56</ref> The agency was the brainchild of FDR's [[Secretary of Agriculture]] (and future [[Vice President]]),<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/common/generic/VP_Henry_Wallace.htm Henry Agard Wallace, 33rd Vice President (1941-1945)], United States Senate, Art & History Home</ref> so-called "farm dictator"<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F4061FF83C5C16738DDDAB0994DB405B838FF1D3 Roosevelt Is Urged to Ask Wide Power as 'Farm Dictator,']" ''The New York Times'', March 12, 1933, p. 1</ref> [[Henry Wallace]]—who would run for President on the [[Communist]]-inspired<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 455-456</ref> [[Progressive]] Party ticket in 1948, finally recanting his support for the [[Soviet Union]]<ref>Linda Rodriguez, "[http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/wayoflife/05/09/almost.great.men/index.html A celebration of almost-great men]," CNN, undated</ref> in 1952.<ref>Henry Agard Wallace, “Where I Was Wrong.” ''This Week'', September 2, 1952</ref>

In response to a query about candidates for employment at AAA, [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]], already at the agency, wrote, "I have talked to Alger Hiss and [[Nathan Witt|Nat Witt]] who are considering" taking posts at AAA (Hiss would later deny under oath that he had discussed the position with Pressman).<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 133</ref> At AAA, Hiss reunited with IJA colleagues Pressman and [[Nathan Witt|Witt]] as well as [[Henry Collins|Collins]], and became acquainted with the [[Communist]]<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007</ref> [[Harold Ware]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</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> Hiss' superior at AAA, [[New Deal]]er 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> 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> Collins would refuse to testify on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]],<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Hearings Regarding Communist Espionage in the United States Government, United States House of Representatives, Committee on Un-American Activities, Washington, D. C., Wednesday, August 25, 1948</ref> but another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss<ref>
:Mr. COHN. Did you know Alger Hiss to be a member of the Communist
party?
:Mr. WEYL. Yes, I did.
:Mr. COHN. Were you in the same Communist cell with Alger Hiss at one time?
:Mr. WEYL. That is correct.
…
:Mr. WEYL. ...Hiss and I were among the eight or nine people who met with the first meeting of that organization, I presume. So I was in this Communist cell with him for a period of approximately nine months.
:[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/senate/mccarthy/83869.pdf Testimony of Nathaniel Weyl] before the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations of the Committee on Government Operations, United States Senate, February 23, 1953, pp. 619-620 (PDF pp. 658-659)</ref> and saw him pay his party dues,<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952; Nathaniel Weyl, “I Was in a Communist Unit with Hiss,” ''U.S. News and World Report'', January 9, 1953</ref> testimony he would reaffirm in his 2004 autobiography.<ref>Nathaniel Weyl, ''Encounters With Communism'' (Philadelphia: Xlibris, 2004), cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007</ref>

Ex-Communists Ralph de Sola and George Hewitt would both also testify to having seen Hiss at [[Communist Party]] meetings,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360</ref> and a former [[GRU]] station chief in [[London]] and [[New York]] reported that during the early and middle 1930s Hiss was a source of agent information for a [[Soviet]] [[espionage|spy]] ring in Washington, the [[Silvermaster group]], according to Pavel Sudoplatov,<ref>David Stout, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/09/28/world/pavel-sudoplatov-89-dies-top-soviet-spy-who-accused-oppenheimer.html Pavel Sudoplatov, 89, Dies; Top Soviet Spy Who Accused Oppenheimer]," ''The New York Times'', September 28, 1996</ref> former deputy director of Foreign Intelligence for the [[USSR]].<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227-228</ref>

===Nye Committee===
In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman|Pressman]] (according to [[New Deal|New Dealer]]<ref>Arthur Schlesinger Jr., "[http://www.nytimes.com/1997/03/09/books/the-truest-believer.html?pagewanted=all The Truest Believer]," ''The New York Times'', March 9, 1997</ref> Gardner Jackson),<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 143</ref> Hiss became General Counsel for the [[U.S. Senate]]'s [[Special Committee Investigating the Munitions Industry|Nye committee]],<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Biographical Sketch. Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979] (Maryland Historical Society)</ref> which investigated people Chairman Gerald P. Nye (R.-N.D.)<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=n000176 Nye, Gerald Prentice (1892-1971)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> called [[Wall Street]]'s "merchants of death,"<ref>[http://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/minute/merchants_of_death.htm 1921-1940: September 4, 1934, "Merchants of Death" (United States Senate: Historical Minutes)]</ref> whom he accused of conspiracy to lead the [[United States|U.S.]] into war with [[Germany]]. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive [[capitalist]]s," in which Hiss was to Nye what [[Roy Cohn]] would later be to [[Senator]] [[Joe McCarthy]] (R.-Wisc.)<ref>Peter Viereck, ''Unadjusted Man in the Age of Overadjustment: Where History and Literature Intersect'' (Edison, N.J.: Transaction Publishers, 2004) ISBN 0765808064, pp. 156-157</ref> The [[Soviets]] took great interest in the work of the committee for its [[propaganda]] value<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, pp. 115-116</ref> as well as its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> [[Moscow]] had at least one source on the staff of the committee, who provided valuable documents to the [[Kremlin]] in 1935,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 28-29</ref> the same year an agent later code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") began working for [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]].<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Nye would tell FBI investigators that he believed Hiss was a [[Communist]] at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43-44</ref> and would later say he believed Hiss used his position on the committee for [[espionage]].<ref>John E. Wiltz, ''In Search of Peace: The Senate Munitions Inquiry, 1934-1936'' (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1963) ISBN B000GX1RX0, p. 53</ref>

Barely a month after joining the committee staff,<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 40</ref> Hiss met [[Whittaker Chambers]].<ref>William Fitzgibbon, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html The Hiss-Chambers Case: A Chronology Since 1934]," ''The New York Times'', June 12, 1949</ref> According to Chambers, they were introduced by Communist underground boss<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, pp. 143-146</ref> [[J. Peters]];<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 339</ref> Hiss would claim that Chambers had wandered into his office without introduction, as a free-lance writer looking for a story.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,799060-2,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref>

[[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' version would be corroborated by the [[radical]]<ref>Winifred Farrant Bevilacqua, "[http://www.lib.uiowa.edu/spec-coll/Bai/bevilacq.htm An Introduction to Josephine Herbst]," ''Books at Iowa'', November 1976</ref> novelist [[Josephine Herbst]], whose then-[[husband]], [[John Herrmann]], was an AAA official, a member of the [[Ware group]] and a courier for the [[Communist]] underground subordinate to Chambers.<ref>Elinor Langer, "The Secret Drawer," ''The Nation'', May 30, 1994, p. 756</ref> Hiss would later claim that he did not even know Herrmann—a "lie," according to Herbst's biographer.<ref>Elinor Langer, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/19970217/langer The Great Pumpkin]," ''The Nation'', February 17, 1997</ref>

===Justice Department===
In 1935, Hiss transferred into the [[Justice Department]] as special assistant to the Solictor General,<ref>[http://www.usdoj.gov/osg/ Office of the Solicitor General], United States Department of Justice</ref> where he unsuccessfully defended the [[Agricultural Adjustment Act]] before the [[United States Supreme Court]]<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-5testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss] before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (August 5, 1948)</ref> (which ruled the AAA [[unconstitutional]] in 1936).<ref>[http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct-cgi/get-us-cite?297+1 ''United States v. Butler'', 297 U.S. 1 (1936)]</ref>

====Hiss' 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>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 378</ref> Hiss would deny this, testifying instead that he had sold or loaned or given<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 17, 1948); [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-25testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 25, 1948)</ref> the car to Chambers<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,888531,00.html Your Witness, Mr. Murphy]," ''Time,'' July 4, 1949</ref> in June 1935, after buying a new car. 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 after he claimed to have gotten rid of it.<ref> Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

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 sold it the same day to the [[Communist]]<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 60</ref> William Rosen for $25.<ref>Denise Noe, [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/5.html The Shadowy Mr. Crosley, "The Alger Hiss Case,"] TruTV Crime Library</ref> The company made no record of the transaction.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 47</ref> Rosen would refuse to answer questions about his role in the transfer or the [[Communist Party]] on grounds of potential [[self-incrimination]].<ref>''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss' attorney, Edward McLean, wrote that Rosen's lawyer, Emmanuel Bloch, told him:
{{cquote|…that Rosen did lend himself to a 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 53; "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</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 [[HUAC]] that he had notarized Hiss' signature on the transfer, 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====
[[Image:AlgerHiss Sig.jpg|thumb|300px|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: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]At a 1935 dinner at the home of [[State Department]] official (and [[Soviet intelligence]] source)<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[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, ''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/ CIA Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room], p. 16</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>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 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 Soviets."<ref>Transcripts: September 23, 1954; September 29, 1954. Noel Field file, Archives, Czechoslovak Ministry of the Interior, quoted in Mária Schmidt, ''Behind the Scenes of the Showtrials of Central-Eastern Europe'', Budapest 1993 (uncorrected manuscript), cited in Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 135; Mária Schmidt, “Noel Field -- 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]] 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, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|300px|right|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс—"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Cold War International History Project], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent Alexander Vassiliev,<ref>[http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], Authors - Random House, Inc.</ref> [[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" —a serious breach of discipline. A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist."<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6; Cf. Vassiliev's notebooks, Yellow Notebook No. 2, p. 23 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Original], PDF p. 3; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed], PDF p. 4; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Translated.pdf Translated], PDF p. 4), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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] have been openly identified" as [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 7; Thomas Powers, ''Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to Al-Qaeda'' (New York: New York Review of Books, 2004) ISBN 1590170989, p. 89; 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. 228; Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 228</ref>

==State Department==
Hiss took a pay cut<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 5</ref> to transfer into the [[State Department]] in September 1936, the same month a [[GRU]] agent designated by the code name "Jurist" began working there.<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 12</ref> Hiss was now special assistant to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Trade Agreements Francis B. Sayre, son-in-law of [[Woodrow Wilson]].<ref>[http://www.woodrowwilsonhouse.org/timeline/ImageDisplay.asp?ID=37 Francis Bowes Sayre (April 30, 1885 -- March 29, 1972)], Woodrow Wilson House</ref> Two years later, Alger's younger [[brother]] [[Donald Hiss|Donald]], who had followed him to [[Johns Hopkins University|Johns Hopkins]], [[Harvard Law School|Harvard Law]], and a clerkship for [[Oliver Wendell Holmes|Justice Holmes]], would join him at State, rising to the position of assistant to future Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]].<ref>Glenn Fowler, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=950DE5DB133EF933A15756C0A96F948260 Donald Hiss, 82, Ex-U.S. Official And Lawyer in Washington Firm]," ''The New York Times'', May 20, 1989</ref>

In a cable of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by Vassiliev, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to [[Moscow]] that [[J. Peters]] (code-named "Storm")<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 163; Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007; [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref> told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization [the [[CPUSA]] underground]<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> who had been implanted into 'Surrogate' [cover name for the [[State Department]]]<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [the [[GRU]]]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref>...."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 230</ref>

The year before, at the funeral of Marshal Józef Piłsudski<ref>[http://www.poland.gov.pl/Jozef,Pilsudski,(1867-1935),1972.html Józef Piłsudski (1867-1935)], Polska: History</ref> in [[Warsaw]], [[U.S.]] [[Ambassador]] to [[Moscow]] William C. Bullitt<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2003_01-03/sempa_bullitt/sempa_bullitt.html William C. Bullitt: Diplomat and Prophet]," ''American Diplomacy'', January 24, 2003</ref> had confidentially assured the [[Polish]] [[government]] that the [[United States]] would stand by [[Poland]] in the event of a [[Nazi]] invasion. But after Bullitt reported back to [[Washington]] that he had done so, someone at the [[State Department]] passed this information to the [[Kremlin]], which in turn transmitted it to [[German]] intelligence (with which [[Soviet intelligence]] had maintained liaison since the time of [[Lenin]]).<ref>Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 1997) ISBN 0231106769, p. 2. Cf. Michael Pearson, ''The Sealed Train: Lenin's Eight Month Journey from Exile to Power'' (New York: Putnam, 1975) ISBN 0399112626</ref> Nazi [[propaganda]] minister [[Joseph Goebbels]] exploited this information to portray the United States as a warmonger. According to reporter Ralph de Toledano, who covered the Hiss trial for ''Newsweek'', the State Department source who passed this information to the [[Soviets]] was Alger Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

At some point in 1935-37, [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] gave Hiss a rug from Bokhara, in [[Soviet]] [[Uzbekistan]].<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-17testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss], Special Subcommittee of the Committee on Un-American Activities, United States House of Representatives, Executive Session, August 17, 1948</ref> Just before [[Christmas]] 1936, [[Soviet]] [[Colonel]] [[Boris Bykov]], head of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] in the U.S., had given Chambers $800 to buy four Bokhara rugs for Hiss, [[Harry Dexter White]], [[George Silverman]], and [[Julian Wadleigh]], according to Chambers; Hiss would later claim that Chambers had given him his rug in 1935 in partial payment for rent. Chambers' version was corroborated by [[Marxist]]<ref>Alan Wallach, "Marxist Art Historian: Meyer Schapiro, 1904-1996," ''Against the Current'' 62 (May-June 1996), p. 52</ref> [[Columbia University]] [[art]] [[historian]] Meyer Schapiro,<ref>John Russell, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1996/03/04/us/meyer-schapiro-91-is-dead-his-work-wove-art-and-life.html Meyer Schapiro, 91, Is Dead; His Work Wove Art and Life]," ''The New York Times'', March 4, 1996</ref> who confirmed that he arranged the purchase (and produced the canceled check dated December 23, 1936); by the [[Massachusetts]] Importing Company of [[Manhattan]], which confirmed selling him the rugs (and produced the [[Bill of Sale]]); by White's widow and Silverman (who confirmed that they had received their rugs sometime between late 1936 and the fall of 1938); and by Wadleigh, who confessed to having been a member of Chambers' apparatus and delivering documents to him,<ref>William R. Conklin, "[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F00611FE345F177B93CBA91789D95F4D8485F9 Aided Red Spy Ring, Wadleigh Admits; Tells Hiss Jury He Channeled Up to 500 U.S. Documents to Soviet in 1936-37]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 1949, p. 16</ref> confirmed that he had received his rug for [[New Year's Day|New Year's]] 1937,<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, pp. 117-118</ref> and conceded that he understood the rug to be a gift from the [[Soviets]].<ref>Jacob Cohen, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_n1_v45/ai_13366253 Innocent after all? The Kremlin files and the guilt or innocence of convicted spy Alger Hiss]," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref>

By 1937, the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge|Great Terror]]<ref>Robert Conquest,''The Great Terror: A Reassessment'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), ISBN 0195071328</ref> (whose victims would number over ten million),<ref>Norman Davis, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1990/05/13/books/now-it-can-be-told-even-in-russia.html?pagewanted=all Now It Can Be Told, Even in Russia]," ''The New York Times'', May 13, 1990</ref> Hiss was delivering packets of documents to [[Whittaker Chambers]] at intervals of a week or ten days, according to Oleg Gordievsky,<ref>"[http://www.buckingham.ac.uk/news/newsarchive2005/gordievsky.html Buckingham Honours Oleg Gordievsky]," The University of Buckingham: News, February 28, 2005</ref> the [[KGB]] London station chief who defected in 1985.<ref>Peter B. Niblo, ''Influence: The Soviet Task Leading to Pearl Harbor, the Iron Curtain, and the Cold War'' (Oakland, Ore.: Elderberry Press, 2002) ISBN 1930859147, p. 65</ref>

That year, [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov|Akhmerov]] cabled [[Moscow]] that [[Michael Straight]] (code-named "Nigel"), an [[American]] member of the [[NKVD]]'s [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]<ref>Richard Norton-Taylor, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/2004/jan/09/guardianobituaries.usa Michael Straight: Cambridge spy whose testimony was crucial in exposing Anthony Blunt]," ''The Guardian'', January 9, 2004</ref> (and future [[FDR]] speech writer<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 153</ref> and publisher of ''The New Republic''),<ref>Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F07EFDB1531F936A35752C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=print Michael Straight, Who Wrote of Connection to Spy Ring, Is Dead at 87]," ''The New York Times'', January 5, 2004</ref> then working at the [[State Department]], mentioned Hiss (using his real name) as someone with "[[progressive]]" views "who occupied a responsible position."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, pp. 155-156</ref>

On November 23, 1937, [[Whittaker Chambers]] bought a car, using $400 he said Alger Hiss loaned him.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 39; ''[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html United States v Alger Hiss]'', 185 F. 2d 822 (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss would deny making the loan,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,780167,00.html Counterattack]," ''Time'', January 2, 1950</ref> but records showed that the Hisses withdrew $400 in cash from their savings four days before Chambers bought the car.<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref> At first the Hisses claimed that they had used the money to buy furniture for a new house,<ref>Denise Noe, "[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html The Alger Hiss Case]," TruTV Crime Library</ref> but they had not signed a lease at the time,<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 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>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 73</ref>

In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] made his final break with the [[Communist]]s.<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 25</ref> Wary after the [[murder]] of Ignace Poretsky<ref>Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/24/books/intellectuals-and-assassins-annals-of-stalin-s-killerati.html?pagewanted=all Intellectuals and Assassins - Annals of Stalin's Killerati]," ''The New York Times'', January 24, 1988; Stephen Schwartz, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Protected/Articles/000/000/006/224euczs.asp?pg=1 Russian Requiem: The tragic intersection of the lives of Soviet poets]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 11, Issue 6 (October 24, 2005). Poretsky (alias Ignace Reiss) was apparently murdered to protect the identity of Hiss' Harvard friend and State Department colleague, [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/18nov_lawrence_duggan.pdf Soviet agent] Laurence Duggan: A Moscow Center report of Poretsky's "liquidation" notes, "For now the danger of 19 [Duggan] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 2) being exposed through Raymond's [Poretsky's] (John Earl Haynes, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Vassiliev%20Notebooks%20Concordance2.pdf Vassiliev Notebooks Concordance: Cover Names, Real Names, Abbreviations, Acronyms, Organizational Titles, Tradecraft Terminology], 2008, p. 129) line is significantly diminished." 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]'' [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p 232) He was killed by OGPU agent Roland Abbiat (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287]; Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=9TWUAQ7Xof8C The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, pp. 47, 78-79), who would later go under cover as Vladimir Pravdin, head of the Soviet government news agency TASS. (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004)</ref> and disappearance of [[Juliet Poyntz]],<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 131-133</ref> Chambers asked his wife's nephew<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 319</ref> to hide what he called his "life preserver"—a packet of copies of documents, hand-written memos and microfilm of documents.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799517,00.html Three Rings]," ''Time'', December 20, 1948; Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Regnery Publishing, 1952) ISBN 0-89526-789-6, p. 40-41</ref> On the advice of Herbert Solow,<ref>"[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F70C14FB3E59147A93C5AB178AD95F408685F9 Herbert Solow, Fortune Editor; John Dewey Aide in Trotsky Investigation Dies at 61]," ''The New York Times'', November 27, 1964, p. 35</ref> former press agent for the Communist League of America,<ref>Robert Jackson Alexander, ''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, ''American Communism and Soviet Russia'' (Edison, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2003), ISBN 0765805316, p. 357</ref> Ludwig Lore,<ref>[http://www.marxisthistory.org/history/usa/parties/spusa/1917/0309-lore-todebs.pdf Letter to Eugene V. Debs in New York City from Ludwig Lore in New York City, March 9, 1917]. Eugene V. Debs papers, microfilm edition: reel 2, frames 0309A-0309B. Published in J. Robert Constantine (ed.): ''Letters of Eugene V. Debs'', v. 2, pp. 292-293</ref> that he had "photographic copies of handwritten matters the appearance of which would seriously embarrass them,"<ref>David Levin, Stephen W. Salant, Athan Theoharis, Reply by Allen Weinstein, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 The Hiss Case: An Exchange]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> which would be made public in the event anything were to happen to him.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 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. As his replacement, Hiss urged Sayre to hire [[Soviet]] Intelligence source<ref>"Field worked for the US State Department and the League of Nations in the 1930s acting as a source for Soviet Intelligence." [http://nationalarchives.gov.uk/catalogue/displaycataloguedetails.asp?CATID=8544389&CATLN=6&accessmethod=5&j=1 Noel Haviland Field], National Archives, United Kingdom</ref> [[Noel Field]], despite his lack of experience.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 349-350</ref> Due to the fact that Field had been identified to the State Department as a member of various [[Communist|Red]] front groups starting in 1926, and as a [[Communist Party]] member the previous year,<ref>FBI Report: Whittaker Chambers, Internal Security—C, September 5, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> he did not get the appointment. After his defection behind the [[Iron Curtain]], Field would confirm to East bloc authorities that Hiss knew he was a Communist when he recommended Field as his replacement.<ref>Ethan Klingsberg, "Case Closed on Alger Hiss?" ''The Nation'', November 8, 1993</ref>

===Nazi-Soviet Pact===
[[Image:Molotov signs.jpg|thumb|300px|right|Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov signs the Nazi-Soviet Pact; Nazi Foreign Minister von Ribbentrop and Soviet dictator Josef Stalin stand behind him, Moscow, August 23, 1939. ''Image courtesy National Archives and Records Administration'']]When in the wake of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] the [[Communist Party]] organ ''The Daily Worker'' came under suspicion for reversing its anti-[[Nazi]] posturing, [[Politburo]] member Roy Hudson<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> discussed what to do about it with Soviet agent<ref>Scotland Yard (London) Secret Special Report, No. 4, "The Case of Philip Price and Robert Minor," U.S. State Department Decimal File, 316-23-1184 9, Washington, D.C.</ref> [[Robert Minor]], according to ''Daily Worker'' editor Louis Budenz. Someone mentioned that [[Nathan Witt]] and [[Lee Pressman]] could not be of much help as they, too, were under suspicion at the time. According to Budenz, Alger Hiss was then mentioned as a good Comrade who would be helpful.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30.</ref>

That year, French Premier Édouard Daladier<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150071/Edouard-Daladier Édouard Daladier]," ''The Encyclopædia Brittanica''</ref> informed Bullitt (now [[Ambassador]] to [[France]]) that two brothers named Hiss, both in the [[U.S. government]], were [[Soviet]] agents.<ref>Testimony of Ambassador William Bullitt, April 8, 1952, “Communist influence on U.S. policies in the Far East,” Hearings Before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and other Internal Security Laws of the Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952; "French in 1939 Called Hiss Red, Bullitt Says," ''Washington Post'', April 9, 1952; Jim Caldwell, “[http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm Korea - 50 years ago this week, April 4 - 10, 1952],” Army News Service, April 1, 2002</ref> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

The year before, in [[Paris]], defecting former [[GRU]] chief in [[Europe]] Walter Krivitsky<ref>Roman Brackman, ''The Secret File of Joseph Stalin: A Hidden Life'' (Florence, Ky: Routledge, 2001) ISBN 0714650501, p. 299</ref> had identified Hiss as an agent of [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]], according to Alexander Barmine,<ref>Esther Iverem, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1987/12/28/obituaries/alexander-g-barmine-88-dies-early-high-level-soviet-defector.html Alexander G. Barmine, 88, Dies; Early High-Level Soviet Defector]," ''The New York Times'', December 28, 1987</ref> former Charge d'Affairs at the [[Soviet]] [[Embassy]] in [[Athens]], who had defected in 1937.<ref>FBI Report: Alger Hiss, February 4, 1949</ref> When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin Pact]] (which Krivitsky had predicted)<ref>Julien Steinberg, ed., ''Verdict of Three Decades: From the Literature of Individual Revolt Against Soviet Communism, 1917-1950'' (Manchester, NH: Ayer Publishing, 1971) ISBN 0836920775, p. 358</ref> broke on August 23, 1939, Krivitsky warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Russian]] emigré Isaac Don Levine,<ref>[http://marbl.library.emory.edu/findingaids/content.php?id=levine700_102547 Isaac Don Levine papers, circa 1914-1978], Emory University: Manuscript, Archives & Rare Book Library</ref> "Everything that went on in the embassy, especially the major communications between [[Washington]] and Bullitt, were quickly relayed to the Soviet [[secret police]]."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, p. 191. Loy Henderson, then charge d'affaires at the [[U.S.]] Embassy in [[Moscow]], would later confirm that at that time "in the [State] Department were a number of persons who did not hesitate to give [Litvinov] copies of my secret memoranda relating to United States-Soviet relations." (Richard D. McKinzie, "[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/hendrson.htm#transcript Oral History Interview with Loy W. Henderson]," p. 22, Harry S. Truman Library)</ref> (Krivitsky would be found shot dead in his Washington hotel room in 1941.<ref>Roland Perry, ''Last of the Cold War Spies: The Life of Michael Straight—The Only American in Britain's Cambridge Spy Ring'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Da Capo Press, 2006) ISBN 030681482X, p. 131</ref> Although he had warned his friends that if he were to be found dead, then he had been [[murder]]ed,<ref>Phillip Knightley, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4159/is_20061126/ai_n16876480 Ignore the conspiracies. Spies never forgive a traitor]," ''The Independent on Sunday'', November 26, 2006</ref> his death was ruled a [[suicide]].<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref> Krivitsky had been liquidated by one of the [[NKVD]]'s Mobile Groups for Special Tasks, according to former Soviet [[espionage]] official Alexander Orlov.<ref>Alexander Orlov, ''The Secret History of Stalin’s Crimes'' (Norwich, Norfolk: Jarrold's, 1954), pp. 232-233; see also Flora Lewis, "[http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/186559502.html?dids=186559502:186559502&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:AI&fmac=&date=Feb+13%2C+1966&author=By+Flora+Lewis+Washington+Post+Staff+Writer&desc=Who+Killed+Krivitsky%3F Who Killed Krivitsky?]" ''The Washington Post'', February 13, 1966, p. E1</ref> Orlov's account is corroborated by the Nicolaevsky and Honeyman collections in the archives of the Hoover Institution.)<ref>Katya Drozdova, "[http://www.hoover.org/publications/digest/8138382.html Dark Memories]," ''Hoover Digest'', 2007, Number 3</ref>

===Chambers' meeting with Berle===
In 1938, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the [[Communist]] underground. As the joint [[Nazi]]-[[Soviet]] invasion of [[Poland]]<ref>William Fortescue, ''The Third Republic in France, 1870-1940: Conflicts and Continuities'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2000) ISBN 0415169445, p. 231</ref> was gearing up, Levine sought to get Chambers an appointment with [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], but was diverted by the [[White House]] to Assistant [[Secretary of State]] for Security Adolf Berle.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 105</ref> On September 2, 1939, Chambers told Berle of an underground apparatus of the [[Communist Party]] for employees of the [[Federal government]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] Its organizer, said Chambers, was [[Harold Ware]], its treasurer [[Henry Collins]];<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> among its members he identified [[Lee Pressman]], [[Nathan Witt]], and the brothers Alger and [[Donald Hiss]].<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>

While [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] talked, Berle took notes. Under the heading “Underground [[Espionage]] Agent,” he listed several names, including “Alger Hiss,” with the notation, “Ass’t. to Sayre—CP—1937,” and “Member of the Underground Com.—Active.”<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page100.html Adolf Berle’s Notes on his Meeting with Whittaker Chambers]</ref> In Berle's diary, the first entry after his meeting with Levine and Chambers reads:
{{cquote|Saturday night ... Isaac Don Levine ... brought a Mr. X around to my house ... Through a long evening, I slowly manipulated Mr. X to a point where he had told some of the ramifications hereabout; and it becomes necessary to take a few simple measures. I expect more of this kind of thing, later. A good deal of the [[Russian]] [[espionage]] was carried on by [[Jews]]; we know now that they are exchanging information with [[Berlin]]; and the [[Jewish]] units are furious to find out they are, in substance, working for the [[Gestapo]]...<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 55-58)</ref>}}
After Berle relayed this information to [[President]] [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]], Levine asked Berle how FDR responded. In his 1973 memoir, Levine wrote, “To the best of my recollection, the President dismissed the matter rather brusquely with an expletive remark on this order: ‘Oh, forget it, Adolf.’”<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-8</ref>

In 1940, after Levine informed Bullitt of what [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] had told him about Hiss, Bullitt relayed to Hornbeck what Daladier had told him the year before. Bullitt advised Alice Roosevelt Longworth<ref>Lawrence L. Knutson, "[http://www.salon.com/people/feature/1999/06/07/longworth/ Alice Roosevelt Longworth, wild thing]," Salon.com, June 7, 1999</ref> and de Toledano that he also took this information directly to FDR.<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>

Levine also told David Dubinsky,<ref>[http://www.dol.gov/oasam/programs/laborhall/dd.htm 1993 Honoree David Dubinsky, 1892-1982], Labor Hall of Fame Honoree, United Stated Department of Labor</ref> president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/ilgwu.htm International Ladies Garment Workers Union (1900-1995)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> about [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]]' revelations. Dubinsky, wrote Levine, "took up the Chambers matter with the [[Franklin Roosevelt|President]] at the first opportunity and was brushed off with an amiable slap on the back." Levine wrote that he also told fellow journalist Walter Winchell<ref>[http://www.radiohof.org/news/walterwinchell.html Walter Winchell], Radio Hall of Fame</ref> of "a ring of six [[Soviet]] agents operating within the [[State Department]] alone. In his broadcast of December 12, Winchell announced that he had carried my information to President Roosevelt. Still there was no action."<ref>Isaac Don Levine, ''Eyewitness To History: Memoirs and Reflections of a Foreign Correspondent for Half a Century'' (Stroud, Glos.: Hawthorn Books, 1973) ASIN B000ONBAW0, pp. 197-9</ref> Winchell's posthumously published memoir confirms Levine's story.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 331</ref>

By 1944, Hiss would be deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>Gregor Dallas, ''1945: The War that Never Ended'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300109806), p. 412</ref> In August, he organized the Dumbarton Oaks Conference,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003). Hiss even suggested the location from which the conference derives its name. (Robert C. Hilderbrand, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=BFHJMfMtiKsC Dumbarton Oaks: The Origins of the United Nations and the Search for Postwar Security]'' [Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2001] ISBN 0807849502, p. 67)</ref> where he served as executive secretary,<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> presiding over the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.<ref>[http://www.un.org/aboutun/charter/history/dumbarton.shtml Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta], History of the Charter of the United Nations (UN.org)</ref>

By 1948 Berle, ousted from the [[State Department]], would be serving as chairman of [[New York]]'s Liberal Party. 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:
{{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 the leaks stopped.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>}}
But in the wake of Dumbarton Oaks, Berle was 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 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>Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 28 (PDF p. 34)</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>}}

===Hatch Act Investigation===

In September 1940, the [[Nazi]] and [[Soviet]] armies staged a joint victory parade through the streets of occupied Brest-Litovsk, [[Poland]].<ref>Olaf Groehler, ''Selbstmorderische Allianz: Deutsch-russische Militarbeziehungen, 1920-1941'' (Berlin: Vision Verlag 1993), pp. 21-22, 123-124; Aleksandr M. Nekrich, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ZliWXGydrzAC Pariahs, Partners, Predators: German-Soviet Relations, 1922-1941]'' (Columbia University Press, 1997), both cited in Benjamin B. Fischer, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter99-00/art6.html The Katyn Controversy: Stalin's Killing Field]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter 1999–2000</ref> Hiss was at this time 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, wrote Gordievsky, was [[Akhmerov]], the leading [[NKVD]] illegal in the [[United States]],<ref>Douglas O. Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> who, in a lecture before a [[KGB]] audience, identified Hiss as a Soviet agent during [[World War II]].<ref>Christopher Andrew and Oleg Gordievsky, ''KGB: The Inside Story of Its Foreign Operations from Lenin to Gorbachev'' (New York: Harpercollins, 1990) ISBN 0060166053, p. 287</ref>

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

After Ludwig Lore identified [[Whittaker Chambers|Chambers]] as a former [[GRU]] man, the [[FBI|Bureau]] interviewed Chambers for the first time in 1942.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 340; Douglas Linder, [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hisschronology.html The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Chronology], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</ref> Chambers repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a [[Communist]]. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his meeting four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref> That year, an encrypted cable (decrypted in the [[Venona project]] and released in 1995) from Pavel B. Mikhailov (code-named "Mol'er"), who (under cover as [[Soviet]] Vice Consul in [[New York]]) was controller of military intelligence for the [[NKVD]],<ref>G. Edward White, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) ISBN 0195182553, p. 224</ref> to [[NKVD]] chief of foreign intelligence [[Pavel Fitin]] (code-named "Viktor")<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9feb_atomic_energy.pdf Venona 195 New York to Moscow 9th February 1944]</ref> in [[Moscow]], identifying the real names and code names of several agents in the [[U.S.]], said the [[GRU]] (code-named "Neighbors") reported someone "from the [[State Department]] by the name of Hiss."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf Venona 1579 New York to Moscow, 28 September 1943]</ref>

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

In April 1944, Victor Kravchenko, chief of the metals section of the [[Soviet]] Purchasing Commission in [[Washington]], defected. He released a statement warning:
{{cquote|I cannot keep silent any longer.... I can no longer support double-faced political maneuvers... toward collaboration with the [[United States]] and [[Britain]] while pursuing aims incompatible with such collaboration.
The [[Soviet]] Government has dissolved the [[Communist International]] but only in form.... The new democratic terminology is only a maneuver... to promote the inclusion of [[Communist]]s, obedient to the [[Kremlin]], in the future Governments... of Italy, Austria and other countries.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,885439,00.html The Kravchenko Case]," ''Time'', April 17, 1944. In 1966, Kravchenko would be found [http://www.americansterling.com/ASPL_Film_Defector.asp shot] to death in his Manhattan apartment. Although his [[death]] would be ruled a [[suicide]], his son Andrew maintains that he was executed by a SMERSH assassination squad.</ref>}}

===Yalta===
A State Department internal security probe of Hiss (made public in 1993)<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> ordered by Secretary of State James F. Byrnes<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> revealed that in February 1945, Hiss requested top-secret files from the [[Office of Strategic Services]] (precursor of the CIA) on British, Soviet, French and Chinese internal security policies, as well as Far East policy;<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 361-362</ref> FBI surveillance at this time found that Hiss also developed "a keen interest in atomic energy," and other matters relating to military intelligence,<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=WNp4AAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Whittaker Chambers: A Biography]'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, pp. 519; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pp. 321-322.</ref>—all of which was well outside the purview of his office.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]" johnearlhaynes.org, June 7, 2007; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 363</ref> Loy Henderson, director of the State Department Office of Near East Affairs (NEA), quietly ordered members of NEA to keep confidential materials and information from Hiss.<ref>H. W. Brands, ''Inside the Cold War: Loy Henderson and the Rise of the American Empire, 1918-1961'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991) ISBN 0-19-506707-X, pp. 297-298</ref>

On February 4, 1945,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref> Hiss accompanied [[FDR]] to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], as aide to Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius, Jr.,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> over whom Hiss exercised "Svengali-like influence," according to J. Anthony Panuch, Assistant Secretary of State for Security.<ref>Panuch to Russell, March 7, 1946, Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, Eighty-Third Congress, First Session, June 25, 1953 [http://ia311318.us.archive.org/0/items/interlockingsubv13unit/interlockingsubv13unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Part 13] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), p. 853. (Cf. Louis Francis Budenz, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IkqboMAiCkkC The Techniques of Communism]'' (New York: Ayer Publishing, 1977) ISBN 0405099428, p. 287) Dean Acheson subsequently forced Panuch, not Hiss, out of the State Department. (Subcommittee on Internal Security, Committee on the Judiciary, U. S. Senate [http://ia360635.us.archive.org/3/items/interlockingsubv1953unit/interlockingsubv1953unit_bw.pdf Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments] [Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953], pp. 9-10)</ref> Stettinius gave Hiss remarkable control over [[FDR]]'s access to information, directing that "all memoranda for the President on topics to be discussed at the Meeting of the Big Three should be in the hands of Mr. Alger Hiss not later than Monday, January 15."<ref>Rothwell to Rockefeller, January 10, 1945, United States Department of State, ''[http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/reference/frus.frus1945.i0010.pdf Foreign relations of the United States. Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945]'' (Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1945), p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0124.gif 42]. Cf. p. [http://images.library.wisc.edu/FRUS/EFacs/1945/XL/0527.gif 441] (PDF p. 445), University of Wisconsin Digital Collections</ref> Nor did Hiss' influence stop there: When Roosevelt asked the Secretary of State "to get a lawyer to consult with him over the wording of the Polish boundary statement," wrote Stettinius, "I called Alger Hiss."<ref>Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IjhQ_gsiCzwC Roosevelt and the Russians]'' (Whitefish, Mont.: Kettinger Publishing, 2005) ISBN 1419103105, p. 270</ref>

According to Sudoplatov, "One of the officials [at Yalta] we had established confidential relations with was Alger Hiss," who was "highly sympathetic to the interests of the Soviet Union."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref> According to confidential [[GRU]] sources, during the conference, Hiss gave daily briefings to General Mikhail Abramovich Milshtein, a military adviser to Stalin and the deputy director of the [[GRU]], revealing not only the American negotiating strategy but insights into the attitudes of the American negotiators.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 130</ref> Sudoplatov added:
{{cquote|In conversation, Hiss disclosed to Oumansky,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,851866,00.html Ambassador Extraordinary]," ''Time'', November 22, 1943</ref> and then Litvinov,<ref>Hugh D. Phillips, ''Between the revolution and the West: a political biography of Maxim M. Litvinov'' (New York: Westview Press, 1992) ISBN 0813310385</ref> official U.S. attitudes and plans; he was also very close to our sources who were cooperating with Soviet intelligence and to our active intelligence operators in the United States. Within this framework of exchange of confidential information were references to Hiss as the source who told us the Americans were prepared to make a deal in Europe.<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 227</ref>}}
At the conference, the U.S. ceded hegemony over Eastern Europe to Stalin and made a secret agreement giving the Soviet Union three votes in the UN to one for the U.S.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 107-109.</ref> The conference ended February 11; the next day, [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was dead.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

[[Image:Hissetal.jpg|thumb|300 px|Vishinskii (2nd from left), Molotov (5th from left), Stettinius (7th from left), Alger Hiss (right), ca. January 1945. ''Image courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf The Mystery of 'ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Vol. 51, no. 4 (2007), p. ; John F. Fox, Jr., "[http://www.fbi.gov/libref/historic/history/foxpaper.htm In the Enemy’s House: Venona and the Maturation of American Counterintelligence]," 2005 Symposium on Cryptologic History, October 27, 2005; Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54-55, 57-88, 62, 64</ref> where he was reportedly decorated with the Order of the Red Star<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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 278; Robert L. Beisner, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=D9Zb_feBUdkC Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War]''' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282; 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. 226; Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> and honored by Foreign Minister [[Vyacheslav Molotov|V.M. Molotov]].<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_47_17/ai_80900413/ Hiss defenders covering for the `old man'],” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref> On April 25, 1945, [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, reported to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,858400-1,00.html Policeman on Trial]," ''Time'', December 28, 1953</ref> that [[Harold Glasser]], a Soviet agent in the [[United States Department of the Treasury|U.S. Treasury]] code-named "Ruble," learned of the award from his friend, "Ales," a [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] agent:
{{cquote|According to data from [[Anatoly Gorsky|Vadim]] the group of agents of the [[GRU|"military" neighbors]] whose part [[Harold Glasser|Ruble]] was earlier, recently was decorated with orders of the USSR. Ruble learned about this fact from his friend Ales, who is the head of the mentioned group.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
This memo apparently refers to [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt 1822, dated March 30, 1945, in which "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> reports,<ref>The translation used here is that of [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html John R. Schindler]. Cf. Eric
Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996), pp. [http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03644.pdf H03644]-[http://bulk.resource.org/gpo.gov/record/1996/1996_H03645.pdf H03645]</ref> following up on a conversation with "Ales," that "Ales has been continuously working with the [[GRU|neighbors]] since 1935"; that for "a few years now he has been the director of a small group of probationers [agents]<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 17, 29 (PDF pp. 19, 31)</ref> of the neighbors [GRU],<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0501&week=a&msg=obaTGXSrsBmHu2ps7TI6fA&user=&pw= KGB sources and the Hiss/'Ales' dispute], H-Diplo Discussion Logs, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (Michigan State University), January 5, 2005</ref> for the most part drawn from his relatives"; that they were "working on obtaining only military information," since [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]] "allegedly are not very interested" in "materials about the Bank [United States Department of State]";<ref>"A Word About the Covernames," [http://permanent.access.gpo.gov/lps33230/www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/monographs/monograph-1.html Introductory History of VENONA and Guide to the Translations] (National Security Agency)</ref> that recently, "Ales and his whole group were awarded Soviet medals"; and that after "the Yalta conference, back in Moscow, one very high-ranking Soviet worker allegedly had contact with Ales (Ales implied that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|Vyshinskii]]) and at the request of the [[GRU|military neighbors]] he conveyed to him their thanks, etc."<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]</ref> Regarding "Ales," one FBI memo reports:
{{cquote|It would appear likely that this individual is Alger Hiss in view of the fact that he was in the State Department and the information from Chambers indicated that his wife, Priscilla, was active in Soviet espionage and he also had a brother, Donald, in the State Department. It also is to be noted that Hiss did attend the Yalta conference as a special adviser to President Roosevelt, and he would, of course, have conferred with high officials of other nations attending the conference.<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref>}}
In its unanimous final report in 1997, the bipartisan [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]] agreed regarding Ales, "This could only be Alger Hiss"<ref>[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), Appendix A, p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> Analysts at the National Security Agency have also gone on record that Ales could only have been Alger Hiss.<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> U.S. Air Force historian Eduard Mark calls the FBI and NSA's conclusions "eminently reasonable," agreeing that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original).</ref> John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, concurs, calling this identification "exceptionally solid" and the evidence "compelling."<ref>John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005</ref> John Ehrman, a foreign affairs analyst for the federal government,<ref>John Ehrman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uBEXFfOwW9IC The Eighties: America in the Age of Reagan]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2005) ISBN 0300106629, p. 299 ("About the Author")</ref> concludes, "it is clear that Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES."<ref>John Ehrman, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf 'The Mystery of ALES': Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' Vol. 51, No. 4 (December 2007), PDF p. 9</ref>

On March 15, [[Victor Perlo]] (code-named "Raid")<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page59.html Russian Archival Identification of Real Names Behind Cover Names in VENONA]," Cryptology and the Cold War:
Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, October 27, 2005</ref> 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>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]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 14. Cf. Vassiliev's White Notebook No. 3 ([http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Original.pdf original], p. 40; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Transcribed.pdf transcribed], p.78; [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Translated.pdf translated], p. 78), Cold War International History Project, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars</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 espionage agent who disclosed "much confidential material," as well as an agent of influence who sought to shape U.S. policy "in keeping with the desires of the Communist Party."<ref>[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/break45.html Memorandum of Conversation], Tuesday, March 20, 1945, Westminster, Md.</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 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 359</ref> FBI official D.M. Ladd furnished Frederick B. Lyon, Chief of the Division of Foreign Activity Correlation of the Department of State, 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>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 364</ref>

===United Nations===
[[Image:HissCountsVotes.JPG|thumb|300px|right|"Secretary General Alger Hiss counts votes of the UN Charter. June 25, 1945." ''Source: [http://zombietime.com/un60/ The United Nations' 60th Anniversary Celebration], June 25, 2005, University Club, San Francisco'']] That month, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs. Shortly thereafter, he was named Secretary-General of the upcoming [[United Nations]] Charter Conference in San Francisco. "As Secretary-General, managing the agenda," reported ''Time'', Hiss "will have a lot to say behind the scenes about who gets the breaks."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,775560,00.html Chief Clerk]," ''Time'', April 16, 1945</ref>

At the conference, "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]],<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 90</ref> then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.) wanted to meet with "Ales," according to a cable<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Vadim to Moscow Center], 5 March 1945</ref> Vassiliev discovered in the Soviet archives. His notes indicate that "Ales" had worked with "Ruble" ([[Harold Glasser]])<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005; [http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html#_ftnref5 Gorsky Report: Dec 23, 1949] (KGB file 43173 vol. 2 (v) pp. 46-55, attached to Alexander Vassiliev to Hartwig, 1 Feb 2002, in Alexander Vassiliev and Frank Cass & Co Ltd, High Court of Justice Queen's Bench Division Claim No. HQ1X03222, Amended Particulars of Claim) by David Lowenthal, checked and corrected by Dr. Svetlana A. Chervonnaya, Jury Bundle pages 303, 304 & 305 and Gorski 1, pp. 46-49 1a, pp. 46-49 and 2, p. 60, May 2, 2005</ref> as a member of a group run by "Karl" ([[Whittaker Chambers]]).<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> The cable adds that "'Ruble' gives 'Ales' an exceptionally good political reference as a member of the [[Communist Party|Comparty]].... completely aware that he is Communist in an illegal position, with all the ensuing consequences," and recommends (according to the notes) that he be approached at the UN conference by "Sergei" (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]],<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 31 (PDF p. 34)</ref> then under cover as head of the Soviet TASS news agency)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 124; "Pravdin" was actually Rolland Abbiat, murderer of Ignace Reiss. Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12, 2004</ref> or Gorsky, "alluding either to the password, or to '[[Harold Glasser|Ruble]]', or simply to 'Ales's' progressive attitudes."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page70.html 'Ales' is Still Hiss: The Wilder Foote Red Herring]," 2007 Symposium on Cryptologic History. The Center for Cryptologic History, October 19, 2007</ref>

James F. Byrnes,<ref>[http://www.nps.gov/archive/elro/glossary/byrnes-james.htm James Byrnes (1882-1972)], Eleanor Roosevelt National Historic Site, National Park Service</ref> who became [[Secretary of State]] during the conference, said that despite his categorical instructions not to recommend any U.S. citizen for posts in the UN secretariat, Hiss recommended several dozen federal employees—members of Communist cells in the government, whose jobs were at risk under a tightened security program.<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997. Cf. 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. 1072</ref> Meanwhile, Stettinius' ghost-writer at the conference was Dalton Trumbo, the Communist<ref>Victor Navasky, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=wg0ypcai-osC Naming Names]'' (New York: Macmillan, 2003) ISBN 0809001837, p. 367</ref> screen writer, who would become infamous two years later as one of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>"To Elsie McKeough," Helen Manfull, Ed., ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=uJpbAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Additional Dialogue: Letters of Dalton Trumbo, 1942-1962]'' (New York: M. Evans and Company, 1970), p. 37</ref> Press accounts attributed Trumbo's hiring to Hiss.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A p. 110; Westbrook Pegler, "[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19500703&id=SrILAAAAIBAJ&sjid=elUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1706,274693 New U.N. Building is Monument to Men Who Betrayed U.S.]," ''The Evening Independent'', July 3, 1950</ref>

In April 1945, [[Harold Glasser|Glasser]] slipped a warning to [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S., that the FBI had notified Stettinius that Bureau surveillance had followed a bundle of State Department documents from Washington to New York, where they were photographed, then returned within 24 hours to Washington. Only three people had access to these documents, one of whom was "Ales." Stettinius told "Ales": "I hope it is not you."<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 267-268</ref>

That same month, at the [[San Francisco]] conference, [[Soviet]] [[UN]] [[Ambassador]] Andrei Gromyko<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,947456,00.html Andrei Gromyko]," ''Time'', October 1, 1979</ref> nominated Hiss temporary secretary general (and thus a candidate for the first permanent Secretary General)<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, [http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=635 Harry Truman, President 1945-1953] (From ''Roosevelt to Bush: The American Presidency, Transformation and Change''), Lecture, Gresham College, London, January 29, 2008</ref> of the United Nations.<ref>Frank J. Rafalko, ed., [http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol2/Vol2Chap1.pdf "Counterintelligence in World War II, 1940-47," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 2, Ch. 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive), p. 110 (PDF p. 111)</ref> As one scholar notes, "It was astonishing for a Soviet diplomat to propose an [[American]] for what was then the [[UN]]'s highest and most sensitive diplomatic post."<ref>Stephen J. Whitfield, ''The Culture of the Cold War'' (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1996) ISBN 0801851955, p. 28</ref> In [[London]] that September, Gromyko repeated to Stettinius, now the new U.S. Ambassador to the UN, that he "would be very happy to see Alger Hiss appointed temporary secretary general."<ref>Thomas M. Campbell and George C. Herring, eds., ''The Diaries of Edward R. Stettinius, Jr., 1943-46'' (New York: New Viewpoints, 1975) ISBN 0531055701, p. 416</ref> As Weinstein notes, "The endorsement of a leading American official by the Russians remains practically unique in the annals of Soviet-American diplomacy at this time."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 361</ref> The same day Gromyko reiterated his endorsement of Hiss to Stettinius in London, Hiss proposed that the [[State Department]] create a new post, that of "special assistant for military affairs," linked to his Office of Special Political Affairs.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=M8p00bTFvRkC Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 172; Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519; Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), pp. 321-322</ref>

On June 4, 1945, six weeks after becoming [[President]], [[Harry Truman]] was briefed about [[Venona project|Venona]], according to former National Security Agency officer Oliver Kirby, deputy director of the [[Russian]] code-breaking project.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 147</ref> Based on notes Kirby made at the time, Jerrold Schecter, former National Security Council spokesman for the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, reported that Brig. Gen. Carter Clarke, chief of the Army Security Agency (precursor of the [[NSA]]), advised President Truman that the code-breakers were decrypting messages that revealed massive [[Soviet]] intelligence operations in the [[United States]], though it was too early to identify operatives or operations.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 110</ref> According to Kirby, Clarke described this meeting as "NDG" (no damn good),<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> the president telling the general that his account of code-breaking sounded "like a fairy story."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref> On June 26, The UN Charter was signed in San Francisco.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/whistlestop/study_collections/coldwar/index.php?action=chrono Ideological Foundations of the Cold War], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Administration</ref>

Two days later, State Department liaison Lt. [[Andrew Roth]] of the Office of Naval Intelligence was arrested in the ''[[Amerasia]]'' spy case. [[Communist Party]] General Secretary [[Eugene Dennis]] told Communist Party National Committee member Jack Stachel<ref>Harvey Klehr, John Earl Haynes, and Kirill Mikhaĭlovich Anderson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=nHKvFVnBLGYC The Soviet World of American Communism]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300071507, p. 45</ref> that Roth suggested that Alger Hiss might be used to quash the case, according to former [[CPUSA]] Politburo member Louis Budenz.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44), p. 30. See also FBI Report: (REDACTED), Security Matter—C, June 8, 1950, p. 9 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR29.pdf FBI file: Institute of Pacific Relations, Vol 29], PDF p. 16)</ref>

==Defections and Investigations==
===Igor Gouzenko===
[[Image:StetHiss.jpg|thumb|300 px|Stettinius (foreground left) with Alger Hiss (center), ca. January 1945. ''Courtesy Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, National Archives and Records Administration'']]Two days before Hiss proposed the creation of a "special assistant for military affairs," [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] had defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché told him that he had learned in Moscow prior to his departure in May 1945 that an assistant to then U.S. Secretary of State Edward R. Stettinius was a Soviet spy.<ref>Amy W. Knight, ''How the Cold War Began: The Igor Gouzenko Affair and the Hunt for Soviet Spies'' (New York: Carroll & Graf Publishers, 2006) ISBN 0786718161, p. 33; FBI letter: Hoover to Lyon, September 24, 1945, p. 5 (CIA file: Igor Gouzenko), reprinted in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 67</ref> Stettinius' aide at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref> Following up on Gouzenko's revelations, Raymond Murphy of the State Department again interviewed Chambers, who repeated that Hiss' assignment was "to mess up policy."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

Canadian Prime Minister [[William Lyon Mackenzie King]] wrote that acting under-secretary of state for external affairs Robertson told him that Gouzenko’s documents disclosed that “everything was much worse than we would have believed…. Stettinius [had] been surrounded by spies, etc….”<ref>[http://hrsbstaff.ednet.ns.ca/smileymi/Global%20History%2012/a_short_essay_on_the_cold_war.htm William Lyon Mackenzie King, diary entry for September 7, 1945]. "Mr. Smiley's World of Social Studies and English Page" (Halifax Regional School Board Teacher Webspace)</ref>

On September 25, Walter Winchell again broached the subject on his broadcast, reporting, "It can be categorically stated that the question of the loyalty and integrity of one high American official has been called to the attention of the President." Weinstein calls this "a clear reference to Hiss," adding that Winchell was FBI Director [[J. Edgar Hoover]]'s "most intimate journalistic confidante."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 366</ref>

===Elizabeth Bentley===
On November 27, the FBI disseminated a secret report to the State Department, the Attorney General, and the Truman White House, reporting Chambers' identification of Hiss as a secret member of the Communist underground apparatus in contact with the Ware group.<ref>FBI Report: Soviet Espionage Activities in the United States Between World War I and World War II, November 27, 1945, p. 13</ref> Three days later, defecting Soviet courier [[Elizabeth Bentley]] advised FBI investigators that [[Victor Perlo]] told her that [[Harold Glasser]] had been taken away from the “Perlo Group” and turned over to a Russian “by some American in some governmental agency in Washington.”

Bentley's unlikely account was corroborated by the previously-cited April 25, 1945 memo from [[Pavel Fitin]], head of [[NKVD]] foreign intelligence, to NKVD Chief Vsevolod Merkulov, noting that Glasser had worked for both the [[NKVD]] and [[GRU]]:
{{cquote|Our agent RUBLE, drawn to work for the Soviet Union in May 1937, passed initially through the [[GRU|military "neighbors"]] and then through our station ([[NKVD]]) valuable information on political and economic issues.<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, pp. 268-269; 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. 226</ref>}}
Bentley said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [[Lee Pressman]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html The Road Back]," ''Time'', September 4, 1950</ref> and [[Nathaniel Weyl]]<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness]," ''Time'', March 3, 1952</ref> as a member of the [[Ware group]]) told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> She said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''The FBI-KGB War: A Special Agent's Story'' (Atlanta: Mercer University Press, 1995) ISBN 0865544778, p. 296</ref> asked her who Hiss was, she clipped an article in which Hiss was mentioned from the New York daily ''PM'', whose Washington correspondent, [[I.F. Stone]], was (according to Oleg Kalugin, former head of KGB operations in the United States) a [[fellow traveller|fellow traveler]]<ref>Oleg Kalugin and Fen Montaigne, ''The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence & Espionage Against the West'' (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company, 1994), ISBN 0788151118, p. 74. As Stone put it, "In a way, I was half a Jeffersonian and half a Marxist. I never saw a contradiction between the two, and I still don't." (''The Nation'', July 10, 1989, cited in L. Brent Baker and Tim Graham, eds., "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/notablequotables/1989/nq19890710.asp Notable Quotables]," Media Research Center, July 10, 1989)</ref> who cooperated with Soviet intelligence<ref>Paul Berman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Berman.t.html?fta=y&pagewanted=all The Watchdog]," ''The New York Times'', October 1, 2006</ref> as an "agent of influence."<ref>Myra MacPherson, '''All Governments Lie': The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone'' (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2006) ISBN 0684807130, p. 327. MacPherson goes on to quote Kalugin explaining that such agents "could shape public opinion, manipulate public opinion," and that Stone "was willing to perform tasks." Stone was identified in the Venona project with the code name "Blin" (Pancake) ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_ny_moscow.pdf Index of Cover Names, New York-Moscow Communications], p. 10), an identification confirmed by a 13 April 1936 KGB New York station report. The following month, the station reported that "Relations with 'Pancake' have entered 'the channel of normal operational work,'" meaning that Stone had become a "fully active agent." [Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewpdf.cfm?article_id=15120 I.F. Stone, Soviet Agent—Case Closed]," ''Commentary''; Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, p. 150] Stone also met with "Sergei" ([http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/23oct_stone_fears_fbi.pdf 1506 KGB New York to Moscow, 23 October 1944]) (NKVD agent [[Vladimir Pravdin]], (Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] [Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History], p. 31 [PDF p. 34]), who, under cover as head of the Soviet government news agency TASS (Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' [New York: Basic Books, 2000], ISBN 046500312, p. 124), was actually Roland Abbiat (Harvey Klehr, "[http://www.powells.com/review/2004_02_12.html Devils in America]," ''The New Republic'', February 12th, 2004), murderer of Ignace Reiss. (Walter Krivitsky, ''[http://ia331309.us.archive.org/3/items/instalinssecrets008248mbp/instalinssecrets008248mbp.pdf In Stalin's Secret Service]'' [New York: Harper & Brothers, 1939], pp. 261-263 [PDF 285-287])</ref> Bentley said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene [sic] Hiss and that he was an adviser to [[Dean Acheson]] in the State Department.”<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 108 (PDF p. 119)]</ref> This was consistent with the above-cited March 5, 1945 cable,<ref>Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"</ref> in which Gorsky reports: "‘Ales’ and ‘Ruble’ [Harold Glasser]<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/undated/kgb_wash_moscow.pdf Index of KGB Covernames: Washington-Moscow Communications], p. 3 (National Security Agency)</ref> used to work in ‘Karl’s’ [Whittaker Chambers]<ref>[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref> informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors [GRU]."<ref>Robert L. Benson, [http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/coldwar/venona_story.pdf The Venona Story] (Ft. George G. Meade. MD: National Security Agency Center for Cryptologic History), p. 29 (PDF p. 31)</ref> Before the end of 1945, a State Department Security memorandum summarized:
[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Алджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “Gorsky memo.” ''Image courtesy John Earl Haynes, Library of Congress'']]{{cquote|Bentley advised that members of this group had told her that Hiss of the State Department had taken Harold Glasser of the Treasury Department, and 2 or 3 others, and had turned them over to direct control by the Soviet representatives in this country. In this regard, attention is directed to Whittaker Chambers' statement regarding Alger Hiss and to the statement by Gouzenko, regarding an assistant to the Secretary of State who was a Soviet agent.<ref>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] (Washington: U. S. Government Printing Office, 1953), Vol. 16, p. 1072 (PDF p. 12)</ref>}}

Three years later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] memorandum, in which he would list 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities by Bentley after her defection. Included on the list was Alger Hiss.<ref>Alexander Vassiliev, [http://www.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Black%20Notebook%20Translated1.pdf Black Notebook] (tr. Philip Redko), p. 77; cf. [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-hoac&month=0503&week=b&msg=ycrsVT7M1e2L9EECiLFskg&user=&pw= Alexander Vassiliev's Notes on Anatoly Gorsky's December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks], Tr. Ronald Bachman and Harold Leich, assisted by John Earl Haynes, H-HOAC (Historians of American Communism) Discussion List, H-Net Discussion Networks (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), March 14, 2005</ref>

===Investigations===
On February 9, 1946, [[Stalin]] declared that war was inevitable as long as [[capitalism]] existed, in a speech regarded by some as the open declaration of [[Cold War]].<ref>Walter LaFeber, ''America, Russia, and the Cold War: 1945-1984'' (New York: Knopf, 1985) ISBN 0394343913, p. 38</ref> Two days later, ex-[[Communist]] Benjamin Mandel, former manager of the ''Daily Worker'',<ref>Conrad Black, ''Richard M. Nixon: A Life in Full'' (Jackson, Tenn.: PublicAffairs, 2008), ISBN 1586486748, p. 93</ref> identified Alger Hiss to the [[FBI]] as "a [[Communist Party]] member," and one of a "high level group of [[government]] employees who would not be found openly connected with the Party or with any Front organizations and who were specifically instructed not to display such connections."<ref>FBI memo: Hottel to Hoover, February 11, 1946, pp. [http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page55.pdf 2]-[http://education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster042_Folder/Silvermaster042_page56.pdf 3] ([http://education-research.org/CSR/Holdings/Silvermaster/Silvermaster.htm FBI file: Silvermaster], [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster042.pdf Vol. 42], pp. 55-56)</ref> The Bureau again interviewed Hiss, who denied ever being a Communist, and denied knowledge of any of his friends being Communists. He did, however, add that he had heard it said that [[Lee Pressman]] was either a Party member or followed the Party line.<ref>[http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page121.pdf FBI Report: Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government, p. 110 (PDF p. 121)]</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, ''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. Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 139; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 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 nothing to do with his work as director of the Office of Special Political Affairs.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>

State Department security officers discovered that Hiss' desk calendar for September 14, 1946, recorded a meeting Hiss did not schedule through the department (and for which he made no official record) with "McLean [sic], British Emb."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 363-364</ref> Donald Maclean<ref>[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald.html Donald Maclean], The Spy Museum</ref> was a diplomat at the British Embassy in Washington who was also a [[Soviet]] agent<ref>Statement of Vladimir Petrov (defected from Soviet Embassy, Canberra, 1954), [http://ia341032.us.archive.org/0/items/scopeofsovietact2730unit/scopeofsovietact2730unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States]," Subcommittee To Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, June 6, 1956, p. 1521 (PDF p. 79)</ref> and member of the [[Cambridge Five|Cambridge spy ring]]. He would defect in 1951 to the [[Soviet Union]],<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/355048/Donald-Maclean Donald Maclean]," ''The Encyclopedia Britannica'', 2008</ref> where he would be rewarded with the rank of Colonel in the KGB.<ref>"[http://www.spymuseum.com/pages/agent-maclean-donald3.html Agent: Maclean, D.]," The Spy Museum</ref> Another member of that ring, [[Kim Philby]], would likewise defect to [[Moscow]], later writing in his memoir, "it was also the era of Hiss, [[Judith Coplon|Coplon]],<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol47no2_2003/article09.html The Judith Coplon Story]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', vol. 47, no. 2, 2003; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/8jan_judith_coplon.pdf 27 New York to Moscow 8 January 1945]</ref> [[Klaus Fuchs|Fuchs]],<ref>[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/bomb/filmmore/reference/primary/fuchsstatement.html Fuchs' confession], "Race for the Bomb" ''The American Experience'' (PBS); [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/15jun_departure_agent_rest.pdf 850 New York to Moscow, 15 June 1944]; </ref> [[Harry Gold|Gold]],<ref>Greg Barker, Director, "[http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/deep/kgb_deep_bios_detail.htm#Gold The Red Files: Secrets of the Russian Archives Revealed]," PBS, 1999
ISBN 0-7806-2796-2; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/16nov_klaus_fuchs_harry_gold.pdf 1606(a) New York to Moscow 16 November 1944]</ref> [[David Greenglass|Greenglass]],<ref>Rebecca Leung, "[http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/14/60II/main563126.shtml The Traitor: David Greenglass Testified Against His Own Sister], CBS News, July 16, 2003</ref> and the brave [[Julius Rosenberg|Rosenbergs]]<ref>Ronald Radosh and Joyce Milton, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QpKjGSHAcaYC The Rosenberg File]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1997) ISBN 0300072058, pp. 53-58; [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/21sep_recruitment_by_rosenbergs.pdf 1340 New York to Moscow 21 September 1944]</ref>—not to mention others who are still nameless."<ref>Kim Philby, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=duU2kp3RS0gC My Silent War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2002) ISBN 0375759832, p. 150</ref> Such praise from a Soviet master spy is "suggestive," writes Weinstein, that Philby "evidently either knew or believed" that Hiss was a fellow agent.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 360, footnote</ref>

That year, over strenuous objections on national-security grounds from the State Department's Office of American Republics Affairs (and the government of Panama), Hiss submitted (with the approval of Acting Secretary of State Dean Acheson) to the United Nations the annual report of the Governor of Panama to the War Department, a propaganda coup for the Soviets.<ref>Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, U.S. Senate, [http://www.archive.org/download/interlockingsubv1920unit/interlockingsubv1920unit_bw.pdf Interlocking subversion in Government Departments] (Washington: Government Printing Office, 1953), Part 19-20, 1357-66 (PDF pp. 17-26)</ref>

Secretary of State James Byrnes told the FBI he would have fired Hiss, but for the mandatory Civil Service Commission hearing, which would have revealed confidential sources on the case.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 43</ref> In November 1946, the Bureau disseminated to the State Department, Attorney General and Truman White House a second secret report, this time reporting Bentley's allegations regarding "Eugene Hiss," suggesting that this might actually be a reference to Alger Hiss.<ref>FBI Report: [http://ultra-secret.info/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page120.pdf Underground Soviet Espionage Organization (NKVD) in Agencies of the United States Government], November 21, 1946, p. 109 (PDF p. 120)</ref> FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover asked President Harry S. Truman for permission to take action against Hiss, but Truman (according to former chief of [[CIA]] [[Soviet]] bloc counterintelligence)<ref>[http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games], Yale University Press</ref> remained "stubbornly antagonistic" to the allegations.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref>

After a 1946 grand jury began looking into Soviet espionage, Congress took an interest in Hiss, finally forcing the State Department to remove him from access to secrets.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> In January, 1947, Byrnes quietly eased Hiss out of the State Department.<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon]," FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref> Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, serving also as a trustee on the [[Institute of Pacific Relations]].<ref>Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, [[SISS]] report (July 30, 1953), pp. 8-10.</ref>

== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==
Following up on testimony given by [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]], on August 3, 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He repeated under oath what he had been telling State Department security officials and the FBI about the [[Ware group]] for a decade.<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> When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>Anatoli Sudoplatov, Pavel Sudoplatov, Leona P. Schecter and Jerrold L. Schecter, ''Special Tasks'' (New York: Back Bay Books, 1995) ISBN 0316821152, p. 228</ref>

Two days later, Hiss testified, denying that he ever even knew Chambers, in a statement Secretary of State [[Dean Acheson]] helped write.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 17</ref> Hiss "asked the committee to disregard the evidence and follow its emotions:
{{cquote|it is ''inconceivable'' that there could have been on my part, during fifteen years or more in public office… any departure from the highest rectitude<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,859675,00.html Publican & Pharisee]," ''Time'', May. 26, 1952</ref> without its becoming known.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811892.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref> It is ''inconceivable'' that the men with whom I was intimately associated during those fifteen years should not know my true character better than this accuser. It is ''inconceivable'' that… [etc.]<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 274</ref> (emphases in original)}}
That day, President Truman finally reviewed Hiss’ FBI file. Pronouncing Hiss “guilty as hell,” Truman told White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring”<ref>Alonzo L. Hamby, ''Man of the People: A Life of Harry S. Truman'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998) ISBN 0195124979, p. 453; "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,819396,00.html Off the Record]," ''Time'', January 18, 1954; See also [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/22.gif (Harry S. Truman) to the Attorney General, 16 December 1948], Harry S. Truman Library, Tom Clark Papers, "Attorney General-- White House/President, 1948," box 83, reprinted (as Document 22) in Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/14.gif Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), p. 119</ref> (a characterization he would repeat as late as 1956).<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,893525,00.html The Old Familiar Fish]," ''Time'', September 17, 1956</ref> When Rosenman later asked why he had lied, Truman explained, “You don't understand. The Republicans aren't after Alger Hiss. They're after me. I had to take the political view.”<ref>Ralph de Toledano, “[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref> (That year, referring to Venona,<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 148</ref> Truman told Secretary of Defense James Forrestal there were "too many unknowns" in the partially decoded Soviet messages,<ref>Robert D. Novak, "[http://hnn.us/articles/1706.html Did Truman Know About Venona?]" ''The Weekly Standard'', June 2003</ref> saying, "Even if part of this is true, it would open up the whole red panic again.")<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004. The next year, Forrestal would be found dead from a fall from the tower of Bethesda Naval Hospital. (Admiral M.D. Willcutts, [http://www.princeton.edu/~mudd/finding_aids/willcutts/report1.pdf Report on the Death of James V. Forrestal] [Seeley G. Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University], PDF p. 22)</ref>

So strong was Hiss' denial that the committee wanted to drop the investigation.<ref>[http://www.usembassy.ru/files/All%20the%20President's%20Men.pdf American Values through Film] (English Language Office, Public Affairs section, U.S. Embassy, Moscow), p. 81 (PDF p. 82)</ref> But one member, freshman Congressman [[Richard M. Nixon]] (R-Calif.) insisted that either Chambers or Hiss was lying about whether they had known one another,<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissaccount.html The Alger Hiss Trials: A Commentary]," The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50. Famous Trials (University of Missouri at Kansas City School of Law)</ref> and he asked the committee to appoint him to head a subcommittee to find out which one.<ref>"[http://www.departments.dsu.edu/LIBRARY/archive/unamerican.htm House Un-American Activities Committee]," Mundt Archives (Dakota State University); Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, pp. 15-16</ref>

On August 16, Chambers offered to take a lie-detector test.<ref>Robert G. Whalen, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-strange.html Hiss and Chambers: Strange Story of Two Men]," ''The New York Times'', December 12, 1948</ref> Hiss refused (a refusal he kept up for the rest of his life),<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,799060,00.html The Confrontation]," ''Time'', August 30, 1948</ref> but he dared<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> Chambers to repeat his charges outside of the immunity afforded in congressional hearings, so Hiss could sue him. In her newspaper column that day, Eleanor Roosevelt set the tone of respectable opinion, writing, "Smearing good people like [[Lauchlin Currie]], Alger Hiss and others is, I think, unforgivable .... Anyone knowing Mr. Currie or Mr. Hiss, who are the two people whom I happen to know fairly well, would not need any denial on their part to know they are not Communists. Their records prove it."<ref>Eleanor Roosevelt, ''Washington Daily News'', August 16th, 1948</ref> (Currie was the NKVD agent<ref>Robert J. Hanyok, ''[http://www.nsa.gov/about/_files/cryptologic_heritage/publications/wwii/eavesdropping.pdf Eavesdropping on Hell: Historical Guide to Western Communications Intelligence and the Holocaust, 1939-1945]'' (Center for Cryptologic History, National Security Agency, 2005), pp. 118-119 (PDF p. 123-124), n. 185; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 146</ref> in the White House<ref>[http://www.ncix.gov/issues/CI_Reader/Vol3/Vol3Chap1.pdf "Cold War Counterintelligence," ''A Counterintelligence Reader: An American Revolution Into the New Millennium'', Vol. 3, Chapter 1] (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive) pp. 30-31 (PDF pp. 29-30); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 167</ref> who tipped the Kremlin off in 1944 that the U.S. was on the verge of breaking the Soviet code.)<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB'' (New York: Basic Books, 2000), ISBN 046500312, p. 130; Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., ''[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/preface.htm Venona: Soviet Espionage and The American Response]'' (Washington: National Security Agency, Central Intelligence Agency, 1996), pp. xiv, xxiv; FBI memo: Belmont to Boardman, February 1, 1956, p. 9 ([http://foia.fbi.gov/venona/venona.pdf FBI file: Venona], p. 71) Currie admitted to the FBI that he knew Hiss. (FBI report: Institute of Pacific Relations, April 7, 1950. FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR06.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 6], p. 36 [PDF p. 31])</ref>

The next day, Truman aide George Elsie wrote to White House Counsel [[Clark Clifford]], "Justice should make every effort to ascertain if Whittaker Chambers is guilty of perjury." No suggestion was made that Justice make any effort at all to ascertain if Hiss might be guilty of perjury, but a handwritten insertion advised "Investigation of Chambers' confinement in a mental institution."<ref>George M. Elsey, [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/venona-soviet-espionage-and-the-american-response-1939-1957/21.gif Memorandum for Mr. Clifford], 16 August 1948, Harry S. Truman Library, Clark M. Clifford Papers, "Loyalty Investigations," box 11</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss' mental health history might be subject to investigation.) In falling for the fiction that Chambers had been committed to an insane asylum, the Truman administration was "taken in by disinformation being spread by the American Communist party and Alger Hiss's partisans."<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 15</ref>

On August 27, on NBC's ''Meet the Press,'' Chambers called Hiss' bluff, saying, "Alger Hiss was a Communist and may be now."<ref>[http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17982730/page/5/ Meet the Press Transcript for April 8, 2007, p. 5]</ref> Embarrassment mounted among Hiss' supporters as a month dragged by and still no suit was filed. Even the ''Washington Post'' began to have doubts.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 162</ref> Finally, on September 28, Hiss filed his long-threatened slander suit against Chambers.

==Hiss' suit against Chambers==
===The Baltimore Documents===
In a pre-trial "discovery" deposition for the suit, Hiss's attorneys told Chambers to produce "any correspondence, either typewritten or in handwriting" from Hiss. Chambers retrieved the packet he had given his wife's nephew in 1938, which had been hidden in a dumbwaiter shaft.<ref>"Three Rings," ''Time'', December 20, 1948</ref> Three days later, Chambers turned over to Hiss' attorneys 43 typewritten documents (65 pages) and five handwritten memoranda, some so sensitive that for security reasons they could not safely be made public, though already a decade old.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> Hiss conceded that the typed pages appeared to be copies of authentic State Department documents, and admitted that four of the handwritten memos appeared to be in his handwriting.<ref>FBI "By Special Messenger": SAC, Washington Field to Hoover, December 1, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref>

Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas J. Donegan told the FBI that Assistant Attorney General Alexander M. Campbell, head of the Criminal Division at Truman Justice, “now wants to institute perjury charges against Chambers” for not revealing the documents before this. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover's handwritten addendum comments, “I wonder why they don't move against Hiss also.”<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, November 23, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 1)</ref> The Truman administration's determination to indict Chambers rather than Hiss was unusual, as two leading scholars of the case note:
{{cquote|Usually … when a witness gives false testimony and then later comes forward and provides a truthful account, no perjury charge is brought. To charge perjury … in such a case would be a disincentive for a witness to provide a subsequent truthful account…. [A] perjury count is rarely brought if a witness corrects false testimony in a timely fashion…. Chambers corrected his false sworn testimony within two months of his grand jury testimony ... and his false testimony had not produced any miscarriage of justice.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384, p. 108</ref>}}

===The Pumpkin Papers===
[[Image:1626 Page1.jpg|thumb|300px|right|One of the 'pumpkin papers,' marked 'STRICTLY CONFIDENTIAL FOR THE SECRETARY.' Bullitt relates to Hull report of Litvinov's private comments on Soviet intentions regarding war with Japan, 1938. ''Image courtesy [http://www.digitalvaults.org/#/detail/1625/?record=1625 National Archives and Records Administration]'']]
On December 2, in response to a subpoena, Chambers led HUAC investigators on his Maryland farm to a pumpkin he had hollowed out the night before and in which he had secreted five rolls (two developed strips and three undeveloped rolls, one of which later proved to have been lightstruck)<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> of 35 milimeter film.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,917670,00.html The Pumpkin Papers], ''Time'', August 11, 1975</ref> The film included fifty-eight frames, mostly photos of State and Navy Department documents, dated January 5 through April 1, 1938 (the so-called "Pumpkin Papers"). The State Department documents dealt with a wide variety of subjects, including U.S. intentions with respect to the Soviet Union, the Spanish Civil War, and Germany's takeover of Austria.<ref>Doulglas O. Linder, “[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/pumpkinp.html The Pumpkin Papers: Key Evidence in the Alger Hiss Trials],” Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> Some of the documents on the film were initialed by Hiss and came from his office.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref> Some were of a highly sensitive, classified nature.<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/7.html The Pumpkin Papers],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Some State Department cables bearing Hiss' handwritten initials had direct bearing on matters of major Soviet interest, including Chinese Communist strategy during the war with Japan and Chinese-Soviet relations.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Early Cold War Spies: The Espionage Trials that Shaped American Politics'' (Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 2006) ISBN 0521857384), p. 116</ref>

According to Chambers, some of the microfilm was made by a contact he knew only as "Felix," who would photograph documents with a Leica purchased by the Communist underground. For such work, said Chambers, Felix had been trained in Moscow, where he traveled on a forged U.S. passport. In 1949 Chambers would lead FBI investigators to the Baltimore block in which he thought Felix had lived in the 1930s. The Bureau discovered that a Felix Inslerman had lived on the block, later moving to Schenectady, N.Y., where he worked on a secret guided-missile project, in 1946 becoming one of the few civilians to attend the atomic tests at Bikini.

Both before the grand jury and in the second Hiss trial, Inslerman would refuse to answer questions on grounds of potential self-incrimination. But in Inslerman's Schenectady home, the FBI found a Leica whose imperfections matched the scratch marks on Chambers' famed pumpkin film. In 1954, Inslerman would corroborate Chambers' story under oath.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,819479,00.html New Witness]," ''Time'', March 1, 1954</ref>

The day Chambers revealed the "pumpkin papers," on an FBI memorandum detailing the perjury investigation of Chambers ordered by Truman Justice, Hoover penned, "I can't understand why such effort is being made to indict Chambers to the exclusion of Hiss."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 2, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref> As late as December 6, Truman Justice was still contemplating "bringing an indictment against Chambers for perjury."<ref>FBI memorandum: Fletcher to Ladd, December 6, 1948 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 2)</ref>

On that day, Hiss's attorney Edward McLean gave the defense's documents examiner, J. Howard Haring, a batch of old Hiss family letters that Hiss had given him the previous September, two months before Chambers produced the documents. Immediately identifying the typeface as that of a Woodstock typewriter, Haring reported that one of Mrs. Hiss's 1933 letters "was typed on the same machine as the Chambers documents." McLean informed the Hisses of this finding the same day. The next day, according to another of Hiss' lawyers, John F. Davis: "Alger ... asked [me to] check on an old machine which he remembers he gave to Pat, the son of Claudia Catlett...." Yet Hiss continued to swear under oath that he remembered neither the make nor disposition of the typewriter.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Hiss would later change his story, testifying that he gave the typewriter to the Catletts in 1937, before the date of the documents produced by Chambers. Pat Catlett, however, would tell defense lawyers that Hiss gave the Catletts the typewriter in the spring of 1938, just after the dates of the documents.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref>

On December 13, the FBI independently located specimens of Priscilla Hiss's typing from the 1930s. The FBI laboratory concluded, like Haring, that all the papers in question had been typed on the same typewriter, a Woodstock.<ref>"[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8841 Reply by Allen Weinstein, The Hiss Case: An Exchange,"] ''The New York Review of Books,'' Volume 23, Number 9 (May 27, 1976)</ref>

Another defense expert, Harry E. Cassidy, concluded that Priscilla Hiss not only typed the Chambers documents, but wrote all the handwritten corrections on the typed documents. Asked by Hiss's attorneys whether it was more likely that Hiss or Chambers had written these corrections, Haring responded: "I am inclined to the opinion that the AH [Alger Hiss] corrections more closely resemble the QUESTIONED writing, than do the writings of WC [Whittaker Chambers]." A third defense expert, Edwin Fearon, agreed, reporting to the Hiss lawyers: "The corrections appearing in Exhibits 5-47 inclusive (exception—Exhibit 10) bear a closer resemblence [sic] to the handwritten corrections made by AH than to those made by WC." Fearon added that all but one of the documents were "typed on Woodstock typewriter no.N230099"—the Hiss' machine.<ref>[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/8747 Reply by Allen Weinstein, "The Hiss Case: Another Exchange!"] ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 23, No. 14 (September 16, 1976)</ref>

On December 15, Alger Hiss proposed to the grand jury a theory that someone (perhaps Chambers)<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 270</ref> had sneaked into the State Department and stolen the documents from his desk<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 178, 253, 257, 299, 397</ref> then, having somehow obtained access to Hiss' typewriter,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 298, 300</ref> typed some of the documents on it<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', pp. 281, 298</ref> and microfilmed others, and then sneaked back into the State Department and replaced the originals,<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 254</ref> all in an elaborate plot to frame Hiss<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> a decade later.<ref>Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 281</ref> Even Hiss admitted that his theory was "fantastic,"<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 299</ref> stating, "Until the day I die, I shall wonder how Whittaker Chambers got into my house to use my typewriter," a statement provoking outright laughter among jurors.<ref> Weinstein, ''Perjury'', p. 300</ref>

Hiss testified that he never gave any documents to Whittaker Chambers, and that he had no contact with Chambers after January 1, 1937. The grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury, charging that he lied under oath in both these statements. Because the statute of limitations had expired, the grand jury could not consider espionage charges.

Since Chambers had gained the upper hand by voluntarily waiving immunity from slander, ex-[[Socialist]]<ref>"Joined the Harvard Socialist Club and later became president... Elected to Executive Committee, Intercollegiate Socialist Society... Joined the Socialist Party, New York County, and the Socialist Press Club of New York City." [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9034000C.rtf Walter Lippmann Papers. Part 4: Early Papers, 1904-1920 (Reels 164-170)]: Chronology. Manuscript and Archives Division, Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University; Neil Smith ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=quAgnHLkKm8C American Empire: Roosevelt's Geographer and the Prelude to Globalization]'' (Berkeley, Calif.: University of California Press, 2004) ISBN 0520243382, p. 120; cf. ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=2v9aAAAAMAAJ The Intercollegiate Socialist]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Intercollegiate Socialist Society, 1918), p. 36. Even after ending his formal membership, Lippmann remained a loyal fellow-traveler: In the midst of the Nazi-Soviet Pact, "WJL" (Walter J. Lippmann) wrote to "ECC" (Edward C. Carter, head of the American Russian Institute and [[Institute of Pacific Relations]]), urging "cooperation with the European revolutionaries and the Soviet Union in their attempt to build a socialist Europe as a nucleus for a world socialist order, with the obvious corollary of the establishment of socialism in this country." Walter Lippmann to Edward C. Carter, June 10, 1940, p. 5 (PDF p. 100), FBI file: [http://education-research.org/PDFs/IPR54.11.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations, Section 54, Part 11], pp. 96-101.</ref> and [[Soviet]] intelligence source<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/9sep_lippman_views_churchill_roosevelt.pdf 1289 New York to Moscow], September 9, 1944. According to Eric Alterman, a columnist and [http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation blogger] for ''The Nation'', Lippmann "offered much more useful information to the Soviets than [I.F.] Stone ever did." (Eric Alterman, "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=stone_cold_untruths Stone Cold Untruths]," ''The American Prospect'', October 3, 2006)</ref> Walter Lippman (whose secretary, [[Mary Price]], was a Soviet agent)<ref>[http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/8jun_dir_courier.pdf 868 KGB New York to Moscow, 8 June 1943]. Cf. [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1944/29apr_recruits.pdf 588 New York to Moscow, 29 April 1944]. See also [http://ia311343.us.archive.org/2/items/instituteofpacif02unit/instituteofpacif02unit_bw.pdf Institute of Pacific Relations Hearings, Part 2], Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, 82nd Cong., 1st Sess., August 9, 14, 16, 20, 22, and 23, 1951 (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1951), p. 406; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 439 and John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 99</ref> suggested that Hiss turn the tables by waiving the statute of limitations on espionage. Hiss never took him up on that suggestion.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 384</ref>

==The Trials==
On May 31, 1949, Alger Hiss went on trial for perjury in New York City.<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> At trial, Hiss provided an all-star cast of character witnesses, including such notables as [[Adlai Stevenson]], Justice [[Felix Frankfurter]], and former Democratic presidential candidate John W. Davis.<ref>[http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=D000121 Davis, John W. (1873-1955)], Biographical Directory of the United States Congress, 1774-Present</ref> However, both Under Secretary Welles and Sayre testified that delivering the classifed documents to a foreign power would enable them to break America's most secret codes.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A pp. 221-223.</ref>

At Hiss’ first perjury trial, Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss was a Communist fellow-traveler, but he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. 235</ref> At the second trial, Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that Hiss was a Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, ''[http://www.americandeception.com/index.php?action=downloadpdf&photo=/PDFsml_AD/Seeds_Of_Treason-Ralph_de_Toledano_and_Victor_Lasky-1950-278pgs-POL.sml.pdf&id=343&PHPSESSID=b964065077a1de19538c4c7b1cf9e825 Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy]'', (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, pp. 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had recommended Hiss for the Carnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him that Hiss was a Communist.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,806501-1,00.html The Alger Hiss Issue]," ''Time'', November 3, 1952</ref>

The prosecution called [[Hede Massing]], but at the first trial Judge Samuel H. Kaufman ruled that her testimony was irrelevant. At the second trial, Judge Henry W. Goddard allowed her to testify about Hiss' 1935 attempt to get [[Noel Field]] to transfer from her [[OGPU]] group to Hiss' [[GRU]] group.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,855041,00.html Woman with a Past]," ''Time'', December 19, 1949</ref> To avoid testifying, Field fled to the East bloc.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0CE3DE143BF936A25753C1A965958260 Hiss Case 'Smoking Gun'?]" ''The New York Times'', October 15, 1993</ref>

Hiss's friend and former colleague, Charles Wyzanski, Senior District Judge of the U.S. District Court in Boston, testified in both trials in defense of Hiss. Wyzanski, who "initially had supposed [Hiss] innocent," later concluded that "Hiss was guilty," as did Hiss' own attorney, William L. Marbury.<ref>Charles E. Wyzanski, Jr., to Francis Russell, March 31, 1986. Francis Russell Papers, Boston Athenaeum. Cited in Richard Newby, [http://www.historycooperative.org/journals/jah/87.1/letters.html Letters to the Editor], ''Journal of American History'', Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000)</ref>

== Conviction ==
The first trial ended June 8, 1949 in a hung jury,<ref>[http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> with eight for conviction and four against. The second trial began on November 17, 1949. In January, 1950, the jury returned a unanimous verdict: Guilty on both counts.<ref>''United States v. Hiss'', 88 F. Supp. 559 (S.D.N.Y. 1950); [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/chron/49chron2.htm The Truman Administration During 1949: A Chronology], Harry S. Truman Library, National Archives and Records Admnistration</ref> In his pre-sentencing statement, Hiss said, "I am confident that in the future the full facts showing how Whittaker Chambers was able to carry out forgery by typewriter will be developed."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,822033,00.html Trial by Typewriter]," ''Time'', February 4, 1952</ref>

Hiss was sentenced to two concurrent five-year terms in federal prison. Secretary of State Dean Acheson provoked outrage by commenting, "Whatever the outcome of any appeal which Mr. Hiss or his lawyer may take, I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss." Eleanor Roosevelt added to the furor with her comment, "It seems rather horrible to condemn someone on the word of someone else who admits to guilt." ''Time'' magazine commented that she "obviously had not been paying much attention," being "unaware of, or determined to ignore, the [[corroborating evidence]] introduced by the Government."<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,811795,00.html 'I Do Not Intend to Turn My Back']," ''Time'', February 6, 1950</ref>

That year, General of the Army Omar Bradley, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, informed President Truman that Venona had "positively identified" Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] as Soviet agents.<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'' (Washington, DC: Brassey's Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574885227, p. 149</ref> According to Bradley, Truman said, "That G—D— stuff. Every time it bumps into us it gets bigger and bigger. It's likely to take us down."<ref>William Rusher, "[http://www.claremont.org/publications/crb/id.1375/article_detail.asp A Closer Look Under The Bed]," ''Claremont Review of Books'', Fall 2004</ref>

Hiss appealed, but in December 1950 his conviction was affirmed by the U.S. Court of Appeals<ref>[http://www.mdhs.org/library/Mss/ms002504.html Alger Hiss Collection, 1934-1979], Library of Maryland History, Maryland Historical Society; [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissappellate.html ''United States v Alger Hiss'', 185 F. 2d 822] (Second Circuit Court of Appeals, December 7, 1950)</ref> and the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] denied him ''certiorari'', as well as his repeated petitions for a writ of error ''coram nobis'' (orchestrated by long-time Communist Party member<ref>Rabinowitz claimed to have joined the Party in 1942, adding "There was no formal act marking the end of the relationship.... though I continued to meet with party members to discuss both political and legal matters for many years thereafter." (Victor Rabinowitz, ''Unrepentant Leftist: A Lawyer's Memoir'' [Champaign, Ill.: University of Illinois Press, 1996] ISBN 025202253X, pp. 73, 87). Rabinowitz' law partner (representing Cuba's Communist Castro regime) was Leonard Boudin, father of convicted Weather Underground terrorist Kathy Boudin (Michael Law, [http://lawvibe.com/leftist-lawyer-victor-rabinowitz-passes-away-at-96/ Leftist Lawyer Victor Rabinowitz Passes Away at 96], Law Vibe: International Law News, November 21, 2007), whose son was adopted and raised by William Ayers (Jodi Wilgoren, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/09/us/from-a-radical-background-a-rhodes-scholar-emerges.html?pagewanted=all From a Radical Background, A Rhodes Scholar Emerges]," ''The New York Times'', December 9, 2002), political booster of Barack Obama (Scott Shane, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/04/us/politics/04ayers.html?pagewanted=all Obama and ’60s Bomber: A Look Into Crossed Paths]," ''The New York Times'', October 3, 2008).</ref> Victor Rabinowitz).<ref>Eric Breindel, "[http://www.thefreelibrary.com/The+faithful+traitor:+Alger+Hiss%27s+refusal+to+recant+helped+create...-a019100539 The faithful traitor: Alger Hiss's refusal to recant helped create the myth of his innocence]," ''National Review'', February 10, 1997</ref> Hiss served 44 months of his five-year sentence in Lewisburg Federal Prison.

In prison, Hiss' best fiends were the Mafia gangsters,<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> whom he later compared to prisoners of war in terms of solidarity, hierarchy and discipline.<ref>Alger Hiss, ''Recollections of a Life'' (Arcade, 1989) ISBN 1559700246, p. 168</ref> He called them “the most stable group in any prison”<ref> Brock Brower, “[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/brower.html The Problems of Alger Hiss],” ''Esquire'', December 1960</ref> and “the healthiest inmates of the prison” because they “had absolutely no sense of guilt.”<ref>Hiss to C. Vann Woodward, May 2, 1959, quoted in Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997 ed.), p. 581; G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press , 2005) ISBN 0195182553, pp. 87-88. Cf. Arianna Huffington, “[http://ariannaonline.huffingtonpost.com/columns/printer_friendly.php?id=684 Alger Hiss and O.J. Simpson],” Arianna Online, November 21, 1996</ref> Hiss admitted that he, too, never felt guilt about anything he had ever done—as one Hiss biographer comments, “an incredible statement from anyone.”<ref>Ron Capshaw, “[http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=E9146EC9-A031-4F77-9691-F4C7F1ACA9F4 Alger Hiss: The Left's Religious Icon],” FrontPageMagazine.com, May 4, 2007</ref>

== Later Life ==
Hiss was released in 1954. Disbarred, he became a salesman. Five years later, Alger and Priscilla Hiss separated.<ref>Matthew Richer, "[http://www.mmisi.org/ma/46_04/richer.pdf The Ongoing Campaign of Alger Hiss: The Sins of the Father]," Modern Age, Vol. 46, No. 4 (Fall 2004), p. 309 (PDF p. 3)</ref> In the late '60s, Hiss met Mrs. Isabel Dowden Johnson, a former editor at ''The New York Times'' and ex-wife of the Communist<ref>Cole, who titled his 1981 memoir ''Hollywood Red'', "remained a hardcore Communist" until his death in 1985. Ronald Radosh and Allis Radosh, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=J_BkAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Red Star Over Hollywood]'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2005) ISBN 1893554961, p. 29; Cf. Kenneth Lloyd Billingsley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=YWtZAAAAMAAJ&pgis=1 Hollywood Party: How Communism Seduced the American Film Industry in the 1930s and 1940s]'' (Rocklin, Calif: Prima Publishing, 1998) ISBN 0761513760, pp. 266-267; [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0170660/bio Biography for Lester Cole], IMDb: The Internet Movie Database</ref> screen writer Lester Cole, a member of the "Hollywood Ten."<ref>[http://oasis.lib.harvard.edu/oasis/deliver/~sch00103 Hiss, Isabel (Dowden) Johnson, 1908-2000]. Papers, 1907-2000: A Finding Aid. Arthur and Elizabeth Schlesinger Library on the History of Women in America, Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study, Harvard University</ref> Priscilla reportedly had a breakdown, in which she said she was “tired of all the lies and cover-ups,”<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=1858F750-23F1-43DF-93C8-86E30C5224E2 Framing Alger: A Communist Plot]," FrontPageMagazine.com, June 12, 2007</ref> and complained that "Alger was willing to sacrifice us all on the altar of his vindication."<ref>Ron Capshaw, "[http://frontpagemagazine.com/Articles/Read.aspx?GUID=445F476F-9BFF-4E61-AED9-733CFFE94E65 Portrait of an American Traitor]," FrontPageMagazine.com, September 24, 2007</ref> Following Priscilla's death in 1984, Alger and Isabel married.<ref>"[http://www.nytimes.com/2000/05/07/nyregion/isabel-j-hiss-91-widow-of-alger-hiss.html Isabel J. Hiss, 91, Widow of Alger Hiss]," ''The New York Times'', May 7, 2000</ref>

In 1974, the [[Watergate]] scandal forced [[Richard M. Nixon|President Nixon]] to resign, giving "some credence to a wide spectrum of conspiracy theories involving fake typewriters, phony microfilm, and various collusions among the FBI, Nixon, HUAC, the CIA, the radical right, and the KGB."<ref>"[http://www.historynet.com/the-alger-hiss-spy-case.htm/4 The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," HistoryNet.com</ref> In 1975, the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the State Bar of Massachusetts, although the court's ruling stated "nothing we have said here should be construed as detracting one iota from the fact that in considering Hiss's petition we consider him to be guilty as charged."<ref>''[http://masscases.com/cases/sjc/368/368mass447.html In the Matter of Alger Hiss'', 368 Mass. 447], 1975; [http://books.google.com/books?id=xcA2AAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 333 N.E.2d 429]; [http://www.loris.net/onken/nationalcases/Masshiss(goodmercycase).htm 1975 Mass. LEXIS 1014]</ref> In 1981, Bard College established an Alger Hiss Distinguished Professorship<ref>[http://dlib.nyu.edu/eadapp/transform?source=tamwag/haury.xml&style=tamwag/tamwag.xsl&part=body Guide to the Agnese Nelms Haury Papers], Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University</ref> in Social Studies, formerly held by socialist<ref>Kovel advocates what he calls "ecosocialism," which he defines as Marxian communism—the "realization" of what he calls "'first-epoch' socialism" (that is, "neither more nor less than the original announcement of the ''Communist Manifesto''")—not in pursuit of "unfettered productivity' ''a la'' Marx, but to further fetter productivity in the interest of environmentalism. Joel Kovel, "[http://www.joelkovel.org/messages.html#socialism A Socialism for the Next Epoch]," On Ecology and Socialism. Congres Marx International Paris, September 29, 2001</ref> Joel Kovel,<ref>[http://www.joelkovel.org/joelkovel.html About Joel Kovel]</ref> who declared that America's obsession with anti-Communism during the Cold War led the U.S. to become “the enemy of humanity.”<ref>Steven G. Marks, "[http://www.commentarymagazine.com/viewarticle.cfm/in-denial-by-john-earl-haynes-and-harvey-klehr-9668 In Denial by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr]," ''Commentary'', October 2003</ref> Despite the mountains of evidence against him that only increased as incriminatory Soviet bloc documents came to light following the collapse of Communism, Hiss continued for the rest of his life to claim innocence.

==The Volkogonov affair==
After the fall of Soviet Communism in 1991, former President Nixon and the director of his presidential library, John H. Taylor, petitioned the new Russian President Boris Yeltsin to open the Soviet archives relating to the Hiss-Chambers case. Meanwhile Hiss and his lawyer<ref> Dmitri Volkogonov, Letter to ''Nezavisimaya Gazeta'', November 1992, quoted in John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 167</ref> appealed to retired Soviet Army General Dmitri Volkogonov and the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) for confirmation that Lowenthal's "client, Alger Hiss," had never been "an agent of the NKVD."<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref> (This despite the fact that the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.)<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 44; Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 272; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; 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. 167; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

Volkogonov, as ''apparatchik'' in charge of Soviet military history under the Communists<ref>Amos Perlmutter, "Western journalists slow to report General Dmitri Volkogonov's explanation of his exoneration of convicted spy Alger Hiss," ''National Review'', January 18, 1993</ref> had written with official blessing<ref> David Remnick, "The Stalin Tragedy Comes Home; With Official Blessings, a Soviet Historian Works on a Biography," ''The Washington Post'', June 30, 1988, p. B1</ref> a 1988 biography of Stalin in which he defended Stalin's claim that a majority in the Baltics favored incorporation into the Soviet Union in August 1940, described Stalin's invasion of Poland as "largely justified," blamed the West for the Cold War,<ref>Steven M. Miner, "The Incubus of Despotism," ''The Washington Post'', September 15, 1991</ref> and accepted the claim that Stalin's purges were provoked by Trotskyist and Nazi agents.<ref>Walter Laqueur, ''The Long Road to Freedom: Russia and Glasnost'' (New York: C. Scribner's, 1989) ISBN 0684190303, p. 68</ref>

At a 1992 press conference, Lowenthal released to the media a statement from Volkogonov claiming that "Alger Hiss was never an agent of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union." Hiss dubbed this a "final verdict," adding, "I can't imagine a more authoritative source than the files of the old Soviet Union." Lowenthal said Volkogonov was apparently "willing to stake his reputation as a general, historian and politician" on this statement.<ref>David Margolick, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E0CE3DE113BF93AA15753C1A964958260 After 40 Years, a Postscript on Hiss: Russian Official Calls Him Innocent]," ''The New York Times'', October 29, 1992</ref> Lowenthal showed reporters a videotape of an interview he did with Volkogonov, prompting "an extraordinary, emotional reaction from the world's press," according to one account. "Some reporters gulped back tears."<ref>Alex Kershaw, "Framed: The Rehabilitation of Alger Hiss," ''[http://www.guardian.co.uk/ The Guardian]'', January 9, 1993, pp.6-10</ref>

The CBS Morning News reported that Hiss was "apparently exonerated."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref> On NBC's ''Today'', co-host Scott Simon said, "This week's revelations about Alger Hiss may help us remember how vulnerable something as real as a reputation may be... So Mr. Hiss may have lived long enough to feel vindicated, but no one lives so long that they have years to give away to suspicions and mistakes."<ref>"[http://www.mrc.org/mediawatch/1992/watch19921201.asp Sticking Up for Hiss]," ''MediaWatch'' (Media Research Center), December 1992</ref> CNN's Gary Tuchman asked why "Hiss's own government has not exonerated him." ''The New Yorker'' ran a seven-page essay by Tony Hiss on "My Father's Honor."<ref>George F. Will, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/115963/output/print 'Exoneration' Of Alger Hiss]," ''Newsweek'', February 26, 2008</ref>

But when questioned Volkogonov admitted that he spent only two days in the Foreign Intelligence Archive,<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> and that he had not actually examined any archives. Instead, according to the former director of the U.S. Information Agency's Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation and Active Measures,<ref>J. Michael Waller, ''Fighting the War of Ideas Like a Real War: Messages to Defeat the Terrorists'' (Morrisville, N.C.: Lulu.com, 2007) ISBN 0615144632, p. 45, n. 36</ref> he asked Yevgeny Primakov,<ref>Ion Mihai Pacepa, "[http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=23725 A Terrorist State in the G8?]," ''[[Human Events]]'', December 3, 2007</ref> head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (formerly the KGB), to provide him with the information.<ref>Herbert Romerstein, ''Human Events'', November 28, 1992</ref> Volkogonov said that Primakov said that employees of the foreign intelligence archive said that "A. Hiss was not registered in the documents as a recruited agent."<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140</ref>

According to the Director of Cold War Studies at Harvard University, Volkogonov admitted that he had "not seen anything from the GRU archive" and that without going through the files there, there was "no basis for saying anything that would shed greater light on the question of Hiss.”<ref>Mark Kramer, [http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky "The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article]," ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref> “I looked only through what the KGB had,” said Volkogonov. “The Ministry of Defense also has an intelligence service, which is totally different,” admitted Volkogonov. "There's no guarantee... that it was not in other channels….”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

Asked if he had examined the files of the Comintern, Volkogonov admitted, “I have not had the opportunity to see these documents.”<ref>Reed Irvine, Ed., “[http://www.aim.org/publications/aim_report/1992/11b.html Media Bites on Hiss Hoax],” ''AIM Report'', November B 1992</ref> In addition, even in the KGB archive, “many documents have been destroyed,” admitted Volkogonov. “There's no guarantee that [Hiss’ file] was not destroyed.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref>

“What I saw gives no basis to claim a full clarification,” concluded Volkogonov. “[Hiss’] attorney, Lowenthal, pushed me hard to say things of which I was not fully convinced.”<ref>Serge Schmemann, “[http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F10611FE385C0C748DDDAB0994DA494D81&n=Top%2fReference%2fTimes%20Topics%2fPeople%2fH%2fHiss%2c%20Alger Russian General Retreats on Hiss],” ''The New York Times'', December 17, 1992</ref> Volkogonov added that he felt he had been "deceived" by Lowenthal.<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/bletters/20070430/navasky Mark Kramer, “The Hiss Case and General Volkogonov: A Comment on Victor Navasky's Article],” Web Letters, ''The Nation'', April 17, 2007</ref>

Finally, after almost a month, ''The New York Times'', which had devoted half a page to Volkogonov's alleged "vindication" of Hiss, gave one column to his retraction.<ref>Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 141</ref>

== Corroboration from Soviet archives ==
According to [[Library of Congress]] [[Cold War]] historian John Earl Haynes,<ref>John Earl Haynes, [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html Cover Name, Cryptonym, CPUSA Party Name, Pseudonym, and Real Name Index: A Research Historian’s Working Reference]</ref> Alger Hiss’s known cryptonyms were "Jurist"<ref>Harvey Klehr, John E. Haynes and Alexander Vassiliev, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300123906, pp. 6-7; Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 6</ref> or "Lawyer"<ref>Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'', (New York: Random House, 1999), ISBN 0375755365, p. 43</ref> ("Advocate"<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Random House, 1997)</ref> or "Advokat")<ref>Whittaker Chambers, ''Witness'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 1952)</ref> during his time at the [[United States Department of Justice]] (1935-36), "Ales"<ref>Venona decrypts (e.g., [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1945/30mar_kgb_interviews_gru_agent.pdf Venona 1822 Washington to Moscow 30 March 1945]); Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America—the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999); Eduard Mark, "Who Was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case," ''Intelligence and National Security'' 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003)</ref> in 1945, and "Leonard" in the "Gorsky memo."<ref>[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page48.html KGB file 43173] vol. 2 (v) pp. 49-55</ref>

==Venona, Hiss' Death and the Battle for History==
In October 1996, the [[CIA]] and [[NSA]] released the [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts, including the "Ales" transmission of March 30, 1945.<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'' (Center for the Study of Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency), Winter-Spring 2001, No. 10, pp. 9-10</ref> The following month, on November 15, 1996, Alger Hiss died. His original Associated Press obituary said that Hiss proclaimed vindication "when a Russian general in charge of Soviet intelligence archives declared that Hiss had never been a spy, but rather a victim of Cold War hysteria and the McCarthy Red-hunting era."<ref>L. Brent Bozell III, "[http://www.mediaresearch.org/BozellColumns/newscolumn/1996/col19961121.asp Hiss Obituaries Prove Network Laziness]," Creators Syndicate, November 21, 1996</ref> That night, NBC's Tom Brokaw said, "Hiss considered vindication a declaration by a Russian General, who controlled the KGB archives, saying that Hiss had never been a spy."<ref>Wes Vernon, "[http://www.aim.org/aim-report/aim-report-media-wont-give-up-on-red-spy-alger-hiss-july-b/ Media Won’t Give Up on Red Spy Alger Hiss]," ''AIM Report'', July B (July 19, 2007)</ref> ABC's Peter Jennings said Hiss "protested his innocence until the very end and last year we reported that the Russian President Boris Yeltsin said that KGB files had supported Mr. Hiss's claim."<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961118.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 115] (November 18, 1996)</ref> MSNBC anchor Brigitte Quinn said, "In 1987 [sic], a Russian general declared that Hiss was never a spy, but a victim of Cold War hysteria." None of these stories mentioned Volkogonov's retraction. Three days passed before Brokaw corrected the record; four days for Jennings (who belatedly admitted that the source was not Yeltsin, but Volkogonov).<ref>Brent Baker, [http://www.mediaresearch.org/cyberalerts/1996/cyb19961122.asp CyberAlert (Media Research Center), Vol. One, No. 116] (November 22, 1996)</ref>

Meanwhile, Volkogonov had also died and retired KGB General Julius N. Kobyakov (whom Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes write "insists that Hiss was not a spy, while nostalgically applauding the greatness of the KGB and lamenting the fall of the USSR")<ref>Harvey Klehr and John Earl Haynes, "Professors of Denial: Ignoring the truth about American Communists," ''The Weekly Standard'', Volume 010, Issue 25, March 21, 2005</ref> had claimed that it was not Volkogonov but he who had actually searched the Soviet files.<ref>Julius Kobyakov, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=b&msg=xPNOEFLppoOgkkWbtl1dQw&user=&pw= Lowenthal and Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History (H-DIPLO) Discussion List, Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online (H-Net), October 10, 2003</ref>

Like Volkogonov, Kobyakov admitted that he had not even seen the GRU files ("No, I did not examine Soviet military archives"); instead, he took the GRU's word for their contents ("I wrote a letter to the GRU and received the relevant answer"). What was that answer? Kobyakov isn't telling: "That of course was, and, I believe, still is a classified correspondence." Why correspondence about 60- or 70-year-old files of a regime that no longer exists is classified, he did not say—although he did mention that he strongly disapproved of the post-Communist government allowing researchers access to Soviet archives, adding, "fortunately they had no access to the files I worked with."<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," H-DIPLO (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), October 16, 2003</ref>

Kobyakov also said that former KGB General-Lieutenant Vitaly Pavlov,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,809717-1,00.html Artist in Brooklyn]," ''Time'', August 19, 1957</ref> who ran Soviet intelligence work in North America in the late 1930s and early 1940s for the NKVD, claimed that Hiss never worked for the USSR as one of his agents.<ref>Julius N. Kobyakov, "[http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0310&week=c&msg=/%2bj6%2bNHkqbEMRV0ioyVHUQ&user=&pw= Alger Hiss]," Humanities and Social Sciences Net, October 16, 2003. According to the [http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?&pagewanted=all personal Web site] of Hiss' son Tony, Pavlov [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/pavlov.html denounced] Soviet defectors Guzenko, Golitsyn, Levchenko and Gordievsky as "traitors," and their revelations as "fabrications."</ref> That is hardly surprising, note scholars, since the evidence implicates Hiss as an agent of the GRU, not the NKVD.<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 711, note 1; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html#fr2 Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007; John R. Schindler, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html Hiss in VENONA: The Continuing Controversy]," Center for Cryptologic History Symposium, 27 October 2005; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''In Denial: Historians, Communism & Espionage'' (San Francisco: Encounter Books, 2003) ISBN 159403088X, p. 150; Jeffrey T. Richelson, ''A Century of Spies: Intelligence in the Twentieth Century'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press US, 1997) ISBN 019511390XG, p. 95; 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. 167; Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 140; Tom Post, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/147373 'He Was Never A Soviet Spy']," ''Newsweek'', November 9, 1992</ref>

After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref>

==Legacy==
Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> TruTV's Crime Library concludes, "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html The Hiss-Nixon Seesaw],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James T. Gay of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James T. Gay, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Stephen Koch writes, "I for one have been brought close to certainty, on the basis of archival information, that Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Free Press, 1994) ISBN 0-02-918730-3, p. 326</ref> In ''American Heritage'' magazine, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of [the Hiss case] is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss,” ''American Heritage Magazine]'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref>

Former Archivist of the United States Allen Weinstein,<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Biography of Dr. Allen Weinstein, Ninth Archivist of the United States], The National Archives</ref> who had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research,<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
{{cquote|"the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}
The bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] went further—not just on perjury, but on espionage—the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref>

"Part of Hiss's KGB file has come out that proves the obvious point he was guilty as charged," says Christopher Andrew of Cambridge University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin conclude that "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> University of Virginia Law School Professor G. Edward White, a son-in-law of Hiss' attorney John F. Davis,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes, "recently released evidence in U.S. and Soviet archives, taken together with some previously available testimony of persons connected with Soviet intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, supports Chambers's charges against Hiss."<ref>White, G. Edward, "[http://ssrn.com/abstract=311869 Hiss and Holmes]," ''Ohio Northern University Law Review'', May 2002</ref> "In August 1948, Alger Hiss lied before HUAC," writes Ryan Ervin of Eastern Illinois University. "His testimony before HUAC proves this beyond any doubt. Intercepted Soviet cables during the Cold War, released in 1996, further prove Hiss’s Communist ties."<ref>Ryan Ervin, "[http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/archives/2005/2005Journal.pdf The Hiss-Chambers Case: Three Acts of Espionage Theater]," ''Historia'' (History Department, Eastern Illinois University and Epsilon Mu Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta), Vol. 14 (2005), p. 14 (PDF p. 7)</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> "Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White are among those whose long-suspected involvement in such [Soviet espionage] seems to be confirmed by the Venona cables," writes Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman.<ref>Maurice Isserman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09issermt.html They Led Two Lives], ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1999</ref> Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press (and—ironically—holder of the "Alger Hiss" chair at Bard College), says, "We're 99 percent certain that Hiss was a spy."<ref>John J. Miller, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_9_58/ai_n16619085/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 The Annals of Jonathan Brent: One Man and a Great Publishing Project], ''National Review'', May 22, 2006</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref>

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who, it was said, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref> Thomas Reed, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and professed "social democrat"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''Alger Hiss and the Battle for History'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, p. 20. Elsewhere, Jacoby writes, "I believe that Hiss was guilty of perjury and am about 98 percent certain that he did pass on government documents to more professional spies." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.powells.com/blog/?p=5735 Who Owns American History?]" PowellsBooks.Blog, March 21, 2009) She adds: "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker (who defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism")<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 181; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>

Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> (tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia"),<ref> Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] (April 18, 1996), p. H3645</ref> the ardor for Hiss seems to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Militant atheist"<ref>Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009</ref> Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'"<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' (London: Verso, 2000) ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106. Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that the answer is, "because he thought he was onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>

===Scholarly Consensus===
A broad range of scholars—across the political spectrum—now agree that the historical consensus is that Hiss was guilty. "Soviet files made public in 1995 convinced most observers that he had been guilty," says ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''.<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hiss-Alg.html The Columbia Encyclopedia]'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07.</ref> By 2006, "most historians had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," said Richard Aldrich of Britain's Nottingham University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," write Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen.<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> Columbia University historian David Greenberg refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> Thomas Powers writes that "no serious scholar of the subject any longer dismisses" the "voluminous and explicit claims by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 47, No. 8 (May 11, 2000)</ref> Even Obama supporter<ref>Cass R. Sunstein, "[http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/24/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama.aspx Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama]," ''The New Republic'' October 24, 2008</ref> Charles Fried, a professor at Hiss' ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to all but the most obdurate that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent..."<ref>Geoffrey Stone, Patricia M. Wald, Charles Fried, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Constitutions Under Stress: International and Historical Perspectives," ''[http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf Bulletin]'' (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 39</ref>

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes foreign affairs analyst John Ehrman of the United States Directorate of Intelligence. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''Nation'' readers and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] were not Soviet agents," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to overthrow the regime." (Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007)</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History], Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>

===Hiss in the Mass Media===
So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman.<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> That Hiss “brought home stolen State Department documents for handoff to a fellow Communist and spy named Whittaker Chambers” is “the commonly accepted story line,” agrees the ''Washington Post''.<ref>Lynne Duke, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/04/AR2007040402714_pf.html Stepping Out Of the Shadows]," ''The Washington Post'', April 5, 2007</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996. Elsewhere, ''Time'' reports, "Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message [1822] seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html Alger, 'Ales' And Joe]," ''Time'', June 6, 1999</ref> "For... Alger Hiss," ''Newsweek'' reports, "a richly detailed new book, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.... provides irrefutable confirmation of guilt."<ref>David J. Garrow, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 From Russia, With Love]," ''Newsweek'', May 25, 2009</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978."<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>

==References==
{{reflist|3}}

== Further reading ==
* Interlocking Subversion in Government Departments, Senate Subcommittee on Internal Security (SISS report July 30, 1953),
* [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/home.html The Alger Hiss Story: Search for the Truth]
* [http://www.thehistorynet.com/AmericanHistory/articles/1998/0698_text.htm Gay, James Thomas. "The Alger Hiss Spy Case." ''American History'' (May-June 1998)]
* Eduard Mark, �Who Was �Venona�s� �Ales?� Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,� Intelligence and National Security 18, no. 3 (Autumn 2003).
* Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, ''The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--the Stalin Era'' (New York: Random House, 1999).
*Weinstein, Allen "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case" (Random House, 1997) ISBN 0394495462.
* [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page44.html#_ftnref5 Alexander Vassiliev�s Notes on Anatoly Gorsky�s December 1948 Memo on Compromised American Sources and Networks (Annotated)]
* [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nathaniel_Weyl_testimony_corroborating_Alger_Hiss_as_member_of_CPUSA_secret_apparatus Nathaniel Weyl testimony corroborating Alger Hiss as member of CPUSA secret apparatus], 23 February 1953
* Fitin to Merkulov 25 April 1945, File #43072, Vol. 1, pp. 96-97, KGB Archives.
* Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. Secrecy: Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy. VI. Appendices: A. ''Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience''. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1997, pgs. 36, 39. (PDF 746K) [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf]

== External links ==
* [http://www.crimelibrary.com/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/1.html Crime Library]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hiss.html The Alger Hiss Trials: An Account]
* [http://www.fas.org/irp/ops/ci/docs/ci3/ch2.pdf Cold War Counterintelligence]
* [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]
* [http://www.nsa.gov/public_info/_files/venona/1943/28sep_gru_sources.pdf 1579 New York to Moscow 28 September 1943] Five NKVD sources are named. Milton Schwartz needs a loan to pay off debts. GRU has mentioned a person from State Department named Hiss.
* Memoranda on interview of Alger Hiss with Secretary of State James Byrnes, Hiss’ response to allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster032.pdf Vol. 32, pgs. 121 - 124] pdf, March 25, 1946.
* Memo E.E. Conroy to the Director on Hiss based on Whittaker Chambers allegations, FBI Silvermaster file, [http://education-research.org/PDFs/Silvermaster031.pdf Vol. 31, pgs. 50 - 54] pdf, March 28, 1946.
* [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html ''The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York Times, 12 June 1949]

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hiss, Alger}}

[[Category:Espionage]]
[[Category:Criminals]]
[[Category:KGB Agents and Sources]]
[[Category:United States History]]