The following year, Hiss was promoted to become deputy director of the State Department's [[Office of Special Political Affairs]],<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]</ref> a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<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> In August 1944, he organized the Dumbarton Oaks Conference,<ref>Doug Linder, The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary], Famous Trials: The Alger Hiss Trials, 1949-50 (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law, 2003)</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</ref><ref>"[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 History of the Charter of the United Nations: Dumbarton Oaks and Yalta]</ref>
== Yalta and the United Nations ==
[[Image:Hisstruman.jpg|thumb|300px|right|President Truman at the rostrum of the [[United Nations]] Charter Meeting with Secretary General of the Conference Alger Hiss seated second from Truman's left.]]
{{cquote|In conversation, Hiss disclosed to Oumansky, and then Litvinov, 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. , 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> 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> After the conference, Hiss went on to Moscow, where he was decorated with the Order of the Red Star<ref>Jerrold and Leona Schecter, ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History''(Washington: Potomac Books Inc., 2002) ISBN 1574883275, p. 131</ref> by Foreign Minister V.M. Molotov.<ref>Ralph De Toledano, “The Last Word,” ''Insight on the News'', December 17, 2001</ref>
[[Venona project|Venona]] decrypt #1822 dated 30 March 1945 reads:
Former NSA analyst John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College, concurs that "the identification of ALES as Alger Hiss, made by the U.S. Government more than a half-century ago, seems exceptionally solid based on the evidence now available; message 1822 is only one piece of that evidence, yet a compelling one."<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>
In April 1945, Hiss presided as Secretary General over the [[United Nations Conference on International Organization|United Nations Charter Conference]] in San Francisco, with [[Dalton Trumbo]] as his assistant. Secretary of State James F. Byrnes 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>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Ralph de Toledano, “Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss,” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997]</ref> After the conference, Hiss was promoted to become Director of the State Department Office of Special Political Affairs.
==Defections and Investigation==
On September 5, 1945, [[GRU]] code clerk [[Igor Gouzenko]] defected from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, telling the FBI that he had been told by one Lt. Kulakov in the office of the Soviet military attaché that "the Soviets had an agent in the United States in May 1945 who was an assistant to the then secretary of state, Edward R. Stettinius."<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</ref> Stettinius' assistant at the time was Alger Hiss.<ref>G. Edward White, ''Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004) , p. 49</ref>
Two days after Gouzenko's defection, 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>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 519</ref>
On November 27, 1945, 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</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.” She said that [[Charles Kramer]] told her that the person who had done this “was named Hiss and that he was in the U.S. State Department.” She said she later clipped an article from the left-wing New York daily ''PM'' “in which Hiss was mentioned.” She said “It is my present recollection that this newspaper article stated Hiss’ full name was Eugene 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>
In 1946, British intelligence supplied its order of battle against Soviet-led guerrillas in Greece to the Pentagon. Shortly thereafter, this top-secret information appeared in [[Drew Pearson]]’s column, 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>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Ralph de Toledano, “Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss,” Insight on the News, January 27, 1997]</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>
==Post-Government Career==
Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and served until May 5, 1949. Hiss also served 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 ==
In 1948, the House Committee on Un-American Activities called [[Whittaker Chambers]]. He testified that Alger Hiss, assisted by his wife Priscilla, had been a member of the underground apparatus of the [[Communist Party of the United States|Communist Party]] in the late 1930s, while he was a Federal official.<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 Whittaker 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>
That year, after reviewing Hiss’ FBI file, President Truman pronounced Hiss “guilty as hell,” telling White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenman, “We shouldn't just indict this son of a bitch. We should hang him.” Five minutes later, Truman blustered to a press conference that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herring.” 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>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Ralph de Toledano, “Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss,” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997]</ref>
Shortly before the Hiss indictment in 1948, the New York bureau of the ''Christian Science Monitor'' teletyped this message to the home office in Boston:
[[{{cquote|From a thoroughly reliable contact [Arnold Beichman, then publicity director for New York's Liberal Party, of which former Assistant Secretary of State Berle was chairman]: 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>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Ralph de Toledano, “Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy - Alger Hiss],” ''Insight on the News'', January 27, 1997</ref>}}
That yearIn 1949, after reviewing at Hiss’ FBI filefirst perjury trial, President Truman pronounced Hornbeck testified that an unnamed friend had warned him that Hiss “guilty as hellwas a Communist fellow-traveler,” telling White House Special Counsel Samuel Rosenmanbut he disregarded the warning.<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, “We shouldn[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 't just indict this son 'Seeds of a bitchTreason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy''], (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. We should hang him.” Five minutes later235</ref> At the second trial, Truman blustered to a press conference Hornbeck testified that on at least two occasions he was warned that the Hiss case was just an election-year “red herringa Communist, and named Bullitt as his source.” When Rosenman later asked why he had lied<ref>Ralph de Toledano and Victor Lasky, Truman explained, “You don't understand[http://www. The Republicans arenamericandeception.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 't after Alger 'Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss. They-Chambers Tragedy're after me'], (NY: Funk and Wagnalls, 1950), ASIN B0007DS43A, p. I 258-259</ref> John Foster Dulles, who had to take recommended Hiss for the political viewCarnegie Endowment, likewise testified at that trial that various people had warned him subsequently that Hiss was a Communist.”<ref>"[http://findarticleswww.time.com/ptime/articlesmagazine/mi_m1571article/is_n3_v13/ai_19048238 Ralph de Toledano0, “Embarrassment aided and abetted the Top Soviet spy 9171,806501- 1,00.html The Alger HissIssue],” Insight on the News" ''Time'', January 27November 3, 1997]1952</ref>
When Whittaker Chambers The prosecution called Hede Massing, a confessed OGPU recruiter, 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. Massing testified against that at a 1935 Communist cell meeting at the home of State Department official Noel Field, Alger Hissargued with her that Field should work with his GRU group, wrote Sudoplatovrather than her OGPU group. Field had fled to Czechoslovakia, then Hungary, from both of which would eventually come corroboration for Massing's testimony. The interrogation of Noel Field by Czech secret police after his 1948 defection (reported in 1990 by Karel Kaplan, former archivist of the Central Committee of the Czech Communist Party) records that Field named Alger Hiss as a fellow Communist underground agent in the State Department during the mid-thirties, telling his interrogators that a primary reason for his defection was to avoid testifying in the Hiss’ trial.<ref>[Karel Kaplan, Report on the Murder of the General Secretary (London: I.B. Taurus & Co. Ltd., 1990), ISBN 1-85043-211-2 http://books.google.com/books?id=x3s6sBZw-YkC&pg=PA19&dq=%22noel+field%22&sig=d7XE7yhraGkrz6k4AP0ljIqXEvY#PPA19,M1, pp. 19-25]</ref> The original transcripts of Noel Field's 1954 interrogation by the Hungarian secret police (published in 1992 by Hungarian historian Maria Schmidt) include a statement by Field reading as follows: {{cquote|We [Field and his wife] made friends with Alger Hiss—an official of the "New Deal" brought about by Roosevelt—and his wife. After a couple of meetings we considered this mutually realized we were Communists. Around the summer of 1935 Alger Hiss tried to be a setback induce me to do service for GRU intelligence activities the Soviets. I was indiscreet enough to tell him he had come too late. Naturally I didn't say a word about the Massings.<ref>Maria Schmidt, "The Hiss Dossier: A Historian's Report," ''The New Republic'', November 8, 1993, pp. 17-20</ref>}} The transcripts also record 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. 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</ref><ref>Sam Tanenhaus, "Hiss Case 'Smoing Gun'?" ''New York Times'', October 15, 1993; Sam Tanenhaus, "New Reasons to Doubt Hiss," ''Wall Street Journal'', November 18, 1993</ref> In 1952, Bullitt testified before the Senate Internal Security subcommittee as to what French Premier Daladier had told him in 1938.<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 StatesSenate, Eighty-Second Congress, Second Session." (Special TasksHearings: March 13, 228)1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952</ref>,<ref>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> Also at that hearing, Nathaniel Weyl, a confessed former member of the Ware group, testified that he attended secret Communist meetings with Alger Hiss, and saw Hiss pay his party dues.<ref>“[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,890230,00.html Another Witness],” ''Time'', March 3, 1952]</ref>
== House Committee on Un-American Activities ==
The public controversy was brought to light in 1948 over [[Whittaker Chambers]]'s accusation that Alger Hiss, assisted by his wife Priscilla, had been a member of the [[Communist Party of the United States|Communist Party of the United States]] (CPUSA) and a spy.
Few serious historians still regard the matter of Hiss's guilt as unresolved, given the overwhelming evidence of his guilt compiled by, among others, Allen Weinstein, author of "Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case," who had begun his research intending to prove Hiss innocent before coming to the opposite conclusion as the facts mounted. More recently G. Edward White slammed the door on any serious question of Hiss's guilt with his meticulously researched "Alger Hiss's Looking Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy," published in 2004.
== Corroboration from Soviet archives ==
Former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev’s handwritten notes on a 5 March 1945 cable by [[Anatoly Gorsky]] reveal that Ales had been at Yalta, went briefly to Moscow, then back to the U.S. but then immediately went to Mexico City for an inter-American conference of foreign ministers, known as the Chapultepec Conference (21 February 8 March 1945). Stettinius, Hiss, Mathews, and Foote went to Mexico City.<ref>John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]," June 7, 2007]</ref> An 25 April 1945 memo from KGB General [[Pavel Fitin]], head of foreign intelligence, to [[Vsevolod Merkulov]], overall head of the KGB, explained that [[Harold Glasser]] moved back and forth, sometimes working for the KGB, but at times also the GRU. Glasser learned from his friend Hiss that the latter's group had been decorated with honors. Glasser felt slighted, as the others in Hiss's group were decorated, but Glasser himself was not.<ref>Allan Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997 ed.), ISBN 067977338X, pp. 326–27.</ref>
After the exposure of several Soviet espionage networks in the United States, Stalin created the [[KI]], a centralized bureaucracy, modelled on the [[CIA]], to funnel information from both KGB and GRU to intelligence users. During the KI's short existence (1947 - 1951), [[Anatoly Gorsky]], who served in the United States and Great Britain, wrote a memorandum on ''Compromised American Sources and Networks''. This memo incontrovertibly identifies Alger Hiss as a longtime Soviet agent who worked in the U.S. State Department.