Changes

The following year, Hiss became personal aide to [[Stanley Hornbeck]], the State Department's adviser on Far Eastern Affairs. When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] broke on August 23, 1939, NKVD defector [[Walter Krivitsky]] warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Isaac Don Levine]], "Everything that went on in the [U.S.] embassy [in Moscow], 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</ref>

The following year, Hiss became personal aide to [[Stanley Hornbeck]], the State Department's adviser on Far Eastern Affairs. When news of the [[Hitler-Stalin pact]] broke on August 23, 1939, NKVD defector [[Walter Krivitsky]] warned his ''Saturday Evening Post'' ghostwriter, [[Isaac Don Levine]], "Everything that went on in the [U.S.] embassy [in Moscow], 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</ref>

The year before, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the Communist underground. On September 2, 1939, as the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland was gearing up, Levine arranged a dinner with Chambers and Assistant Secretary of State for Security [[Adolf Berle]], at which Chambers told Berle his story. While 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>

The year before, [[Whittaker Chambers]] confessed to Levine that he had been a courier for the Communist underground. On September 2, 1939, as the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland was gearing up, Levine arranged a dinner with Chambers and Assistant Secretary of State for Security [[Adolf Berle]], at which 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/printout/0,8816,811892,00.html The Case of Alger Hiss]," ''Time'', February 13, 1950</ref>

In Berle's diary, the first entry after his visit with Levine and Chambers reads:

While 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 visit with Levine and Chambers reads:

{{cquote|Saturday night [September 2] ... 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>}}

{{cquote|Saturday night [September 2] ... 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>}}

In 1941, the [[Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the [[Washington Committee for Democratic Action]], which would eventually be listed on Attorney General [[Tom Clark]]'s [[list of subversive organizations]] as a Communist front, per [[President Truman]]'s [[executive order 9835]]. Included was the name of Priscilla Hiss.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329</ref><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. 48</ref> In 1942, the FBI interviewed Alger Hiss, per the [[Hatch Act]]. Hiss denied all knowledge of the group.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-16testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 16, 1948)</ref>

In 1941, the [[Dies committee]] obtained the membership list of the [[Washington Committee for Democratic Action]], which would eventually be listed on Attorney General [[Tom Clark]]'s [[list of subversive organizations]] as a Communist front, per [[President Truman]]'s [[executive order 9835]]. Included was the name of Priscilla Hiss.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), ISBN 0394495462, p. 329</ref><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. 48</ref> In 1942, the FBI interviewed Alger Hiss, per the [[Hatch Act]]. Hiss denied all knowledge of the group.<ref>[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/8-16testimony.html Testimony of Alger Hiss before the House Committee on Un-American Activities] (August 16, 1948)</ref>

The same year, the Bureau interviewed Chambers for the first time.<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>, who repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a Communist. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his dinner four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref>

The same year, the Bureau interviewed Chambers for the first time.<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> He repeated his identification of Hiss, among others, as a Communist. In 1943, the FBI obtained the notes Berle had taken during his dinner four years earlier with Chambers and Levine.<ref>John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, ''Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999) ISBN 0300077718, p. 92</ref>

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>

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>

[[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.]]

[[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.]]

In 1945, with the backing of Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]], Hiss was appointed a Presidential adviser, in which capacity accompanied FDR to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] in [[Yalta conference|Yalta]], which precipitated the [[Western betrayal]] of Eastern Europe to the Soviet Union and its client states behind the [[Iron Curtain]].  At Yalta.<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>  After the Yalta conference Hiss traveled on to Moscow with Secretary of State Stettinius, [[Venona project]] transcript #1822 dated 30 March 1945 reads in part

In 1945, with the backing of Secretary of State [[Edward Stettinius, Jr.]], Hiss was appointed a Presidential adviser, in which capacity accompanied FDR to his meeting with [[Joseph Stalin|Stalin]] and [[Winston Churchill|Churchill]] at [[Yalta conference|Yalta]].

:"For some years past he has been the leader of a small group of probatiners (STAZhERY), for the most part consisting of his relations.

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. , p. 227</ref> He added:

{{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>}}

:"After the Yalta Conference, when he had gone on to MOSCOW, a Soviet personage in a very responsible position (ALES gave to understand that it was Comrade [[Andrey Vyshinsky|VYShINSKIJ]]) allegedly got in touch with ALES and at the behest of the [[GRU|Military NEIGHBORS]] passed on to him their gratitude and so on. [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html]

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>

The 1997 [[Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy]], empowered by statute, wrote in its final report,

After the Yalta conference Hiss traveled on to Moscow with Secretary of State Stettinius, [[Venona project]] transcript #1822 dated 30 March 1945 reads:

{{cquote|"Addendum to our telegram no.28 as a result of a conversation of “Pya” with Ales, it turns out:

:"This could only be Alger Hiss" [http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa6.html]

2. For a few years now he has been the director of a small group of [[probationers]] of the [[GRU|neighbors]], for the most part drawn from his relatives.

Hiss served as the secretary-general of the United Nations Conference on International Organization (the United Nations Charter Conference) in San Francisco in 1945. Hiss afterwards became the full Director of the Office of Special Political Affairs. On 7 September 1945, 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. When Hiss was investigated in 1946 it was discovered he had obtained top secret reports "on atomic energy ... and other matters relating to military intelligence" that were outside the scope of his Office of Special Political Affairs, which dealt largely with United Nations diplomacy." <ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'', New York : Modern Library, (1998), p. 519;  Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pgs. 321-322.</ref>

 

 

 

 

 

{{cquote|"This could only be Alger Hiss"<ref>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>}}

 

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.  

 

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>

 

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</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.

 

 

When Hiss was investigated in 1946 it was discovered he had obtained top secret reports "on atomic energy ... and other matters relating to military intelligence" that were outside the scope of his Office of Special Political Affairs, which dealt largely with United Nations diplomacy." <ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York : Modern Library, 1998) ISBN 0394585593, p. 519;  Allen Weinstein, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', New York: Random House, (ed. 1997), pgs. 321-322.</ref>

In 1946 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>

In 1946 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>