Changes

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>Robert Conquest, ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807)</ref> (during which the Soviets starved some three million [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]] to death through collectivization of agriculture),<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, Page A14</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production in order to drive up food prices in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> The agency was the the brainchild of FDR's then-Secretary of Agriculture, [[Henry Wallace]], who would finally recant 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 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>Robert Conquest, ''The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987) ISBN 0195051807)</ref> (during which the Soviets starved some three million [[Ukraine|Ukrainians]] to death through collectivization of agriculture),<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, Page A14</ref> the AAA restricted U.S. farm production in order to drive up food prices in the depths of the [[Great Depression]].<ref>"[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration Agricultural Adjustment Administration]," ''Encyclopedia Britannica'' (2008)</ref> The agency was the the brainchild of FDR's then-Secretary of Agriculture, [[Henry Wallace]], who would finally recant 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 hiring him, Hiss' Harvard Law School classmate [[Lee Pressman]], already at AAA, 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 Pressman, as well as his boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]] and IJA colleague Witt, and became acquainted with [[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 FBI 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 travelers, if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Pressman would eventually testify that he had been a Communist and a member of the [[Ware group]].<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> Another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss 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</ref>

In response to a query about hiring him, Hiss' Harvard Law School classmate [[Lee Pressman]], already at AAA, 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 Pressman, as well as his boyhood friend [[Henry Collins]] and IJA colleague Witt, and became acquainted with the Communist<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/su07/ales-birdlong.html 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 FBI 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 travelers, if not Communists.<ref>FBI memorandum: Ladd to Hoover, January 28, 1949, p. 2 (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 44)</ref> Pressman would eventually testify that he had been a Communist and a member of the [[Ware group]].<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> Another AAA official, [[Nathaniel Weyl]], would later testify that he attended Communist cell meetings with Hiss 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</ref>

In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman]] (according to [[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.) 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 U.S. into war with Germany. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive capitalists," 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>

In 1934, again with an assist from [[Lee Pressman]] (according to [[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.) 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 U.S. into war with Germany. One scholar has dubbed this a "witch-hunt" for "subversive capitalists," 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>