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'''Alger Hiss''' (November 11, 1904 &ndash; November 15, 1996) was a high-ranking [[U.S. State Department]] official<ref>"Alger Hiss, a former [http://www.archives.gov/press/press-releases/2000/nr00-02.html high-ranking State Department official]"; and "[[#refBogdanor08|one of America's leading diplomats]]..."</ref> and Secretary-General of the [[United Nations]] founding conference.<ref>"The Secretary-General of the Conference was Alger Hiss... Secretary-General: Alger Hiss" [[#refUN46|UN 1946-47]]: 14, 48 (PDF 15, 49)</ref> He was [[#refHissAppellate|convicted of perjury]] in 1950 after [[#refBentleyGJ|denying involvement]] in [[USSR|Soviet]] [[espionage]]. Hiss partisans and many on the [[ideological]] [[left]] for many years hotly disputed the jury’s verdict in the case,<ref>Francis P. Sempa, "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2001_07-09/sempa_chambers/sempa_chambers.html Whittaker Chambers: A Centennary Reflection]," ''American Diplomacy'', July 2001. Hiss portrayed himself as a "liberal" rather than a communist, referring to "[http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/liberalism.html liberals like myself]," writing that he had acquired a "liberal outlook" as a student, which was "strengthened and given focus at the Harvard Law School"; his work for Justice Holmes "increased my liberal convictions"; etc. He also had "[[#refBogdanor08|strong ties]] to the [http://encyclopedia.farlex.com/Alger+Hiss Democratic Party]." Thus for decades, many [[liberals]] and [[Democratic Party|Democrats]] portrayed Hiss as an [http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/HistoryAmerican/Since1945/?view=usa&ci=9780195182552 innocent victim of McCarthyism], the victim of an [http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/11.html elaborate frame-up], railroaded by [http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/history.html the demagoguery] of [[Richard Nixon]] and the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]. Cf. Tony Judt, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=qjPwuBv-0PUC Reappraisals: Reflections on the Forgotten Twentieth Century]'' (Penguin Group, 2008), ISBN 1594201366, p. 301</ref> putting forward a variety of conspiracy theories.<ref>For an overview of these (mutually-contradictory) conspiracy theories see the appendix, "Conspiracy Theories," in [[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]].</ref> The '''[[Legacy of Alger Hiss#Scholarly consensus|overwhelming consensus]]''' among historians today is that Hiss was guilty, as confirmed by the unanimous report of the bipartisan Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy in 1997.<ref>"The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department [in Soviet espionage] seems settled." (Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, ''Secrecy'' [Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997], [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Appendix A - Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience], p. A-37 [PDF p. 39]) The commission's chairman, Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], a [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all liberal Democrat], wrote, "Hiss was indeed a [[USSR|Soviet]] agent and appears to have been regarded by [[Moscow]] as its most important."(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>

As a result of his [[father]]'s [[death]], Alger [[inheritance|inherited]] $10,000,<ref>"...provided a $10,000 bequest to each of the Hiss children..." [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 9</ref> the equivalent of [[#refBLS|more than $200,000]] today. After graduation from [http://www.baltimorecitycollege.us/ Baltimore City College] and a year at [[Massachusetts]]' [[Powder Point Academy]] and the [[Maryland Institute of Art]],<ref>"1921-1922: Attended Powder Point Academy, Duxbury, Mass., and Maryland Institute of Art." ([[#refZeligs80|Zeligs Papers]]) A visiting artist at the Maryland Institute of Art during this era was [http://www.mica.edu/About_MICA/Facts_and_History/Historical_Timeline/1905-1960_A_Fresh_Start%E2%80%94Rise_of_Mount_Royal_Campus.html John Sloan], former editor of the [[Communist]] magazine ''[http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Masses_1914_John_Sloan.jpg The Masses]'' (John Loughery, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=eGWcHAAACAAJ John Sloan: Painter and Rebel]'' [New York: H. Holt, 1997] ISBN 0805052216, p. 177), which would change its name to ''[[New Masses]]'' in 1926 and, ironically, be edited by [[Whittaker Chambers]] starting in 1931. Meyer A. Zeligs, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=aytCAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Friendship and Fratricide: An Analysis of Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss]'' (New York: Viking Press, 1967) ASIN B000NZOTWM, p. 253</ref> Hiss attended [[Baltimore]]'s elite<ref>"Johns Hopkins was an elite university, both socially and academically." [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 9</ref> [[Johns Hopkins University]],<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 644 (PDF 154)</ref> where he was voted "[http://www.orwelltoday.com/hisstruman.jpg best hand-shaker]" in his class.<ref>[[#refRovere96|Rovere 1996]]: 156; Cf. [http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/backissues/2010/02/eighty-five-from-the-archive-richard-h-rovere.html Eighty-Five from the Archive: Richard H. Rovere] (excerpt from ''[http://www.newyorker.com The New Yorker]'', [http://archives.newyorker.com/default.aspx?iid=18616&startpage=page0000103 May 13, 1950]); Evan Thomas, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/103447 An American Melodrama]," ''Newsweek'', November 25, 1996</ref> Hiss would later claim to have already been socially and politically progressive and anti-business when he went to college.<ref>Alger Hiss, [http://homepagesalgerhiss.nyu.educom/~th15alger-hiss/liberalism.html in-his-own-words/alger-hisss-liberal-manifesto/l Draft of a Chapter Written By Alger Hiss on the Foundations For His Liberalism] ([http://holliscatalog.harvard.edu//?itemid=|library%2fm%2faleph|010072878 Alger Hiss papers], Small Manuscript Collection, [http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/special/index.html Special Collections], [http://www.law.harvard.edu/library/index.html Harvard Law School Library]), algerhiss.com. Cf. Ivan Chen, [http://works.bepress.com/ivan_chen/1/ Alger Hiss, 1926-1929]; [[#refShelton2012|Shelton 2012]]: 22-24.</ref>

In violation of a condition of this employment<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 14, [[#refJacoby09|Jacoby 2009]]: 2047</ref> Hiss got [[marriage|married]], to the former Mrs. [http://www.lib.utexas.edu/taro/uthrc/00330/hrc-00330.html#bioghist Thayer Hobson] (''née'' Priscilla Fansler), a supporter of perennial [[Socialist]] Party [[presidential]] candidate [[Norman Thomas]].<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 457</ref> Hiss had met her on a transatlantic cruise when he was nineteen,<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 11</ref> though she'd since had a [[marriage]], a [[Mexican]] [[divorce]],<ref>[[#refZeligs80|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 pregnancy by a married man, and an [[abortion]].<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 158-159</ref> Hiss went on to the prestigious [[Boston]] [http://img.tfd.com/WEAL/weal_05_img0977.jpg law firm] of [http://www.choate.com/ Choate, Hall & Stewart].<ref>[[#refHK06|Haynes, Klehr 2006]]: 97. This firm was connected to former Ambassador to the [[United Kingdom]] Joseph Hodges Choate, whose family founded the the [http://www.forbes.com/2009/04/06/america-elite-schools-leadership-prep_slide_2.html elite] [[New England]] prep school then known as The Choate School (now [http://www.choate.edu/ Choate Rosemary Hall]).</ref>

[[Image:Woman Child.jpg|thumb|200px|left|Propaganda photograph taken [http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2014/06/01/interview-forgotten-man-graphic-novel/?singlepage=true to justify federal spending] by the Resettlement Administration, brainchild of Rexford Tugwell,<ref>"...the most left-wing member of Roosevelt's brain trust," who "was frank about his admiration for the Soviet planned economy..." Wolfgang Schivelbusch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=Z3GV5_n1h04C Three New Deals: Reflections on Roosevelt's America, Mussolini's Italy, and Hitler's Germany, 1933-1939]'' (Macmillan, 2006) ISBN 080507452X, p. 31-32</ref> 1936. ''[http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/list/128_migm.html Farm Security Administration Collection], Library of Congress'']]At the peak of [[Stalin]]'s [[Holodomor|Terror Famine]] (which killed some 14 million<ref>[[#refConquest91|Conquest 1991]]: 306</ref> people through [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/26/AR2008042602039_pf.html collectivization of agriculture]), the AAA [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/9551/Agricultural-Adjustment-Administration curtailed U.S. farm production] in order to [http://www.econbrowser.com/archives/2007/01/the_new_deal_an.html drive up food prices]—at a time when (according to FDR) one in three Americans was already "[http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5105/ ill-nourished]."<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.... 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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=gbfTLG_HmGEC Basic Economics]'' [New York: Basic Books, 2007] 3rd Ed., ISBN 0465002609, p. 56) As Gene Smiley, emeritus professor of economics at Marquette University, writes in ''[http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/GreatDepression.html The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics]'': "Reduced production, of course, is what happens in depressions, and it never made sense to try to get the country out of depression by reducing production further. In its zeal, the administration apparently did not consider the elementary impossibility of raising all real wage rates and all real prices."

The [[USSR|Soviets]] took great interest in the work of the committee for its [[propaganda]] value<ref>[[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 115-116</ref> as well as its access to classified documents on U.S. armaments and foreign policy.<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 40</ref> [[Moscow]] had at least one source on the staff of the committee, who provided valuable documents to the [[Kremlin]] in 1935,<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 28-29</ref> the [[#refVenona1822|same year]] an agent later code-named "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") began working for [[GRU|Soviet military intelligence]]. The committee's chief investigator, Stephen Rauschenbusch,<ref>This was the [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/rhetoric_and_public_affairs/v011/11.2.zietsma.pdf son of] Walter Rauschenbusch (Elizabeth Balanoff, [http://www2.roosevelt.edu/library/oralhistory/02-Herstein.pdf Interview with Lillian Herstein, Book 2], May 7, 1971 [Oral History Project in Labor History, Roosevelt University, 2006], p. 246 [PDF p. 41]), [http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/rausch-socialgospel.html founder of] the "Social Gospel" movement--who wrote that Christianity should "aid the evolution of society from the present temporary stage of individualism to a higher form of communism." (Walter Rauschenbusch, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=mug-AAAAYAAJ Christianity and the Social Crisis]'' [Macmillan, 1913], p. 414) He also investigated [[Fabian socialism]] in England "under the tutelage of Beatrice and Sidney Webb" (Donovan Ebersole Smucker, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=fIP_Til4U64C The Origins of Walter Rauschenbusch's Social Ethics]'' [McGill-Queen's University Press, 1994] ISBN 0773511636, p. 18), for whom "communism became... a substitute for religion." Richard Ingrams, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=ezBbAAAAMAAJ Muggeridge: The Biography]'' (HarperCollins, 1995) ISBN 0002556103, p. 76</ref> would later refuse to testify as a character witness for Hiss;<ref>[[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 68</ref> Nye would tell FBI investigators that he believed Hiss was a [[Communist]] during his time on the committee,<ref>[[#refWeinstein78|Weinstein 1978]]: 43-44</ref> and would later say he believed Hiss used his position for [[espionage]].<ref>John E. Wiltz, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=xpDtAAAAMAAJ 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>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 40</ref> [http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/chambers-chronology.html Hiss met] [[Whittaker Chambers]]. A decade later, "Vadim" ([[Anatoly Gorsky]], then chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S.)<ref>[[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 90</ref> would report to Moscow that "‘Ales’ ... used to work in ‘Karl’s’ informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors"<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 26; Trans. 50-51</ref> (According to [[NSA]] cryptographers, "neighbors" was the code name for the [[GRU]], Soviet military intelligence);<ref>[[#refVStory|Benson 2001]]: 29 (PDF 31)</ref> three years after that, Gorsky would identify "Karl" as "Whittaker Chambers, former editor in chief of 'Time' magazine. Traitor."<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 39; Trans. 77 (cf. [[#refBLH05|Bachman, Leich, Haynes 2005]]; [[#refLowCher|Lowenthal, Chervonnaya 2005]]); [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 163; [[#refBC07|Bird, Chervonnaya 2007]]</ref>

[[Image:A. Hiss - Yurist.jpg|thumb|250px|left|The name “A. Hiss” and code name "Yurist" (Jurist) in Cyrillic (А. Хисс&mdash;"Юрист") from Vassiliev's notes on a Moscow Center annotation. ''Image source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]In a 1936 memorandum, found in the [[NKVD]] archives by former [[KGB]] agent [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=31935 Alexander Vassiliev], [[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" &mdash;a serious breach of discipline. (A Moscow Center annotation identifies "A. Hiss" as the GRU agent designated by the code name "Jurist.")<ref>[[#refVasYellow2|Vassiliev Yellow Notebook #2]]: Orig. 3; Trans. 4; cf. [[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 6; [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 6-7</ref> As a result, noted [[Boris Bazarov]], [[OGPU]] "illegal" station chief for the [[United States]],<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 222</ref> Field "and Hiss [Bazarov also used Hiss's real name] [[#refPowers2000|have been openly identified]]" as [[USSR|Soviet]] agents.<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 7; [[#refPowers04|Powers 2004]]: 89; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 228</ref>

In a [[#refHK07|cable]] of the era found in the [[NKVD]] archives by Vassiliev, NKVD illegal [[Iskhak Abdulovich Akhmerov]] reports to [[Moscow]] that [[J. Peters]] (code-[http://hnn.us/articles/11581.html named] [[#refBLH05|"Storm"]])<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 39; Trans. 77 (cf. [[#refBLH05|Bachman, Leich, Haynes 2005]]; [[#refLowCher|Lowenthal, Chervonnaya 2005]]); [[#refRomerstein01|Romerstein, Breindel 2001]]: 163; [[#refBC07|Bird, Chervonnaya 2007]]</ref> told him that "Hiss [Akhmerov used his real name] used to be a member of ''bratskiy'' organization (the [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page66.html CPUSA underground]) who had been implanted into 'Surrogate' (cover name for the [[State Department]])<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 5</ref> and sent to the Neighbors [the [[GRU]]]<ref>[[#refVStory|Benson 2001]]: 29 (PDF 31)</ref>...."<ref>[[#refHK03|Haynes, Klehr 2003]]: 150; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 230</ref>

That year, French Premier [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/150071/Edouard-Daladier Édouard Daladier] informed Bullitt (now [[Ambassador]] to [[France]]) that two brothers [http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/washingtonpost_historical/access/213989152.html?dids=213989152:213989152&FMT=ABS named Hiss], both in the U.S. government, were [https://web.archive.org/web/20070627224903/http://w4.pica.army.mil/voice/voice2002/020419/KoreaApr4-10.htm 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, U.S. Senate, 82nd Cong., 2d Sess. Hearings: March 13, 1951 to June 20, 1952; Report: July 2, 1952</ref> Bullitt “laughed it off as a tall tale, never having heard their names.”<ref>[[#refLevine73|Levine 1973]]: 198</ref>

Hiss would thus rise unimpeded through the ranks, by 1944 becoming deputy director of the [[State Department]]'s Office of Special Political Affairs, a policy-making office for postwar planning and international organization.<ref>[[#refDallas05|Dallas 2005]]: 412</ref> In August, he [[#refLinder03|would organize]] the [https://web.archive.org/web/20131008202927/http://www.un.org/en/aboutun/history/dumbarton_yalta.shtml Dumbarton Oaks Conference],<ref>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 would serve as [[#refWhalen48|executive]] [[#refTime2.13.50|secretary]], presiding over<ref>[[#refYUNHiss|YUN Hiss]]: 8 (PDF 9)</ref> the drafting of the proposed [[United Nations]] Charter.

Dies was chairman of the [[House Committee on Un-American Activities]]. HUAC had grown out of a 1934 resolution (calling for the formation of a special committee to probe into "un-American activities") [http://www.americanjewisharchives.org/aja/FindingAids/Dick.htm introduced by] Congressman [[Samuel Dickstein]] (D-N.Y.)&mdash;a [http://www.nytimes.com/1999/01/03/books/the-kremlin-connection.html?pagewanted=all Soviet agent] [https://web.archive.org/web/20030707171840/http://boston.com/globe/search/stories/books/weinstein_vassiliev.htm code-named "Crook."]<ref>[[#refVasWhiterefVasWhite2|Vassiliev White Notebook #2]]: Orig. 42-50; Trans 82-99</ref> Under the pretext of investigating U.S. fascists,<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 78; Trans. 155</ref> Dickstein was secretly paid by Moscow more than $12,000<ref>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 140-150</ref> (equivalent to more than [[#refBLS|$180,000 today]]) while using the committee to persecute [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,929957,00.html American businessmen], [http://www.amconmag.com/article/2009/aug/01/00043/ Soviet defectors] and [http://muse.jhu.edu/login?uri=/journals/journal_of_cold_war_studies/v011/11.3.fox.pdf Trotskyites].<ref>[[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 475-476</ref>

[[image:Yaltaconference.JPG|thumb|300px|right|At Yalta, a [http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703580904574638352930354872.html withered and diminished] Roosevelt flanked by Stettinius (left) and Hiss (right); Churchill (foreground right, three-quarters back view); Stalin in shadows (far left). ''Courtesy [https://web.archive.org/web/20041017194141/http://www.un.org/UN50/Photos/un50-016.gif United Nations Department of Public Information]'']]By this time, "[[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] was not always master over his mind," according to Professor Felix Wittmer, a [http://www.biblio.com/books/225432106.html refugee from Nazi persecution].<ref>Felix Wittmer, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=6hFWAAAAYAAJ The Yalta betrayal: data on the decline and fall of Franklin Delano Roosevelt]'' (Caxton Printers, 1953), p. 48</ref> "At Yalta he could neither think consecutively nor express himself coherently," agreed former Soviet propagandist<ref>David C. Engerman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=UkFlO7hoxOMC Modernization from the other shore: American intellectuals and the romance of Russian development]'' (Harvard University Press, 2003) ISBN 0674011511, p. 201</ref> W.H. Chamberlin. With less than three months to live, the President suffered "occa­sional blackouts of memory, and loss of capacity for mental concen­tration."<ref>William Henry Chamberlin, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JGQhAAAAMAAJ America's Second Crusade]'' (Regnery, 1950) ASIN 0865977070, p. 206. Cf. Rose McDermott, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=N_G-wELa3xYC Presidential Leadership, Illness, and Decision Making]'' (Cambridge University Press, 2008) ISBN 0521882729, pp. 96-110; Bert Edward Park, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=hSnUtD0-nWIC Ailing, Aging, Addicted: Studies of Compromised Leadership]'' (University Press of Kentucky, 1993) ISBN 0813118530, pp. 200, 207</ref> His face was "gray, gaunt, and sagging and the muscles controlling the lips seemed to have lost part of their function," wrote [[New Deal]] [[liberal]]<ref>Nathaniel Burt, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=L9ueb6r1uXgC The perennial Philadelphians: the anatomy of an American aristocracy]'' (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999) ISBN 0812216938, p. 35</ref> John Gunther. "I felt certain that he was going to die."<ref>John Gunther, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=pRd3AAAAMAAJ Roosevelt in retrospect: a profile in history]'' (Harper, 1950), p. 29</ref> According to James Farley, former Chairman of the Democratic National Committee:

As what Harvard historian [http://history.fas.harvard.edu/people/faculty/serhii-plokhii.php Serhii Plokhii] calls "the State Department's expert on the United Nations" at Yalta, Hiss was involved in discussions preceeding the secret agreement<ref>According to Hiss, the agreement to give the Soviets three votes in the UN to one for the U.S. “was not put in the [[#refYalta45|communiqué]]" containing the public Yalta agreement. It was, he said, an "oral agreement ... that the Russians would bring their two delegations [''sic''&mdash;actually three delegations&mdash;the Soviet Union, Ukraine, and Byelorussia] to [the UN Charter Conference in] San Francisco, propose them for admission [to the United Nations], and we [the United States] would agree. But it would not be announced in advance.” [[#refYUNHiss|YUN 1990]]: 18 (PDF 19)</ref> to give the [[Soviet Union]] three votes in the UN to one for the U.S. Although Hiss officially opposed this decision, there is some mystery as to how it came about: Hiss would later claim that the British informed him that US agreement to this Soviet demand had come from Stettinius himself, but Stettinus denied that he had ever made such an agreement.<ref>[[#refPlokhy2010|Plohky 2010]]: 192</ref> Later urging [[Franklin Roosevelt|Roosevelt]] to tell the [[U.S.]] delegation to the UN founding conference "the whole truth" about this agreement (which he called "this X-matter"), Stettinius would advise [[FDR]] to have Hiss with him when he broke the news to the [[American]] delegates.<ref>[[#refStettinius75|Stettinius 1975]]: 305-306</ref> The President would be dead within a month; this agreement would not be disclosed for another two years.<ref>Michael Kort, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=xAnwfRnsl6oC The Columbia Guide to the Cold War]'' (New York: Columbia University Press, 2001) ISBN 0231107730, p. 179</ref>

Although it had nothing to do with Hiss's area of responsibility, the UN, when [[Franklin Roosevelt|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> The U.S. ended up ceding eastern Poland to the Soviet Union,<ref>[[#refDallas05|Dallas 2005]]: 557</ref> [http://web.archive.org/web/20120216060530/http://politicom.moldova.org/news/moscow-attempts-to-reinterpret-the-molotovribbentrop-pact-203326-eng.html essentially effectively ratifying] what Eden called [[#refBlack06|the "Ribbentrop-Molotov" line]]&mdash;the deal [[Stalin]] had made with [[Adolf Hitler|Hitler]] in the [http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/docpage.cfm?docpage_id=2316 secret protocols] of the [[Nazi-Soviet pact]]. As [http://www.pulitzer.org/citation/2004-General-Nonfiction Pulitzer prize winning] [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/opinions/biographies/anne-applebaum.html ''Washington Post'' columnist] Anne Applebaum put it, Yalta "went beyond mere recognition of Soviet occupation and conferred legality and international acceptance on [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/05/10/AR2005051001187.html new borders and political structures]." It was agreed to keep these plans [[#refBlack06|entirely secret]]. U.S. Ambassador to Poland Arthur Bliss Lane resigned in protest: "As I glanced over [[#refYalta45|the document]], I could not believe my eyes," he wrote. "To me, almost every line spoke of a surrender to Stalin."<ref>Arthur Bliss Lane, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SzQrAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 I Saw Poland Betrayed: An American Ambassador Reports to the American People]'' (Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill Co., 1948) ASIN B000NWTIF8, p. 56. When Truman became President and saw the secret codicils, he was "amazed the Polish agreement 'wasn't more clear cut'." Wilson D. Miscamble, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=QWc58mXB5uUC From Roosevelt to Truman: Potsdam, Hiroshima, and the Cold War]'' (Cambridge University Press, 2007) ISBN 0521862442, p. 112</ref>

Hiss had input even on China. During pre-conference negotiations with British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden, regarding the war with Japan, "Mr. Hiss brought up the question of China," according to the formerly [http://education-researcharchive.orgis/images/Hiss-China.jpg HTiIW Top Secret minutes], "and stressed the importance which the United States attaches to U.S.-British-Soviet encouragement and support for an agreement between the [[Comintern|Commintern]] [sic] and the Chinese Congress [sic]."<ref>[[#refStettinius75|Stettinius 1975]]: 229. The official State Department record resorts to the passive voice, obscuring Hiss's role in this incident: "The desirability of unity being achieved between the [[Kuomintang]] and the [[Communists]] was raised, and reference was made to the President having some doubts as to whether the British desired this unity." Meeting of the Foreign Ministers, February 1, 1945, 10:30 A.M., on Board H. M. S. "Sirius" in Grand Harbor. [[#refFRUS45|FRUS 1945]]: [http://digicoll.library.wisc.edu/cgi-bin/FRUS/FRUS-idx?type=goto&id=FRUS.FRUS1945&isize=XL&submit=Go+to+page&page=502 502] Press reports relying on this [http://books.google.com/books?id=kotPYEqx7kMC&q=memory+hole#v=snippet&q=memory%20hole&f=false bowdlerized] official account thus reported, e.g.: "Alger Hiss, whose role at the Yalta conference long has been a subject for hostile speculation, spent his time there [http://select.nytimes.com/gst/abstract.html?res=F40C11F6345A107A93CAA81788D85F418585F9 exclusively on planning for the United Nations]." FDR apologists such as liberal "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/04/weekinreview/04tanenhaus.html court historian]" Arthur Schlesinger parroted this official version as dogma: "As for Yalta, Alger Hiss had nothing to do with the Far Eastern discussions, and knew nothing of their existence," etc. Arthur Meier Schlesinger, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=MegmQB1MxqkC The Politics of Hope: And, The Bitter Heritage: American Liberalism in the 1960s]'' (Princeton University Press, 2008) ISBN 0691134758, p. 237</ref> The British, due to their interests in Hong Kong and Singapore, had influence with the [[Kuomintang]], but none with the [[Communists]]; the Soviets, who did have influence with the Communists, were not present (because they were [http://avalon.law.yale.edu/subject_menus/smenu.asp not at war with Japan]). The only effect Hiss had in bringing up the issue therefore was to co-opt the British to pressure the Chinese government into acquiescing to a [[Kremlin]]-backed power-sharing arrangement with the rebels, thus granting a measure of legitimacy to forces dedicated to its destruction&mdash;a policy that Acheson would subsequently use as a pretext to obstruct aid to China<ref>"Too much stress cannot be laid on the hope that our economic assistance be carried out in China through the medium of a government fully and fairly representative of all important Chinese political elements, including the Chinese Communists," said Acheson. (Freda Utley, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=JmAcAAAAMAAJ The China story]'' [H. Regnery Co., 1951], p. 15) This was the pretext for the U.S. embargo on arms to China in July 1946. Even after the embargo ended in May 1947, Acheson was able to delay shipments another six months. In 1949, he would explicitly instruct his subordinates that "it is desirable that shipments be delayed where possible to do so without formal action." (David S. McLellan, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=SfJ2AAAAMAAJ Dean Acheson: the State Department years]'' [New York: Dodd, Mead & Co., 1976] ISBN 0396073131, p. 188) After the fall of China, Senator John F. Kennedy would comment: "Mr. Speaker, over this weekend we have learned the extent of the disaster that has befallen China and the United States. The responsibility for the failure of our foreign policy in the Far East rests squarely with the [Truman] White House and the [Acheson] Department of State. The continued insistence that aid would not be forthcoming unless a coalition government with the Communists was formed, was a crippling blow to the National Government. So concerned were our diplomats and their advisers, the [[Owen Lattimore|Lattimore]]s and the Fairbanks, with the imperfection of the democratic system in China after twenty years of war, and the tales of corruption in high places, that they lost sight of our tremendous stake in a non-Communist China." John F. Kennedy, ''A Compendium of Speeches, Statements, and Remarks Delivered During His Service in the Congress of the United States'' (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1964), pp. 41-42. Cf. [[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 419</ref>&mdash;a move that would prove [http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles5/RummelDemocide.php catastrophic for the Chinese].<ref>After the fall of the Nationalist Chinese government, Communist Chinese dictator Mao Zedong "was responsible for [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1069136,00.html well over 70 million] deaths in peacetime, more than any other 20th-century leader," according to Jung Chang, a former [http://chineseculture.about.com/od/mediainchina/p/Writer-Jung-Chang.htm member of Mao's Red Guards]. [[#refChang05|Chang 2005]]: 3, 560, 651. Cf. Stephane Courtois et al., ''[http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674076082 The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression]'' (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1999) ISBN 9780674076082, p. 4.</ref>

Although the conference ended February 11, [http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/commons/1947/mar/24/yalta-and-potsdam-agreements-publication yet another] "secret codicil" was added on March 31, less than two weeks before [[FDR]]'s death. This agreement would [http://www.jstor.org/pss/2149110 force] the "[http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=1988&month=12 repatriation]" of some [[#refHornberger95|two million]] refugees ([http://www.capitalcentury.com/1945.html including] [[#refHerman95|1.5 million POWs]]) to the Soviet Union for [http://www.trumanlibrary.org/oralhist/lubini.htm slave labor]<ref>[http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/documents/cab_195_3_transcript.pdf U.K. War Cabinet Minutes], June 11, 1945, p. 182</ref> or [[#refHerman95|death in the Gulag]].<ref>"V. REPARATION: The following protocol has been approved: Protocol: On the Talks Between the Heads of Three Governments at the Crimean Conference on the Question of the German Reparations in Kind... 2. Reparation in kind is to be exacted from Germany in... (c) [[#refYalta45|Use of German labor]]." "Stalin then brought up the question of reparations in kind and in manpower.... The latter, of course, referred to forced labor.... [T]he Russians were using many thousands of prisoners in what was reported to be virtual slave camps...." William D. Leahy, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=e-dmAAAAMAAJ I Was There: The Personal Story of the Chief of Staff to Presidents Roosevelt and Truman, Based on His Notes and Diaries Made at the Time]'' (Whittlesey House, 1950), p. 302. Cf. Nikolai Tolstoy, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=u-dvAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 The Secret Betrayal]'' (New York: Scribner, 1978) ISBN 0684156350; Julius Epstein, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=_3kNAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Operation Keelhaul: The Story of Forced Repatriation from 1944 to the Present]'' (Old Greenwich, Conn.: Devin-Adair Co., 1973) ISBN 978-0815964070. Stettinius apparently paid little attention to the issue, evidently leaving the details up to Hiss: When historian Walter Johnson asked him about the Yalta agreement on slave labor, Stettinius referred him to Hiss. ERS and WJ, November 13, 1948, Edward R. Stettinius Jr. Papers, [http://www2.lib.virginia.edu/small/collections/manuscripts_and_rare_books.html Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library], University of Virginia</ref> Acting Secretary of State Joseph Grew, in Washington, sent [http://education-researcharchive.orgis/images/Grew-vs-Keelhaul.jpg TDxrP a Top Secret telegram] to Stettinius at Yalta, objecting to the repatriation as a violation of the Geneva Convention and of the traditional American policy of granting political asylum. The U.S. nevertheless agreed to the repatriation (which would become known as [[Operation Keelhaul]]), but that agreement was kept secret from the American people [[#refHornberger95|for 50 years]]. As Chamberlin concluded:

[[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'']]{{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>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 269</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>[[#refMoyComA|Moynihan Commission Appendix A]]: A-34 (PDF 36). After it had been classified for half a century, the late [[Senator]] [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]] ([[Democratic Party|D.]]-[[New York|N.Y.]]) “asked that [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/directors-and-deputy-directors-of-central-intelligence/deutch.html Deutch] discuss with the [[NSA]] what the status of [[Venona project|Venona]] was and whether its secrecy might no longer be necessary… [O]n July 11, 1995… the heads of the [[CIA]], [[FBI]], and NSA, along with Senator Moynihan, jointly announced that Venona was being opened…” ([[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 5-6) In his book ''Secrecy'', Moynihan, a [http://www.nytimes.com/1997/02/23/weekinreview/the-rehabilitation-of-morning-in-america.html liberal Democrat], concluded "Hiss was indeed a [[USSR|Soviet]] agent and appears to have been regarded by [[Moscow]] as its most important. Parts of the [[United States government|American government]] had [[conclusion|conclusive]] [[evidence]] of his guilt, but they never told." ([[#refMoynihan98|Moynihan 1998]]: 146)</ref> Analysts at the NSA have also gone on record that [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Ales could only have been Alger Hiss]. The late U.S. Air Force historian Eduard Mark called the FBI and NSA's conclusions "eminently reasonable," writing that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>[[#refMark03|Mark 2003]]: 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, agrees, calling this identification "[[#refSchindler05|exceptionally solid]]" and the evidence "compelling." [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no4/article09.html John Ehrman] of the [[CIA]]'s Directorate of Intelligence concurs, "it is clear that [[#refEhrmanSI51.4|Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES]]." Christopher Andrew, writing with [http://www.nytimes.com/2007/05/23/world/europe/23poison.html ex-KGB agent] Vasili Mitrokhin, says the identification of "Ales" as Hiss is "beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>[[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 599</ref> The codename Ales, concludes Mark Kramer, [http://daviscenter.fas.harvard.edu/research_portalabout-us/hpcws.html people/mark-kramer director of the Project for Cold War Studies] at [[Harvard University]], "seems to fit [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/37819.html only Hiss]."

[[Image:Hisscharter.jpg|thumb|300 px|left|Hiss arrives in Washington from San Francisco with UN Charter in fireproof [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,852292,00.html safe with parachute]. ''Image courtesy United States Air Force'']]In April 1945, at the UN conference, [[Harold Glasser|Glasser]] slipped [[Anatoly Gorsky|Gorsky]] a warning 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>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 267-268. The [[Communist Party]]'s ardor for the UN was evident that month, when the Party's [http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/157923/Eugene-Dennis general secretary] wrote in an [http://politicalaffairs.net/a-new-era-begins/ official organ] of the [[CPUSA]]: "Great popular support and enthusiasm for the United Nations policies should be built up, well organized and fully articulate. But it is necessary to do more than that. The opposition must be rendered so impotent that it will be unable to gather any significant support in the Senate against the United Nations Charter and the treaties which will follow." Eugene Dennis, "Yalta and America's National Unity," [http://books.google.com/books?id=T8kcAAAAIAAJ ''Political Affairs'', Vol. 24] (April 1945), p. 300</ref>

{{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>[[#refHaunted|Weinstein, Vassiliev 1999]]: 268-269; [[#refWhite04|White 2004]]: 226</ref>}}Bentley said that [[Charles Kramer]] (who would be identified by both [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,856648,00.html Lee Pressman] and [[#refTime3.3.52|Nathaniel Weyl]] 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>Statement of Elizabeth Terrell Bentley ([[#refSilv6|Silvermaster file, Vol. 6]]), [[#refSilv6.106|p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]]. Cf. [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 23</ref> She said after "Jack" (Soviet agent Joseph Katz)<ref>Robert J. Lamphere and Tom Shachtman, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=IB_ShD9fTcsC 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 [http://www.ifstone.org/pm.php 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, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=OqkNAAAACAAJ The First Directorate: My 32 Years in Intelligence & Espionage Against the West]'' (Darby, Penn.: Diane Publishing Company, 1994), ISBN 0788151118, p. 74. According to Stone [http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2009/06/14/robert-fulford-two-views-on-i-f-stone.aspx hagiographer] D.D. Guttenplan, Stone [[#refGuttenplan09|admitted as much]] himself. As Stone put it in 1989, "In a way, I was half a Jeffersonian and half a [[Marxist]]. I never saw a contradiction between the two, and [http://wwwarchive.mediaresearchmrc.org/notablequotables/1989/nq19890710.asp I still don't]."</ref> who [http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/01/books/review/Berman.t.htm?pagewanted=all cooperated with Soviet intelligence] as an "agent of influence."<ref>Myra MacPherson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=kP3i6WsQBtsC '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" had entered "the channel of normal operational work," meaning that Stone had become a "[[#refHKV5.09|fully active agent]]." ([[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 150) Stone also [[#refVenona1506|met with "Sergei"]], who, under cover as "[[Vladimir Pravdin]]," ([[#refVStory|Benson 2001]]: 31 [PDF 34]) New York bureau chief of the Soviet government news agency TASS ([[#refSword|Andrew, Mitrokin 2000]]: 124), was actually [[NKVD]] agent [[#refKlehr04|Roland Abbiat]], murderer of Ignace Reiss. [[#refKriv39|Krivitsky 1939]]: 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://www.education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster006_Folder/Silvermaster006_page106.pdf Silvermaster file, Vol. 6, p. 105 (PDF p. 106)]. According to Foreign Service Officer Jacques J. Reinstein, Hiss served as assistant to Acheson. Thomas Dunnigan, [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?mfdip:7:./temp/~ammem_JLez:: Interview with Jacques J. Reinstein], Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, February 5, 2001</ref> FBI investigation quickly closed in on Alger Hiss.<ref>[[#refNKVD|NKVD]]: [http://www.education-research.org/PDFs/splitfiles/splitprocessed/Silvermaster082_Folder/Silvermaster082_page119.pdf 108 (PDF 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 [[#refFoote|Haynes 2007]]</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>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 39; Trans. 77; cf. [[#refBLH05|Bachman, Leich, Haynes 2005]]; [[#refLowCher|Lowenthal, Chervonnaya 2005]]</ref> informational group, which was affiliated with the neighbors [GRU]."<ref>[[#refVStory|Benson 2001]]: 29 (PDF 31)</ref> Before the end of 1945, a State Department Security memorandum summarized:

Even before the [[#refBentleyGJ|grand jury]] convened, the [[FBI]] learned that the [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] administration, acutely aware that "an untimely public disclosure about Hiss could easily have torpedoed Truman's hopes for the 1948 Presidential election,"<ref>Charles Stuart Kennedy, [http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?mfdip:2:./temp/~ammem_GoLZ:: Interview with Thomas L. Hughes], Foreign Affairs Oral History Collection, Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, July 7, 1999</ref> conspired to subvert the grand jury process in order to cover up the [[USSR|Soviet]] penetration problem.<ref>One FBI memo reports that [[Harry S. Truman|Truman]] [[Department of Justice|Justice]] wanted the FBI to interview the [[Elizabeth Bentley|Bentley]] suspects, with an eye to “presenting the evidence to a grand jury with the idea of letting them [http://www.answers.com/topic/no-bill no bill] the case. Further that in the event [http://bioguide.congress.gov/scripts/biodisplay.pl?index=T000175 Congressman Thomas] of the [[HUAC|Un-American Committee]] should ever [http://clerk.house.gov/art_history/highlights.html?action=view&intID=169 raise a question], it would be possible to answer by saying that the grand jury had considered the evidence and it had not deemed it sufficient to justify criminal action.” (FBI file: Hiss-Chambers, Vol. 96)</ref> The grand jury sat for nearly a year (July 22, 1947 to July 20, 1948), during which the Justice Department never called Whittaker Chambers to testify. Without his testimony, the grand jury had no corroboration of Bentley. As a result, it did not indict a [http://education-researcharchive.orgis/images/FBI-GrandJuryWitnesses.jpg 5BcPM single federal official] for espionage; instead, Truman Justice obtained indictments of the open leaders of the above-ground [[Communist Party]]&mdash;not for espionage, but for violations of the [[Smith Act]].<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 171, fn</ref>

[[Image:HissSig.png|thumb|300px|right|The name “Alger Hiss” in Cyrillic (Элджер Хисс) from Vassiliev's notes on the “[[Gorsky memo]].” ''Source: [[#refVas|Cold War International History Project]], Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars'']]When Chambers testified against Hiss, wrote Sudoplatov, "we considered this to be a setback for [[GRU]] intelligence activities in the United States."<ref>[[#refSudoplatov95|Sudoplatov 1995]]: 228</ref> Four months later, [[Anatoly Gorsky]], chief of Soviet intelligence in the U.S. during World War II, would author an internal [[KI|Soviet secret police]] memorandum, entitled "[[Gorsky memo|Failures in the USA (1938-48)]]," listing 43 Soviet sources and intelligence officers likely to have been identified to U.S. authorities. Included on the list, under the heading, "'Karl’s' group," was "Alger Hiss, former employee of the State Dept."<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 39; Trans. 77; cf. [[#refBLH05|Bachman, Leich, Haynes 2005]]; [[#refLowCher|Lowenthal, Chervonnaya 2005]]</ref> That same month, Piotr Fedotov and Konstantin Kukin, two other senior Soviet intelligence officials, wrote [http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page73.html|reported ] to the chairman of Soviet intelligence] about “our former agents who were betrayed by Chambers ('''A. Hiss''', [[Donald Hiss|D. Hiss]], [[Julian Wadleigh|Wadleigh]], [[Ward Pigman|Pigman]], [[Vincent Reno|Reno]]).”<ref>[[#refVasBlack|Vassiliev Black Notebook]]: Orig. 37; Trans. 73; cf. [[#refSpies09|Haynes, Klehr, Vassiliev 2009]]: 553, 555</ref>

Trying to explain Chambers' charges, Hiss suggested that his accuser was crazy, asking, "is he a man of consistent reliability, truthfulness and honor?... Indeed, is he a man of sanity?"<ref>[[#refHUAC48|HUAC 1948]]: 1164 (PDF 674)</ref> He demanded that the committee ask his accuser if he had ever been treated for a mental illness. The committee obliged, and Chambers answered: "[http://www.thenation.com/article/case-alger-hiss I have not, period]." On the White House memo advising that Chambers be investigated for perjury was inserted a handwritten line: "Investigation of Chambers' [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/image.gif confinement in mental institution]."<ref>[[#refBW96|Benson, Warner 1996]]: 117.</ref> (Again, no suggestion was made that Hiss's mental health history might be subject to investigation.) The FBI had already checked into this, and [[J. Edgar Hoover|Hoover]] had reported to [[Attorney General]] [[Tom Clark]], "With regard to [[Whittaker Chambers]], there is nothing indicated in the files of the [[FBI|Bureau]], or in the files of the New York office that Chambers has been institutionalized."<ref>[[#refEvans07|Evans 2007]]: 322</ref> 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>[[#refHK99|Haynes, Klehr 1999]]: 15</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," (Italics in original) later concluded that "[http://wwwwriting.historycooperativeupenn.orgedu/journals~afilreis/jah50s/87.1/lettersnewby-sacvan.html Hiss was guilty]," as did Hiss's own attorney, William L. Marbury.

:::*<cite id=refVasBlack>Black Notebook, [http://legacydigitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docsdocument/112860 Black%2520Notebook%2520Original.pdf OriginalNotebook]; </cite>:::* <cite id=refVasWhite2>[http://legacydigitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topicsdocument/docs/Black%2520Notebook%2520Transcribed.pdf Transcribed]; [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.or/topics/docs/Black%2520Notebook%2520Translated1.pdf Translated112565 White Notebook #2]</cite>:::* <cite id=refVasWhite3>White Notebook #3, [http://legacydigitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topicsdocument/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Original.pdf Original]; [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed]; [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/White_Notebook_No.3_Translated.pdf Translated112566 White Notebook #3]</cite>:::* <cite id=refVasYellow2>Yellow Notebook #2, [http://legacydigitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/topicsdocument/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Original.pdf Original]; [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Transcribed.pdf Transcribed]; [http://legacy.wilsoncenter.org/topics/docs/Yellow_Notebook_No.2_Translated1.pdf Translated112565 Yellow Notebook #2]</cite>

* <cite id=refUN46>''[http://unyearbookwww.ununmultimedia.org/1946-47YUNsearchers/yearbook/page.jsp?volume=1946-47_P1_CH1.pdf 47&page=1 Yearbook of the United Nations 1947-48]'' (United Nations, Department of Public Information, 1948)</cite>

:* <cite id=refHUAC50.2>[httphttps://ia700409.us.archive.org/0/itemsstream/hearingsregardin195002unit#page/hearingsregardin195002unit_bw.pdf 2850/mode/2up Hearings Regarding Communism in the United States Government&mdash;Part 2], 1950</cite>

:* <cite id=refNoe1>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081120034728/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/1.html Part 1: The Promising Mr. Hiss]</cite>:* <cite id=refNoe9>[https://web.archive.org/web/20121021232049/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/9.html Part 9: The Tantalizing Typewriter]</cite>