Alger Hiss

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Alger Hiss bigraphy, stories - Alleged Communist spy

Alger Hiss : biography

November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996

Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was an American lawyer, government official, author, and lecturer. He was involved in the establishment of the United Nations both as a U.S. State Department and U.N. official. Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy in 1948 and convicted of perjury in connection with this charge in 1950.

On August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist Party member, testified under subpoena before the House Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC) that Hiss had secretly been a Communist while in federal service. Chambers had previously testified under oath that Hiss had never been a Communist or a spy, and Chambers would admit, under oath, to other instances where he had committed perjury under oath. Called before HUAC, Hiss categorically denied the charge. When Chambers repeated his claim on nationwide radio, Hiss filed a defamation lawsuit against him.

During the pretrial discovery process, Chambers produced new evidence indicating that he and Hiss had been involved in espionage, which both men had previously denied under oath to HUAC. A federal grand jury indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury; Chambers admitted to the same offense but, as a cooperating government witness, was never charged. Although Hiss’s indictment stemmed from the alleged espionage, he could not be tried for that crime because the statute of limitations had expired. After a mistrial due to a hung jury, Hiss was tried a second time. In January 1950, he was found guilty on both counts of perjury and received two concurrent five-year sentences, of which he eventually served three and a half years. Hiss maintained his innocence until his death.

Arguments about the case and the validity of the verdict took center stage in broader debates about the Cold War, McCarthyism, and the extent of Soviet espionage in the United States. Since Hiss’s conviction, statements by involved parties and newly exposed evidence have added to the dispute. In 2001, James Barron, a staff reporter for the New York Times, identified what he called a "growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent". See also: "…the vast majority of modern American historians today and particularly those specializing in domestic Cold War accept Chambers’ overall version of events."

"Yet the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was … a member of the communist underground and a Soviet spy." "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts … settled the matter — to all but the truest of believers." But": "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein. They have done so, however, not because the evidence against Hiss is clear and definitive, but because the evidence box — filled as it is with a morass of circumstantial detail — leaves them the easy option of finding him guilty of some form of espionage activity during his murky relationship with Chambers." and: "The question of his guilt or innocence remains controversial." Svetlana Chervonnaya DocumentsTalk.com. Accessed: 2010-09-09. The previous year author Anthony Summers had observed that many relevant files were and would continue to be unavailable, including "ironically—even though the House Un-American Activities committee is long defunct—HUAC’s own documents. These were sealed in 1976 for an additional fifty years. Until we have full access, the Hiss controversy will continue to be debated.".

Early life and career

Hiss was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to Mary Lavinia (née Hughes), who came from an old Maryland family, and Charles Alger Hiss, an executive in a wholesale dry goods company. When Alger was two years old, his father committed suicide and his mother was obliged to rely on her inheritance and assistance from family members to raise her five children. They lived in a Baltimore neighborhood described by biographer G. Edward White as one of "shabby gentility". Though his childhood was shadowed by early loss, Hiss became a high performing and popular student. (The family experienced two further tragedies when he was in his twenties: his elder brother Bosley died of Bright’s disease and his sister Mary Ann committed suicide.)