Alger Hiss Case
In August 1948, Whittaker Chambers, a former Communist appearing before the House Un-American Activities Committee, charged that Alger Hiss, president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, was a Communist spy. Chambers claimed that he and Hiss had belonged to the same espionage ring and that Hiss had given him secret State Department documents. Chambers later repeated these charges on "Meet the Press."
Hiss, a Harvard-educated lawyer and a prominent Washington figure, had been responsible for Far East affairs for the State Department and had played a significant role in the planning for and development of the United Nations. He responded to Chambers's charges by suing him for slander. Chambers then produced copies of the secret documents, saying he had hidden them in a pumpkin in a field near his farm. Since the statute of limitations for an espionage charge had expired, the government prosecuted Hiss for perjury. His first trial ended in a hung jury; at the second he was found guilty and sentenced to five years in prison.
The Hiss case played an important role in the domestic controversies over the cold war and McCarthyism. Supporters of Hiss believed that Chambers was a liar and that the incident was an attempt to discredit the New Deal and social reform. Chambers and his followers, for their part, always stressed the communist threat to the United States.
See also Anticommunism; Espionage.
