Who was Alger Hiss?

Answer 1

After two trials during 1949, a jury found Alger Hiss, a former high-ranking State Department official, accused of by Whittaker Chambers in August 1948 of being a communist and Soviet spy, guilty on two counts of perjury.

Over the years, further testimony and evidence have become known that do indeed corroborate that Hiss was an active member of Chambers' spy ring.

Sources: Readers interested in more details would do well by starting with official sites for the two men. There are links to these sites below.

Answer 2

Alger Hiss was a former high-ranking State Department official and adviser to Franklin D. Roosevelt, accused of by Whittaker Chambers in August 1948 of being a communist and Soviet spy. After two trials in 1949, Hiss was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in prison (of which he only served 44 months).

Richard M. Nixon rose to fame during the Hiss-Chambers Case (or "Hiss Case") as an aggressive member of the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). HUAC initiated Hiss Case with a subpoena of Chambers and his answers to committee questions during a first appearance on August 3, 1948. By August 25, 1948, a more prominent official, Harry Dexter White, had died of a heart attack, five others had pled the Fifth collectively, and Hiss and Chambers appeared before HUAC on radio and television (the first televised congressional hearing) to confront each other with their stories. By December 1948, the U.S. Department of Justice had indicted Hiss on two counts of perjury.
Sources: Readers would do well by starting with official sites for the two men:
- Whittaker Chambers: http://www.whittakerchambers.org
- Alger Hiss: http://www.algerhiss.com

Answer 3

Under subpoena to the House on Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) on August 3, 1948, Whittaker Chambersaccused Alger Hiss and other former Federal officials of forming part of his Washington-based spy ring on behalf of the Soviets during the 1930s.

Denials by Hiss and Harry Dexter White (a more prominent official) plus a collective pleading of the Fifth Amendment by the five others (a first in U.S. history) and White's heart attack while on the stand (and death, three days later) all within a few weeks of that first testimony all but guaranteed that this issue would dominate national news -- as it did, from August 1948 through January 1950, when a jury convicted Alger Hiss on two counts of perjury (thus, by implication, of Soviet espionage).

Sources: Readers would do well by starting with official sites for the two men:

given below.

Answer 4

a U.S. government employee accused of spying for the Soviet Union

simpfiled answer