Anybody remember the name Alger Hiss?

[WI_DEM]

He was Nixon's initial claim to fame. Supposed to be a communist spy (though he was never convicted of espionage, just perjury).
Any DU historians recall this case and do you think Hiss was really a Communist?

[LiberalAndProud]

1. I'm familiar.

I read one biography several years ago. After reading it, I was convinced that he was, in fact, a Russian operative. And yes, he was a communist. In restrospect, I should have looked to read at least one book from a differing POV, but I do know who the man was and what he was accused of.

[izzybeans]

2. if he was, it took a herculean dose of Orwellian disregard for freedom of assembly

to give a rip one way or the other. But then again, we put people on trial for espionage for merely being members of groups who advocated policymaking and were forced underground by the proto-fascists aligned with McCarthy to begin with.

Anyone who was a communist or a member of a socialist organization was automatically seen by these people as an "agent of Russia". Whether Hiss was or was not a Russian spy is a fact relegated to the memory hole that can not be verified.

I think he was a communist just as I think millions of our great grandparents were. None of them have a thing to do with Russia, except in the paranoid minds of that time.

[LiberalAndProud]

3. I shall do more reading.

The book I read had a very detailed account of exactly where and how Hiss passed off sensitive information. It was a fascinating read, but I wasn't in a skeptical frame of mind. I find it to be a very interesting episode in our history.

After Reagan, Bush and Bush, I find that I hate Nixon a whole lot less than I did when he resigned. Even my hating on Republicans is relative, I guess.

[izzybeans]

4. I view anything from that time period with skepticism.

It looks like for reasons not explained that when Hiss (listed on his Wikipedia page as well) got out of jail he was able to get back to practicing law by winning his place back on the Bar and petitioned for declassification of the evidence used against him and won. Doesn't sound like the work of a guilty man to me, but then again, like I said, I don't trust a whole lot of "official accounts" of information from that period.

I of course hold out the possibility that he was guilty. The whole case and how it went down just makes little sense on the surface.

[Demoiselle]

8. Do the details you read about include Whitaker Chambers and a pumpkin patch?

I'm being serious. Mr. Chambers testified that purloined documents were hidden in a pumpkin. Yes, I remember Alger Hiss and much of the gefuffle of the period, even though I was a wee thing.
I guess I should look for some books about it. My take on the whole McCarthy period was that it tragic paranoia that destroyed a lot of good people. I suppose some of that comes from the fact that my folks were diehard liberal Democrats from North Dakota. (Yes, North Dakota.) They adored Stevenson. And I'll never forgot my father saying, with something like a sneer, "Communists? Sure! Anybody with any brains in my class (ND State, 1937) was a Communist, at least for a while!

[Robbins]

5. Yeah

If you have seen Oliver stone's Nixon the Hiss case IS mentioned.It was never proven he was a
spy for Russia.He was convincted of perjury because he lied about meeting journilst who accused him of
being a Spy.He probally was a Communist but that doesn't mean he was a spy and traiter.Remember
Republicans used to call liberals communists.In fact some here would be called Communists back then
for views.

[Cleita]

7. Some here have been called communists by others here.n/t

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

6. After the USSR fell apart the Russians admitted he was an operative

[JHB]

10. I'm a little fuzzy on that...

Was it reliably verified? Or was it some ex-KGB guy trying to earn American Dollars in a bad economy by making book deals and generally peddling to RW "a commie under every toilet seat"-types exactly what they wanted to hear.

[gratuitous]

9. Alger Hiss

A liberal Democrat back when such things meant something, Hiss was an idealistic fellow who saw the ruin the country was going through in the Great Depression, and like a lot of other people, wanted to do something about it. He flirted with communism during the 1930s, and may have been contacted by agents of the Soviet Union. He certainly attended gatherings and meetings of other like-minded individuals, and discussed any number of ideas to improve the United States, some of which could be very similar to programs and ideas promulgated in the Soviet Union.

Hiss worked in the federal government, and was instrumental in the Dumbarton Oaks negotiations in the mid-1940s that brought about the formation of the United Nations. He was a close aide and advisor to President Roosevelt during the Yalta Conference with Churchill and Stalin. After World War II, he went to work for non-governmental organizations working toward lasting peace.

In the late 1940s, a former communist Whittaker Chambers claimed that Hiss had been a spy for the Soviet Union in the 1930s, passing sensitive government information to the Stalin regime. Hiss denied knowing Chambers or even having ever met him. In the post-war red-baiting hysteria of the time, simply having one's name named was sufficient to ruin a person's career. Chambers named a number of names, but Hiss was the trophy "get" for Chambers as a witness. Hiss was tried twice as a spy, but never convicted. He was eventually convicted of perjury because it was apparent that he had met Chambers during the 1930s, albeit briefly, under another name, and before Chambers had made significant dental and surgical alterations to his appearance. No evidence was ever presented that Hiss had passed information to the Soviets, or that if he had, that it had any significance or was not available from other public sources.

The most sensational aspect of the case against Hiss was Chambers' allegation that he had a roll of microfilm of the documents Hiss allegedly passed to the Soviets. Chambers hid the microfilm in a pumpkin on his Maryland farm, the so-called "Pumpkin Papers," which neophyte congressman and soon-to-be vice president Richard Nixon made a great show of flourishing before the media cameras as "proof" of Hiss' perfidy (there were many Nixon episodes in connection with this and other aspects of the Hiss case). The microfilm was never introduced into evidence against Hiss, and later inspection showed it contained no sensitive material.

Hiss' career was ruined. Whittaker Chambers went on to become an editor for Time magazine. Richard Nixon became an even bigger asshole than he already was, and sold the United States down the river more completely than any spy could ever hope to do.