![]() ![]() The Russians would have benefited enormously from tip-offs about American thinking at this time, and from the other inside information that passed across Hiss's desk. The same year he was made director of the office of special political affairs, responsible for forumlating plans for the United Nations and other aspects of the peace settlement. He had attended the post-war Yalta Conference in 1945, rubbing shoulders with Roosevelt, Stalin and Churchill. If Hiss was a spy, the repercussions were endless. Both men were now called before a grand jury investigating these claims of espionage. On the film were various State Department documents. Chambers had photographed the papers and sent them to a Russian agent.įurther evidence was produced by Chambers after a visit to his Maryland farm, when he returned to HUAC with 35mm film stored, he claimed, in a hollowed-out-pumpkin. According to him, Hiss had brought State Department documents home, had them re-typed by his wife, and passed these copies to Chambers while the originals were returned. This was a particularly damaging allegation to someone in Hiss's position, and the lawyer sued the journalist for libel.Ĭhambers now expanded his claims by saying that Hiss had acted as a spy for the Russians. These damaging allegations were often extracted from colleagues under investigation who found it expedient to name a few names to divert the spotlight away from themselves.Ĭhamber's version of events was that Hiss and several other named people were members of a communist group during the 1930s. This was the Republican anti-communist witch-hunting committee which claimed numerous actors, politicians and officials were secretly communist plotters. Chambers was testifying before Senator Joe McCarthy's House Un-American Activities (HUAC). The allegations came from the mouth of Whittaker Chambers, a senior editor of Time magazine, and a tortured ex-communist eager to expose those with whom he had plotted in his past. Suddenly it was claimed that this talented and respected man was a spy, sending the Russians sensitive information from the hightest levels of American politics. Experience in international diplomacy had brought him the honour of temporary secretary-generalship of the United Nations, and he had just become president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The Harvard graduate was a well-educated and talented lawyer and negotiator who had been closely identified with Franklin Roosevelt's "New Deal" in the 1930s. In 1947 Alger Hiss was an ascending star. ![]() It has good overviews and pictures of conspiratorial world events, including the following chapter on Alger Hiss. It's from a glossy booklet entitled SCANDALS: GRIPPING ACCOUNTS I bought in England. I don't have time right now to go into the whole story of Alger Hiss and so instead will just quote from where I first noticed the date. His two greatest books - "Animal Farm" and "1984" - were analogies, in large part, of life under Lenin and Stalin. Orwell, one of Communism's greatest enemies, would have been pleased about Hiss being jailed. Symbolically, this is also the day in 1924 that Vladimir Lenin, leader of the Communist overthrow of Russia in 1917. It turns out that Alger Hiss - one of USA President Roosevelt's closest advisors and the first Secretary General of the United Nations - was found guilty of being a Communist spy and thrown into prison on the same day Orwell died - January 21, 1950. Today, January 21, 2007, is the 57th anniversary of George Orwell's death and I want to take this opportunity to point out a coincidence I noticed a couple of years ago. Shaking hands with president Truman, former Roosevelt vice-presidentĬonvicted Communist agent Alger Hiss is led away to serve his five-year sentence Hiss, appointed first Secretary General of United Nations at formation in 1945 ![]() Hiss standing behind Stalin, Roosevelt & Churchill at 1945 Yalta, USSR conference ![]()
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