Alger Hiss

Alger Hiss (November 11, 1904 – November 15, 1996) was a U.S. State Department official and Secretary General to the founding charter conference of the United Nations. Following accusations that he spied on behalf of the Soviet Union, Hiss was convicted of perjury.

Corroboration from Soviet archives

Hiss claimed he was finally vindicated when in 1992 Russian General Dmitri Volkogonov, acting on a request from John Lowenthal to help clear Hiss's name, stated that a search of Soviet archives revealed nothing. However, when questioned, Volkogonov subsequently revealed that he had spent only two days on his search, and had mainly relied on the word of KGB archivists. He stated "What I saw gave me no basis to claim a full clarification. ?John Lowenthal pushed me to say things of which I was not fully convinced."

Related Topics:
Dmitri Volkogonov - John Lowenthal - KGB

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1996 the United States government released the Venona papers, decoded Russian intelligence intercepts dating from the mid-1940s. These documents reference a Soviet spy at the State Department, code-named "Ales", whose biographical details matched Hiss.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Alger Hiss?s known cryptonyms were "Lawyer"{{NamedRef|Lawyer|4}} ("Advocate"{{NamedRef|Advocate|5}} or "Advokat"{{NamedRef|Advokat|6}}) which was assigned during his brief time at the United States Department of Justice between 1935 and 1936, and "Ales"{{NamedRef|Ales|7}} in 1945. "Leonard"{{NamedRef|Leonard|8}} did not occur as a cover name in the World War II deciphered Venona traffic and may be a later (or possibly earlier) cryptonym.

Related Topics:
Cryptonym - United States Department of Justice - 1935 - 1936

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~