Whittaker Chambers

Jay Vivian (Whittaker) Chambers (April 1, 1901 – July 9, 1961) was an American writer, editor, political operative and defector best known for his accusation and testimony against Alger Hiss, the architect of the Yalta Conference and Secretary General of the San Francisco conference that created the United Nations, on espionage and subversion charges.

Trial of the Century

After the war, Chambers' story caught the attention of a freshman Representative from California, Richard Nixon. On August 3, 1948, Chambers testified before the House Un-American Activities Committee and presented a list of what he said were members of an underground communist network working within the United States government in the 1930s and 1940s. One of the names on that list was that of a State Department official who had participated in the creation of the United Nations: Alger Hiss. The official White House response was to dismiss the case as a "red herring." Internally, White House staffers set about discrediting Chambers.

Related Topics:
California - Richard Nixon - August 3 - 1948 - House Un-American Activities Committee - Alger Hiss

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Chambers had skeptics. Hiss was well educated and had a long list of achievements to his name, and he vehemently denied the charges. Comparatively, Chambers was a drifter. Hiss had credibility; Chambers' story seemed fantastic, with little hard evidence. Hiss used this to his advantage, maligning Chambers in the press. Hiss even fabricated stories about Chambers having homosexual experiences, and used them to smear Chambers in public.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Hiss initially denied knowing Chambers, then later said he recognized Chambers as a man he had known as George Crosley. After Chambers accused Hiss of being a communist on the radio program "Meet the Press," Hiss filed a $75,000 libel suit. Then, in November 1948, Chambers led two HUAC investigators into a pumpkin patch in Maryland, where he brought out a hollowed-out pumpkin containing four rolls of microfilm. The contents of the microfilm became known as the "pumpkin papers." Nixon posed with a magnifying glass and these microfilms in a number of highly publicized photographs.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

On May 31, 1949, amidst unprecedented hype, Alger Hiss's perjury trial began. After that trial ended in a hung jury, a second was held, which ended with a one count conviction of Hiss on January 21, 1950. By then, Chambers had made a total of 14 appearances. Because of his testimony, he resigned from his position at Time and, at one point during the trial, Chambers attempted suicide.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In the aftermath, the Hiss trial cast a shadow among a sceptical public upon the credibility of many Democrats, liberals, and even President Truman himself. Chambers relates how he was told, except for him, the whole political climate of the early Cold War would have been different.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Congressman Richard Nixon was so skeptical of his background, he asked FBI Director Hoover to do a thorough background check. Nixon feared Chambers was a homosexual and had been confined to a mental hospital. The FBI found gaps in Chambers life story for which Chambers could not account.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~