The case of the fonts – 50 years ago
In 1948, the young Richard Nixon made his bones by questioning Alger Hiss . And it all depended on a discussion of fonts.
Alger Hiss was an aristocratic lawyer who worked for the State Department, and was prominent enough to have served as Secretary General at the founding meeting of the UN. Whittaker Chambers was a grubby-looking ex-Communist who claimed before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) in August 1948 that Hiss was a close friend and a member of the Party. Hiss — at the time, the president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace — demanded to address the Committee where he insisted he had never been a Communist and had never met Chambers. Hiss was so convincing that it looked like HUAC had made a mistake. But one Congressman, Richard M. Nixon, pressed on. The Committee charged Nixon with discovering which of the two witnesses was lying.
Nixon held first-ever televised hearings (to a grand total of 325,000 existing TV sets in the US) where he questioned Chambers about the details of his alleged friend. Chambers seemed to know details only a friend would know. Hiss then admitted that he might have known Chambers passingly under a different name. Hiss came out of the hearings looking like a liar.
Hiss sued Chambers for libel, claiming $75,000 in damages, and required Chambers to produce any and all correspondence that might be relevant. Chambers went to the home of his nephew’s mother and pulled out an envelope from a dumbwaiter. Inside were 65 typed copies of State Department documents and four written by hand, along with 5 strips of 35mm film. The HUAC got wind that there was yet more evidence, for which Nixon issued a subpoena. Chambers led investigators to a pumpkin patch on his farm and pulled five rolls of film out of a hollowed-out pumpkin. The film turned out to contain photos of government documents from the 1930s.
Because of the statute of limitations, Hiss couldn’t be tried for espionage. So he was tried for perjury. After besmirching Chambers’ non-aristocratic life, Hiss’ lawyer claimed that the documents were forged and the whole event was timed to hurt Truman’s electoral campaign.
Most damning to Hiss’ case was testimony by an FBI agent that, based on analysis of the typefaces, the letters had been typed on Hiss’ old typewriter. Hiss argued that he’d given the typewriter to a domestic servant before 1938. Three members of the servant’s family supported that claim. But Hiss’ wife had told the grand jury that he might have given it away as late as 1943. Plus, she was caught on the stand lying about whether she had ever been a registered Socialist.
The jury was unable to decide on a verdict.
At the re-trial, a psychologist brought in to show that Chambers was a “psychopathic personality” was famously shredded on the stand. Hiss’ lawyer admitted that the documents had been typed on Hiss’ typewriter, but argued that Hiss wasn’t the typist. Hiss was found guilty and sentenced to 5 years in jail for perjury.
The case made Nixon into a hero. In 1952, Eisenhower chose him as his running mate. Shortly afterwards, Joseph McCarthy began his own hearings, supposedly to ferret out spies within the government. Ronald Reagan said that Chambers’ autobiography was the catalyst that converted him from Democrat to Republican; in 1984, Reagan posthumously gave Chambers the Medal of Freedom.
Hiss maintained his innocence until his death, even in the face of the release of material from the USSR released in 1996 that seems to indicate that he was indeed a spy.
Sources and links:
Douglas Linder, The Trials of Alger Hiss: A Commentary
Stanley Cutler’s review of Alger Hiss’s Looking Glass War, a book by G. Edward White
Susan E. Evans’ “The Alger hiss Case: The Real Trial of the Century”
Court TV’s “The Shadowy Mr. Crosley” has dramatics excerpts from the Nixon interrogation of Hiss.
Here’s a pro-Hiss site managed by the lawyer who represented Hiss in his later attempt to get his conviction reversed. At that site is a deposition from an expert claiming the Hiss typewriter had been deliberately altered, a mainstay of the liberal defense of Hiss. Plus, newsreel footage!
Categories: Uncategorized dw
On Sept. 12 …
1977: Steven Biko, a black student leader in South Africa, died while in police custody, triggering an international outcry.
“in 1984, Reagan posthumously gave Chambers the Medal of Freedom.”
Wow, I didn’t realize Reagan died while he was still in office. He looked so natural !
I think you mean:
“in 1984, Reagan gave Chambers the Medal of Freedom posthumously.”
Great story, though. Thanks!
David– As Ted said, great telling of the story!! One thing that perplexes me is why Alger Hiss is still a liberal cult hero. I have a friend in her 80s who will say “it is unconscionable what they did to that man” when the name Alger Hiss is mentioned. She’s very liberal, but by no means out of the liberal mainstream. Take two of the right wing names mentioned in your story: Joe McCarthy and Richard Nixon. Republicans mention Joe McCarthy about as often as Texans mention the Civil War. (Well, except for Ann Coulter, but it’s only in the back chapters of one of her books and then, like everything she writes, only for shock value). Then there’s Nixon. I was at the Nixon funeral and believe me, many of the people were not there to praise Nixon but to bury him. GOPers are still in shock that the Governator invoked Nixon as the reason he became a Republican. Even if it were true, especially if it were true, come up with a different story Arnold! So I am perplexed why liberals have such a fascination with Alger Hiss. It’s like he’s the liberal’s O.J. but the glove fit. The funny thing is that Alger Hiss probably created the conservative movement. He is still the refrain that National Review can use to bring everyone together.
I was brought up thinking of Nixon as a satanic politician, and Hiss was proof of Nixon’s thorough evilness … that and his first campaign (non-posthumous) for Congress against “the pink lady.” So, Hiss is a deep part of the myth of Nixon’s evil rise to eviltude. Hard to uproot.
Also, McCarthy _was_ evil, and Hiss made Congress save for McCarthyism, so it’s hard to give up on Hiss being innocent.
And, Hiss being innocent means that the FBI is guilty of forgery, part of the myth that the FBI is/was a tool of the rich and reactionary (a myth I happen to believe certainly was true).
Also, the semi-clinching proof didn’t come until the mid-90s.