Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs
The Controversial Trials of the Alleged Soviet Spies at the Height of the Red Scare
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Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs
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Narrated by:
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Scott Clem
Summary
Shortly after World War II, Congress' House Committee on Un-American Activities began investigating Americans across the country for suspected ties to communism. Among the people called before the House Committee on Un-American Activities, none are as controversial as Alger Hiss. Hiss had graduated from Harvard Law, after which he worked as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes, worked in the Roosevelt administration for the Agricultural Adjustment Association, and was Head of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. That background didn't exactly sound like one held by a Soviet spy, let alone a communist, but Elizabeth Bentley, a former communist, notified the committee about a suspected spy ring and named several names, including Hiss. More notably, Hiss was also accused of being a communist and Soviet spy by an admitted communist, Whittaker Chambers. The Hiss case came at a time when the committee was populated by right-wing zealots, including a young congressman from California named Richard Nixon.
©2016 Charles River Editors (P)2017 Charles River Editors