Editing Whittaker Chambers (section)

==Career==

===Communist===
Chambers wrote and edited for the magazine ''[[New Masses]]'' and was an editor for the ''[[Daily Worker]]'' newspaper from 1927 to 1929.<ref name=Britannica/>

Combining his literary talents with his devotion to communism, Chambers wrote four short stories for ''New Masses'' in 1931 about [[proletarian]] hardship and revolt, including ''Can You Make Out Their Voices?'', which was considered by critics as one of the best pieces of fiction of American communism.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|pp=70–71}}</ref> [[Hallie Flanagan]] co-adapted and produced it as a play entitled ''[[Can You Hear Their Voices?]]'' (see [[Bibliography of Whittaker Chambers]]), staged across America and in many other countries. Chambers also worked as a translator, his works including the English version of [[Felix Salten]]'s 1923 novel ''[[Bambi, a Life in the Woods]]''.<ref name=translations>{{cite web
| title = Translations
| publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
| url = http://whittakerchambers.org/books/translations/
| access-date = January 28, 2012
| archive-date = April 13, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130413171657/http://whittakerchambers.org/books/translations/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| first = Thomas
| last = Vinciguerra
| author-link = Thomas Vinciguerra
| title = The Old College Try
| newspaper = The New York Times
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/weekinreview/the-old-college-try.html
| date = October 3, 2004
| access-date = October 31, 2018
| archive-date = October 31, 2018
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20181031214939/https://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/03/weekinreview/the-old-college-try.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref>

===Soviet underground===

====Ware group====
<!-- [[WP:NFCC]] violation: [[File:Ware-harold-c1935.jpg|thumb|right|[[Harold Ware]] (1935), whose network Chambers inherited]] -->
Chambers was recruited to join the "communist underground" and began his career as a spy, working for a [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]] (Main Intelligence Directorate) [[spy ring]] headed by [[Alexander Ulanovsky]], also known as Ulrich. Later, his main handler was [[J. Peters|Josef Peters]], who was replaced by CPUSA General Secretary [[Earl Browder]] with [[Rudy Baker]]. Chambers claimed that Peters introduced him to [[Harold Ware]] (although he later denied Peters had ever been introduced to Ware, and also testified to HUAC that he, Chambers, never knew Ware). Chambers claimed that Ware was head of a communist underground cell in Washington that reportedly included the following:<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Haynes
 | first1 = John Earl
 | last2 = Klehr | first2 = Harvey
 | year = 2000
 | title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
 | publisher = Yale University Press
 | pages = 62, 63, 64
 | isbn = 0-300-08462-5}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name !! Description
|-
| [[Lee Pressman]] || Assistant [[general counsel]] of [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] (AAA)
|-
| [[John Abt]] || Chief of Litigation for [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration|AAA]] (1933–1935), assistant general counsel of the [[Works Progress Administration|WPA]] 1935, chief counsel on Senator [[Robert La Follette Jr.]]'s [[La Follette Committee]] (1936–1937) and special assistant to U.S. Attorney General (1937–1938)
|-
| [[Marion Bachrach]] || Sister of John Abt; office manager to Representative [[John Bernard (American politician)|John Bernard]] of the [[Minnesota Farmer-Labor Party]]
|-
| [[Alger Hiss]] || Attorney for [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]] and [[Nye Committee]]; moved to Department of State in 1936, where he became an increasingly prominent figure
|-
| [[Donald Hiss]] || Brother of Alger Hiss; employed at Department of State
|-
| [[Nathan Witt]] || Employed at [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]; later moved to [[National Labor Relations Board]]
|-
| [[Victor Perlo]] || Chief of Aviation Section of [[War Production Board]]; later, joined Office of Price Administration at [[U.S. Department of Commerce|Commerce]] and Division of Monetary Research at [[U.S. Department of Treasury|Treasury]]
|-
| [[Charles Kramer (economist)|Charles Kramer]] || Employed at [[United States Department of Labor|Department of Labor]]'s [[National Labor Relations Board|NLRB]]
|-
| [[George Silverman]] || Employed at [[Railroad Retirement Board|RRB]]; later worked with Federal Coordinator of Transport, U.S. Tariff Commission and Labor Advisory Board of [[National Recovery Administration]]
|-
| [[Henry Collins (official)|Henry Collins]] || Employed at [[National Recovery Administration]] and later [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]
|-
| [[Nathaniel Weyl]] || Economist at [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]; later, defected from communism himself and gave evidence against party members
|-
| [[John Herrmann]] || Author; assistant to Harold Ware; employed at [[Agricultural Adjustment Administration]]; courier and document photographer for Ware group; introduced Chambers to Hiss
|}
Apart from Marion Bachrach, these individuals were all members of [[Franklin Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] administration. Chambers worked in Washington as an organizer in communists in the city and as a courier between New York and Washington for stolen documents, which were delivered to [[Boris Bykov]], the [[Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye|GRU]] [[Illegal Rezident|station chief]].{{citation needed|date=October 2014}}

====Other covert sources====
Using the codename "Karl" or "Carl", Chambers served during the mid-1930s as a courier between various covert sources and Soviet intelligence. In addition to the Ware group mentioned above, other sources that Chambers alleged to have dealt with included the following:<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Haynes
 | first1 = John Earle
 | last2 = Klehr | first2 = Harvey
 | year = 2000
 | title = Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America
 | publisher = Yale University Press
 | pages = 65, 90–91, 126
 | isbn = 0-300-08462-5}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Name !! Description
|-
| [[Harry Dexter White]] || Director of Division of Monetary Research at the [[US. Department of the Treasury]]
|-
| [[Harold Glasser]] || Assistant Director, Division of Monetary Research, [[US. Department of the Treasury]]
|-
| [[Noel Field]] || Employed at [[United States Department of State|Department of State]]
|-
| [[Julian Wadleigh]] || Economist with the [[U.S. Department of Agriculture]]; later, Trade Agreements section of the [[US. Department of State]]
|-
| [[Vincent Reno]] || Mathematician at U.S. Army [[Aberdeen, Maryland#Aberdeen Proving Ground|Aberdeen Proving Ground]]
|-
| [[Ward Pigman]] || Employed at National Bureau of Standards, then Labor and Public Welfare Committee
|}

===Defection===
[[File:Poyntz-Juliet-1918.jpg|thumb|right|upright=0.8|[[Juliet Stuart Poyntz]] (circa 1918), whose disappearance spurred Chambers to defect]]
Chambers carried on his espionage activities from 1932 until 1937 or 1938 even while his faith in communism was waning. He became increasingly disturbed by [[Joseph Stalin]]'s [[Great Purge]], which began in 1936. He was also fearful for his own life since he had noted the murder in Switzerland of [[Ignace Reiss]], a high-ranking Soviet spy who had broken with Stalin, and the disappearance of Chambers's friend and fellow spy [[Juliet Stuart Poyntz]] in the United States. Poyntz had vanished in 1937, shortly after she had visited Moscow and returned disillusioned with the communist cause because of the Stalinist Purges.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|pp=131–133}}</ref>

Chambers ignored several orders that he travel to Moscow since he worried that he might be "purged". He also started concealing some of the documents he collected from his sources. He planned to use them{{how?|date=December 2023}}, along with several rolls of microfilm photographs of documents, as a "life preserver" to prevent the Soviets from killing him and his family.<ref name="Witness" />

In 1938, Chambers broke with communism and took his family into hiding.<ref name=Britannica/> He stored the "life preserver" at the home of his wife's sister, whose son [[Nathan Levine]] was Chambers's lawyer.<ref name=Witness /><ref name=Seeds>
{{cite book
| title = Seeds of Treason: The True Story of the Hiss-Chambers Tragedy
| first1 = Ralph 
| last1 = de Toledano
| first2 = Victor 
| last2 = Lasky
| publisher = Funk & Wagnalls
| url = https://archive.org/details/seedsoftreasontr0000deto
| url-access = registration
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/seedsoftreasontr0000deto/page/71 71] (stash), 76 (accompany), 213 (dumbwaiter)
| date = 1950
| access-date = July 31, 2017}}</ref><ref name=Campaign>{{cite web
| first = G. Edward
| last = White
| title = Alger Hiss's Campaign for Vindication
| publisher = Boston University Law Review
| url = http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/faculty/hein/whiteg/83bu_l_rev1_2003.pdf
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20120627173507/http://www.law.virginia.edu/pdf/faculty/hein/whiteg/83bu_l_rev1_2003.pdf
| url-status = dead
| archive-date = June 27, 2012
| page = 11
| date = 2003
| access-date = July 31, 2017
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
| first1 = Allen
| last1 = Weinstein
| first2 = Peter H.
| last2 = Irons
| first3 = Stephen W.
| last3 = Salant
| title = The Hiss Case: Another Exchange
| journal = The New York Review of Books
| url = http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1976/09/16/the-hiss-case-another-exchange/
| date = September 16, 1976
| volume = 23
| issue = 14
| access-date = July 31, 2017
| archive-date = July 31, 2017
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20170731043350/http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1976/09/16/the-hiss-case-another-exchange/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref name=Berresford>
{{cite journal 
|last1= Berresford
|first1= John W.
|date= June 1, 2008
|title= 'The Grand Jury in the Hiss-Chambers Case
|journal= American Communist History
|volume= 7
|issue= 1
|pages= 1–38
|doi= 10.1080/14743890802121878
|s2cid= 159487134
}}</ref><ref name=Appeal>
{{cite book
| title = United States of America, appellee, against Alger Hiss, appellant: appellant's brief on appeal from order denying motion for new trial
| publisher = Hecla Press
| url = https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesofam00hiss_0
| pages = [https://archive.org/details/unitedstatesofam00hiss_0/page/6 6]–7, 19
| date = 1952
| access-date = July 31, 2017}}</ref> Initially, he had no plans to give information on his espionage activities to the U.S. government. His espionage contacts were his friends, and he had no desire to inform on them.<ref name="Witness" />

In his examination of Chambers's conversion from the left to the right, author Daniel Oppenheimer noted that Chambers substituted his passion for communism with a passion for God and saw the world in black-and-white terms both before and after his defection.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} In his autobiography, Chambers presented his devotion to communism as a reason for living, but after his defection, he saw his actions as being part of an "absolute evil".<ref name="newyorker">{{cite news|last1=Packer|first1=George|title=Turned Around|url=http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/why-leftists-go-right|access-date=February 24, 2016|magazine=[[The New Yorker]]|date=February 22, 2016|archive-date=February 24, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160224054146/http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2016/02/22/why-leftists-go-right|url-status=live}}</ref>

===Berle meeting===
[[File:Adolf Augustus Berle NYWTS cropped.jpg|thumb|right|[[Adolf A. Berle]] (circa 1965): Member of the FDR administration who took Chambers's 1939 report. Initially enthusiastic, he later downplayed the report.]]

The August 1939 [[Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact]] drove Chambers to take action against the Soviet Union.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|pp=159–161}}</ref> In September 1939, at the urging of the anticommunist Russian-born journalist [[Isaac Don Levine]], Chambers and Levine met with Assistant Secretary of State [[Adolf A. Berle]]. Levine had introduced Chambers to [[Walter Krivitsky]], who was already informing American and British authorities about Soviet agents who held posts in both governments. Krivitsky told Chambers that it was their duty to inform. Chambers agreed to reveal what he knew on the condition of immunity from prosecution.<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinstein|1997|p=292}}</ref> 

During the meeting at Berle's home, [[Woodley Mansion]], in Washington, Chambers named several current and former government employees as spies or communist sympathizers. Many names mentioned held relatively minor posts or were already under suspicion. Some names were more significant and surprising: Alger Hiss, his brother Donald Hiss, and Laurence Duggan, who were all respected, mid-level officials in the State Department, and [[Lauchlin Currie]], a special assistant to [[Franklin Roosevelt]]. Another person named Vincent Reno had worked on a top-secret bombsight project at the [[Aberdeen Proving Grounds]].<ref name=Britannica/><ref>{{cite book |last1=Chambers |first1=Whittaker |title=Witness |date=1952 |publisher=Gateway Editions |location=Washington |isbn=9780895267894 |pages=27–29, 463–470}}</ref>

Berle found Chambers's information tentative, unclear, and uncorroborated. He took the information to the White House, but President Franklin Roosevelt dismissed it. Berle made little if any objection, but he kept his notes, which were later used as evidence during Hiss's perjury trials.<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|pp=163, 203–204}}</ref>

Berle notified the [[Federal Bureau of Investigation]] of Chambers's information in March 1940. In February 1941, Krivitsky was found dead in his hotel room. Police ruled the death a suicide, but it was widely speculated that Krivitsky had been killed by Soviet intelligence. Worried that the Soviets might try to kill Chambers too, Berle again told the FBI about his interview with Chambers. The FBI interviewed Chambers in May 1942 and June 1945 but took no immediate action in line with the political orientation of the United States, which viewed the potential threat from the Soviet Union as minor compared to that of [[Nazi Germany]].{{citation needed|date=October 2014}} Only in November 1945, when [[Elizabeth Bentley]] defected and corroborated much of Chambers's story, would the FBI begin to take Chambers seriously.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Olmsted
 | first = Kathryn S.
 | title = Red Spy Queen: A Biography of Elizabeth Bentley
 | publisher = The University of North Carolina Press
 | year = 2002
 | page = 32
 | isbn = 0-8078-2739-8}}</ref>

===''Time''===
[[File:Clare Boothe Luce and Henry Luce NYWTS.jpg|thumb|right|[[Henry Luce]] and [[Clare Boothe Luce]] (circa 1954) valued Chambers's writing at ''Time'' magazine]]

During the Berle meeting, Chambers had come out of hiding after a year and joined the staff of ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'' (April 1939). He landed a cover story within a month on [[James Joyce]]'s latest book, ''[[Finnegans Wake]]''.<ref>{{cite news
 | title = Night Thoughts
 | date = May 8, 1948
 | magazine = Time
 | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761256,00.html
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080216215842/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,761256,00.html
 | url-status = dead
 | archive-date = February 16, 2008
 | access-date = June 3, 2010}}</ref> He started at the back of the magazine, reviewing books and film with [[James Agee]] and then [[Calvin Fixx]]. When Fixx suffered a heart attack in October 1942, [[Wilder Hobson]] succeeded him as Chambers's assistant editor in Arts & Entertainment. Other writers working for Chambers in that section included novelist [[Nigel Dennis]], future ''[[The New York Times Book Review|New York Times Book Review]]'' editor [[Harvey Breit]], and poets [[Howard Moss]] and [[Weldon Kees]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|pp=174–175}}</ref><ref>{{cite book
 | last = Reidel
 | first = James
 | title = 'Vanished Act: The Life and Art of Weldon Kees
 | publisher = University of Nebraska Press
 | year = 2007
 | page = 121
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=eV1AENEcMlAC&q=%22wilder+hobson%22+%22harper%27s+bazaar%22&pg=PA237
 | isbn = 9780803259775
 | access-date = January 19, 2023
 | archive-date = August 6, 2022
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220806203754/https://books.google.com/books?id=eV1AENEcMlAC&q=%22wilder%20hobson%22%20%22harper%27s%20bazaar%22&pg=PA237
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

A struggle had arisen between those, like [[Theodore H. White]] and [[Richard Lauterbach]], who raised criticism of what they saw as the elitism, corruption and ineptitude of [[Chiang Kai-shek]]'s regime in China and advocated greater co-operation with Mao's Red Army in the struggle against Japanese imperialism, and Chambers and others like [[Willi Schlamm]] who adhered to a perspective that was staunchly pro-Chiang, anticommunist, and both later joined the founding editorial board of [[William F. Buckley, Jr.]]'s ''[[National Review]]''. ''Time'' founder [[Henry Luce]], who grew up in China and was a personal friend of Chiang and his wife, [[Soong Mei-ling]], came down squarely on the side of Chambers to the point that White complained that his stories were being censored and even suppressed in their entirety, and he left ''Time'' shortly after the war as a result.<ref>{{cite book
 | last = Herzstein
 | first = Robert E.
 | author-link = Robert E. Herzstein
 | title = Henry R. Luce, Time, and the American Crusade in Asia
 | publisher = Cambridge University Press
 | year = 2005
 | pages = 42–43
 | isbn = 978-0-521-83577-0}}</ref>

In 1940, [[William Saroyan]] lists Fixx among "contributing editors" at ''Time'' in Saroyan's play, ''Love's Old Sweet Song''.<ref>{{cite book
| first = William 
| last = Saroyan
| author-link = William Saroyan
| title = Love's Old Sweet Song: A Play in Three Acts
| publisher = Samuel French
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=RylaAAAAMAAJ
| pages = 72, 76
| date = 1940
| access-date = July 15, 2017}}</ref> Luce promoted him senior editor in either summer 1942 (Weinstein<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinstein|1997|p=354}}</ref>) or September 1943 (Tanenhaus<ref name="Tanenhaus 1998 175">{{Harvnb|Tanenhaus|1998|p=175}}</ref>) and became a member of ''Time''{{'s}} "Senior Group", which determined editorial policy, in December 1943.<ref name="Tanenhaus 1998 175" />

Chambers, close colleagues, and many staff members in the 1930s helped elevate ''Time'' and have been called "interstitial intellectuals" by the historian Robert Vanderlan.<ref name=Vanderlan>{{cite book
| first = Robert
| last = Vanderlan
| title = Intellectuals Incorporated: Politics, Art, and Ideas Inside Henry Luce's Media Empire
| publisher = University of Pennsylvania Press
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=g82OAyn-HKkC
| page = 239
| date = 2011
| isbn = 978-0812205633
| access-date = December 15, 2016}}</ref> His colleague [[John Hersey]] described them as follows:

<blockquote>''Time'' was in an interesting phase; an editor named [[T. S. Matthews|Tom Matthews]] had gathered a brilliant group of writers, including [[James Agee]], [[Robert Fitzgerald]], Whittaker Chambers, [[Robert Cantwell]], [[Louis Kronenberger]], and [[Calvin Fixx]].&nbsp;... They were dazzling. ''Time''{{'s}} style was still very hokey—"backward ran sentences till reeled the mind"—but I could tell, even as a neophyte, who had written each of the pieces in the magazine, because each of these writers had such a distinctive voice.<ref>{{cite magazine
| first = Jonathan
| last = Dee
| title = John Hersey, The Art of Fiction No. 92
| magazine = [[The Paris Review]]
| url = http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2756/john-hersey-the-art-of-fiction-no-92-john-hersey
| date = 1986
| access-date = 16 December 2016
| archive-date = December 20, 2016
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20161220141117/http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/2756/john-hersey-the-art-of-fiction-no-92-john-hersey
| url-status = live
}}</ref></blockquote>

By early 1948, Chambers had become one of the best known writer-editors at ''Time''. First had come his scathing commentary "The Ghosts on the Roof" (March 5, 1945) on the [[Yalta Conference]] in which Hiss partook. Subsequent cover-story essays profiled [[Marian Anderson]], [[Arnold J. Toynbee]], [[Rebecca West]] and [[Reinhold Niebuhr]]. The cover story on [[Marian Anderson]] ("Religion: In Egypt Land", December 30, 1946) proved so popular that the magazine broke its rule of non-attribution in response to readers' letters:

<blockquote>Most Time cover stories are written and edited by the regular staffs of the section in which they appear. Certain cover stories, that present special difficulties or call for a special literary skill, are written by Senior Editor Whittaker Chambers.<ref>
{{cite news
 | title = Time's People and Time's Children
 | date = March 8, 1948
 | magazine = Time | url = http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853283,00.html| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20070930063109/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,853283,00.html| url-status = dead| archive-date = September 30, 2007}}</ref></blockquote>

In a 1945 letter to ''Time'' colleague [[Charles Wertenbaker]], [[Time-Life]] deputy editorial director [[John Shaw Billings (editor)|John Shaw Billings]] said of Chambers, "Whit puts on the best show in words of any writer we've ever had&nbsp;... a superb technician, particularly skilled in the mosaic art of putting a ''Time'' section together."<ref>{{cite book
 | last1 = Weinstein
 | first1 = Allen
 | author-link = Allen Weinstein
 | title = Perjury: The Hiss–Chambers Case
 | publisher = Knopf
 | place = New York
 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=toEfF8xlMmkC
 | pages = 183
 | date = 1978
 | isbn = 9780394495460
 | access-date = August 7, 2017}}</ref> Chambers was at the height of his career when the Hiss case broke later that year.<ref>{{cite web
 | title = Time – Cover Stories
 | publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
 | url = http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/time-c/
 | access-date = June 21, 2013
 | archive-date = June 30, 2013
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130630221604/http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/time-c/
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

===Hiss case===
{{more citations needed|section|date=August 2018}}<!--several paragraphs without citations-->
[[File:Alger Hiss (1950).jpg|thumb|right|[[Alger Hiss]] (1948) denied Chambers's allegations but was convicted of perjury]]

On August 3, 1948, Chambers was called to testify before the [[House Un-American Activities Committee]] (HUAC), where he gave the names of individuals he said were part of the underground "[[Ware group]]" in the late 1930s, including [[Alger Hiss]]. He once again named Hiss as a member of the Communist Party but did not yet make any accusations of espionage. In subsequent sessions, Hiss testified and initially denied that he knew anyone by the name of Chambers, but on seeing him in person and after it became clear that Chambers knew details about Hiss's life, Hiss said that he had known Chambers under the name "George Crosley". 

Hiss denied that he had ever been a communist. Since Chambers still presented no evidence, the committee had initially been inclined to take the word of Hiss on the matter. However, a committee member, [[Richard Nixon]], received secret information from the FBI that had led him to pursue the issue. When it issued its report, HUAC described Hiss's testimony as "vague and evasive".<ref name=Britannica/>

Biographer [[Timothy Naftali]] describes the trial as "a battle between two queers", an allusion to the fact that both parties were supposedly homosexual. Additionally, Hiss's stepson, Timothy Hobson, alleged that Chambers's accusation was borne out of unrequited romantic feelings for Hiss.<ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.amny.com/news/at-alger-hiss-conference-gay-debate-gets-red-hot/ | title=At Alger Hiss conference, gay debate gets red hot &#124; amNewYork | date=April 17, 2007 }}</ref>

===="Red Herring"====
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 183-29645-0001, Potsdamer Konferenz, Stalin, Truman, Churchill.jpg|thumb|[[Harry S. Truman]] (center) with [[Joseph Stalin]] (left) and [[Winston Churchill]] (right) in 1945. Truman called Chambers's allegations a "red herring".]]

The country quickly became divided over Hiss and Chambers. President [[Harry S. Truman]], not pleased with the allegation that the man who had presided over the United Nations Charter Conference was a communist, dismissed the case as a "[[red herring]]".<ref name=Linder>{{cite web
 |last = Linder
 |first = Douglas
 |title = The Alger Hiss Trials
 |work = Famous Trials
 |publisher = University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law
 |url = https://famous-trials.com/algerhiss/638-home
 |access-date = March 20, 2020
}}</ref>
In the atmosphere of increasing [[anticommunism]] that would later be termed [[McCarthyism]], many conservatives viewed the Hiss case as emblematic of what they saw as Democrats' laxity towards the danger of communist infiltration and influence in the State Department.{{citation needed|date=August 2020}} Many liberals, in turn, saw the Hiss case as part of the desperation of the Republican Party to regain the office of president since it had been out of power for 16 years.{{citation needed|date=July 2020}} Truman also issued [[Executive Order 9835]], which initiated a program of loyalty reviews for federal employees in 1947.<ref>{{cite web | url = https://trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 | title = Executive Order 9835 Prescribing Procedures For The Administration Of An Employees Loyalty Program In The Executive Branch Of The Government | last = Truman | first = Harry | date = March 21, 1947 | website = The Harry S. Truman Library and Museum | access-date = November 11, 2017 | archive-date = November 11, 2017 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20171111205553/https://trumanlibrary.org/executiveorders/index.php?pid=502 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

===="Pumpkin Papers"====
Hiss filed a $75,000 libel suit against Chambers on October 8, 1948.<ref name=Britannica/> Under pressure from Hiss's lawyers, Chambers finally retrieved his envelope of evidence and presented it to the HUAC after it had subpoenaed them. It contained four notes in Hiss's handwriting, 65 typewritten copies of State Department documents and five strips of microfilm, some of which contained photographs of State Department documents. The press came to call these the "[[Pumpkin Papers]]" since Chambers had briefly hidden the microfilm in a hollowed-out pumpkin. The documents indicated that Hiss knew Chambers long after mid-1936, when Hiss said he had last seen "Crosley", and also that Hiss had engaged in espionage with Chambers. Chambers explained his delay in producing the evidence as an effort to spare an old friend from more trouble than necessary. Until October 1948, Chambers had repeatedly stated that Hiss had not engaged in espionage, even when Chambers testified under oath. Chambers was forced to testify at the Hiss trials that he had committed perjury several times, which reduced his credibility in the eyes of his critics.

The five rolls of 35&nbsp;mm film known as the "pumpkin papers" were thought until late 1974 to be locked in HUAC files. The independent researcher [[Stephen Salant|Stephen W. Salant]], an economist at the University of Michigan, sued the U.S. Justice Department in 1975 when his request for access to them under the Freedom of Information Act was denied. On July 31, 1975, as a result of this lawsuit and follow-on suits filed by Peter Irons and by Alger Hiss and William Reuben, the Justice Department released copies of the "pumpkin papers" that had been used to implicate Hiss. One roll of film turned out to be totally blank because of overexposure, two others are faintly-legible copies of nonclassified Navy Department documents relating to such subjects as life rafts and fire extinguishers, and the remaining two are photographs of the State Department documents introduced by the prosecution at the two Hiss trials, relating to US-German relations in the late 1930s.<ref>{{cite news
 | first = Tom
 | last = Gold
 | title = U.S. Releases Copies of 'Pumpkin Papers'
 | url = https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/01/archives/us-releases-copies-of-pumpkinpapers-copies-of-pumpkin-papers.html
 | newspaper = The New York Times
 | date = August 1, 1975
 | access-date = October 31, 2018
 | archive-date = July 28, 2019
 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20190728221418/https://www.nytimes.com/1975/08/01/archives/us-releases-copies-of-pumpkinpapers-copies-of-pumpkin-papers.html
 | url-status = live
 }}</ref>

That story, however, as reported by ''The New York Times'' in the 1970s, contains only a partial truth. The blank roll had been mentioned by Chambers in his autobiography, ''Witness''. However, in addition to innocuous farm reports, the documents on the other pumpkin patch microfilms also included "confidential memos sent from overseas embassies to diplomatic staff in Washington, D.C."<ref name="c-span.org video">{{cite web|last1=Tanenhaus|first1=Sam|title=c-cpan interview, 5/26/02|url=http://www.c-span.org/video/?170139-1%2Fwritings-whittaker-chambers|access-date=December 8, 2014|archive-date=October 31, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211031135124/https://www.c-span.org/video/?170139-1%2Fwritings-whittaker-chambers|url-status=live}}</ref> Worse, those memos had originally been transmitted in code, which, thanks to their presumable possession of both coded originals and the translations (claimed by Chambers, to be forwarded by Hiss), the Soviets now could easily understand.<ref name="c-span.org video" />

In taped recordings of President Nixon on July 1, 1971, he admitted that he had not checked the Pumpkin Papers prior to their use and he felt that the Justice Department was out to exonerate Hiss and a federal grand jury would indict Nixon's ally Chambers for perjury. The FBI continued investigating Hiss's innocence into 1953.<ref>{{cite news |last=Parry |first=Robert |author-link=Robert Parry (journalist) |url=http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story50.html |title=The Tapes: Nixon's Long, Dark Shadow |work=[[Consortium News]] |date=February 8, 1999 |access-date=September 9, 2021 |archive-date=February 8, 1999 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/19990208225324/http://www.consortiumnews.com/archive/story50.html}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Bird |first1=Kai |last2=Chervonnaya |first2=Svetlana |author1-link=Kai Bird |author2-link=Svetlana Chervonnaya (political historian)|url=https://theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ |title=The Mystery of Ales (Expanded Version): The argument that Alger Hiss was a WWII-era Soviet asset is flawed. New evidence points to someone else |work=[[The American Scholar (magazine)|The American Scholar]] |date=June 1, 2007 |access-date=September 9, 2021 |archive-date=January 19, 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185925/https://theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last=Haynes |first=John Earl |author-link=John Earl Haynes |url=http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html |title=Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius? |work=johnearlhaynes.org |date=June 7, 2007 |access-date=September 9, 2021 |archive-date=May 18, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170518062412/http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Lowenthal |first=John |author-link=John Lowenthal |year=2000 |title=The Alger Hiss Story: A Search for the Truth |volume=15 |work=[[The Times Literary Supplement]] |url=https://algerhiss.com/history/new-evidence-surfaces-1990s/the-venona-cables/john-lowenthal-i/ |access-date=September 9, 2021}}</ref>

====Perjury====
[[File:Marshall-courthouse1.jpg|right|thumb|The trials against Hiss took place at the Foley Square Courthouse (now [[Thurgood Marshall Courthouse]]) in New York City (here, 2009)]]
Hiss was indicted for two counts of [[perjury]] relating to testimony he had given before a federal [[grand jury]] the previous December. He had denied giving any documents to Chambers and testified that he had not seen Chambers after mid-1936.

Hiss was tried twice for perjury. The first trial, in June 1949, ended with the jury deadlocked 8–4 for conviction. In addition to Chambers's testimony, a government expert testified that other papers typed on a typewriter belonging to the Hiss family matched the secret papers produced by Chambers. An impressive array of [[character evidence|character witnesses]] appeared on behalf of Hiss: two Supreme Court justices, [[Felix Frankfurter]] and [[Stanley Forman Reed|Stanley Reed]], the former Democratic presidential nominee [[John W. Davis]], and the future Democratic presidential nominee [[Adlai Stevenson II|Adlai Stevenson]]. Chambers, on the other hand, was attacked by Hiss's attorneys as "an enemy of the Republic, a blasphemer of Christ, a disbeliever in God, with no respect for matrimony or motherhood".<ref name=Linder /> In the second trial, Hiss's defense produced a psychiatrist who characterized Chambers as a "[[psychopath]]ic personality" and "a [[pathological liar]]".<ref>{{Harvnb|Weinstein|1997|pp=487, 493}}</ref>

The second trial ended in January 1950 with Hiss being found guilty on both counts of perjury. He was sentenced to [[Alger Hiss#Incarceration|five years in prison]].<ref name=Britannica/>

Chambers had resigned from ''Time'' in December 1948. After the Hiss case, he wrote a few articles for ''[[Fortune (magazine)|Fortune]]'', ''[[Life (magazine)|Life]]'', and ''[[Look (American magazine)|Look]]'' magazines.<ref name="Witness" />

In 1951, during the HUAC hearings, William Spiegel of Baltimore identified a photo of "Carl Schroeder" as Chambers while Spiegel was describing his involvement with David Zimmerman, a spy in Chambers's network.<ref>{{cite news
| title = Hiss Accuser Cited in 'Black Box' Tale
| newspaper = The New York Times
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/29/archives/hiss-accuser-cited-in-black-box-tale.html
| pages = 8
| date = June 29, 1951
| access-date = October 10, 2018
| archive-date = January 19, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185927/https://www.nytimes.com/1951/06/29/archives/hiss-accuser-cited-in-black-box-tale.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>
{{cite news
| title = Whittaker Chambers Named Anew
| newspaper = [[The Washington Post]]
| page = 14
| date = June 29, 1951}}</ref>

====''Witness''====
In 1952, Chambers's book ''Witness'' was published to widespread acclaim.<ref name=Britannica/><ref>{{cite web
| title = Review – Kirkus
| publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
| url = http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/kirkus/
| date = May 21, 1952
| access-date = June 14, 2013
| archive-date = June 30, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130630225805/http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/kirkus/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |title = Review – New York Times (The Two Faiths of Whittaker Chambers)
 |publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
 |url = http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/new-york-times/
 |date = May 25, 1952
 |access-date = June 14, 2013
 |url-status = dead
 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130615082121/http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/new-york-times/
 |archive-date = June 15, 2013
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| title = Review – Time (Books: Publican & Pharisee)
| publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
| url = http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/time/
| date = May 26, 1952
| access-date = June 14, 2013
| archive-date = January 19, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185927/https://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/time/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
 |title = Review – BBC
 |publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
 |url = http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/review-bbc/
 |date = July 7, 1953
 |access-date = June 14, 2013
 |url-status = dead
 |archive-url = https://archive.today/20130615081954/http://whittakerchambers.org/books/witness/review-bbc/
 |archive-date = June 15, 2013
}}</ref> It was a combination of autobiography and a warning about the dangers of communism. [[Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr.]] called it "a powerful book".<ref name=schlesinger>{{cite web
| first = Arthur
| last = Schlesinger, Jr.
| title = The Truest Believer
| newspaper = The New York Times
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/970309.09schlest.html
| date = March 9, 2013
| access-date = July 14, 2013
| archive-date = March 30, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130330004559/http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/03/09/reviews/970309.09schlest.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref> [[Ronald Reagan]] credited the book as the inspiration behind his conversion from a New Deal Democrat to a conservative Republican.<ref name=Linder/> ''Witness'' was a bestseller for more than a year<ref name=schlesinger /> and helped to pay off Chambers's legal debts, but bills lingered ("as Odysseus was beset by a ghost").<ref name=odyssey>{{cite book
| first = Whittaker
| last = Chambers
| title = Odyssey of a Friend
| publisher = Putnam
| place = New York
| year = 1969
| page = 211 (bills), 249 (Koestler)}}</ref>

According to the commentator [[George Will]] in 2017:
<blockquote>''Witness'' became a canonical text of conservatism. Unfortunately, it injected conservatism with a sour, whiney, complaining, crybaby populism. It is the screechy and dominant tone of the loutish faux conservatism that today is erasing [William F.] Buckley's legacy of infectious cheerfulness and unapologetic embrace of high culture. Chambers wallowed in cloying sentimentality and curdled resentment about "the plain men and women"—"my people, humble people, strong in common sense, in common goodness"—enduring the "musk of snobbism" emanating from the "socially formidable circles" of the "nicest people" produced by "certain collegiate eyries".<ref>George F. Will, [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/conservatism-is-soiled-by-scowling-primitives/2017/05/31/786317a8-4559-11e7-a196-a1bb629f64cb_story.html?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-a%3Ahomepage%2Fstory "Conservatism is soiled by scowling primitives"], ''The Washington Post'' May 31, 2017.</ref>
</blockquote>

===''National Review''===
[[File:Bozell&Buckley,1954.jpg|thumb|right: [[William F. Buckley Jr.]], left: [[L. Brent Bozell Jr.]] Buckley in 1954 first asked Chambers to endorse their book on [[Joseph McCarthy]].]]

In 1955, [[William F. Buckley Jr.]] started the magazine ''[[National Review]]'', and Chambers worked there as senior editor, publishing articles there for a little over a year and a half (October 1957 – June 1959).<ref name=Britannica/><ref>{{cite web
| title = National Review
| publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
| url = http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/nr/
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = June 30, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130630215155/http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/nr/
| url-status = live
}}</ref> The most widely cited article to date<ref>{{cite news
| first = Jennifer
| last = Burns
| title = Atlas Spurned
| newspaper = The New York Times
| url = https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/ayn-rand-wouldnt-approve-of-paul-ryan.html
| date = August 14, 2012
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = January 19, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185928/https://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/15/opinion/ayn-rand-wouldnt-approve-of-paul-ryan.html
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| first = Michael
| last = Berliner
| title = Whittaker Chambers's Review of Ayn Rand's Novel "Atlas Shrugged" in The National Review
| magazine = Capitalism Magazine
| url = http://capitalismmagazine.com/2007/11/whittaker-chamberss-review-of-ayn-rands-novel-atlas-shrugged-in-the-national-review/
| date = November 26, 2007
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = June 24, 2013
| archive-url = https://archive.today/20130624210228/http://capitalismmagazine.com/2007/11/whittaker-chamberss-review-of-ayn-rands-novel-atlas-shrugged-in-the-national-review/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite news
| first = Hiawatha
| last = Bray
| title = BioShock lets users take on fanaticism through fantasy
| newspaper = [[The Boston Globe]]
| url = http://www.boston.com/ae/games/articles/2007/08/27/bioshock_lets_users_take_on_fanaticism_through_fantasy/
| date = August 27, 2007
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = October 14, 2007
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20071014004508/http://www.boston.com/ae/games/articles/2007/08/27/bioshock_lets_users_take_on_fanaticism_through_fantasy/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite web
| title = William F. Buckley Jr., living at full sail: Conservative writer, editor looks back on remarkable career
| newspaper = The Washington Post
| url = http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=104683271BA4B276&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
| date = August 8, 2004
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = January 19, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185928/http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=WT&p_theme=wt&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=104683271BA4B276&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine
| first = Terry
| last = Teachout
| title = The Passion of Ayn Rand, by Barbara Branden [Review]
| magazine = [[Commentary (magazine)|Commentary]]
| url = http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-passion-of-ayn-rand-by-barbara-branden/
| date = July 1986
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = January 19, 2023
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185949/https://www.commentary.org/articles/terry-teachout/the-passion-of-ayn-rand-by-barbara-branden/
| url-status = live
}}</ref> is a scathing review, "Big Sister is Watching You", of [[Ayn Rand]]'s ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''.<ref>{{cite web
| title = Big Sister is Watching You
| publisher = WhittakerChambers.org
| url = http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/nr/bigsister/
| access-date = June 21, 2013
| archive-date = June 30, 2013
| archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20130630115356/http://whittakerchambers.org/articles/nr/bigsister/
| url-status = live
}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal
 | last =Chambers
 | first =Whittaker
 | title =Big Sister Is Watching You
 | journal =[[National Review]]
 | date =December 28, 1957
 | url =https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/10/big-sister-watching-you-whittaker-chambers-2/
 | access-date =August 24, 2022
 | archive-date =January 19, 2023
 | archive-url =https://web.archive.org/web/20230119185930/https://www.nationalreview.com/2007/10/big-sister-watching-you-whittaker-chambers-2/
 | url-status =live
 }}</ref>

In 1959, Chambers resigned from ''National Review'', although he continued correspondence with Buckley despite having suffered a series of heart attacks. In one letter, he noted, "I am a man of the Right because I mean to uphold capitalism in its American version. But I claim that capitalism is not, and by its essential nature cannot conceivably be, conservative."<ref>{{cite web | url=https://isi.org/intercollegiate-review/a-witness-to-himselfbrwilliam-f-buckley-jr-odyssey-of-a-friend-whittaker-chambers-letters-to-william-f-buckley-jr-1954-1961-i/ | title=A Witness to Himself&#91;br&#93;William F. Buckley, Jr., Odyssey of a Friend: Whittaker Chambers' Letters to William F. Buckley, Jr. 1954-1961&#91;/I&#93; | date=October 8, 2014 }}</ref>

In that same year, Chambers and his wife embarked on a visit to Europe, the highlight of which was a meeting with [[Arthur Koestler]] and [[Margarete Buber-Neumann]] at Koestler's home in Austria.<ref name=odyssey /> That fall, he recommenced studies at Western Maryland College (now [[McDaniel College]]) in Westminster, Maryland.<ref>{{cite book
| first = Whittaker
| last = Chambers
| title = Cold Friday
| publisher = Random House
| place = New York
| url = https://books.google.com/books?id=UCsaAAAAYAAJ
| year = 1964
| page = xii| isbn = 9780394419695
}}</ref>