Apr 19, 2023
Picture: Library of Congress
With this Podcast, we leave Washington and the political
boxing ring and move to New York City and the courts. There’s
still drama and tension, but no more pumpkin patches on dark and
frigid nights, no more rescues of Congressmen from the high
seas. The process is more deliberate and the consequences are
greater. Starting now, Hiss and Chambers are each looking at
being the defendant in a criminal trial and going to prison —
punishments that no newspaper or Congressional committee can
inflict.
Both men and their wives testify to a Grand Jury.
Chambers has to explain his recent denial to this same Grand Jury
that any espionage was committed. See if you accept his
explanation for the 180 degree change in his testimony. Nixon
refuses to turn over the Pumpkin Papers to the Grand Jury, and they
threaten him with prison! Nixon says, “Go ahead, make my day”
and a compromise is agreed to. An FBI expert testifies that
the typed spy documents that Chambers had produced were typed on
the same typewriter as some letters that the FBI had obtained and
that were definitely typed on the Hisses’ family typewriter.
That means that the spy documents were typed on the Hiss family
typewriter. Hiss tries to explain how, if he wasn’t a spy, 65
pages of documents, obviously prepared for spying, got typed on his
home typewriter; and how, if he got Chambers/Crosley out of his
life by 1936, Chambers has all this paper from Hiss (and don’t
forget the four handwritten notes) dated 1938. See if you
accept his explanation. In the last hours of its life, the
Grand Jury votes to indict Hiss for perjury. Chambers and
Mrs. Hiss are not indicted. Alger Hiss loses another round,
but he is far from defeated.
REFERENCES for further research and QUESTIONS
Episode 16: The Grand Jury proceedings
(and related hallway fights and shouting matches between Nixon, the
FBI, the Justice Department, and Hiss) are discussed in Weinstein
at 293-324, Hiss’s memoir at 190-98, and in Chambers’ ‘Witness’ at
723-27, 761-64, and 780-84.
Grand Jury transcripts are kept secret for good reasons
(explained briefly in the Podcast). What got this Grand Jury
transcript published was a precedent-setting lawsuit by the
American Historical Association in which I played a small
part. AHA convinced the court that the historical
significance of the event overcame the usual rule of secrecy.
In addition, all the principals were dead and many of their family
members and friends supported publication. The transcript is
a (to me) fascinating glimpse into the thought processes of members
of the Grand Jury and the government attorneys. Chambers, for
his earlier denial of any espionage, is roasted, fried, broiled,
and fricasseed. But, in the end, they accept his
explanation. Then, slowly, they refocus their anger on Hiss
as the evidence against him accumulates and their patience with his
clever wording wears out. Hiss’s Exculpatory Theory #1 — that
Chambers broke into the Hiss home and typed up the spy documents
himself when no one was looking and then hid them and even denied
their existence under oath for ten years — finally snaps the
endurance of everyone else in the room.
Questions:Do you accept Chambers’ explanation for his recent
perjury to the Grand Jury? Do you accept Hiss’s Exculpatory
Theory #1?(He had two more in his back pocket, which he used in
later years.). What do you think Nixon was trying to accomplish by
bringing the rolls of Pumpkin Paper film into the Grand Jury room
and holding them up in the air, but refusing to hand them
over? Was he maybe hoping to get arrested and be on every
front page again? If you had been on the Grand Jury, would
you have voted to indict Hiss? Mrs. Hiss (the alleged
typist)? Chambers? All of them?