What did alger hiss do?

Answer 1

After secretly serving in an underground cell with Whittaker Chambers and others which promoted leftist ideas in Washington DC the 1930's Hiss surreptitiously provided US documents and intelligence to the Soviet Government as a military spy for Stalin while actively recruiting others. He may have helped Stalin negotiate against the US at Yalta and then travelled to Moscow for undocumented talks with various Soviet officials, perhaps even with Stalin. After his illegal dealings were recorded in the Venona tapes he assisted in founding and designing the United Nations as general secretary with top slots for the US and the USSR on the Security Council. He then was accused by Whittaker Chambers of having been the member of a communist cell with him in Washington in the 30's. Hiss denied knowing Chambers and when pushed into suing Chambers for libel, a really stupid move, Chambers defended himself by producing documents and films which proved Hiss was guilty of espionage for the Soviets, a charge which ushered in the McCarthy era and elevated Nixon into the national spotlight that earned him a VP slot under Eisenhower. Because of the statute of limitations, Hiss was not charged with espionage but after a first mistrial was convicted of perjury as a result of which his really top echelon career was reduced to ashes. The left defended Hiss as a man innocently charged for decades, with their various defenses now generally in tatters with the revelation of the Venona tapes.