In 1974, Alger Hiss was interviewed by James Day for the public television series Day At Night. Click here to read an edited transcript of the interview, which reveals Hiss's long-held faith in democracy as influenced by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes.

In 1980, as tension ran high in America with the presidential elections playing out over the long-running Iranian hostage crisis, Alger Hiss examined the McCarthy period for Barrister magazine, a publication of the American Bar Association. In this analysis of the period, Hiss examines the roots of witch hunting and addresses the question, "Could it happen again?" Click here to read the article.

As one of the last surviving participants in the Yalta Conference and a lightning rod for criticism aimed at FDR's foreign policies, Hiss often made a point of defending the agreements made between the U.S. and Russia at Yalta in 1945. Click here to read a brief article on Yalta he wrote for The Nation in 1982 or here to read a New York Times article about Hiss's work at the UN.

In the Public Eye Click here to read more about America at the time of the Hiss case Click here for a Timeline of Hiss's life

A Brief Biography of
Alger Hiss

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Alger Hiss was born on November 11, 1904 in Baltimore, Maryland. He was the fourth of five children. In 1907, his father, an executive with a dry goods firm, committed suicide, leaving the children to be raised by their mother and her sister...Click here to continue

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