By the time Alger Hiss and Whittaker Chambers stood up to each other in public last week, it was clear to everyone that they had known each other quite well in the mid-'30s. Those were the days when Hiss was publicly on the rise as a bright young New Dealer and Chambers was an undercover Communist agent. The point which the House Un-American Activities Committee wanted to demonstrate was that—as Chambers had testified—they had been Communists together.
Hiss stoutly continued to deny the charge. But he had backtracked once before. He had first denied ever having known Chambers, then admitted that he knew him as "George Crosley," a freelance writer. Would the rest of his story stand up under searching examination and a public confrontation with Chambers?
Last week, with television and newsreel cameras whirring, Hiss and Chambers faced each other in the big, air-conditioned House caucus room. To Hiss, Chambers was still "George Crosley."* To Chambers, Hiss was Hiss—"the closest friend I ever had in the Communist Party."
Then, for more than six hours, the committee's questioners tried to pin Alger Hiss down to fine details. Lawyer Hiss, a Harvard Law School graduate and a onetime secretary to Oliver Wendell Holmes, was not an easy man to pin down. He was cool, deliberate and professional, at times tripping up and correcting his questioners, at all times insisting on giving a precise answer. Knowing better than anyone that a possible perjury charge hung on his every word, he almost never offered a flat yes or a flat no. His favorite phrase, as he fenced tediously with the committee, was: "To the best of my recollection." He used it and similar phrases 198 times.
"If So ... Cocktails." He was questioned most sharply by Committee Investigator Robert E. Stripling and California's Congressman Richard Nixon. A good example of his testimony was his reply to the question: Had he ever been in Henry Collins' apartment in St. Matthews Court? This, Chambers had testified, was the Washington meeting place of the elite Communist group, of which he said Hiss was a member. Had Hiss ever been there when Lee Pressman, John Abt or Charles Kramer were there?
Hiss: I may have been in one or another place of Mr. Collins' abode when one or another or more than one of the other people you have referred to may have been present. If so, it was on some social occasion—dinner, cocktails, something of that sort.
Stripling: I believe you have testified, Mr. Hiss, that to your knowledge none of these people were members of the Communist Party.
Hiss: I did not testify that to my knowledge they are not.
Stripling: What did you testify?
Hiss: I testified that I had no basis of knowing whether they were or were not.
Stripling: I believe you testified that you didn't know a single Communist.
Hiss: To the best of my knowledge, none of my friends is a Communist.
Nixon: Have you ever seen George Crosley, Whittaker Chambers or Carl [Chambers' chief name as a Communist agent] or Crosley under any other name in the apartment of Henry Collins?
Hiss: To the best of my recollection, I am confident I have not.
Nixon: Will you testify that you did not see Crosley in the apartment of Henry Collins?