Alger Hiss's second trial and conviction

Alger Hiss's second trial and conviction brought a guilty verdict on January 21 and a five-year prison sentence four days later. The outcome did more than establish Hiss's criminal liability: because he had been accused of passing secret documents, it intensified attacks on the Truman administration and forced Secretary of State Dean Acheson to confront publicly the consequences of a friendship he would not renounce.

Political Setting

By December, Republicans in both houses of Congress were already demanding that Harry S. Truman fire Acheson, amid anger over the loss of China and claims of Communist infiltration. The Hiss case gave that campaign a sharper focus. At the end of the second trial in New York, Hiss was found guilty of perjury for lying about passing secret documents.

Richard Nixon, the only lawyer on the House Un-American Activities Committee and a leading figure in the case against Hiss, went on the radio that night. He accused the administration of a deliberate effort to conceal the alleged conspiracy. The verdict thus became part of a wider argument about the government's credibility, not simply the conclusion of a criminal trial.

Verdict and Public Response

On January 25, the day Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison, a reporter asked Acheson at a State Department press conference for comment. The question had been anticipated: at his confirmation hearings the previous year, Acheson had acknowledged that Hiss was his friend and said that he did not give or withdraw friendship lightly. Hiss's brother, Donald, had also been Acheson's law partner and assistant when Acheson was Assistant Secretary of State.

Acheson answered that the case's appeal would not change his personal stance: “I do not intend to turn my back on Alger Hiss.” He then framed the decision as a matter of individual conscience and principle, invoking the Gospel according to St. Matthew. An aide had a Bible ready for reporters who wanted to check the passage. The gesture made the statement's moral basis explicit, but did not shield it from political attack.

Acheson Under Attack

The announcement quickly reached Capitol Hill. Joseph McCarthy interrupted Senate business to condemn Acheson's position and use it to suggest that the Secretary of State would not turn his back on other Communists in the department. Acheson's declaration of personal loyalty was recast as a test of his judgment and political reliability.

The reaction was not unanimous: one newspaper praised the statement as courageous and Christian, even while noting its disagreement with Acheson's policies. But the book describes the episode as a political disaster. After the press conference, Acheson went directly to Truman, who had already seen the news on a ticker, and offered to resign.

Truman's Support

Truman did not accept the offer. Acheson later wrote to his daughter that Truman understood what he meant, connecting Acheson's loyalty to the President's own attendance at the funeral of Tom Pendergast, a friend who had recently left prison. In the midst of a growing political assault, Truman treated Acheson's act not as an endorsement of Hiss's conduct but as an expression of personal principle.

The episode left two distinct judgments in tension. Hiss had been convicted of perjury, while Acheson maintained that the conviction did not require him to erase a friendship; political opponents presented that distinction as evidence against the administration. The verdict's significance therefore extended beyond the courtroom, turning a personal declaration into a public controversy over loyalty, principle, and the costs of association.