Alger Hiss's second trial and perjury conviction

Alger Hiss's second trial and perjury conviction became more than a courtroom outcome: it intensified accusations that the Truman administration had concealed Communist activity and forced Secretary of State Dean Acheson to decide publicly whether a conviction would end his friendship with Hiss. The verdict sharpened an already bitter political dispute and made Acheson's response a defining moment for the administration.

The Verdict and Its Political Setting

In December, anger over the loss of China and claims of Communist infiltration led Republicans in both houses of Congress to demand that Harry S. Truman fire Acheson. The pressure mounted after Hiss's second trial concluded in New York. On January 21, 1950, Hiss was found guilty of perjury for lying about passing secret documents.

Richard Nixon, then 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 deliberately trying to conceal the alleged conspiracy. The conviction therefore arrived amid an existing political campaign against Acheson and the administration, rather than settling the controversy surrounding Hiss.

Acheson's Public Response

On January 25, the day Hiss was sentenced to five years in prison, reporters asked Acheson at a State Department press conference whether he had any comment. The question was expected. At his confirmation hearings the previous year, Acheson had acknowledged that Hiss was his friend and indicated that he would not readily abandon that friendship. Now, despite the guilty verdict, he told the assembled reporters that he did not intend to turn his back on Hiss.

Acheson had considered his response in advance; it was not an impulsive defense. He grounded his position in personal standards and principles, invoking the Gospel of Matthew. An aide stood ready with a Bible so reporters could check the passage he cited. His statement made the personal relationship unmistakably public at the moment when political opponents were demanding that the administration distance itself from Hiss.

Consequences and Significance

The conviction supplied Nixon with a powerful occasion to renew his charge that the administration had concealed wrongdoing. Acheson's refusal to disavow Hiss did not erase the conviction or resolve the broader political dispute. Instead, the verdict and the secretary's response became intertwined: Hiss's legal fate intensified scrutiny of the administration, while Acheson's defense of a former friend made his own judgment and principles part of the controversy.

The episode also followed an earlier change in Harry S. Truman's standing in the Senate. During the war, Truman had gained stature by challenging the powerful military-industrial complex and exposing misconduct. In the Hiss affair, the central pressure fell on Acheson, whose deliberate public answer illustrated how personal loyalties and political accountability could collide within the administration.