Witness

by Whittaker Chambers

  That the Committee did not act on its fears is a fact of history that no one can take from it. Its stand was greatly strengthened by one man. Richard Nixon argued quietly but firmly against a switch from the Hiss investigation to any other subject. He pled the necessity of reaching truth in the Hiss-Chambers deadlock.

  By his action, then and later, he became the man of decision of the first phase of the Hiss Case, as Thomas F. Murphy ( now Judge Murphy) was to be the man of decision of the second phase of the Hiss Case.34 Richard Nixon made the Hiss Case possible. Thomas F. Murphy made it possible for the nation to win the Case. Without either man, the Case would, in my opinion, have been lost. Let any rational fellow who likes explain to the nation how, in that crisis, those two men, and just those two men, one a Quaker and one a Catholic, one a Republican and one a Democrat, each utterly unlike the other in mind and character, came to be where each, in indispensable succession, was needed..

  The Committee never faltered again. Around Nixon rallied Congressmen Mundt, Hébert, McDowell, and the Committee’s chief investigator, Robert Stripling, who persistently fought through the Case to the close of the Committee’s phase. That was the first team, together with the investigators and researchers who back-stopped it, that made the Hiss Case. At the time, I sometimes thought that it behaved clumsily, crudely, without intelligence, intuition,or even order. Looking back on its conduct, with fuller knowledge of its handicaps and with much greater personal experience of such matters than I then had, I am astonished at the skill and pertinacity with which it made head against great obstacles.

  If the Committee were to press the Case, the first point to establish was: who is lying? That could be got at most readily by finding out whether or not I had, in fact, ever personally known Alger Hiss. Nixon, acting on a suggestion of Ben Mandel’s, proposed a simple procedure. The Committee would question me in executive session with a view to discovering what hard facts I knew about Hiss, his family, his life, the houses he had lived in, etc. Then it would separately question Hiss on the same points, and compare the two witnesses answers.

  Richard Nixon was appointed chairman of a sub-committee for that purpose. Its other members were Congressmen F. Edward Hébert of Louisiana and John McDowell of Pennsylvania. The subcommittee left for New York and summoned me for questioning at 10:30 on the morning of August 7, 1948, in Room 101 of the United States Courthouse (the Federal Building). Nine days later, it summoned Alger Hiss to a similar session in the Committee’s hearing room in the Old House Office Building in Washington.

  XII

  I had to ask my way to the Federal Building where I was soon to spend some months of the most important waking hours of my life. I found the sub-committee waiting for me in one of those official rooms where no one lives but which bears the stale traces of many people passing through. With the sub-committee was a contingent of the Committee’s staff. Most of them were standing or shuffling around nervously. Everyone was overtly polite under an air of fret. Ben Mandel hovered around me with disquieting solicitude.

  The three members of the sub-committee sat down, facing me across a long table. Congressman Nixon sat directly opposite me; Hébert to his right, McDowell to his left. We were not more than four to six feet apart. The congressmen seldom took their eyes off my face. A drumfire of questions began which continued almost without pause until the end of the hearing. Nixon, as chairman of the sub-committee, opened fire.

  NIXON: Mr. Hiss in his testimony was asked on several occasions whether or not he had ever known, or knew, a man by the name of Whittaker Chambers. In each instance he categorically said “No.” At what period did you know Mr. Hiss? What time?

  CHAMBERS: I knew Mr. Hiss, roughly, between the years 1935 to 1937.

  NIXON: Do you know him as Mr. Alger Hiss?

  CHAMBERS: Yes.

  NIXON: Did you happen to see Mr. Hiss’s pictures in the newspapers as a result of these recent hearings?

  CHAMBERS: Yes, I did.

  NIXON : Was that the man you knew as Alger Hiss?

  CHAMBERS: Yes, that is the man.

  NIXON: You are certain of that?

  CHAMBERS: I am completely certain.

  NIXON: During the time that you knew Mr. Hiss, did he know you as Whittaker Chambers?

  CHAMBERS: No, he did not.

  NIXON: By what name did he know you?

  CHAMBERS: He knew me by the Party name of Carl.

  NIXON: Did he ever question the fact that he did not know your last name?

  CHAMBERS: Not to me.

  NIXON : Why not?

  CHAMBERS: Because in the underground Communist Party the principle of organization is that functionaries, and heads of the group in other words, shall not be known by their right names but by pseudonyms or party names.

  NIXON: Were you a party functionary?

  CHAMBERS: I was a functionary.

  NIXON : This entire group with which you worked in Washington did not know you by your real name?

  CHAMBERS: No member of that group knew me by my real name.

  NIXON: All knew you as Carl?

  CHAMBERS: That is right.

  NIXON: No member of that group ever inquired of you as to your real name?

  CHAMBERS: To have questioned me would have been a breach of party discipline, Communist Party discipline.

  NIXON: I understood you to say that Mr. Hiss was a member of the party.

  CHAMBERS: Mr. Hiss was a member of the Communist Party.

  NIXON : Is there any other circumstance which would substantiate your allegation that he was a member of the party.... ?

  CHAMBERS: I must also interpolate there that all Communists in the group in which I originally knew him accepted him as a member of the Communist Party.

  NIXON : Referred to him as a member of the party?

  CHAMBERS: That doesn’t come up in conversation, but this was a Communist group.

  NIXON: Could this have possibly been an intellectual study group?

  CHAMBERS: It was in no wise an intellectual study group. Its primary function was not that of an intellectual study group ... its primary function was to infiltrate the Government in the interest of the Communist Party. (Before the month was out Adolf A. Berle was to do me ( and everybody else) a serious disservice by ( in effect) contradicting this testimony. )

  NIXON: At that time, incidentally, Mr. Hiss and the other members of this group who were Government employees did not have party cards?

  CHAMBERS: No members of that group to my knowledge ever had party cards, nor do I think members of any such group have party cards.

  NIXON: The reason is—

  CHAMBERS: The reason is security, concealment.

  NIXON: In other words, people who are in the Communist underground are in fact instructed to deny the fact that they are members of the Communist Party?

  CHAMBERS: I was told by Peters ( J. Peters) that party registration was kept in Moscow and in some secret file in the United States.

  There then followed a point-blank fusillade, chiefly aimed at testing my factual, intimate knowledge of Alger Hiss, his household and his habits, which was the purpose of the hearing. Deliberately, the questions were fired so quickly as to give me as little time as possible to reflect on the answers. As in the first hearing, I made a number of errors of recollection, none of them very serious, and all of them together greatly outweighed by the answers which Hiss himself would verify nine days later.

  To understand in somewhat the same way the impact that my testimony made upon the Committee, and the reason why its members slowly began to feel that Hiss had known me, it is only necessary to compare my testimony taken on August 7th with his testimony on similar points taken on August 16th. In each case the testimony was taken in executive session. Perhaps it should be noted, too, that I testified without having discussed the past with my wife whose memory for what Hiss was later to call “these petty housekeeping details” proved to be more detailed and vivid than mine.

  MR. NIXON: Did Mr.
Hiss have any children?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Mr. Hiss had no children of his own.

  MR. NIXON: Were there any children living in his home?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Mrs. Hiss had a son.

  MR. NIXON: Do you know the son’s name?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Timothy Hobson.

  MR. NIXON: Approximately how old was he at the time you knew him?

  MR. CHAMBERS: It seems to me he was about 10 years old. MR. NIXON: What did you call him?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Timmie.

  MR. NIXON: Did Mr. Hiss call him Timmie also?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I think so.

  MR. NIXON : Did he have any other nickname?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Not that I recall. He is the son, to the best of my knowledge, of Thayer Hobson, who I think is a member of the publishing house of William Morrow here in New York.

  MR. NIXON: What name did Mrs. Hiss use in addressing Mr. Hiss?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Usually “Hilly.”

  MR. NIXON: “Hilly”?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes.

  MR. NIXON: Quite often?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes.

  MR. NIXON: In your presence?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes.

  MR. NIXON: Not “Alger”?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Not “Alger.”

  MR. NIXON: What nickname, if any, did Mr. Hiss use in addressing his wife?

  MR. CHAMBERS: More often “Dilly” and sometimes “Pross.” Her name was Priscilla. They were commonly referred to as “Hilly” and “Dilly.”

  MR. NIXON: They were commonly referred to as “Hilly” and “Dilly”?

  MR. CHAMBERS: By other members of the group.

  MR. NIXON: Did you ever spend any time in Hiss’ home?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes.

  MR. NIXON: Did you ever stay overnight?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes; I stayed overnight for a number of days.

  MR. NIXON: You mean from time to time?

  MR. CHAMBERS: From time to time.

  MR. NIXON: Did you ever stay longer than 1 day?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I have stayed there as long as a week.

  MR. NIXON: What arrangements were made for taking care of your lodging at that time? Were you there as a guest?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I made that a kind of informal headquarters.

  MR. NIXON: I understand that, but what was the financial arrangement?

  MR. CHAMBERS: There was no financial arrangement.

  MR. NIXON: You were a guest?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Part of the Communist pattern.

  MR. NIXON: Did the Hisses have a cook? Do you recall a maid?

  MR. CHAMBERS: As nearly as I can remember, they had a maid who came in to clean, and a cook who came in to cook. I can’t remember whether they had a maid there all the time or not. It seems to me in one or two of the houses they did. In one of the houses they had a rather elderly Negro maid whom Mr. Hiss used to drive home in the evening.

  MR. NIXON: You don’t recall the names of the maids?

  MR. CHAMBERS: No; I don’t.

  MR. NIXON: Did the Hisses have any pets?

  MR. CHAMBERS: They had, I believe, a cocker spaniel. I have a bad memory for dogs, but as nearly as I can remember it was a cocker spaniel.

  MR. NIXON: Do you remember the dog’s name?

  MR. CHAMBERS: No. I remember they used to take it up to some kennel. I think out Wisconsin Avenue.

  MR. NIXON : They took it to board it there?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes. They made one or two vacation trips to the Eastern Shore of Maryland.

  MR. NIXON: They made some vacation trips to the Eastern Shore of Maryland?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes, and at those times the dog was kept at the kennel.

  MR. NIXON: You state the Hisses had several different houses when you knew them? Could you describe any one of those houses to us?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I think so. It seems to me when I first knew him he was living on 28th Street in an apartment house. There were two almost identical apartment houses. It seems to me that is a dead-end street and this was right at the dead end and certainly it is on the right-hand side as you go up. It also seems to me that apartment was on the top floor. Now, what was it like inside, the furniture? I can’t remember.

  MR. MANDEL: What was Mr. Hiss’ library devoted to?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Very nondescript, as I recall.

  MR. NIXON: Do you recall what floor the apartment was on?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I think it was on the top floor.

  MR. NIXON: The fourth?

  MR. CHAMBERS: It was a walk-up. I think the fourth.

  MR. NIXON: It could have been the third, of course?

  MR. CHAMBERS: It might have been.

  MR. NIXON: But you think it was the top, as well as you can recall?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I think it was the top.

  MR. NIXON: Understand, I am not trying to hold you to absolute accuracy.

  MR. CHAMBERS: I am trying to recall.

  MR. NIXON: Was there any special dish they served?

  MR. CHAMBERS: No. I think you get here into something else. Hiss is a man of great simplicity and a great gentleness and sweetness of character, and they lived with extreme simplicity. I had the impression that the furniture in that house was kind of pulled together from here or there, maybe got it from their mother or something like that, nothing lavish about it whatsoever, quite simple.

  Their food was in the same pattern and they cared nothing about food. It was not a primary interest in their lives.

  MR. MANDEL: Did Mr. Hiss have any hobbies?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes; he did. They both had the same hobby—amateur ornithologists, bird observers. They used to get up early in the morning and go to Glen Echo, out the canal, to observe birds.

  I recall once they saw, to their great excitement, a prothonotary warbler.

  MR. MC DOWELL : A very rare specimen?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I never saw one. I am also fond of birds. MR. NIXON: Did they have a car?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Yes; they did. When I first knew them they had a car. Again I am reasonably sure—I am almost certain—it was a Ford and that it was a roadster. It was black and it was very dilapidated. There is no question about that.

  I remember very clearly that it had hand windshield wipers. I remember that because I drove it one rainy day and had to work those windshield wipers by hand.

  MR. NIXON : Do you recall any other car?

  MR. CHAMBERS: It seems to me in 1936, probably, he got a new Plymouth.

  MR. NIXON: Do you recall its type?

  MR. CHAMBERS: It was a sedan, a two-seated car.

  MR. MANDEL : What did he do with the old car?

  MR. CHAMBERS: The Communist Party had in Washington a service station—that is, the man in charge or owner of this station was a Communist—or it may have been a car lot.

  MR. NIXON : But the owner was a Communist?

  MR. CHAMBERS: The owner was a Communist. I never knew who this was or where it was. It was against all the rules of underground organization for Hiss to do anything with his old car but trade it in, and I think this investigation has proved how right the Communists are in such matters, but Hiss insisted that he wanted that car turned over to the open party so it could be of use to some poor organizer in the West or somewhere.

  Much against my better judgment and much against Peters’ better judgment, he finally got us to permit him to do this thing. Peters knew where this lot was and he either took Hiss there, or he gave Hiss the address and Hiss went there, and to the best of my recollection of his description of that happening, he left the car there and simply went away and the man in charge of the station took care of the rest of it for him. I should think the records of that transfer would be traceable.

  MR. NIXON : Where was that?

  MR. CHAMBERS: In Washington, D.C., I believe; certainly somewhere in the District.

  MR. NIXON: You don’t know where?

  MR. CHAMBERS: No; never asked.

  MR. NIXON : Do you recall any other cars besides those two?


  MR. CHAMBERS: No, I think he had the Plymouth when I broke with the whole business.

  MR. NIXON: You don’t recall any other hobbies he had?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I don’t think he had any other hobbies.

  MR. NIXON: Did they have a piano?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I don’t believe so. I am reasonably sure they did not.

  MR. NIXON: Do you recall any particular pieces of furniture that they had?

  MR. CHAMBERS: The only thing I recall was a small leather cigarette box, leather-covered cigarette box, with gold tooling on it. It seems to me that box was red leather.

  MR. NIXON: Red leather cigarette box with gold tooling?

  MR. CHAMBERS: That is right.

  MR. NIXON: Do you recall possibly what the silver pattern was, if any? Was it sterling?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I don’t recall.

  MR. NIXON: Do you recall what kind of chinaware they used?

  MR. CHAMBERS: No. I have been thinking over these things and none of that stands out.

  MR. NIXON: What kind of cocktail glasses did they have?

  MR. CHAMBERS: We never drank cocktails.

  MR. NIXON: Did they drink?

  MR. CHAMBERS: They did not drink. They didn’t drink with me. For one thing, I was strictly forbidden by the Communist Party to taste liquor at any time.

  MR. NIXON: And you didn’t drink?

  MR. CHAMBERS: I never drank.

  MR. NIXON: As far as you know, they never drank, at least with you?

  MR. CHAMBERS: He gave cocktail parties in Government service.

  MR. NIXON: Could you describe Mr. Hiss’ physical appearance for us?

  MR. CHAMBERS: Mr. Hiss, I should think, is about 5 feet 8 or 9, slender. His eyes are wide apart and blue or gray.

  MR. NIXON: Blue or gray?