ALGER Hiss, a former official of the US State and Justice departments who was accused of being a spy for the Soviet Union at a time when the United States was gripped by fears of communist infiltration, died yesterday at the age of 92.
Hiss died at Lennox Hill Hospital in New York City after a long illness, a hospital spokeswoman said.
Journalist Whittaker Chambers, who himself confessed to having been a Communist Party courier, accused Hiss in 1948 of having given him US government secrets to pass to the Soviet Union.
Hiss sued Chambers for libel and Chambers produced classified documents, some of which he said were written in Hiss's handwriting and others typed on the Hiss family typewriter. Then Congressman Richard Nixon, who would later become president, led the prosecution case against Hiss.
Hiss was tried for perjury. His first trial ended in a hung jury, but a second trial in 1950 ended in a guilty verdict. Sentenced to five years in prison, he served 44 months. Afterwards, he was blacklisted and began a campaign, which was to last a lifetime, to prove his innocence.
While the question of guilt or innocence was never fully resolved, a senior adviser to Russian President Boris Yeltsin said in 1992 that newly opened files showed no evidence that Hiss had spied for Moscow.
