LOT Old Heritage Auctions  /  2007 October Rare Books & Manuscripts #675  / 

30515

Richard Nixon Typed Letter Signed re Alger Hiss

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:150.00 USD Estimated At:300.00 - 500.00 USD
Richard Nixon Typed Letter Signed re Alger Hiss
<B>Richard Nixon Typed Letter Signed</B></I> “<I>RN,</B></I> one page, 7.25” x 10.5”. Woodcliff Lake, N.J., April 12, 1991. To Hon. William Hyland. In full, “<I>Talk about going into the lion's den. I thought you would like to see a list of this who attended an off-the-record appearance I made at a Carnegie Endowment forum in Washington Wednesday. I guess they thought that by having me they would balance the fact that Alger Hiss was once their President!</B></I>” William Hyland was the CIA's top Soviet expert before he worked in the Nixon State Department under Henry Kissinger. During the Ford administration, he was deputy national security advisor and served as editor of the journal <I>Foreign Affairs</B></I> from 1985-1995. A high official in the State Department, Alger Hiss had accompanied FDR to Yalta and had played an important role in the founding of the United Nations. After he left the State Department in 1947, Alger Hiss became president of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He was serving in that capacity in 1948 when former Communist Whittaker Chambers, before the House Un-American Activities Committee, first made public his charges that Hiss was a Communist and had been a Soviet spy while he was working in the State Department in the 1930s. California Congressman Richard Nixon first gained national prominence when he was appointed head of the subcommittee that questioned Chambers and Hiss. On January 21, 1950, Hiss was found guilty of perjury for his testimony before a grand jury in 1948 concerning conversations with and passing documents to Chambers. He was sentenced to five years in prison. On November 8, 1950, Nixon was elected U.S. Senator and, in 1952, at the age of 39, was elected Vice President. When Richard Nixon died in 1994, after expressing sympathy for his family, 89-year-old Alger Hiss commented, “He left many deeds uncorrected and unatoned for.” In 1999, three years after Hiss died at 92, transcripts of Nixon's appearance before the grand jury were released, revealing that the then-California Congressman lobbied grand jurors to indict Hiss, suggesting names of witnesses they might subpoena and questions they might ask, and giving advice on how to interrogate Hiss. In this letter, written 43 years later, Alger Hiss is still on Richard Nixon's mind. Receipt date “Apr 17 1991” stamped in upper right, “file” in unknown hand. Fine condition.<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Flat Material, Small (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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