U.S.

Department of State, also called State Department, executive division of the

U.S. federal government responsible for carrying out U.S. foreign policy. Established in
1789, it is the oldest of the federal departments and the president’s principal means of
conducting treaty negotiations and forging agreements with foreign countries. Under its
administration are the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, the Foreign Service Institute,
and various offices of diplomatic security, foreign intelligence, policy analysis,
international narcotics control, protocol, and passport services.
This article was most recently revised and updated by Maren Goldberg.
Alger Hiss

 Introduction

Fast Facts

 Facts & Related Content

More

 More Articles On This Topic

 Additional Reading
 Contributors
 Article History

HomePolitics, Law & GovernmentInternational RelationsDiplomats

Alger Hiss
United States official
Print  Cite Share Feedback 

By The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica • Edit History

Born:
 
November 11, 1904 Baltimore Maryland
Died:
 
November 15, 1996 (aged 92) New York City New York

See all related content →

Alger Hiss, (born November 11, 1904, Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.—died November 15,

1996, New York, New York), former U.S. State Department official who was convicted in
January 1950 of perjury concerning his dealings with Whittaker Chambers, who accused
him of membership in a communist espionage ring. His case, which came at a time of
growing apprehension about the domestic influence of communism, seemed to lend
substance to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy’s sensational charges of communist
infiltration into the State Department. It also brought to national attention Richard M.
Nixon, then a U.S. representative from California, who was prominent in the
investigation that led to the indictment of Hiss.

Hiss was a graduate of Johns Hopkins University (A.B., 1926; Phi Beta Kappa) and of
Harvard Law School (1926–29) and was law clerk (1929–30) to Supreme
Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes. In 1933 he entered government service in
Pres. Franklin D. Roosevelt’s administration and served successively in the Departments
of Agriculture, Justice, and State. He attended the Yalta Conference (1945) as an adviser
to Roosevelt and later served as temporary secretary-general of the United Nations (San
Francisco Conference). In 1946 he was elected president of the Carnegie Endowment for
International Peace, a position he held until 1949.