Trials of Alger Hiss, The

Synopsis: An account of the Cold War espionage and perjury case that catapulted Richard Nixon to national prominence and imprisoned a former State Department officer. Through contemporaneous newsreels and present-day interviews with surviving participants, first re-examines the case in historical context: The Depression, President Roosevelt’s New Deal, the Spanish Civil War, the Yalta Conference, President Truman’s loyalty-security program and the Cold War. Then explores the case itself: the House Un-American Activities Committee hearings, the trials, conviction and appeal. New evidence obtained under the Freedom of Information Act is shown to jurors from both trials, with startling results. Ends with the McCarthy era and Hiss’s latest court move to set aside his conviction.*
Language: English
Country: United States
Year of production: 1979
Subjects: History
Keywords: courtroom trials; Hiss, Alger (1904-1996); Nixon, Richard Milhous; perjury; United States of America

Director: John Lowenthal
Producer: John Lowenthal
Contributor: Adam Giffard; Edward Gray; Marion Kraft; Mark Obenhaus; Steven L Alexander; Vick Lusick; William G Markle

Name: JISC MediaHub
Notes: NB. As of 1 September 2016, the Jisc MediaHub subscription service is no longer available. However, all the multimedia content that Jisc has licensed for use by higher and further education institutions, which is currently accessed via the MediaHub subscription, is available through a new service, MediaPlus, at http://mediaplus.alexanderstreet.com.

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