Alger Hiss at Yalta: A Reassessment of Hiss's Arguments against Including Any of the Soviet Republics as Initial UN Members

Amid the voluminous documentary record of the Alger Hiss case, one document is especially noteworthy: a short memorandum Hiss drafted during the Yalta conference in early 1945 setting forth "Arguments against Inclusion of Any of the Soviet Republics among Initial Members" of the proposed postwar United Nations (UN) organization. Drafted when the Soviet Union was pressing for UN membership for two or three Soviet republics, the memorandum has been cited to challenge claims that Hiss acted as a Soviet agent at Yalta (or at any time) while constituting a "puzzling anomaly" for those who believe that Hiss was indeed a spy (as indicated in Soviet intelligence documents). By considering the circumstances of the memorandum's preparation and closely examining its text, this article demonstrates that the memorandum does not contravene the notion that Hiss was a Soviet agent at the time of the Yalta conference.