Free Republic

Alger Hiss was a U.S. State Department official who was accused in 1948 of being a Soviet spy. Hiss's indictment stemmed from alleged espionage in the form of secret State Department documents spirited out of Foggy Bottom and into the hands of persons "not authorized to receive" them. "The Pumpkin Papers" consisted of sixty-five pages of retyped secret State Department documents, four pages in Hiss's own handwriting of copied State Department cables, and five rolls of developed and undeveloped 35mm film. Being charged under the Espionage Act was appropriate for those who obtained any information relating to the national defense...

1939 10 January Soviet intelligence defector Walter Krivitsky has the first of several debriefings at the Department of State. 26 June President Roosevelt secretly gives the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Military Intelligence Division (MID), and the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) exclusive responsibility for counterespionage. 23 August Germany and USSR sign Non-Aggression Pact. 1 September World War II begins as Germany invades Poland. 1940 21 May President Roosevelt authorizes the FBI to conduct warrantless electronic surveillance of persons suspected of subversion or espionage; surveillance was to be limited insofar as possible to aliens. 5 June FBI-MID-ONI "Delimitation Agreement"...