Maryland Law Review Volume 41 | Issue 1 Article 10 The iH ss-Chambers Libel Suit William L. Marbury Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr Part of the Torts Commons Recommended Citation William L. Marbury, The Hiss-Chambers Libel Suit, 41 Md. L. Rev. 75 (1981) Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.umaryland.edu/mlr/vol41/iss1/10 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Academic Journals at DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Maryland Law Review by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@UM Carey Law. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. THE HISS-CHAMBERS LIBEL SUIT* WILLIAM L. MARBURY** On the 3rd day of August, 1948, The Baltimore Evening papers carried scare headlines announcing that at a hearing before the Un- American Activities Committee of the House of Representatives, Alger Hiss, then President of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and his brother, Donald, then a partner in the Washington law firm of Covington and Burling, along with Harold Ware, Lee Pressman and a number of others had been identified by a man named Whittaker Chambers as members of an "apparatus" of the Communist Party which operated in Washington, D.C. during the years 1934 to 1938. The next morning I wrote to Donald Hiss as follows: "Dear Donie: If you and Alger are party members, then you can send me an application." I sent a copy of this letter to Alger Hiss, saying: "I know that you will have received offers from hundreds of friends who can do much more for you than I.