3 DEC--This Day in US Military History

2014-12-03T16:00:40-05:00

1948 – The “Pumpkin Papers” came to light.

The House Un-American Activities Committee announced that former Communist spy Whittaker Chambers had produced microfilm of secret documents hidden inside a pumpkin on his Maryland farm.
Whittaker Chambers was born in Philadelphia on 1st April, 1901. He joined the American Communist Party in 1924 and at various times edited the New Masses and the Daily Worker. Chambers worked as a spy for the Soviet Union before leaving the party in 1938. The followed year he joined Time Magazine.
In August 1948 Chambers appeared before the House of Un-American Activities Committee and during his testimony claimed that Alger Hiss, a senior U.S. State Department official, was a spy. After a federal grand jury investigation of the cases, Hiss was charged with perjury. His first trial in 1949 ended in a hung jury but in the second trial in 1950, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Chambers wrote about the Hiss case in his book Witness (1952). Whittaker Chambers died on 9th July, 1961.

http://thisdayinusmilhist.wordpress.com/2014/12/03/december-3/

December 3

3 December 1762 - France ceded to Spain all lands west of the Mississippi- the territory known as Upper Louisiana. 1775 - LT John Paul Jones raises the Grand Union flag on Alfred. First American fl...

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Dec 3 at 2014 5:04 PM

2014-12-03T17:04:55-05:00

It's guys like Whittaker Chambers who keep (counterintelligence) guys like me in business. Thanks for sharing this note, MSG Private RallyPoint Member. I had heard of Chambers, but I learned something by reading this post.