NEVER FORMALLY ACCUSED

In an otherwise informative and commendable review of Murry Kempton’s latest book (“Rebellions, Perversities, Main Events,” Book Review, April 24), you committed a major error of fact that needs to be corrected. You referred to the accused “atom-spy Alger Hiss.” Alger Hiss was never formally accused of atomic espionage or, for that matter, any other kind of espionage. He was charged with and tried for perjury in 1949. The trial ended in a “hung jury” and thus no verdict. Tried a second time in 1950, Hiss was convicted of perjury and sentenced to five years in prison. Had it not been for the “Red Scare” political atmosphere of the time and by normal “reasonable doubt” standards, Hiss might well have been acquitted on the perjury charge. Doubtless he would have been tried for espionage had the statute of limitations not expired, the alleged espionage by Whittaker Chambers’ account having occurred before 1938. Since years later the contents of Chambers’ “dumb waiter” documents and “Pumpkin Papers” were released under the Freedom of Information Act, one wonders if there was enough evidence even in 1950 to sustain an espionage conviction. Whether Alger Hiss really perjured himself is a debatable and lingering controversy from the “Red Scare” era, but even in that hysterical time nobody accused him of being an “atom-spy.”

ROBERT L. PRITCHARD, VAN NUYS