New Deal programs. He also spent about a year working as special
assistant to the attorney general in the Department of Justice.
In 1935, Hiss joined the State Department where he worked on le-
gal issues pertaining to trade agreements. In 1941, he became the de-
partment’s political advisor on Far Eastern affairs and, in 1944, was
in charge of the Dumbarton Oaks Conference, which formally drew
up the United Nations Charter.
Hiss left the government in 1946 to become head of the
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. In 1948, the House
Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) alleged that Hiss was
a secret communist. When Hiss denied the charges, he was prose-
cuted for perjury. The first trial ended in a hung jury but the sec-
ond trial convicted him, and Hiss spent more than three years in
jail. Once out of jail, he sought vindication but could begin the
process only in the 1970s when documents newly released to him
indicated Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) complicity in
withholding evidence that would have cleared Hiss. He died on 1 5
November 1996 without vindication. See alsoHUMAN INTELLI-
GENCE; McCARTHYERA.HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAMS.Mandated by Executive Or-
der 12958and other similar directives, historical review programs
review classified documents for declassification and eventual release
to the public. Virtually all intelligence agencies have such programs.
The Office of Information Management in the Central Intelligence
Agency (CIA), for example, oversees the agency’s document declas-
sification plans. To implement the program, the CIAemploys a three-
prong strategy. First, it supports the Department of State’sForeign
Relations of the United Statesseries, which attempts to be a thor-
ough, accurate, and reliable documentary history of major U.S. for-
eign policy decisions and activities. Second, it reviews and, when ap-
propriate, declassifies materials that are 25 years old or older. Third,
it contributes directly to the scholarly literature on the CIAand intel-
ligence by reviewing and declassifying selected national intelli-
gence estimates (NIEs), articles from the agency’s in-house journal,
Studies in Intelligence, and other records and documents, some of
which are published in anthologies in conjunction with specific issue-
oriented academic conferences.88 • HISTORICAL REVIEW PROGRAMS05-398 (2) Dictionary.qxd 10/20/05 6:27 AM Page 88