On the night of December 2, 1948, the pale light
of a crescent moon barely illuminated the outlines of
two men standing beside a pumpkin patch in Carroll
County, Maryland. Nearby, a third man stooped low
to the ground, groping around in the pumpkins before
grabbing one and 1 pulls off the top. Inside the hollowed
interior 2 laid a small package wrapped in wax paper.
Within this unassuming package were both developed and
undeveloped microfilm images—evidence that produced
the final impetus needed for the controversial indictment
of suspected Communist spy Alger Hiss.
The story of these eccentrically concealed microfilm
images—affectionately, if inaccurately, dubbed the
‘pumpkin papers’ by the 3 press—had begun a decade
earlier when Whittaker Chambers, 4 the man who
revealed the evidence on that December evening, decided to
defect from the underground Communist party. It was
not a decision lightly made; as Chambers wrote in
retrospect, 5 “two things made that break and that
flight possible.” Sure that he could no longer serve a force
he believed to be evil, Chambers took his family and
temporarily 6 fled into hiding. As a precaution, he also
preserved material evidence—including the microfilm—
that verified both his own involvement and the involvement
of other underground agents prior 7 from his defection.
A decade later, this precaution would prove invaluable.
In November of 1948, Chambers faced a slander suit
from Alger Hiss, one of his former compatriots whom
he had reluctantly identified as a communist in a public
interview. This comment opened the door for Hiss to make
an aggressive legal attack during a period when both men
were already embroiled in an investigation by the House
Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Although
Chambers had deliberately chosen not to reveal the
microfilm, this legal attack convinced him to tacitly admit
its existence to Robert Stripling, the chief investigator of
HUAC. When two investigators traveled to 8 Chambers’s
farmhouse the following evening, he led them to the
backyard and revealed the evidence hidden inside the
hollow pumpkin.
9 Many people still believed that Alger Hiss was
innocent: while some sources argue that the actual content
of the microfilm had little relevance to the case, others
suggest that the 10 sequential public interest created
pressure for a careful verdict. However, there is no
question that the indictment of Alger Hiss on December
15 represented both a triumph and a tragedy. The conflict
between these two men was only a microcosm of the
massive, destructive struggle between two incompatible
philosophies; perhaps it is best summarized by
11 Richard Nixon as a struggle “dependent upon the
question of identity.”
of a crescent moon barely illuminated the outlines of
two men standing beside a pumpkin patch in Carroll
County, Maryland. Nearby, a third man stooped low
to the ground, groping around in the pumpkins before
grabbing one and 1 pulls off the top. Inside the hollowed
interior 2 laid a small package wrapped in wax paper.
Within this unassuming package were both developed and
undeveloped microfilm images—evidence that produced
the final impetus needed for the controversial indictment
of suspected Communist spy Alger Hiss.
The story of these eccentrically concealed microfilm
images—affectionately, if inaccurately, dubbed the
‘pumpkin papers’ by the 3 press—had begun a decade
earlier when Whittaker Chambers, 4 the man who
revealed the evidence on that December evening, decided to
defect from the underground Communist party. It was
not a decision lightly made; as Chambers wrote in
retrospect, 5 “two things made that break and that
flight possible.” Sure that he could no longer serve a force
he believed to be evil, Chambers took his family and
temporarily 6 fled into hiding. As a precaution, he also
preserved material evidence—including the microfilm—
that verified both his own involvement and the involvement
of other underground agents prior 7 from his defection.
A decade later, this precaution would prove invaluable.
In November of 1948, Chambers faced a slander suit
from Alger Hiss, one of his former compatriots whom
he had reluctantly identified as a communist in a public
interview. This comment opened the door for Hiss to make
an aggressive legal attack during a period when both men
were already embroiled in an investigation by the House
Committee on Un-American Activities (HUAC). Although
Chambers had deliberately chosen not to reveal the
microfilm, this legal attack convinced him to tacitly admit
its existence to Robert Stripling, the chief investigator of
HUAC. When two investigators traveled to 8 Chambers’s
farmhouse the following evening, he led them to the
backyard and revealed the evidence hidden inside the
hollow pumpkin.
9 Many people still believed that Alger Hiss was
innocent: while some sources argue that the actual content
of the microfilm had little relevance to the case, others
suggest that the 10 sequential public interest created
pressure for a careful verdict. However, there is no
question that the indictment of Alger Hiss on December
15 represented both a triumph and a tragedy. The conflict
between these two men was only a microcosm of the
massive, destructive struggle between two incompatible
philosophies; perhaps it is best summarized by
11 Richard Nixon as a struggle “dependent upon the
question of identity.”