environment. The sum total of all surroundings of a living organism, including natural forces and other living things, which provide conditions for development and growth as well as of danger and damage.
Under subpoena in 1948, he testified in what became Alger Hiss's perjury (espionage) trials (1949â1950) and he became an outspoken anti-communist (all described in his 1952 memoir Witness). Afterwards, he worked briefly as a senior editor at National Review (1957â1959). President Ronald Reagan awarded him the Medal of Freedom posthumously in 1984.
(1904-96). Alger Hiss, the former United States diplomat who was accused of spying for the Soviet Union throughout World War II and the postwar restoration, was convicted of perjury in 1950 for having denied he passed Department of State secrets to a Communist courier.