he was cited for contempt of Congress. Hiskey resigned his position as associate professor of analytical chemistry on the faculty of Brooklyn Polytechnic Institute and joined the International Biotechnical Corporation, later becoming director of analytical research for Endo Laboratories. McCarthy In June 1953, Hiskey was subpoenaed to testify before the Senate Subcommittee on Investigations. In a closed door session, Hiskey was interrogated by Sen. Joseph McCarthy: Sen. McCarthy: "Were you engaged in atomic energy espionage?" Mr. Hiskey: "I refuse to answer that question." Then after some discussion of the Fifth Amendment, Sen. McCarthy: "That is about as definite proof as we can get here that you were an espionage agent, because if you were not, you would simply say no. That would not incriminate you. The only time it would incriminate you would be if you were an espionage agent. So when you refuse to answer on the ground it would incriminate you, that is telling us you were an agent." Mr. Hiskey: "I don't think you understand the whole purpose of the Fifth Amendment, Senator. That amendment was put into the Constitution to protect the innocent man from just this kind of star chamber proceeding you are carrying on." The proceeding closed with, Ray Cohn: "There is one other question. Can you tell us any names of any Communists working on the Manhattan project?" Mr. Hiskey: "I refuse to answer that question." Sen. McCarthy: "On the grounds of self-incrimination." Mr. Hiskey: "On the grounds it may tend to incriminate me." The subcommittee did not call Hiskey to testify in public. The recommendations on May 27, 1954 of the Personnel Security Board of the U.S. Atomic Energy Commission investigation into J. Robert Oppenheimer, director of the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos, stated Oppenheimer had been found in the company of "Joseph W. Weinberg and Clarence Hiskey, who were alleged to be members of the Communist Party and to have engaged in espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union." Oppenheimer's security clearance was revoked the following month. With the collapse of the Soviet Union, KGB Archives were made accessible to historian Allen Weinstein and a former KGB officer Alexander Vassiliev. The identification of Hiskey as a Soviet agent cover named RAMSAY which occurs in the Venona papers, corroborated Hiskey's covert relationship with Soviet intelligence. References Bibliography US House of Representatives, 80th Congress, Special Session, Committee on Un-American Activities, Report on Soviet