Changes

==Mainstream opinion on Hiss==

==Mainstream opinion on Hiss==

"[T]oday [http://www.spymuseum.org/events/algerhiss all but a few diehards agree] that new historical evidence has vindicated Chambers," according to the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC: "Alger Hiss really was a Soviet spy." ''American History'' magazine reports that "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily [http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y against Hiss]." The ''Federal Bar News & Journal'' adds, "Whittaker Chambers ... proved that Alger Hiss ... was a communist spy in the 1930s."<ref>John W. Berresford, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20041207142832/http://johnwberresford.com/Articles_Other/Whittaker_Chambers_and_Alger_Hiss.doc Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss: The Courts Decide]," ''Federal Bar News & Journal'', Vol. 40 (February 1993), pp. 96-108</ref>

"[T]oday [http://www.spymuseum.org/events/algerhiss all but a few diehards agree] that new historical evidence has vindicated Chambers," according to the International Spy Museum in Washington, DC: "Alger Hiss really was a Soviet spy." ''American History'' magazine reports that "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily [http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y against Hiss]." The ''Federal Bar News & Journal'' adds, "Whittaker Chambers ... proved that Alger Hiss ... was a communist spy in the 1930s."<ref>John W. Berresford, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20041207142832/http://johnwberresford.com/Articles_Other/Whittaker_Chambers_and_Alger_Hiss.doc Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss: The Courts Decide]," ''Federal Bar News & Journal'', Vol. 40 (February 1993), pp. 96-108</ref>

"Nowadays, [http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4516-5542-1 few doubt] Alger Hiss (1904–1996) was a Soviet spy," agrees ''Publishers' Weekly.'' ''Kirkus Reviews'' summarizes:

"Nowadays, [http://www.publishersweekly.com/978-1-4516-5542-1 few doubt] Alger Hiss (1904–1996) was a Soviet spy," agrees ''Publishers' Weekly.'' ''Kirkus Reviews'' summarizes:

===''Perjury''===

===''Perjury''===

''American Diplomacy'' reports that "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2001_07-09/sempa_chambers/sempa_chambers.html most interested people] were finally persuaded that justice had been done by Allen Weinstein’s painstakingly researched book, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury]'', published in 1978."  ''Library Journal'' agrees, "beginning with Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', the scholarly consensus has been that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Edward A. Goedeken, "Social Science" (Review: ''The View From Alger's Window'' by Tony Hiss), ''[http://www.libraryjournal.com/ Library Journal]'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=RBvhAAAAMAAJ Vol. 124] (1999), p. 128</ref> ''American Heritage'' magazine editor Geoffrey C. Ward, (author of Ken Burns' PBS miniseries ''The Civil War'') concurs: "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of the Hiss case is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LQUaAAAAYAAJ American originals: the private worlds of some singular men and women]'' (HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), ISBN 0060166940, p. 95</ref> Weinstein, a former [http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Archivist of the United States], started his research convinced that Chambers "had falsely accused Hiss of Communist ties and espionage."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i6l4AAAAMAAJ Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. xvii</ref> With Hiss's cooperation and access to his [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,918154,00.html attorneys' files], Weinstein set out "intending to prove Hiss's innocence," writes the former [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence] at the [[CIA]].<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ng7myCguewAC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> "But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty." On the basis of information he found in the files of Hiss's own attorneys, Weinstein concluded:

''American Diplomacy'' reports that "[http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/archives_roll/2001_07-09/sempa_chambers/sempa_chambers.html most interested people] were finally persuaded that justice had been done by Allen Weinstein’s painstakingly researched book, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YRyoAAAAIAAJ&pgis=1 Perjury]'', published in 1978."  ''Library Journal'' agrees, "beginning with Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', the scholarly consensus has been that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Edward A. Goedeken, "Social Science" (Review: ''The View From Alger's Window'' by Tony Hiss), ''[http://www.libraryjournal.com/ Library Journal]'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=RBvhAAAAMAAJ Vol. 124] (1999), p. 128</ref> ''American Heritage'' magazine editor Geoffrey C. Ward, (author of Ken Burns' PBS miniseries ''The Civil War'') concurs: "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of the Hiss case is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LQUaAAAAYAAJ American originals: the private worlds of some singular men and women]'' (HarperCollins Publishers, 1991), ISBN 0060166940, p. 95</ref> Weinstein, a former [https://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Archivist of the United States], started his research convinced that Chambers "had falsely accused Hiss of Communist ties and espionage."<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i6l4AAAAMAAJ Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. xvii</ref> With Hiss's cooperation and access to his [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,918154,00.html attorneys' files], Weinstein set out "intending to prove Hiss's innocence," writes the former [http://yalepress.yale.edu/yupbooks/book.asp?isbn=9780300121988 chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence] at the [[CIA]].<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=Ng7myCguewAC Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> "But he was an honest man and the facts he found convinced him (as they do any reader of his book) that Hiss was guilty." On the basis of information he found in the files of Hiss's own attorneys, Weinstein concluded:

{{cquote|the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i6l4AAAAMAAJ Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}

{{cquote|the body of available evidence proves that Hiss perjured himself when describing his secret dealings with Chambers, so that the jury in his second trial made no mistake in finding Alger Hiss guilty as charged.<ref>Allen Weinstein, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=i6l4AAAAMAAJ Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case]'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}

Twenty years after Weinstein's book was published, the bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] (which had access to previously-classified [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts unavailable to Weinstein) went further&mdash;not just on perjury, but on espionage&mdash;the commission's unanimous [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/ Final Report] finding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department [in Soviet espionage] seems settled."<ref>Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, ''Secrecy'' (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Appendix A - Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience], p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> The commission's chairman, Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], a [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all liberal Democrat], wrote, "Hiss was indeed a [[USSR|Soviet]] agent and appears to have been regarded by [[Moscow]] as its most important."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref> "Alger Hiss was eventually convicted of perjury rather than espionage," concurs Michael J. Sulick, former chief of CIA counterintelligence and former director of the National Clandestine Service, "but the declassified VENONA decrypts and documents from the Soviet archives eventually proved without a doubt that Hiss had been a spy."<ref>Michael J. Sulick, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tUsUAAAAQBAJ Spying In America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War]'' (Georgetown University Press, 2012), ISBN 162616066X, p. 167</ref> A comprehensive [[Department of Defense]] review concludes that Hiss was among the "well-placed Americans" who "gradually drifted into service as Soviet agents," thus beginning "careers as spies for the Soviets."<ref>Katherine L. Herbig and Martin F. Wiskoff, "[http://www.dhra.mil/perserec/reports/tr02-05.pdf Espionage Against the United States by American Citizens]," Defense Personnel Security Research Center (PERSEREC) Technical Report 02-5 (July 2002), p. 4 (PDF p. 25)</ref>

Twenty years after Weinstein's book was published, the bipartisan [[Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy|Moynihan commission]] (which had access to previously-classified [[Venona project|Venona]] decrypts unavailable to Weinstein) went further&mdash;not just on perjury, but on espionage&mdash;the commission's unanimous [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/ Final Report] finding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department [in Soviet espionage] seems settled."<ref>Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, ''Secrecy'' (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Appendix A - Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience], p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref> The commission's chairman, Senator [[Daniel Patrick Moynihan]], a [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9907E5DC103EF930A15751C0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all liberal Democrat], wrote, "Hiss was indeed a [[USSR|Soviet]] agent and appears to have been regarded by [[Moscow]] as its most important."<ref>Daniel Patrick Moynihan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FWq-5a5tqH0C Secrecy: The American Experience]'' (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998) ISBN 0300077564, p. 146</ref> "Alger Hiss was eventually convicted of perjury rather than espionage," concurs Michael J. Sulick, former chief of CIA counterintelligence and former director of the National Clandestine Service, "but the declassified VENONA decrypts and documents from the Soviet archives eventually proved without a doubt that Hiss had been a spy."<ref>Michael J. Sulick, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=tUsUAAAAQBAJ Spying In America: Espionage from the Revolutionary War to the Dawn of the Cold War]'' (Georgetown University Press, 2012), ISBN 162616066X, p. 167</ref> A comprehensive [[Department of Defense]] review concludes that Hiss was among the "well-placed Americans" who "gradually drifted into service as Soviet agents," thus beginning "careers as spies for the Soviets."<ref>Katherine L. Herbig and Martin F. Wiskoff, "[http://www.dhra.mil/perserec/reports/tr02-05.pdf Espionage Against the United States by American Citizens]," Defense Personnel Security Research Center (PERSEREC) Technical Report 02-5 (July 2002), p. 4 (PDF p. 25)</ref>

The Moynihan commission added that the [[USSR|Soviet]] agent "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") "could only be Alger Hiss."<ref>Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, ''Secrecy'' (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Appendix A - Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience], p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> The FBI had come to the same conclusion 47 years earlier: "It would appear likely that this individual [Ales] is Alger Hiss..."<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors]'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref> "Venona cables confirmed that Alger Hiss (Ales) of the State Department was a GRU agent," agrees [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/p_folder/peake.html Hayden Peake], curator of the [[CIA]]’s [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/historical-intelligence-collection.html Historical Intelligence Collection].<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20061212003123/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2000/summer/re2-Su0.htm The Venona Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Vol. 53, no. 3 (Summer 2000) (Archive)</ref> Analysts at the [[National Security Agency]] have also gone on record that [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Ales could only have been Alger Hiss]. John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, agrees, calling this identification "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html exceptionally solid]" and the evidence "compelling." The [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-War&month=0906&week=b&msg=aCgDqWbKqMTj/XUkqzkSAw&user=&pw= late] [[U.S. Air Force]] historian [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0906&week=b&msg=nGh672LlDx94PGFwC3UDMw&user=&pw= Eduard Mark] called this conclusion "eminently reasonable," concurring that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a714040012 Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case]," ''Intelligence and National Security'' Vol. 18 Issue 3 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original)</ref> [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no4/article09.html#author1 John Ehrman] of the [[CIA]]'s [https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/intelligence-analysis/index.html Directorate of Intelligence] concludes, "it is clear that [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES]."

The Moynihan commission added that the [[USSR|Soviet]] agent "Ales" (pronounced "Alles") "could only be Alger Hiss."<ref>Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, ''Secrecy'' (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), [http://www.access.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Appendix A - Secrecy: A Brief Account of the American Experience], p. A-34 (PDF p. 36)</ref> The FBI had come to the same conclusion 47 years earlier: "It would appear likely that this individual [Ales] is Alger Hiss..."<ref>FBI memo: Belmont to Ladd, May 15, 1950 ([http://education-research.org/PDFs/VENONA.pdf FBI file: Venona]), p. 8 (PDF p. 11); Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=mVpWH51F7toC The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet Espionage and America's Traitors]'' (Washington: Regnery Publishing, 2001) ISBN 0895262258, p. 137</ref> "Venona cables confirmed that Alger Hiss (Ales) of the State Department was a GRU agent," agrees [http://intellit.muskingum.edu/alpha_folder/p_folder/peake.html Hayden Peake], curator of the [[CIA]]’s [https://www.cia.gov/news-information/featured-story-archive/historical-intelligence-collection.html Historical Intelligence Collection].<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20061212003123/http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/Review/2000/summer/re2-Su0.htm The Venona Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Vol. 53, no. 3 (Summer 2000) (Archive)</ref> Analysts at the [[National Security Agency]] have also gone on record that [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/dece_hiss.html Ales could only have been Alger Hiss]. John R. Schindler, professor of strategy at the Naval War College and himself a former NSA analyst, agrees, calling this identification "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page61.html exceptionally solid]" and the evidence "compelling." The [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-War&month=0906&week=b&msg=aCgDqWbKqMTj/XUkqzkSAw&user=&pw= late] [[U.S. Air Force]] historian [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=H-Diplo&month=0906&week=b&msg=nGh672LlDx94PGFwC3UDMw&user=&pw= Eduard Mark] called this conclusion "eminently reasonable," concurring that the evidence showed that "ALES was ''very probably'' Hiss."<ref>Eduard Mark, "[http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~db=all~content=a714040012 Who was 'Venona's' 'Ales'? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case]," ''Intelligence and National Security'' Vol. 18 Issue 3 (Autumn 2003), pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64 (italics in original)</ref> [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol46no4/article09.html#author1 John Ehrman] of the [[CIA]]'s [https://www.cia.gov/offices-of-cia/intelligence-analysis/index.html Directorate of Intelligence] concludes, "it is clear that [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol51no4/pdf-files/Ehrman_Alger_Hiss_Again-Web%20(U).pdf Hiss alone remains the best candidate to be ALES]."

===Academic opinions===

===Academic opinions===

==Scholarly consensus==

==Scholarly consensus==

Today, reports [[Oxford University]]'s ''Oxonian Review'', "the Hiss case is one issue upon which [http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/who-killed-alger-hiss/ consensus transcends ideological divides]." After decades of debate, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 no serious scholar] of the subject any longer dismisses the voluminous and explicit claims by [[Whittaker Chambers]] and [[Elizabeth Bentley]]," writes [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/summer00/art02.html Cold War specialist] Thomas Powers. By 2006, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith most historians] had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," agrees Aldrich. "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," concur Gilbert Geis [http://socialecology.uci.edu/faculty/ggeis of the University of California, Irvine] and Leigh B. Bienen [http://homicide.northwestern.edu/about/LeighBienen/ of Northwestern].<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FPRslbPnMjwC Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson]'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> [http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~davidgr/ Rutgers historian] David Greenberg refers to "the [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all dwindling band] of those who believe in Hiss"; "the majority of modern American historians today and particularly those specializing in domestic Cold War," concludes [http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk5Y2ZmNTQ3NWUyZGQwMTZhZjQxYTRkZjZhNGNmZDM liberal historian] David Oshinsky, "see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20100604145006/http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Alger Hiss and History]" (Center for the United States and the Cold War, New York University), April 5, 2007, p. 4 (Archive)</ref>

Today, reports [[Oxford University]]'s ''Oxonian Review'', "the Hiss case is one issue upon which [http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/who-killed-alger-hiss/ consensus transcends ideological divides]." After decades of debate, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 no serious scholar] of the subject any longer dismisses the voluminous and explicit claims by [[Whittaker Chambers]] and [[Elizabeth Bentley]]," writes [https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/summer00/art02.html Cold War specialist] Thomas Powers. By 2006, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith most historians] had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," agrees Aldrich. "Those who have studied the Hiss case by and large believe that he was guilty of perjury and quite likely also guilty of espionage, that is, of passing government documents to the Soviets," concur Gilbert Geis [http://socialecology.uci.edu/faculty/ggeis of the University of California, Irvine] and Leigh B. Bienen [http://homicide.northwestern.edu/about/LeighBienen/ of Northwestern].<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FPRslbPnMjwC Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson]'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> [http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~davidgr/ Rutgers historian] David Greenberg refers to "the [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all dwindling band] of those who believe in Hiss"; "the majority of modern American historians today and particularly those specializing in domestic Cold War," concludes [http://corner.nationalreview.com/post/?q=NTk5Y2ZmNTQ3NWUyZGQwMTZhZjQxYTRkZjZhNGNmZDM liberal historian] David Oshinsky, "see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100604145006/http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Alger Hiss and History]" (Center for the United States and the Cold War, New York University), April 5, 2007, p. 4 (Archive)</ref>

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts settled the matter," observes Stanley Kutler [http://www.law.wisc.edu/profiles/sikutler@wisc.edu of the University of Wisconsin Law School]. "[T]o [http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html all but the truest of believers], 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss." The Soviet agent "Ales" is assumed by "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html most scholars] to be Alger Hiss," agrees Douglas O. Linder [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/linder.htm of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law]. "For the [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf majority of scholars], the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," concurs R. Bruce Craig, a [http://www.upei.ca/history/bcraig specialist in Cold War history] and [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/116899.html author of a forthcoming Hiss biography].

"In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts settled the matter," observes Stanley Kutler [http://www.law.wisc.edu/profiles/sikutler@wisc.edu of the University of Wisconsin Law School]. "[T]o [http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html all but the truest of believers], 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss." The Soviet agent "Ales" is assumed by "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html most scholars] to be Alger Hiss," agrees Douglas O. Linder [http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/FTrials/linder.htm of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law]. "For the [http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf majority of scholars], the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," concurs R. Bruce Craig, a [http://www.upei.ca/history/bcraig specialist in Cold War history] and [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/116899.html author of a forthcoming Hiss biography].

"Since the publication in 1978 of Allen Weinstein’s definitive ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', only partisans of the [[far left]] have continued to insist that Alger Hiss was innocent,"<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/guilty-man_634890.html Guilty Man: Posterity ponders the Hiss case]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Vol. 17, No. 29 (April 9, 2012)</ref> writes Ronald Radosh, [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-radosh17-2008sep17,0,864776.story emeritus professor of history at City University of New York], a former leader of the Communist Party youth group.<ref>Radosh was leader of the Madison, Wisconsin, chapter of the Labor Youth League, as the Young Communist League was then known. Ronald Radosh, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NgGsGwB74WkC Commies: a journey through the old left, the new left and the leftover left]'' (Encounter Books, 2001) ISBN 1893554058, pp. 68-82</ref> Historians John Earl Haynes [http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/10012/haynes.html of the Library of Congress] and Harvey Klehr [https://web.archive.org/web/20111230155845/http://www.polisci.emory.edu/facultypages/klehr.htm of Emory University] sum up:

"Since the publication in 1978 of Allen Weinstein’s definitive ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'', only partisans of the [[far left]] have continued to insist that Alger Hiss was innocent,"<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[https://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/guilty-man_634890.html Guilty Man: Posterity ponders the Hiss case]," ''The Weekly Standard'', Vol. 17, No. 29 (April 9, 2012)</ref> writes Ronald Radosh, [https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-radosh17-2008sep17,0,864776.story emeritus professor of history at City University of New York], a former leader of the Communist Party youth group.<ref>Radosh was leader of the Madison, Wisconsin, chapter of the Labor Youth League, as the Young Communist League was then known. Ronald Radosh, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=NgGsGwB74WkC Commies: a journey through the old left, the new left and the leftover left]'' (Encounter Books, 2001) ISBN 1893554058, pp. 68-82</ref> Historians John Earl Haynes [http://www.loc.gov/loc/lcib/10012/haynes.html of the Library of Congress] and Harvey Klehr [https://web.archive.org/web/20111230155845/http://www.polisci.emory.edu/facultypages/klehr.htm of Emory University] sum up:

{{cquote|Any reasonable person will conclude that the new documentation of Hiss’s assistance to Soviet espionage, along with the massive weight of prior accumulated evidence, closes the case. Given the fervour exhibited by his loyalists, it is unlikely that anything will convince the remaining diehards. But to serious students of history, continued claims for Hiss’s innocence are akin to a terminal form of [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6731654.ece ideological blindness].}}

{{cquote|Any reasonable person will conclude that the new documentation of Hiss’s assistance to Soviet espionage, along with the massive weight of prior accumulated evidence, closes the case. Given the fervour exhibited by his loyalists, it is unlikely that anything will convince the remaining diehards. But to serious students of history, continued claims for Hiss’s innocence are akin to a terminal form of [http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/the_tls/article6731654.ece ideological blindness].}}

Robert J. Goldstein, [http://catalog.oakland.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=11&ent_oid=231&returnto=494 professor emeritus of Political Science at Michigan's Oakland University], admits that his "political views" are "at odds with" Klehr's, but concedes that Klehr and Haynes "quite reasonably" conclude that Hiss was "[http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/91718.html unquestionably]" an espionage agent. The Hiss case "is a controversy that should have died 30 years ago and hasn't only because of the efforts of [http://hnn.us/articles/106101.html a small, vocal group] that is absolutely convinced that Hiss was an innocent victim," agrees Steven T. Usdin, author of Yale University Press' ''Engineering Communism''.

Robert J. Goldstein, [http://catalog.oakland.edu/preview_entity.php?catoid=11&ent_oid=231&returnto=494 professor emeritus of Political Science at Michigan's Oakland University], admits that his "political views" are "at odds with" Klehr's, but concedes that Klehr and Haynes "quite reasonably" conclude that Hiss was "[http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/91718.html unquestionably]" an espionage agent. The Hiss case "is a controversy that should have died 30 years ago and hasn't only because of the efforts of [http://hnn.us/articles/106101.html a small, vocal group] that is absolutely convinced that Hiss was an innocent victim," agrees Steven T. Usdin, author of Yale University Press' ''Engineering Communism''.

==Hiss in the mass media==

==Hiss in the mass media==

So broad is this consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press: By the time he died in 1996, "the front-page obits... in such supposed bastions of the liberal establishment as the ''New York Times'', the ''Washington Post'', and the ''Boston Globe'' were striking in their dispassionate acceptance of [http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html Hiss's guilt]," observed [http://www.northeastern.edu/journalism/contact/kennedy.html Northeastern University Journalism Professor] Dan Kennedy. Indeed, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print no serious cold war historian]," reports [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/opinion/the-public-editor-is-the-new-york-times-a-liberal-newspaper.html the liberal]<ref>As ''USA Today'' founder Al Neuharth observed in 2000, the ''Times'' had endorsed [http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/big-papers-endorsed-gore/ every Democrat] for president for the previous 40 years (Update: Make that the past [http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/timeline/kerry-2004.pdf 52] [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html years]) (Update 2: [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/barack-obama-for-president.html?pagewanted=all 56 years]).</ref> ''Times'', now questions "that Hiss lied" (Elsewhere, the ''Times'' reports "the trend of scholarship on the Hiss case in the 1990's -- a [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html growing consensus] that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent"); “[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/05/29/ST2009052902500.html most students of the Hiss case], including many erstwhile defenders, consider him guilty,” agrees the similarly liberal<ref>As ''USA Today'' publisher Al Neuharth observed in 2000, the ''Post'' endorses [http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/big-papers-endorsed-gore/ only Democrats for president] ([https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57584-2004Oct23.html This pattern] has [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html since] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/washington-post-endorsement-four-more-years-for-president-obama/2012/10/25/6ca309a2-1965-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html continued]). ''Washington Post'' ombudsman Debra Howell writes, "the conservatives I know here feel [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403057.html so outnumbered] that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo."</ref> ''Washington Post'',<ref>Chambers called the ''Post'' "the most implacable of the pro-Hiss newspapers." (Whittaker Chambers, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HKLbhAG8ma4C Witness]'' (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1987) ISBN 0895267896, p. 710) "The ''Post'' seemed to redouble its pro-Hiss efforts as his innocence became increasingly doubtful." Marvin Olasky, "[http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14220 The Chambers-Hiss case]," ''World Magazine'', July 26, 2008</ref> adding that "the scholarly consensus" is "that Hiss was almost certainly guilty of both perjury and espionage"; the ''Globe'' concludes that Hiss's guilt is a "[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8396475.html near-certainty]." Even Hiss's hometown newspaper, ''The Baltimore Sun'', where his older brother Bosley had been a reporter, admitted: "[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1996-03-09/features/1996069051_1_alger-hiss-hiss-case-perjury Most historians] are convinced of his guilt."

So broad is this consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press: By the time he died in 1996, "the front-page obits... in such supposed bastions of the liberal establishment as the ''New York Times'', the ''Washington Post'', and the ''Boston Globe'' were striking in their dispassionate acceptance of [https://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html Hiss's guilt]," observed [http://www.northeastern.edu/journalism/contact/kennedy.html Northeastern University Journalism Professor] Dan Kennedy. Indeed, "[https://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print no serious cold war historian]," reports [https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/opinion/the-public-editor-is-the-new-york-times-a-liberal-newspaper.html the liberal]<ref>As ''USA Today'' founder Al Neuharth observed in 2000, the ''Times'' had endorsed [http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/big-papers-endorsed-gore/ every Democrat] for president for the previous 40 years (Update: Make that the past [https://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/opinion/timeline/kerry-2004.pdf 52] [https://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/24/opinion/24fri1.html years]) (Update 2: [https://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/28/opinion/sunday/barack-obama-for-president.html?pagewanted=all 56 years]).</ref> ''Times'', now questions "that Hiss lied" (Elsewhere, the ''Times'' reports "the trend of scholarship on the Hiss case in the 1990's -- a [https://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html growing consensus] that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent"); “[https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/05/29/ST2009052902500.html most students of the Hiss case], including many erstwhile defenders, consider him guilty,” agrees the similarly liberal<ref>As ''USA Today'' publisher Al Neuharth observed in 2000, the ''Post'' endorses [http://www.aim.org/media-monitor/big-papers-endorsed-gore/ only Democrats for president] ([https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A57584-2004Oct23.html This pattern] has [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/16/AR2008101603436.html since] [https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/washington-post-endorsement-four-more-years-for-president-obama/2012/10/25/6ca309a2-1965-11e2-bd10-5ff056538b7c_story.html continued]). ''Washington Post'' ombudsman Debra Howell writes, "the conservatives I know here feel [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/11/14/AR2008111403057.html so outnumbered] that they don't even want to be quoted by name in a memo."</ref> ''Washington Post'',<ref>Chambers called the ''Post'' "the most implacable of the pro-Hiss newspapers." (Whittaker Chambers, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=HKLbhAG8ma4C Witness]'' (Washington, DC: Regnery, 1987) ISBN 0895267896, p. 710) "The ''Post'' seemed to redouble its pro-Hiss efforts as his innocence became increasingly doubtful." Marvin Olasky, "[http://www.worldmag.com/articles/14220 The Chambers-Hiss case]," ''World Magazine'', July 26, 2008</ref> adding that "the scholarly consensus" is "that Hiss was almost certainly guilty of both perjury and espionage"; the ''Globe'' concludes that Hiss's guilt is a "[http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8396475.html near-certainty]." Even Hiss's hometown newspaper, ''The Baltimore Sun'', where his older brother Bosley had been a reporter, admitted: "[http://articles.baltimoresun.com/1996-03-09/features/1996069051_1_alger-hiss-hiss-case-perjury Most historians] are convinced of his guilt."

===The foreign press on Hiss===

===The foreign press on Hiss===

Outside the U.S., where fewer people are invested [http://www.tnr.com/article/bohemian-rhapsody the myth] of Hiss's innocence, the press is less equivocal: "[http://web.archive.org/web/20080829155929/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/daniel_finkelstein/article3441328.ece We know] that Alger Hiss was guilty," reports the ''Times'' of London, adding that Hiss's guilt is "[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article1394730.ece beyond doubt]"; the ''Daily Telegraph'' agrees that the evidence that Hiss was a Soviet agent is now "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5648274/Spies-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-the-KGB-in-America-By-John-Earl-Haynes-Harvey-Klehr-and-Alexander-Vassiliev-review.html beyond doubt]." The ''Financial Times'' concurs that there is now "[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a2819a20-77e2-11de-9713-00144feabdc0.html no doubt] that [Hiss] was indeed a Soviet spy." Writing in London's "[http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/editorial-a-liberal-gamble-too-far-8468336.html proudly liberal]" ''Independent'', [http://johannhari.com/2008/10/26/an-interview-with-johann-for-the-newspaper-cherwell/ self-proclaimed "social democrat"] Johann Hari admits that "the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss," is among those shown by [[Venona project|Venona]] to have been "[http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-exhumation-of-joe-mccarthy-567642.html Soviet spies]." Even the ''Guardian'', Britain's [http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/magazines-newspapers/the-guardian-1/1411701/ leading left-wing] newspaper<ref>''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 caricatures]. The ''Guardian'' is so left-wing (by British standards) that its competitors sometimes refer to it as the British equivalent [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article2379430.ece of the ''New York Times''].</ref> concedes that "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison the general view]" is  "that Hiss was guilty."

Outside the U.S., where fewer people are invested [http://www.tnr.com/article/bohemian-rhapsody the myth] of Hiss's innocence, the press is less equivocal: "[https://web.archive.org/web/20080829155929/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/daniel_finkelstein/article3441328.ece We know] that Alger Hiss was guilty," reports the ''Times'' of London, adding that Hiss's guilt is "[http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/books/non-fiction/article1394730.ece beyond doubt]"; the ''Daily Telegraph'' agrees that the evidence that Hiss was a Soviet agent is now "[https://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/books/5648274/Spies-The-Rise-and-Fall-of-the-KGB-in-America-By-John-Earl-Haynes-Harvey-Klehr-and-Alexander-Vassiliev-review.html beyond doubt]." The ''Financial Times'' concurs that there is now "[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/a2819a20-77e2-11de-9713-00144feabdc0.html no doubt] that [Hiss] was indeed a Soviet spy." Writing in London's "[http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/editorials/editorial-a-liberal-gamble-too-far-8468336.html proudly liberal]" ''Independent'', [http://johannhari.com/2008/10/26/an-interview-with-johann-for-the-newspaper-cherwell/ self-proclaimed "social democrat"] Johann Hari admits that "the left's old ''cause célèbre'', Alger Hiss," is among those shown by [[Venona project|Venona]] to have been "[http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/johann-hari/the-exhumation-of-joe-mccarthy-567642.html Soviet spies]." Even the ''Guardian'', Britain's [http://www.dooyoo.co.uk/magazines-newspapers/the-guardian-1/1411701/ leading left-wing] newspaper<ref>''Guardian'' readers are often [http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/3159813.stm stereotyped] as [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/northern_ireland/4348620.stm politically correct] [http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200102/cmhansrd/vo011119/debtext/11119-08.htm#11119-08_spnew3 caricatures]. The ''Guardian'' is so left-wing (by British standards) that its competitors sometimes refer to it as the British equivalent [http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/columnists/michael_gove/article2379430.ece of the ''New York Times''].</ref> concedes that "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison the general view]" is  "that Hiss was guilty."

===Newsweeklies on Hiss===

===Newsweeklies on Hiss===

''Time'' magazine reports that [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,985571,00.html Hiss's supporters are "dwindling"] as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy," adding that [[Venona project|Venona]] "seems to [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html remove reasonable doubt] about Alger Hiss's guilt." "For... Alger Hiss," agrees ''Newsweek'', we now have "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 irrefutable confirmation] of guilt." ''U.S. News and World Report'' concurs: "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978,"<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> adding, "The material in the Vassiliev notebooks corroborates the suspicion that Hiss was a longtime agent of Soviet military intelligence. That echoes the findings of Venona Project analysts, who concluded years ago that the code name 'Ales' in the intercepted Soviet cables was 'probably Alger Hiss.'"<ref>Alex Kingsbury, "[http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2009/07/17/declassified-documents-reveal-kgb-spies-in-the-us Declassified Documents Reveal KGB Spies in the U.S.]," ''U.S. News and World Report'', July 17, 2009</ref>

''Time'' magazine reports that [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,985571,00.html Hiss's supporters are "dwindling"] as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy," adding that [[Venona project|Venona]] "seems to [http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html remove reasonable doubt] about Alger Hiss's guilt." "For... Alger Hiss," agrees ''Newsweek'', we now have "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 irrefutable confirmation] of guilt." ''U.S. News and World Report'' concurs: "Most scholars considered the case against Hiss firmly established by Allen Weinstein's ''Perjury'', published in 1978,"<ref>Michael Barone, "Hiss and History," ''U.S. News and World Report'', November 25, 1996</ref> adding, "The material in the Vassiliev notebooks corroborates the suspicion that Hiss was a longtime agent of Soviet military intelligence. That echoes the findings of Venona Project analysts, who concluded years ago that the code name 'Ales' in the intercepted Soviet cables was 'probably Alger Hiss.'"<ref>Alex Kingsbury, "[https://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2009/07/17/declassified-documents-reveal-kgb-spies-in-the-us Declassified Documents Reveal KGB Spies in the U.S.]," ''U.S. News and World Report'', July 17, 2009</ref>

===Other magazines on Hiss===

===Other magazines on Hiss===

===Television on Hiss===

===Television on Hiss===

Even television is starting to notice. ABC, where 2008 presidential campaign contributions went [http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/entertainment-divisions-drive.html 98.6% for Obama], quotes a source saying that "newly-declassified U.S. and Soviet intelligence backs longtime allegations" that Hiss was [http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=1213034 a Soviet spy]. Public Broadcasting is subsidized by taxpayers (more than a billion dollars in 2012)<ref>$444 million via CPB, $60 million in direct federal grants and contracts, and $539 million from state and local taxes. [http://www.cpb.org/stations/reports/revenue/2012PublicBroadcastingRevenue.pdf Public Broadcasting Revenue, Fiscal Year 2012], Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Table 1</ref>&mdash;and was caught sharing PBS donor lists [https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/17/us/pbs-stations-shared-donor-lists-with-democrats-stirring-trouble.html?pagewanted=all with Democratic Party fundraisers]&mdash;but its educational program ''Nova'' identifies Hiss as one of "the foremost Americans [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/resources.html spying for the Soviet Union]," referring to him in its Teachers' Guide as one of "the last century's most [http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/overviews/2904_venona.html notorious spies]." Even TruTV ([http://www.trutv.com/newname.html formerly Court TV])&mdash;[http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=6436&SearchResult=5031895&graph=MucketyMap?_r=2D owned by] [http://nypost.com/1999/09/30/ted-confesses-heartbreak-im-too-rich-to-be-no-2/ self-proclaimed "socialist"] [http://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Robert-E-Ted-Turner_ETX7.html billionaire] Ted Turner (who says "the [[KGB]] ... was an honorable place to work.... [I]t gave people ... an opportunity to do something [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27983385/page/4/ important and worthwhile]")&mdash;admits: "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt [https://web.archive.org/web/20091126060054/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html beyond a reasonable doubt]."

Even television is starting to notice. ABC, where 2008 presidential campaign contributions went [https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009/06/entertainment-divisions-drive.html 98.6% for Obama], quotes a source saying that "newly-declassified U.S. and Soviet intelligence backs longtime allegations" that Hiss was [https://abcnews.go.com/print?id=1213034 a Soviet spy]. Public Broadcasting is subsidized by taxpayers (more than a billion dollars in 2012)<ref>$444 million via CPB, $60 million in direct federal grants and contracts, and $539 million from state and local taxes. [http://www.cpb.org/stations/reports/revenue/2012PublicBroadcastingRevenue.pdf Public Broadcasting Revenue, Fiscal Year 2012], Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Table 1</ref>&mdash;and was caught sharing PBS donor lists [https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/17/us/pbs-stations-shared-donor-lists-with-democrats-stirring-trouble.html?pagewanted=all with Democratic Party fundraisers]&mdash;but its educational program ''Nova'' identifies Hiss as one of "the foremost Americans [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/venona/resources.html spying for the Soviet Union]," referring to him in its Teachers' Guide as one of "the last century's most [https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teachers/overviews/2904_venona.html notorious spies]." Even TruTV ([http://www.trutv.com/newname.html formerly Court TV])&mdash;[http://www.muckety.com/Query?SearchResult=6436&SearchResult=5031895&graph=MucketyMap?_r=2D owned by] [http://nypost.com/1999/09/30/ted-confesses-heartbreak-im-too-rich-to-be-no-2/ self-proclaimed "socialist"] [https://www.forbes.com/lists/2008/54/400list08_Robert-E-Ted-Turner_ETX7.html billionaire] Ted Turner (who says "the [[KGB]] ... was an honorable place to work.... [I]t gave people ... an opportunity to do something [http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27983385/page/4/ important and worthwhile]")&mdash;admits: "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt [https://web.archive.org/web/20091126060054/http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html beyond a reasonable doubt]."

===Online media on Hiss===

===Online media on Hiss===

Not even the online media are immune. Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html "pugnatiously liberal]" Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that [http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/print/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ he was]." By the time Hiss died, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html just about everyone] conceded that he was guilty," reported Salon.com. Weinstein's ''Perjury'' "had convinced even pro-Hiss liberals" that he "had indeed been a Communist and a spy for the Soviet Union." The [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml left-liberal] "webzine" added that [[Venona project|Venona]] "showed Hiss was almost certainly a Soviet agent.... Hiss's defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers." Slate.com (where [http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ more than 96%] of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]]) admits that "Today, [http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ most people] who think about Hiss at all, even on the left, tend to think that Hiss was guilty," and refers to "the [http://www.slate.com/id/2170415 consensus] in the reality-based community that&mdash;back in the '30s and '40s&mdash;one-time State Department luminary Hiss had probably been guilty of ''some'' collaboration with the Soviets." Elsewhere, it warns, "Heads up: ''Alger [http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ Hiss was guilty]''," (Italics in original) concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those [http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss's innocence]."

Not even the online media are immune. Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html "pugnatiously liberal]" Huffington Post), writing at Truthdig.com ("A [[Progressive]] Journal of News and Opinion"), admits, "the evidence that Hiss was innocent of serving as a Soviet spy is sparse. It requires contortions to suggest that he was not and to explain away the evidence suggesting that [http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/print/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ he was]." By the time Hiss died, "[https://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html just about everyone] conceded that he was guilty," reported Salon.com. Weinstein's ''Perjury'' "had convinced even pro-Hiss liberals" that he "had indeed been a Communist and a spy for the Soviet Union." The [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml left-liberal] "webzine" added that [[Venona project|Venona]] "showed Hiss was almost certainly a Soviet agent.... Hiss's defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers." Slate.com (where [http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ more than 96%] of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]]) admits that "Today, [http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ most people] who think about Hiss at all, even on the left, tend to think that Hiss was guilty," and refers to "the [http://www.slate.com/id/2170415 consensus] in the reality-based community that&mdash;back in the '30s and '40s&mdash;one-time State Department luminary Hiss had probably been guilty of ''some'' collaboration with the Soviets." Elsewhere, it warns, "Heads up: ''Alger [http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ Hiss was guilty]''," (Italics in original) concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those [https://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss's innocence]."

==Liberal/left-wing opinion on Hiss==

==Liberal/left-wing opinion on Hiss==

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. By the late 1970s, even "[http://www.observer.com/2009/books/cold-war-character-still-hot most anti-Communist liberals] became convinced that Hiss had lied to HUAC, and spied for the Soviet Union when he worked for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the State Department in the 1930s and ’40s," writes Cornell University professor (and Huffington Post [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-c-altschuler contributor]) Glenn C. Altschuler. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] historian, [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official and [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html "unabashedly liberal partisan"] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger wrote in 1946 that "the faults and injustices in our present system" in the U.S. "make even freedom-loving Americans look wistfully at Russia." (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., "The United States Communist Party&mdash;Small But Tightly Disciplined, It Strives with Fanatic Zeal to Promote the Aims of Russia," ''Life'', July 29, 1946, excerpted in Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, [http://ia700406.us.archive.org/31/items/scopeofsovietact4345unit/scopeofsovietact4345unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States, Part 43] [Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1957], p. 3022 [PDF p. 26]) Fifty-four years later, Schlesinger, it was written, "equates [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html capitalism with sexism and racism]."</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LLyNX6hMDCIC A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Schlesinger's Harvard colleague, the [[socialist]]<ref>"Galbraith called for a ''[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E5DE113FF932A35756C0A9609C8B63&pagewanted=all new socialism]''." Cf. chapter XXVII, "The Socialist Imperative," in John Kenneth Galbraith, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=toztAAAAMAAJ Economics and the Public Purpose]'' (New American Library, 1975), pp. 263-269</ref> [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], likewise blandly accepted "the fact that... Hiss purloined documents."<ref>John Kenneth Galbraith, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YoXZWqBIIE8C The Great Crash, 1929]'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), ISBN 0547248164, p. 165</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref>Thomas Reed, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= professed "social democrat,"] writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? [http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Probably]."<ref>DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that [http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Hiss was guilty]."</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake ("[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1727695,00.html top foreign policy adviser] to [[Barack Obama]]"), actually went so far as [http://web.archive.org/web/20120317083025/http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html to retract] a statement&mdash;made in the wake of Hiss's death&mdash;suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/17/opinion/the-dossier-on-anthony-lake.html less than conclusive]. Even the prominent Democratic Socialist Irving Howe [http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html declared Hiss guilty]. [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html Professed atheist] [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Obama supporter] Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nLU0z6PlTHAC Alger Hiss and the Battle for History]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, pp. 20-21. Jacoby, who calls herself "an [http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1242 unabashed liberal and proud of it]," avers, however, that she is "only 98 or 99 percent convinced of Hiss's guilt." Her residual one to two percent doubt, suggests [[Whittaker Chambers]]' grandson, may be due to her refusal to read the new book, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC  Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]''. "According to ''Spies'' co-author Harvey Klehr," writes Chambers, "Yale's editor Jonathan Brent offered her access to the book's new findings. Apparently, Ms. Jacoby [http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/22/equally-erring-about-hiss/?page=2 took a pass]." As Jacoby admits, "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to [http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Hiss's guilt]."</ref> Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Hiss's ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School, Cass Sunstein, former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, agrees, "Most of those who have carefully studied the case, and who have explored evidence emerging long after the trial itself, have concluded that Chambers was telling the truth and that [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/how-the-alger-hiss-case-explains-the-tea-party.html Hiss did indeed perjure himself]." Even [http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama Obama supporter] Charles Fried, another professor at Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss's petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to [http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf all but the most obdurate] that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent."

Even on the left, few authorities disagree. By the late 1970s, even "[http://www.observer.com/2009/books/cold-war-character-still-hot most anti-Communist liberals] became convinced that Hiss had lied to HUAC, and spied for the Soviet Union when he worked for the Agricultural Adjustment Administration and the State Department in the 1930s and ’40s," writes Cornell University professor (and Huffington Post [https://www.huffingtonpost.com/glenn-c-altschuler contributor]) Glenn C. Altschuler. "My own sense of things was that Hiss had been a [Communist] party member in the Thirties and did give Soviet agents documents," wrote the [[Harvard University|Harvard]] historian, [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official and [https://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html "unabashedly liberal partisan"] Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger wrote in 1946 that "the faults and injustices in our present system" in the U.S. "make even freedom-loving Americans look wistfully at Russia." (Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., "The United States Communist Party&mdash;Small But Tightly Disciplined, It Strives with Fanatic Zeal to Promote the Aims of Russia," ''Life'', July 29, 1946, excerpted in Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Senate, [http://ia700406.us.archive.org/31/items/scopeofsovietact4345unit/scopeofsovietact4345unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States, Part 43] [Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office, 1957], p. 3022 [PDF p. 26]) Fifty-four years later, Schlesinger, it was written, "equates [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html capitalism with sexism and racism]."</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=LLyNX6hMDCIC A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950]'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</ref> Schlesinger's Harvard colleague, the [[socialist]]<ref>"Galbraith called for a ''[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C01E5DE113FF932A35756C0A9609C8B63&pagewanted=all new socialism]''." Cf. chapter XXVII, "The Socialist Imperative," in John Kenneth Galbraith, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=toztAAAAMAAJ Economics and the Public Purpose]'' (New American Library, 1975), pp. 263-269</ref> [[John Kenneth Galbraith]], likewise blandly accepted "the fact that... Hiss purloined documents."<ref>John Kenneth Galbraith, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=YoXZWqBIIE8C The Great Crash, 1929]'' (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2009), ISBN 0547248164, p. 165</ref> Thomas Reed, Secretary of the Air Force in the [[Jimmy Carter|Carter]] administration, writes, "The Venona transcripts, released in 1997 and identifying Hiss via his code name Ales, and the postwar testimony of defecting Soviet code clerk Igor Gouzenko, remove any doubt about Hiss’s guilt."<ref>Thomas Reed, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=69Vvboox1JcC At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War]'' (New York: Random House, Inc., 2005) ISBN 0891418377, pp. 9-10</ref> Berkeley professor J. Bradford DeLong, a former [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] administration official and [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= professed "social democrat,"] writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? [http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Probably]."<ref>DeLong elaborates: "I think that Hiss was guilty.... I think Hiss is more likely than not to be guilty of espionage. I even think that there is clear and convincing evidence that [http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Hiss was guilty]."</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Adviser Anthony Lake ("[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1727695,00.html top foreign policy adviser] to [[Barack Obama]]"), actually went so far as [https://web.archive.org/web/20120317083025/https://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html to retract] a statement&mdash;made in the wake of Hiss's death&mdash;suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was [https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/17/opinion/the-dossier-on-anthony-lake.html less than conclusive]. Even the prominent Democratic Socialist Irving Howe [http://writ.news.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html declared Hiss guilty]. [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html Professed atheist] [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Obama supporter] Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=nLU0z6PlTHAC Alger Hiss and the Battle for History]'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2009) ISBN 0300121334, pp. 20-21. Jacoby, who calls herself "an [http://www.q-and-a.org/Transcript/?ProgramID=1242 unabashed liberal and proud of it]," avers, however, that she is "only 98 or 99 percent convinced of Hiss's guilt." Her residual one to two percent doubt, suggests [[Whittaker Chambers]]' grandson, may be due to her refusal to read the new book, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=qCAVQ_cdomcC  Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America]''. "According to ''Spies'' co-author Harvey Klehr," writes Chambers, "Yale's editor Jonathan Brent offered her access to the book's new findings. Apparently, Ms. Jacoby [http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/22/equally-erring-about-hiss/?page=2 took a pass]." As Jacoby admits, "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to [https://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Hiss's guilt]."</ref> Felix Frankfurter Professor of Law at Hiss's ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School, Cass Sunstein, former Administrator of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs in the Obama administration, agrees, "Most of those who have carefully studied the case, and who have explored evidence emerging long after the trial itself, have concluded that Chambers was telling the truth and that [https://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-10-29/how-the-alger-hiss-case-explains-the-tea-party.html Hiss did indeed perjure himself]." Even [http://www.tnr.com/blog/the-plank/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama Obama supporter] Charles Fried, another professor at Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss's petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to [http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf all but the most obdurate] that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent."

===''The Nation''===

===''The Nation''===

The lone holdout has been ''[http://www.thenation.com/ The Nation]'', a magazine that "identified itself as solidly pro-Hiss in the 1950s."<ref>G. Edward White, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) ISBN 0195182553, p. 133.</ref> The late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] tagged it "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia";<ref>Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in the [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm Congressional Record, Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996)], p. H3645</ref> [[William F. Buckley]] commented in 1978 that the magazine "has been clinging to the notion of Hiss's innocence over the years with the forlorn adamance of the last survivors of [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19780518&id=s88VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9xEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2592,3623339 the Flat Earth Society]." ''The Nation'' "embraced a [http://gladlylernegladlyteche.blogspot.com/2009/06/of-columns-communists-and-comoes.html prejudiced view] of the Hiss-Chambers affair in 1948," writes [http://english.princeton.edu/component/option,com_faculty/Itemid,99999999/facultyid,11/func,fullview/lang,en/ Princeton Emeritus Professor] John V. Fleming, "and has been unable to wriggle free even yet."<ref>The magazine's defense of Hiss has tended to ignore the facts and focus on questions of "taste" ("If one has any interest in [http://spectator.org/archives/2008/04/22/the-alger-hiss-democrats our national taste] it is impossible to refrain from asking how American jurors could be persuaded to give credence to such a man as Chambers in preference to such a man as Hiss").</ref> Today, according to Slate.com, it is "pretty much the last general-interest magazine in America that [http://web.archive.org/web/20110220084832/http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ remains committed] to the idea of Hiss's innocence." Nowadays, outside "the ranks of [http://hnn.us/articles/816.html ''Nation'' readers] and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," writes Klehr. Radosh agrees, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly [http://hfm.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=3256 ''Nation'' magazine readers] and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."

The lone holdout has been ''[http://www.thenation.com/ The Nation]'', a magazine that "identified itself as solidly pro-Hiss in the 1950s."<ref>G. Edward White, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=FvR4HBTiYzAC Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy]'' (Oxford University Press, 2005) ISBN 0195182553, p. 133.</ref> The late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] tagged it "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia";<ref>Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in the [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm Congressional Record, Vol. 142, No. 50 (Thursday, April 18, 1996)], p. H3645</ref> [[William F. Buckley]] commented in 1978 that the magazine "has been clinging to the notion of Hiss's innocence over the years with the forlorn adamance of the last survivors of [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1368&dat=19780518&id=s88VAAAAIBAJ&sjid=9xEEAAAAIBAJ&pg=2592,3623339 the Flat Earth Society]." ''The Nation'' "embraced a [http://gladlylernegladlyteche.blogspot.com/2009/06/of-columns-communists-and-comoes.html prejudiced view] of the Hiss-Chambers affair in 1948," writes [http://english.princeton.edu/component/option,com_faculty/Itemid,99999999/facultyid,11/func,fullview/lang,en/ Princeton Emeritus Professor] John V. Fleming, "and has been unable to wriggle free even yet."<ref>The magazine's defense of Hiss has tended to ignore the facts and focus on questions of "taste" ("If one has any interest in [http://spectator.org/archives/2008/04/22/the-alger-hiss-democrats our national taste] it is impossible to refrain from asking how American jurors could be persuaded to give credence to such a man as Chambers in preference to such a man as Hiss").</ref> Today, according to Slate.com, it is "pretty much the last general-interest magazine in America that [https://web.archive.org/web/20110220084832/http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ remains committed] to the idea of Hiss's innocence." Nowadays, outside "the ranks of [http://hnn.us/articles/816.html ''Nation'' readers] and a dwindling coterie of academic leftists, there are few people still willing to claim that Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White were not Soviet agents," writes Klehr. Radosh agrees, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly [http://hfm.hudson.org/index.cfm?fuseaction=publication_details&id=3256 ''Nation'' magazine readers] and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."

====George Soros/The Nation Institute====

====George Soros/The Nation Institute====

Others connected with ''The Nation'' are more candid: Max Holland, a [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=34303 contributing editor at the ''Nation''], writes that "Alger Hiss has been proven to be the 'Ales'

Others connected with ''The Nation'' are more candid: Max Holland, a [http://www.randomhouse.com/author/results.pperl?authorid=34303 contributing editor at the ''Nation''], writes that "Alger Hiss has been proven to be the 'Ales'

code-named in the Venona intercepts."<ref>Max Holland, "[http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jcws.2009.11.3.144 I. F. Stone: Encounters with Soviet Intelligence]," ''The Journal of Cold War Studies'', Vol. 11, Issue 3 (Summer 2009) p. 164, fn. 61</ref> Former [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8013479.html Harvard Law professor] and [http://www.thenation.com/node/22680 ''Nation'' contributor] Susan Estrich (author of ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WA5XUA4v-roC The Case for Hillary Clinton]'') admits that "liberal efforts over the years to champion the Rosenbergs, or Alger Hiss, as something other than Communists [http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=17066 were misguided]." Cold War scholars have now "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=if_stone_journalist_and_spy nailed Alger Hiss]," agrees ''Nation'' [http://www.thenation.com/authors/todd-gitlin contributor] [[Todd Gitlin]] "&mdash;a nailing long overdue on the left." [http://www.thenation.com/authors/jim-sleeper ''Nation'' contributor] Jim Sleeper, posting on the [http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2009/07/more-on-the-tabloidization-of-tpm.html liberal] Talking Points Memo blog, concurs, "it's obvious now that many leftists" defended Hiss "long beyond the point where it made political, moral, or even [http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/29/an_imperturbably_valiant_lawyer/ simple cognitive sense]." "Vociferously atheistic," self-styled "radical" Christopher Hitchens&mdash;one of the "25 [http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal.html most influential liberals] in the U.S. media" (and [http://www.thenation.com/authors/christopher-hitchens long-time columnist] for ''The Nation'')&mdash;calls the myth of Hiss's innocence "one of the most persistent (and [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/36492.html repelling) myths] of the [[fellow traveller|fellow-traveling]] Left."<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html Militant atheist]" Hitchens writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'" (Christopher Hitchens, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' [London: Verso, 2000] ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106) Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that  the answer is, "because he thought he was [http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html onto a winner]."</ref>

code-named in the Venona intercepts."<ref>Max Holland, "[http://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdf/10.1162/jcws.2009.11.3.144 I. F. Stone: Encounters with Soviet Intelligence]," ''The Journal of Cold War Studies'', Vol. 11, Issue 3 (Summer 2009) p. 164, fn. 61</ref> Former [http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P2-8013479.html Harvard Law professor] and [http://www.thenation.com/node/22680 ''Nation'' contributor] Susan Estrich (author of ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=WA5XUA4v-roC The Case for Hillary Clinton]'') admits that "liberal efforts over the years to champion the Rosenbergs, or Alger Hiss, as something other than Communists [http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=17066 were misguided]." Cold War scholars have now "[http://www.prospect.org/cs/articles?article=if_stone_journalist_and_spy nailed Alger Hiss]," agrees ''Nation'' [http://www.thenation.com/authors/todd-gitlin contributor] [[Todd Gitlin]] "&mdash;a nailing long overdue on the left." [http://www.thenation.com/authors/jim-sleeper ''Nation'' contributor] Jim Sleeper, posting on the [http://www.brendan-nyhan.com/blog/2009/07/more-on-the-tabloidization-of-tpm.html liberal] Talking Points Memo blog, concurs, "it's obvious now that many leftists" defended Hiss "long beyond the point where it made political, moral, or even [http://tpmcafe.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/07/29/an_imperturbably_valiant_lawyer/ simple cognitive sense]." "Vociferously atheistic," self-styled "radical" Christopher Hitchens&mdash;one of the "25 [https://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal.html most influential liberals] in the U.S. media" (and [http://www.thenation.com/authors/christopher-hitchens long-time columnist] for ''The Nation'')&mdash;calls the myth of Hiss's innocence "one of the most persistent (and [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/36492.html repelling) myths] of the [[fellow traveller|fellow-traveling]] Left."<ref>"[https://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html Militant atheist]" Hitchens writes of once quipping to the hostess of a dinner party he attended with Alger Hiss, "Why don't we secure the doors and say: 'Look, Alger, it's just us. Come on. You're among friends. Tell us why you really did it.'" (Christopher Hitchens, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=RBGmrDnBs8UC Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere]'' [London: Verso, 2000] ISBN 1859847862, pp. 105-106) Hitchens (who says he is considering writing a book called ''Guilty as Hell: A Short History of the American Left'') suggests that  the answer is, "because he thought he was [http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html onto a winner]."</ref>

=====Victor Navasky=====

=====Victor Navasky=====

====''The Nation'' on consensus====

====''The Nation'' on consensus====

Such quibbling aside, even at the ''Nation,'' it is now acknowledged that the consensus is that Hiss was guilty. [http://www.thenation.com/authors/athan-g-theoharis ''Nation'' contributor] Athan Theoharis writes that the "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 conventional assessment]" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy." Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ Most historians] have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to [http://www.tnr.com/article/correspondence-11 overthrow the regime]."</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself conceded in 2007 that “for the last 10 years, that has been [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf the consensus].”<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://web.archive.org/web/20100604145017/http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History]" (Center for the United States and the Cold War, New York University), April 5, 2007, p. 6 (Archive)</ref>

Such quibbling aside, even at the ''Nation,'' it is now acknowledged that the consensus is that Hiss was guilty. [http://www.thenation.com/authors/athan-g-theoharis ''Nation'' contributor] Athan Theoharis writes that the "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 conventional assessment]" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy." Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ Most historians] have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Chervonnaya has since suggested that this consensus amounts to an orthodoxy, writing of her "hope of dethroning the autocracy of cold war historical scholarship on the matter of Alger Hiss," describing her motive as "to [http://www.tnr.com/article/correspondence-11 overthrow the regime]."</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself conceded in 2007 that “for the last 10 years, that has been [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf the consensus].”<ref>Victor Navasky, "[https://web.archive.org/web/20100604145017/http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History]" (Center for the United States and the Cold War, New York University), April 5, 2007, p. 6 (Archive)</ref>

==References==

==References==