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Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "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 late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who 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—Small But Tightly Disciplined, It Strives with Fanatic Zeal to Promote the Aims of Russia," ''Life'', July 29, 1946, reprinted as Exhibit No. 404 in Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Congress, ''[http://ia360627.us.archive.org/1/items/scopeofsovietact4345unit/scopeofsovietact4345unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States'', Part 43] [Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957], p. 3022 [PDF p. 26]) Fifty-four years later, Schlesinger, it was written, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</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, ''[http://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 professed "social democrat,"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. 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 Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''[http://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 continues 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, ''[http://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 took a pass." (David Chambers, "[http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/22/equally-erring-about-hiss/?page=2 Equally erring about Hiss]," ''The Washington Times'', May 22, 2009) As Jacoby admits, "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism"<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 188; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> (though critics object that their patriotism was entirely traditional—to the Soviet Union);<ref>The Rosenbergs, for example, were "loyal unto death to the Soviet Union." Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> but even she concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>
Even on the left, few authorities disagree. "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 late [[Harvard University|Harvard]] professor and [[John F. Kennedy|Kennedy]] administration official Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr.,<ref>Schlesinger was an "unabashedly liberal partisan" (Douglas Martin, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/03/01/washington/01schlesinger.html Arthur Schlesinger, Historian of Power, Dies at 89]," ''The New York Times'', March 1, 2007) who 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—Small But Tightly Disciplined, It Strives with Fanatic Zeal to Promote the Aims of Russia," ''Life'', July 29, 1946, reprinted as Exhibit No. 404 in Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, Committee on the Judiciary, United States Congress, ''[http://ia360627.us.archive.org/1/items/scopeofsovietact4345unit/scopeofsovietact4345unit_bw.pdf Scope of Soviet Activity in the United States'', Part 43] [Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1957], p. 3022 [PDF p. 26]) Fifty-four years later, Schlesinger, it was written, "equates capitalism with sexism and racism." (Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,59746,00.html A Rich Circularity]," ''Time'', November 5, 2000)</ref> who concluded of Hiss, "I believe him to be guilty."<ref>Arthur Schlesinger, ''A Life in the Twentieth Century: Innocent Beginnings, 1917-1950'' (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2000) ISBN 0618219250, pp. 497-498</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, ''[http://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 professed "social democrat,"<ref>Brad DeLong, [http://h-net.msu.edu/cgi-bin/logbrowse.pl?trx=vx&list=h-diplo&month=0307&week=d&msg=%2B1j5choBov/tLTieEa%2B0UA&user=&pw= Alger Hiss], Diplomatic History Discussion Logs (Humanities and Social Sciences Net Online), July 28, 2003</ref> writes, "Was Alger Hiss at some time a spy for the Soviet Union? Probably."<ref>J. Bradford DeLong, "[http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2007/04/kai_bird_thinks.html Kai Bird Thinks That Alger Hiss Wasn't the 'Ales' Mentioned in VENONA]," Grasping Reality with Both Hands: Economist Brad DeLong's Fair, Balanced, and Reality-Based Semi-Daily Journal, April 9, 2007. 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 Hiss was guilty..." (Brad DeLong, "[http://www.j-bradford-delong.net/movable_type/2003_archives/001822.html Marking My Beliefs to Market: Soviet Espionage in America: Alger Hiss]," Semi-Daily Journal, The Semi-Daily Journal of Economist Brad DeLong: Fair and Balanced Almost Every Day, July 23, 2003)</ref> Another [[Bill Clinton|Clinton]] official, National Security Advisor Anthony Lake (a member of [[Barack Obama]]'s "Senior Working Group on National Security"),<ref>Caren Bohan, "[http://www.reuters.com/article/asiaCrisis/idUSN18390929 Obama names foreign policy panel]," Reuters, June 18, 2008</ref> actually went so far as to retract<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/fedagencies/february97/lake_2-27a.html Nomination on Hold]," PBS NewsHour, February 27, 1997</ref> a statement—made in the wake of Hiss' death—suggesting that the evidence against Hiss was less than conclusive.<ref>"[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9407E6D8163BF934A25752C0A961958260 The Dossier on Anthony Lake]," ''The New York Times'', January 17, 1997</ref> Professed atheist<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2006/12/no_atheists_still_need_apply.html No Atheists (Still) Need Apply], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Obama supporter<ref>Susan Jacoby, [http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/onfaith/susan_jacoby/2008/02/wanted_more_hope_and_charity_l.html Hope Is Not A "Cult of Personality"], On Faith (newsweek.washingtonpost.com) </ref> Susan Jacoby writes, "I believe Hiss was guilty of both perjury and spying."<ref>Susan Jacoby, ''[http://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 continues 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, ''[http://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 took a pass." (David Chambers, "[http://washingtontimes.com/news/2009/may/22/equally-erring-about-hiss/?page=2 Equally erring about Hiss]," ''The Washington Times'', May 22, 2009) As Jacoby admits, "It has always been difficult for liberals to look objectively at evidence pointing to Hiss' guilt..." (Susan Jacoby, "[http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/la-oe-jacoby22-2009mar22,0,7648164.story Alger Hiss -- a case for our time]," ''The Los Angeles Times'', March 22, 2009)</ref> Yeshiva University Professor Ellen Schrecker defends American Communist spies as demurring from "traditional forms of patriotism"<ref>Ellen Schrecker, ''Many Are the Crimes: McCarthyism in America'' (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), p. 188; Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999; John Earl Haynes, [http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment16.htm Response by John Earl Haynes], "The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism," ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Number 1 (Winter 2000)</ref> (though critics object that their patriotism was entirely traditional—to the Soviet Union);<ref>The Rosenbergs, for example, were "loyal unto death to the Soviet Union." Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> but even she concedes, "There is now too much evidence from too many different sources for anyone but the most die-hard loyalists to argue convincingly for the innocence of Hiss…."<ref>[http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~hpcws/comment15.htm Article Commentary: Schrecker on Haynes] John Earl Haynes, “The Cold War Debate Continues: A Traditionalist View of Historical Writing on Domestic Communism and Anti-Communism,” ''Journal of Cold War Studies'', Volume 2, Issue 1 (Winter 2000), pp. 76-115</ref>
Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> (tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "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 [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] (April 18, 1996), p. H3645</ref> the ardor for Hiss would appear to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[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 Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> Another recent defense of Hiss "deliberately takes no position," explains ''Nation'' contributor<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/robert_l_weinberg Robert L. Weinberg]: Author Bios, ''The Nation''</ref> Robert L. Weinberg, on the issue of whether "Alger Hiss was in fact guilty of spying."<ref>Rather than deny that Hiss was a spy, Weinberg argues technicalities, such as "whether Hiss would have been 'not guilty' of the perjury charge in the indictment as a matter of law, even if he were found to have been a Soviet agent." Robert L. Weinberg, "[http://www.nacdl.org/__852566CF0070A126.nsf/0/006CB2391D988158852574940067BE2E Not Guilty As Charged: A Revised Verdict for Alger Hiss]," ''The Champion'' (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), May/June 2008, Page 18, n. 5.</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Vociferously atheistic," self-styled "radical" Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes that, in his biography of Whittaker Chambers, Sam Tanenhaus, now editor of the ''New York Times Book Review'', "simply makes the assumption, increasingly common among American intellectuals, that Hiss was lying and Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere'' (Verso, 2000), ISBN 1859847862, p. 104</ref> In "[t]his excellent book," writes Hitchens (labeled by ''Forbes'' one of the "25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media"),<ref>Tunku Varadarajan, Elisabeth Eaves and Hana R. Alberts, eds., "[http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal.html The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media]," ''Forbes'' January 22, 2009</ref> "Sam Tanenhaus has closed the case of [[Whittaker Chambers]] and Alger Hiss, and thus put to rest one of the most persistent (and repelling) myths of the fellow-traveling Left."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "Criticizes new NYU center on cold war scholarship," ''The New Republic'', March 12, 2007, reprinted on [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/36492.html History News Network] (George Mason University), March 13, 2007. "Militant atheist" (Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009) 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, ''[http://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 onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>
Even at [http://www.thenation.com ''The Nation''], the self-advertised "flagship of the Left,"<ref>''[http://www.amazon.com/The-Nation/dp/B000CNEFRE The Nation]'': Product Description</ref> ("pretty much the last general-interest magazine in America that remains committed to the idea of Hiss' innocence")<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ Alger Hiss Innocent, Anticommunists Declare!]" Slate.com, March 22, 2001; ''The Nation'' was also tagged by the late [http://www.ericbreindel.org/about_eric.html Eric Breindel] "America's leading forum for Alger Hiss apologia." (Eric Breindel, "Goodies from the Venona files: Hiss’ Guilt," ''The New Republic'', April 15, 1996, reprinted in [http://fdsys.gpo.gov/fdsys/pkg/CREC-1996-04-18/html/CREC-1996-04-18-pt1-PgH3640.htm ''The Congressional Record'' Vol. 142, No. 50] [April 18, 1996], p. H3645)</ref> the ardor for Hiss would appear to be cooling. Kai Bird, a contributing editor at ''The Nation'' and his coauthor, Svetlana Chervonnaya of the Russian Academy of Sciences, write—in an article ''defending'' Hiss—"We do not propose to address the larger question of whether Hiss was guilty or innocent of espionage."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. Bird and Chervonnaya argue that "Ales" was not Hiss, but his colleague Wilder Foote—despite the fact that Foote spent the 1930s toiling in obscurity as a newspaper editor in the wilds of Vermont, when "Ales" was working with [[Harold Glasser]] in [[Whittaker Chambers]]' [[GRU]] group. (Alexander Vassiliev’s notes on a cipher telegram from Vadim [Anatoly Gorsky], 5 March 1945, cited in John Earl Haynes, "[http://www.johnearlhaynes.org/page63.html Ales: Hiss, Foote, Stettinius?]"; Eduard Mark, “Who was ‘Venona’s’ ‘Ales’? Cryptanalysis and the Hiss Case,” ''Intelligence and National Security'', 18 [Autumn 2003], pp. 54–55, 57–88, 62, 64; John Ehrman, "[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 Once Again, the Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence,'' Vol. 51, No. 4, December 2007; John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/37456.html Hiss Was Guilty]," History News Network (George Mason University), April 16, 2007</ref> Another recent defense of Hiss "deliberately takes no position," explains ''Nation'' contributor<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/robert_l_weinberg Robert L. Weinberg]: Author Bios, ''The Nation''</ref> Robert L. Weinberg, on the issue of whether "Alger Hiss was in fact guilty of spying."<ref>Rather than deny that Hiss was a spy, Weinberg argues technicalities, such as "whether Hiss would have been 'not guilty' of the perjury charge in the indictment as a matter of law, even if he were found to have been a Soviet agent." Robert L. Weinberg, "[http://www.nacdl.org/__852566CF0070A126.nsf/0/006CB2391D988158852574940067BE2E Not Guilty As Charged: A Revised Verdict for Alger Hiss]," ''The Champion'' (National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers), May/June 2008, Page 18, n. 5.</ref> ''Nation'' columnist Eric Alterman likewise writes, "I take no position on guilt or innocence."<ref>Eric Alterman, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_hb1367/is_199604/ai_n6387312/ I Spy With One Little Eye]," ''The Nation'', April 29, 1996</ref> "Vociferously atheistic," self-styled "radical" Christopher Hitchens, long-time columnist for ''The Nation'',<ref>[http://www.thenation.com/directory/bios/bio.mhtml?id=21 Christopher Hitchens, Columnist, Author Bios, ''The Nation'']</ref> writes that, in his biography of Whittaker Chambers, Sam Tanenhaus, now editor of the ''New York Times Book Review'', "simply makes the assumption, increasingly common among American intellectuals, that Hiss was lying and Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Christopher Hitchens, ''Unacknowledged Legislation: Writers in the Public Sphere'' (Verso, 2000), ISBN 1859847862, p. 104</ref> In "[t]his excellent book," writes Hitchens (labeled by ''Forbes'' one of the "25 most influential liberals in the U.S. media"),<ref>Tunku Varadarajan, Elisabeth Eaves and Hana R. Alberts, eds., "[http://www.forbes.com/2009/01/22/influential-media-obama-oped-cx_tv_ee_hra_0122liberal.html The 25 Most Influential Liberals In The U.S. Media]," ''Forbes'' January 22, 2009</ref> "Sam Tanenhaus has closed the case of [[Whittaker Chambers]] and Alger Hiss, and thus put to rest one of the most persistent (and repelling) myths of the fellow-traveling Left."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "Criticizes new NYU center on cold war scholarship," ''The New Republic'', March 12, 2007, reprinted on [http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/36492.html History News Network] (George Mason University), March 13, 2007. "Militant atheist" (Paul Vitello, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/15/nyregion/15donohue.html A ‘Marine’ for Catholics Sees a Time of Battle]," ''The New York Times'', May 14, 2009) 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, ''[http://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 onto a winner." (Peter Robinson with Anne Applebaum and Christopher Hitchens, "[http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2932161.html Is the New Left History? The Past, Present, and Future of the Left]," Hoover Institution [Stanford University], July 15, 2004)</ref> Even long-time ''Nation'' publisher Victor Navasky, "instead of forcefully arguing that Hiss wasn't guilty as he once did ... now acknowledges that Hiss wasn't telling the truth when he testified that he didn't know Whittaker Chambers."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://www.nytimes.com/1999/11/28/magazine/cold-war-without-end.html?sec=&spon=&pagewanted=all Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref> Navasky, now chairman of the ''Columbia Journalism Review'',<ref>[http://www.cjr.org/about_us/masthead.php Columbia Journalism Review: About Us: Masthead]</ref> says that in reference to the activities of people "in US left circles.... many of whom were Marxists, some of whom were Communists, some of whom were critical of US government policy," during this era, the word "espionage" is "out of context." He prefers to call it "exchanges of information" that happened to be in "violation of the law."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> (As critics have noted, such "exchanges" only went one way.)<ref>Glenn Garvin, "[http://www.reason.com/news/show/29095.html Fools for Communism: Still apologists after all these years]," ''Reason'', April 2004</ref> Regarding Hiss, Isserman, probably the best regarded of the left-wing scholars of Communism, concludes: "Let's face it, the debate just ended."<ref>Jacob Weisberg, "[http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F01E4DE1F3CF93BA15752C1A96F958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 Cold War Without End]," ''The New York Times'', November 28, 1999</ref>
===Scholarly Consensus===
===Scholarly Consensus===