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| | After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600; cf. Rachel Donadio, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Donadio.t.html?pagewanted=print The Iron Archive]," ''The New York Times'', April 22, 2007</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> | | After the Volkogonov fiasco, Russian officials stripped Soviet archives of all files regarding Hiss and Chambers, reported the editor of the ''New York Times Book Review''.<ref>Sam Tanenhaus, ''Whittaker Chambers: A Biography'' (New York: Random House, 1997) ISBN 0375751459, p. 600; cf. Rachel Donadio, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/22/books/review/Donadio.t.html?pagewanted=print The Iron Archive]," ''The New York Times'', April 22, 2007</ref> In an interview with PBS ''Nova'', aired in 2002, former KGB agent Alexander Vassiliev said, "The Rosenbergs, Theodore Hall and Alger Hiss did spy for the Soviets, and I saw their real names in the documents, their code names, a lot of documents about that. How you judge them is up to you. To me they're heroes."<ref>"[http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2904_venona.html Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies]," ''Nova'' (PBS), February 5, 2002</ref> |
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| − | ==Legacy== | + | ==See Related Article: [[Legacy of Alger Hiss]]== |
| − | Few serious scholars still regard the matter of Hiss' guilt as unresolved. As the ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' states, Venona "provided strong evidence of Hiss's guilt."<ref>"[http://www.britanica.net/EBchecked/topic/266986/Alger-Hiss Alger Hiss]," ''Britannica Online Encyclopedia'' (2006)</ref> Oxford University Press' ''U.S. Military Dictionary'' dubs this evidence "compelling."<ref>''US Military Dictionary: The Oxford Essential Dictionary of the U.S. Military'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002)</ref> TruTV's Crime Library concludes, "the bulk of evidence points to Hiss's guilt beyond a reasonable doubt."<ref>Denise Noe, “[http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/terrorists_spies/spies/hiss/12.html The Hiss-Nixon Seesaw],” The Alger Hiss Case, TruTV Crime Library</ref> Writing in ''American History'' magazine, James T. Gay of West Georgia College agrees, "the preponderance of evidence does weigh heavily against Hiss."<ref>James T. Gay, "[http://www.historynet.com/magazines/american_history/3032686.html?page=4&c=y The Alger Hiss Spy Case]," ''American History'', June 1998</ref> Stephen Koch writes, "I for one have been brought close to certainty, on the basis of archival information, that Chambers was telling the truth."<ref>Stephen Koch, ''Double Lives: Stalin, Willi Munzenberg and the Seduction of the Intellectuals'' (New York: Free Press, 1994) ISBN 0-02-918730-3, p. 326</ref>
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| − | In ''American Heritage'' magazine, Geoffrey C. Ward writes, "I believe the most dispassionate, step-by-step account of [the Hiss case] is still Allen Weinstein’s ''Perjury.''"<ref>Geoffrey C. Ward, “[http://www.americanheritage.com/articles/magazine/ah/1988/7/1988_7_18.shtml Unregretfully, Alger Hiss],” ''American Heritage Magazine'', Vol. 39, Issue 7 (November 1988)</ref> Weinstein, a former Archivist of the United States,<ref>[http://www.archives.gov/about/info/archivist-biography.html Biography of Dr. Allen Weinstein, Ninth Archivist of the United States], The National Archives</ref> had the cooperation of Hiss and access to his attorneys' files in his research.<ref>"[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,918154,00.html A Verdict: 'Hiss Has Been Lying']," ''Time'', March 29, 1976</ref> He set out "intending to prove Hiss' innocence. 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," writes the former chief of Soviet bloc counterintelligence at the CIA.<ref>Tennent H. Bagley, ''Spy Wars: Moles, Mysteries, and Deadly Games'' (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 2007) ISBN 0300121989, p. 273</ref> Weinstein concluded:
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| − | {{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, ''Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case'' (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997), ISBN 0394495462, p. 513</ref>}}
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| − | 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—not just on perjury, but on espionage—the commission's unanimous Final Report concluding, "The complicity of Alger Hiss of the State Department seems settled."<ref>"[http://www.gpo.gov/congress/commissions/secrecy/pdf/12hist1.pdf Report of the Commission on Protecting and Reducing Government Secrecy, Appendix A] (Washington: United States Government Printing Office, 1997), p. A-37 (PDF p. 39)</ref>
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| − | University of Virginia Law School Professor G. Edward White, a son-in-law of Hiss' attorney John F. Davis,<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes, "recently released evidence in U.S. and Soviet archives, taken together with some previously available testimony of persons connected with Soviet intelligence in the United States in the 1930s and 1940s, supports Chambers's charges against Hiss."<ref>White, G. Edward, "[http://ssrn.com/abstract=311869 Hiss and Holmes]," ''Ohio Northern University Law Review'', May 2002</ref> "Numerous KGB/NKVD documents... contain extensive references to Hiss," writes Mark Kramer, director of Cold War studies at Harvard University, "either by name or through the codename Ales, which seems to fit only Hiss."<ref>Mark Kramer, "[http://hnn.us/roundup/entries/37819.html Hiss & History]," History News Network, April 17, 2007</ref> "In August 1948, Alger Hiss lied before HUAC," writes Ryan Ervin of Eastern Illinois University. "His testimony before HUAC proves this beyond any doubt. Intercepted Soviet cables during the Cold War, released in 1996, further prove Hiss’s Communist ties."<ref>Ryan Ervin, "[http://www.eiu.edu/~historia/archives/2005/2005Journal.pdf The Hiss-Chambers Case: Three Acts of Espionage Theater]," ''Historia'' (History Department, Eastern Illinois University and Epsilon Mu Chapter, Phi Alpha Theta), Vol. 14 (2005), p. 14 (PDF p. 7)</ref> "Alger Hiss and [[Harry Dexter White]] are among those whose long-suspected involvement in such [Soviet espionage] seems to be confirmed by the Venona cables," writes Hamilton College history professor Maurice Isserman.<ref>Maurice Isserman, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/05/09/reviews/990509.09issermt.html They Led Two Lives], ''The New York Times'', May 9, 1999</ref> Jonathan Brent, editorial director of Yale University Press (and—ironically—holder of the "Alger Hiss" chair at Bard College), says, "We're 99 percent certain that Hiss was a spy."<ref>John J. Miller, "[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_9_58/ai_n16619085/pg_4/?tag=content;col1 The Annals of Jonathan Brent: One Man and a Great Publishing Project], ''National Review'', May 22, 2006</ref> "Part of Hiss's KGB file has come out that proves the obvious point he was guilty as charged," says Christopher Andrew of Cambridge University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> Andrew and former KGB agent Vasili Mitrokhin conclude that "corroborative evidence now available puts that identification beyond reasonable doubt."<ref>Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, ''The Mitrokhin Archive: The KGB in Europe and the West'' (London: Gardners Books, 2000) ISBN 0-14-028487-7, p. 792, note 81</ref> Oxford Professor<ref>[http://www.politics.ox.ac.uk/about/staff/staff.asp?action=show&person=87 Professor Vernon Bogdanor MA (Oxon) FBA]: Staff Directory, University of Oxford</ref> Vernon Bogdanor agrees that "the material we now have from the Soviet Union shows that [Hiss] was indeed a Soviet agent."<ref>Vernon Bogdanor, "[http://www.gresham.ac.uk/printtranscript.asp?EventId=635 Harry Truman, President 1945-1953]" Roosevelt to Bush—The American Presidency: Transformation and Change</ref> "The broad sweep of Chambers' allegations are now beyond doubt," writes David McKnight of the University of New South Wales.<ref>David McKnight and Richard J. Aldrich, ''Espionage and the Roots of the Cold War: The Conspiratorial Heritage'' (Oxford: Routledge, 2002) ISBN 071465163X, p. 128</ref> "We now know," writes [http://www.cicentre.com/intelligencespeakers/ISB_L-Z/SP_WEST_Nigel.htm Nigel West], "that Alger Hiss was a spy..."<ref>Nigel West, "Venona and Cold War Counterintelligence Methodology," in Loch K. Johnson, ''[http://books.google.com/books?id=cg39hcj6AxQC Strategic Intelligence] (Greenwood Publishing Group, 2007) ISBN 0275989437, p. 15</ref> In light of recent scholarship, notes Hayden Peake, curator of the CIA’s Historical Intelligence Collection, "it is hard to see how even the most frequently made counterargument—that there was ''no Communist involvement in espionage''—can be sustained…. The same is true when it comes to specific cases, but supporters of Alger Hiss … will no doubt persist."<ref>Hayden B. Peake, "[http://cicentre.com/BK/BOOKS_Peake_Venona.htm The VENONA Progeny]," ''Naval War College Review'', Summer 2000</ref>
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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>
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| − | 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>
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| − | ===Scholarly Consensus===
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| − | Today, reports Oxford University's ''Oxonian Review'', "the Hiss case is one issue upon which consensus transcends ideological divides."<ref>Daniel Hemel, "[http://www.oxonianreview.org/wp/who-killed-alger-hiss/ Who Killed Alger Hiss?]" ''The Oxonian Review'' (Balliol College, Oxford), Issue 9.4 (May 18, 2009)</ref> "Soviet files made public in 1995 convinced most observers that he had been guilty," says ''The Columbia Encyclopedia''.<ref>''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/hi/Hiss-Alg.html The Columbia Encyclopedia]'', Sixth Edition, 2001-07.</ref> By 2006, "most historians had come to the conclusion that Hiss was probably guilty," said Richard Aldrich of Britain's Nottingham University.<ref>David Smith, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/apr/08/russia.davidsmith Top Cold War spy 'innocent']," ''The Guardian'', April 8, 2007</ref> "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," write Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen.<ref>Gilbert Geis and Leigh B. Bienen, ''Crimes of the Century: From Leopold and Loeb to O.J. Simpson'' (Lebanon, N.H.: UPNE, 1998), ISBN 1555533604, pp. 130-131</ref> David Oshinsky says "the vast majority of modern American historians today .... see evidence pointing overwhelmingly to Hiss being guilty as charged.”<ref>David Oshinsky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_david_oshinsky.pdf Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War Alger Hiss and History] (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref> "'ALES' is assumed by most scholars to be Alger Hiss," observes Douglas O. Linder of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law.<ref>Douglas O. Linder, "[http://www.law.umkc.edu/faculty/projects/ftrials/hiss/hissvenona.html The VENONA Files and the Alger Hiss Case]," Famous Trials: The Trials of Alger Hiss (University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Law)</ref> "For the majority of scholars, the critical ALES transmission puts to rest any doubt about Hiss’s complicity in the Soviet underground," agrees R. Bruce Craig.<ref>R. Bruce Craig, "[http://microformguides.gale.com/Data/Download/9100000C.rtf Introduction to the Collection]," Alger Hiss Papers from the Tamiment Library Collections (Woodbridge, Conn.: Thomson Gale, 2006) ISBN 1-57803-346-2, p. xx</ref> Columbia University historian David Greenberg refers to "the dwindling band of those who believe in Hiss."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> Thomas Powers writes that "no serious scholar of the subject any longer dismisses" the "voluminous and explicit claims by Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', Vol. 47, No. 8 (May 11, 2000)</ref> Even Obama supporter<ref>Cass R. Sunstein, "[http://blogs.tnr.com/tnr/blogs/the_plank/archive/2008/10/24/reagan-appointee-and-recent-mccain-adviser-charles-fried-supports-obama.aspx Reagan Appointee and (Recent) McCain Adviser Charles Fried Supports Obama]," ''The New Republic'' October 24, 2008</ref> Charles Fried, a professor at Hiss' ''alma mater'', Harvard Law School (and former Justice of the court that granted Hiss' petition for readmittance to the Massachusetts Bar), writes, "it is now clear to all but the most obdurate that Alger Hiss was a Soviet agent..."<ref>Geoffrey Stone, Patricia M. Wald, Charles Fried, and Kim Lane Scheppele, "Constitutions Under Stress: International and Historical Perspectives," ''[http://www.amacad.org/publications/bulletin/winter2006/Winter2006Bulletin.pdf Bulletin]'' (American Academy of Arts and Sciences), Vol. LIX, No. 2 (Winter 2006), p. 39</ref>
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| − | "In the end, the publication of the Venona intercepts... settled the matter—to all but the truest of believers, 'Ales' could only be Alger Hiss," writes Stanley Kutler of the University of Wisconsin Law School.<ref>Stanley I. Kutler, "[http://writ.lp.findlaw.com/books/reviews/20040806_kutler.html Rethinking the Story of Alger Hiss]," FindLaw, August 6, 2004</ref> "The basic question—whether Alger Hiss was a spy for the Soviet Union during the 1930s and 1940s—was finally settled during the 1990s.... Today, only a small band of true believers, headed by Hiss’s son, still tries to argue his innocence,"<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/csi-studies/studies/vol48no4/alger_hiss.html Alger Hiss’s Looking-Glass Wars: Intelligence in Recent Public Literature]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Volume 48, Number 4</ref> writes John Ehrman. "Hiss’ defenders stubbornly tried to rebut each revelation, but eventually they were overwhelmed," recounts Ehrman, concluding that Navasky is "now virtually alone in his rejection of the case against Hiss."<ref>John Ehrman, "[https://www.cia.gov/csi/studies/winter_spring01/article01.pdf A Half-Century of Controversy: The Alger Hiss Case]," ''Studies in Intelligence'', Winter-Spring 2001</ref> "Outside the ranks of ''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," agrees Harvey Klehr, Andrew Mellon professor of politics and history at Emory University.<ref>Harvey Klehr, "[http://hnn.us/articles/816.html Books: Jerrold and Leona Schecter's ''Sacred Secrets: How Soviet Intelligence Operations Changed American History'']," ''The Weekly Standard'', July 1, 2002</ref> Ronald Radosh, emeritus professor of history at the City College of New York, concurs, "Except for a dwindling group—mostly ''Nation'' magazine readers and editors …. the consensus has solidified: Hiss was undoubtedly a Soviet spy."<ref>Ronald Radosh, "[http://goliath.ecnext.com/coms2/gi_0199-4052302/To-the-bitter-end-Alger.html To the Bitter End]," ''National Review'', March 22, 2004</ref> ''Nation'' contributor Athan Theoharis concedes that the "conventional assessment" is that Hiss was "an unreconstructed Soviet spy."<ref>Athan Theoharis, "[http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=0021-8723(200006)87%3A1%3C292%3ATVFAWA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-5 The View from Alger's Window]," ''The Journal of American History,'' Vol. 87, No. 1 (June 2000), pp. 292-293</ref> Even Bird and Chervonnaya admit, "Most historians have conceded the argument to Weinstein."<ref>Kai Bird and Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.theamericanscholar.org/the-mystery-of-ales-2/ The Mystery of Ales]," ''The American Scholar'', Summer, 2007. 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 overthrow the regime." (Svetlana Chervonnaya, "[http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=w072307&s=correspondence072607 Correspondence: Boo, Hiss]," ''TNR Online,'' July 26, 2007)</ref> Speaking of the thesis that Hiss was guilty, Navasky himself concedes that “for the last 10 years, that has been the consensus.”<ref>Victor Navasky, [http://www.nyu.edu/library/bobst/research/tam/hiss_victor_navasky.pdf Alger Hiss and History], Inaugural Conference, Center for the United States and the Cold War (New York University), April 5, 2007</ref>
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| − | ===Hiss in the Mass Media===
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| − | So broad is this academic consensus that it has begun to penetrate even the popular press. By 1991, the ''New York Times'' was reporting that "a handful of Hiss supporters continues to doubt his guilt, but for most historians it is all but certain."<ref>Ann Douglas, "[http://www.nytimes.com/books/99/06/27/reviews/990627.27dougl.html Family Ties]," ''The New York Times'', June 27, 1999</ref> Two years later, the paper reported "a growing consensus that Hiss, indeed, had most likely been a Soviet agent."<ref>James Barron, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/16/technology/online-the-hiss-defense-doesn-t-rest.html?pagewanted=all Online, the Hiss Defense Doesn't Rest]," ''The New York Times'', August 16, 2001</ref> In 2004, the ''Times''' former executive editor, Pulitzer-prize winner Max Frankel, wrote that "most historians" now "accept Hiss's guilt."<ref>Max Frankel, [http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C04E7DF103DF93AA15751C0A9629C8B63&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=1 "Reading Alger Hiss's Mind]," ''The New York Times'', February 29, 2004</ref> The following year, the paper reported that "no serious cold war historian now questions ... that Hiss lied."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/29/books/review/29POWERSL.html?pagewanted=print 'A Matter of Opinion': The Fate of The Nation]," ''The New York Times'', May 29, 2005</ref> “[M]ost students of the Hiss case, including many erstwhile defenders, consider him guilty,” agrees the ''Washington Post'', which adds that "the scholarly consensus" is "that Hiss was almost certainly guilty of both perjury and espionage."<ref>David Greenberg, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/story/2009/05/29/ST2009052902500.html The Cold War Duel That Never Dies]," ''The Washington Post'', May 31, 2009</ref> ''Time'' magazine concurs that Hiss' supporters are "dwindling" as "the weight of historical evidence indicates that Hiss was... a Soviet spy."<ref>John Elson, "[http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,985571,00.html Gentleman and a Spy?]" ''Time'', November 25, 1996. Elsewhere, ''Time'' reports, "Added to the earlier accumulation of evidence, the Venona message [1822] seems to remove reasonable doubt about Alger Hiss's guilt." Lance Morrow, "[http://www.time.com/time/printout/0,8816,26336,00.html Alger, 'Ales' And Joe]," ''Time'', June 6, 1999</ref> "For... Alger Hiss," ''Newsweek'' reports, "a richly detailed new book, ''Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America'' by historians John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr.... provides irrefutable confirmation of guilt."<ref>David J. Garrow, "[http://www.newsweek.com/id/197807 From Russia, With Love]," ''Newsweek'', May 25, 2009</ref> ''U.S. News and World Report'' says, "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>
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| − | "The sum and substance of this growing body of material is that.... Alger Hiss, a darling of the establishment, was guilty," wrote liberal<ref>[http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0902444/ Nicholas von Hoffman], The Internet Movie Database</ref> columnist Nicholas Von Hoffman,<ref>Nicholas Von Hoffman, "Was McCarthy right about the left?" ''The Washington Post'', April 14, 1996, p. C1</ref> who even Navasky admits is "anything but a right-winger."<ref>Victor Navasky, "[http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010716/navasky/print Cold War Ghosts]," ''The Nation'', July 16, 2001</ref> The left-leaning<ref>"...The New York Review of Books, the left-leaning publication that is to gravitas what the Beagle was to Darwin..." Nicholas Dawidoff, "[http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/magazine/29Dyson-t.html?pagewanted=print The Civil Heretic]," ''The New York Times Magazine'', March 29, 2009</ref> ''New York Review of Books'' concludes, "The evidence now... is simply overwhelming.... Hiss was one of a number of... converts to communism hurrying about Washington in the 1930s recruiting others to serve 'real, existing Socialism' in the Soviet Union...."<ref>Thomas Powers, "[http://www.nybooks.com/articles/118 The Plot Thickens]," ''The New York Review of Books'', May 11, 2000 (Volume 47, Number 8)</ref> The left-of-center<ref>"The Washington Monthly is a moderately left-of-center, independent magazine...." [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Washington+Monthly-p243 Browse Washington Monthly by Date], The Free Library</ref> ''Washington Monthly'' calls the evidence against Hiss "quite devastating," dubbing the Venona decrypts "damning" and "rock-hard evidence" of Hiss' guilt.<ref>David Ignatius, "[http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/books/1999/9907.ignatius.spy.html A Father and a Spy: A son's memoir and Soviet cable decrypts provide different perspectives on Alger Hiss]," ''The Washington Monthly'', Vol. 31 Issue 7, July/August 1999</ref> The ''Guardian'', Britain's leading left-wing newspaper<ref>"[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1282/is_14_57/ai_n15631102/ The Guardian, Britain's leading left-wing newspaper, has—naturally!—a policy of 'diversity' in hiring newsroom staff]," ''National Review'', August 8, 2005. ''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 charactures].</ref> reports that "the general view" is "that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Michael Ellison, "[http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/1999/may/15/michaelellison US judge prises lid off secret spy case papers]," ''The Guardian'', May 15, 1999</ref> Jacob Heilbrunn (a columnist at the "pugnatiously [[liberal]]"<ref>Howard Kurtz, "[http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/07/08/AR2007070801213.html A Blog That Made It Big: The Huffington Post, Trending Up and Left]," ''The Washington Post'', July 9, 2007, p. C01</ref> 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 he was."<ref>Jacob Heilbrunn, "[http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/20090320_jacob_heilbrunn_on_alger_hiss/ Jacob Heilbrunn on Alger Hiss]," Truthdig.com, March 20, 2009</ref> The left-liberal<ref>"Salon professed to represent a combination of left-liberal politics and iconoclastic cultural attitudes, characteristic of the middle-class radical milieu that developed in the 1960s, most strongly centered in the San Francisco Bay Area." (Patrick Martin, [http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/jun2001/salo-j29.shtml Salon and the decay of American liberal journalism], World Socialist Web Site [International Committee of the Fourth International], June 29, 2001)</ref> Salon.com says "Hiss' defenders have dwindled to a small handful of true believers."<ref>Dan Kennedy, "[http://www.salon.com/media/media961119.html What if they gave a funeral for a cold-war icon — and no one came?]" Salon.com, November 19, 1996</ref> Slate.com (where more than 98 percent of staff and contributors supported [[Barack Obama]])<ref>David Plotz, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203052/ Obama Carries the Great State of Slate]," Slate.com, October 28, 2008</ref> admits that "Today, most people who think about Hiss at all, even on the left, tend to think that Hiss was guilty."<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/1007346/pagenum/all/ Alger Hiss Innocent, Anticommunists Declare!]," Slate.com, March 22, 2001</ref> Elsewhere, it reports, "even many on the left—including younger historians such as Rick Perlstein" have become convinced "that Hiss was guilty, although old-school loyalists like Navasky remained skeptical,"<ref>Ron Rosenbaum, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2170415/ Alger Hiss Rides Again]," Slate.com, July 16, 2007</ref> and adds, "Heads up: ''Alger Hiss was guilty'',"<ref>Timothy Noah, "[http://www.slate.com/id/2203909/ The Uncabinet]," Slate.com, November 5, 2008</ref> concluding, "if we paleo-libs continue in our ancient rancors, we'll start looking like those troglodytes who still plump for Alger Hiss' innocence."<ref>Louis Bayard, "[http://www.salon.com/books/review/2008/05/13/ronald_reagan/ Why Ronald Reagan didn't completely suck]," Slate.com, May 13, 2008</ref>
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| | ==References== | | ==References== |