| | "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> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> 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> "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> "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> "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> 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> | | "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> Hiss' "role as a spy was eventually proven," says American University historian Robert Beisner.<ref>Sally Acharya, "[http://veracity.univpubs.american.edu/weekly/102406/102406_beisner.html Historian’s book draws national attention]," ''American Weekly'', October 24, 2006</ref> Weinstein presented "overwhelming evidence of Hiss's espionage," writes Beisner, who calls Venona the "''coup de grâce''."<ref>Robert L. Beisner, ''Dean Acheson: A Life in the Cold War'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006) ISBN 0195045785, p. 282</ref> 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> "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> "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> "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> 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> |
| − | 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 (who 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> 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> (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> 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 seems 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> ''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> "Militant atheist"<ref>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</ref> 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 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.'"<ref>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> (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 seems 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> ''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> "Militant atheist"<ref>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</ref> 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 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.'"<ref>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> |