Concealed Enemies
Concealed Enemies is the name of a multi-part miniseries broadcast on PBS in 1984 related to the Hiss-Chambers case. The docu-series was produced by WGBH-TV in Boston.
The Hiss-Chambers case featured allegations from August 1948 by then-Time Magazine Assistant Editor Whittaker Chambers that former State Department and New Deal poster boy Alger Hiss was secretly a Communist. At a subsequent hearing, Chambers not only alleged that Hiss was a covert Communist, but said that he was an active espionage agent of the Soviet Union.
The phrase "concealed enemies" refers to a reference Chambers made before the House Un-American Activities Committee related to his motives in coming forward against Hiss, saying that we all had a duty to combat these 'concealed enemies' for the good of mankind.
The three-part miniseries features several actors portraying the key individuals from the case.
Cast
- Edward Herrmann as Alger Hiss
- John Harkins as Whittaker Chambers
- Peter Reigert as Cong. Richard M. Nixon
- Maria Tucci as Priscilla Hiss
Ideological Producers and Director
Directed by Jeff Bleckner, and written by Hugh Whittemore.
Historical Accuracy
The miniseries is relatively impartial regarding the truth or innocence of Alger Hiss, something whom all mainstream sources now admit was an active espionage agent for the Soviet Union but which many on the far-left still contend was possibly a frame-up by FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.
The miniseries notably highlights the pure motives of Hiss in helping his fellow man, and that he was, at worst, naive and idealistic. This viewpoint stands in contrast to Hiss' life lying about the case and tainting his associations for the rest of his life. It also ignores, like most academic scholarship on the issue, what Hiss' espionage did to America's long-term interests, and what his efforts at the Yalta Conference, the organization of the United Nations, and at the State Department, likely did to hurt the lives of tens of millions of people.