How could any respectable journalist write an obituary for Alger Hiss without acknowledging the fact that he was a Soviet spy? Well, it wasn't easy, but several of the media elite did exactly that.
News coverage of the death of Alger Hiss in 1996 demonstrates that the Cold War is "still being fought in the world of memory and history, and the outcome is undecided." That's the conclusion of John Haynes, author of the book Red Scare or Red Menace, a study of the Cold War era. Haynes chastises ABC News for reporting Hiss's death "in a manner implying that [he] had been imprisoned on false charges of being a Soviet spy." He likewise takes NBC News to task for giving the impression that Hiss was innocent.
"That two of the nation's major news sources should present Alger Hiss as an innocent victim of anti-Communist paranoia was scandalous," Haynes contends, "but not unexpected." He charges that "a very large segment of those who set the tone of informed opinion continue to be unable to come to grips with the truth of the Hiss case, just as their predecessors were unable to see it clearly half a century ago."
Writing in a recent issue of a journal called Heterodoxy, published by the Center for the Study of Popular Culture, Haynes offers a scathing response to the "mumbled apologetics about Hiss." Given the wealth of evidence against Hiss, the only wonder is why anyone would still bother to question his guilt. "Two former Soviet spies, Whittaker Chambers and Hede Massing, provided direct testimony of Hiss having participated in Communist underground operations in the 1930s," Haynes observes. "Elizabeth Bentley, another defecting Soviet spy, said that members of her network knew of Hiss's espionage."
The personal testimony against Hiss is supported by documentary evidence. Haynes reminds us that "Chambers also produced documents and microfilm he had hidden when he had broken with the Soviets. The documents were proof of Hiss's espionage: four pages in Hiss's handwriting, 65 typewritten documents which were copies of confidential State Department material that had passed through Hiss's office, two microfilm reels of confidential State Department documents (many with Hiss's initials and office stamp on them), and other sensitive material. Later technical examination of the material established that much of it was typed on a typewriter Hiss kept at his home."
Alger Hiss was convicted of perjury in 1951. "Since that time," says John Haynes, "evidence has continued to accumulate supporting Hiss's guilt." Nevertheless, he notes, "the temper of the academic world has been decidedly friendly to Alger Hiss and, with even more fervor, hostile to Whittaker Chambers. In numerous historical accounts and textbooks, the Hiss-Chambers case is treated as an example of anti-Communist paranoia." There was nothing paranoid about it, however. All the evidence, both eyewitness and documentary, proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Alger Hiss was guilty of spying for the Soviet Union.
