In a recent column about the Rosenbergs, Cecil suggested that Alger Hiss was “probably” guilty, although Cec did not elucidate. I have studied the subject thoroughly, and have concluded that there is no evidence of Hiss’ guilt and that rumors to the contrary are just that - dusted off innuendo and McCarthyism. Thoughts?
I don’t think we’re going to ever know for sure. I think you can make a pretty good argument that Hiss was ALES, though.
It’s pretty difficult to go over the history of this case and conclude that the evidence against Hiss was all smoke and mirrors.
Hiss’ perjury conviction constitutes a bit more than “rumor”, for starters.
According to “The Sword and the Shield: The Mitrokhin Archive and the Secret History of the KGB”, Alger Hiss was ALES. Page 591, (check through Amazon) suggests that the VENONA decrypts left little to no doubt.
Interestingly, from my memories of the book, the communist infiltration was surprisingly high during WWII, but was all but gone by the time of McCarthy. Very good book.
I haven’t read the book you cite, but I have read “The Venona Secrets” by Romerstein and Breindel. This book promised to give me details of Hiss’ spying, but all it gave me was:
- A spy called “Ales” attended Yalta and then visited Moscow. Hiss attended Yalta and then visited Moscow. Therefore Ales was Hiss.
This seems to be the beginning and the end of the “evidence.” An exhaustive study of Soviet archives -both KGB and military- revealed no mention of Hiss of any kind. How likely is that for a highly placed spy? And how likely is it that a spy would use a code name that gives away his real name? Did James Bond use the code name “Bondy” ?
Dude, where’s my evidence?
Actually, the odds were pretty good insofar as code names. Canaris’ agents followed a similar practice - though not by directive. As for the evidence, Amazon lets you search in books now. Search for Hiss in the book I told you. Best I have, at the moment, but there are definate claims.
It wasn’t an “exhaustive study”. It was Dmitri Volkogonov saying, “I looked through the archives and I couldn’t find any reference to Hiss”, then later saying, “Ok, I didn’t really look hard, and we lost most of the archives, but…”
Another right-wing myth!
(I’m cribbing from an essay here: http://homepages.nyu.edu/~th15/wars.html)
In 1992, Russian historian Dmitri Volkogonov stated that he had examined govt. archives in Moscow and determined that Hiss had never been an agent of the USSR. It has been erroneously claimed that Volkogonov later “retracted” his statement, acknowledging that he had spent only two days looking in the KGB archive. This misrepresents both Volkogonov’s research and his subsequent clarification for the press. In a follow-up interview Volkogonov was specifically asked whether he had looked through military intelligence files. Volkogonov responded, “Yes, we also asked to examine the military intelligence files and there, too, no traces of Alger Hiss have been found.” Additionally, General Julius Kobyakov, a retired Russian intelligence official, revealed that he had been the person who actually searched the files for General Volkogonov. Kobyakov in his postings said that he prepared his 1992 report that there was no indication that Alger Hiss had been either a paid or unpaid agent of the Soviet Union only “after careful study” of KGB archives and “after querying sister services” (military intelligence).
The “myth” seems to have a wide distribution. From this source:
“As for Volkogonov, it seems clear that he never had complete access to all KGB archives, or to the highly classified Presidential Archives, but that did not prevent him from emerging as the official Kremlin spokesman on controversial Cold War issues. Thus, for example, when Alger Hiss wrote to him in 1992 asking for materials on his case that might clear his name, Volkogonov claimed that “a thorough search of the archives had confirmed that Alger Hiss was never an agent of the intelligence services of the Soviet Union.”(4) Later, however, when faced with a public furor, he had to qualify his statement, admitting that he did not review all the relevant documents.”
It was also reported that a number of documents were missing.
The missing documents are rather why I favor the Mitrokhin archives. You see, Mitrokhin was the archivist of the KGB’s files, and he copied down many things to bring to the west… many things later lost.
but consider again, books like “The Venona Secrets” and “Looking Glass Wars” and many others about the revelations from the Soviet Archives are being marketed as if they prove Hiss guilty -just read the reviews on amazon- when in fact these books contain nothing about Hiss but further innuendo.
The archives have provided details of Soviet spying in the U.S., it was a serious threat. But poor Alger has been declared guilty by suspicion all over again.
The typewriter evidence does tend to incriminate him. But if that’s all the evidence, then the evidence is pretty thin.
Thanks for your comments.
It wasn’t just that.
The testimony of Whittaker Chambers was damning, and showed pretty clearly that the two men had known each other. Hiss’s response to this testimony was, to say the least, bizarre.
Add to this the physical evidence, and the case seems quite clear. Further evidence from Soviet archives have done nothing to prove Hiss innocent.
I recommend the Allen Weinstein book Perjury, The Hiss-Chambers Case for a thorough examination of this subject. Weinstein concluded that Hiss was guilty long before the archives were opened in the former Soviet Union.
Did Hiss know Chambers, and did he lie to Congress? Yes, and that’s perjury.
It is not however evidence of espionage. I didn’t manage to finish ‘Perjury’, (Weinstein did his homework, that’s for sure). But did Weinstein unearth any damning evidence against Hiss? If he did, please tell me.
So we return to this: apparently the sum total of evidence is the typewriter and notes.
Regarding the Archives again, consider: Hiss nearly became Secretary General of the UN. If he was a spy, he would have easily been the most highly-placed agent in the world. And yet no one from the Communist world has come forth to corraborate this? I find this to be about as likely as a secret agent who uses a code name that gives away his real name.
Only the Great Pumpkin knows! :rolleyes:
When the Communist government fell in Russia, CBS went to the headquarters of the KGB.
The KGB produced documents pointing that both Hiss and the Rosenbergs were guilty.
In the opinion of the head of the KGB who was interviewed, he concurred they were guilty too.
As mentioned above, Perjury by Alan Weinstein should end all questions of Hiss’s guilt. Weinstein went into the project looking to find evidence to exonerate Hiss, but when he finished he was convinced Hiss was guilty.
In short, the most damaging evidence is that Hiss’s typewriter was used to copy secret government documents that ended up in the hands of Whitaker Chambers, an admitted Soviet agent (at that time). This firm evidence, along with Chambers’ testimony, clearly indicates that Hiss was guilty. Add onto that the fact that Hiss was less than forthcoming (to put it nicely) about that whole time in his life, and it seems clear that he was certainly spying for the Soviet Union.
I’ll continue to be Alger’s advocate:
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The typewriter evidence is significant, but there is no proof the documents were typed by Hiss. The prosecution had access to the typerwriter before the documents came into evidence. Furthermore, historian Anthony Summers found that Chuck Colson once said that Nixon told him that the committee had copied Hiss’ typewriter to create the evidence. Whether you believe that or not, this evidence is still thin as the paper it’s printed on.
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Ultimately, who cares what Chambers said? He changed his story repeatedly. HUAC seriously considered persecuting Chambers for perjury rather than Hiss.
Did he know Hiss? Yes. Did Hiss obfuscate? Yes.
Does that make Hiss a spy? No. -
I can’t find anything about CBS and the KGB announcing Hiss was guilty. I have found the big three networks repeatedly noting that KGB officials announced Hiss was innocent.
I respect Weinstein’s work but I’m not convinced. And I admit, if Hiss was innocent, there has seldom been an innocent man who behaved more guiltily!
Thanks for your thoughts.
Saw a NOVA program recently on Venona. Fascinating. Will try and get the book.
As for McCarthy, he was all about smoke & mirrors. He saw the Commie flap as the perfect opportunity to get rid of the real enemy: New Deal liberals.