by Whittaker Chambers
Originally published in 1952; reprinted in 2001 by Regnery Publishing, Inc.
ISBN 0-89526-789
This 800 page small print book is regarded as reference material about the dangers of liberalism by conservatives. I assure you I can’t sort out all the key points in a short review, but I’ll give it a try. The book chronicles the life of Jay Vivian Chambers (who, after a lifetime of embarrassment about what his parents had named him, changed his name to the one listed as the author above). Chambers grew up in a destructively dysfunctional family and turned to Communism out of despair over world events. He was the courier for an active espionage network in the government for several years, and began to doubt the validity of communism after word began to spread about the extent of the Soviet purges. He decided he had to leave the party after Stalin signed a mutual defense pact with Hitler. He initially went into hiding, remembering the Communist saying, “Any fool can commit a murder, but it takes and artist to commit a good natural death.” He went to Adolph Berle of the FBI in 1939 and told him about his association with the Communists and named several of his associates. He omitted discussion of espionage. (Berle’s notes on the meeting begin on page 466.) Berle briefed FDR on the information, who laughed at him. When Berle became insistent about the information, FDR told him to “go fly a kite,” only in less polite language.
The House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), which included a young Richard M. Nixon, called Chambers to testify nine years later. Chambers had been accepted into the Communist party by Ben Mandel, who was the research director for HUAC when he was called to testify. His testimony accurately repeated the allegations he had filed previously with the FBI, and mentioned (once again) that Alger Hiss, a senior State Department official in the then Truman administration, was part of his spy ring. That allegation ignited a storm of publicity and controversy. Hiss denied the charges (and maintained his innocence until his death in 1996). There followed years of investigations, including two Grand Jury trials, and the eventual perjury conviction of Alger Hiss.
On the question of the extent of Communist spying in the U.S. Chambers writes about, “…Communist infiltration of the Government, science, education and all branches of communications, but especially radio, motion pictures, book, magazine, and newspaper publishing…. A surprising number came of excellent native American families. Nearly all were college trained from the top percent of their classes…From 1930 onward, a small intellectual army passed over to the Communist Party with scarcely any effort on its part.” He also discusses the scorn Communists felt for liberals, saying they “…make full use of liberals… and sometimes flatter them to their faces, in private they treat them with that sneering contempt that the strong and predatory almost invariable feel for victims who volunteer to help in their own victimization.” Chambers also writes that it eventually became in the self-interest of liberals to conceal the magnitude of Communist penetration of the government. The Communists could depend on liberals coming to their defense if they were accused with shouts of “Witch Hunt!” An accuser attempting to expose the Communists could be assured that there would be reprisals against him. Chambers certainly could testify to that tactic, since there was a concerted effort by the news media to vilify and discredit him while he was testifying against Hiss. President Truman agreed with a reporter who asked whether he thought that the Hiss case was a “red herring.” Truman added that it was Republicans trying to distract attention from the sins of the 80th Congress. Truman even used lines about the unfairness of attacks on the State Department, where Hiss was still in a high position, while he was campaigning for reelection.
The testimony by Chambers to HUAC originally was in executive session, which means it wasn’t open to publication. Richard Nixon approached him to say that he needed to testify in public sessions, because the Justice Department was moving to indict him to protect Hiss. Nixon advised that the only hope Chambers had was to let the public decide whether he was telling the truth. (The irony, although Chambers would undoubtedly have used a different term, is that government officials familiar with the Venona Project knew Chambers testimony was accurate and that Hiss was a Soviet spy.)
Hiss was eventually tried for perjury for inconsistencies in what he had told investigators. Chambers was the primary witness for the prosecution, and the defense was a series of attacks on Chamber’s mental state and a parade of character witnesses for Hiss. The witnesses included two Supreme Court Justices, Felix Frankfurter and Stanley Reed.
Hiss filed a libel suit against Chambers, and his lawyers demanded that Chambers present any actual evidence he might have to support his claims against Hiss. Much to their dismay, I would imagine, Chambers presented sixty-five printed pages of copied State Department documents, four memos in Alger Hiss’s handwriting, and the envelope that had held them for a decade. This was part of the stash of documents Chambers had accumulated during his Communist courier days as protection when he began to contemplate leaving the party. These became known as “the Baltimore papers.” An investigator for HUAC deduced there might be more evidence, and he was right. Chambers had some rolls of microfilm he had also hidden when he was a courier. The investigator subpoenaed Chambers for any remaining evidence. He drove two investigators to his farm and took them to a pumpkin patch where he had recently hollowed one to hold the microfilm. These were called the “pumpkin papers” by the press.
The fear Chambers had felt in making his accusations seemed to have been warranted when the FBI picked him up with a subpoena. The senior agent told Chambers, “believe me, this is nothing the Bureau wanted to do.” Chambers took that as a reassuring thing for the man to say and took it to mean “The Marines Have Landed.” He trusted the F.B.I., and believed that “…the expert forces of that great fact-finding agency were now turned on…The Bureau was not my enemy… because the F.B.I. stood for right and truth, because it was the enemy of Communism.
Hiss was convicted in the second trial for perjury. However, I believe that really is just the beginning of the story.