Boos For Hiss

IBD Editorials ^ | 6 April 2007 | Staff

[Kitten Festival]

National Security: Leftist academics are determined to rehabilitate the reputation of Alger Hiss, the high-level U.S. diplomat and Soviet spy. Time may have passed, but this case was settled a long time ago.

Was Soviet communism a malevolent global force committed to conquering the world, with Kremlin spies reaching top levels in the U.S. government? Or was it "just another system" used to whip up Red hysteria and McCarthyism?

Leftists here and in Europe scoffed at Ronald Reagan when he called the Soviets an evil empire, but he was vindicated by communism's collapse. Similarly, the American left began its vendetta against Richard Nixon when in 1948 he exposed the high-ranking State Department official Hiss as a Russian agent; Nixon too was vindicated when the so-called Venona communications from the Soviet archives were opened in 1995, incriminating Hiss.

[jpl]

Between Whittaker Chambers and the Venona papers which vindicated pretty much everything he said, it's incredible that the lefties would actually continue to try and push this issue.

But that's their hallmark though is to never give up on this sort of thing.

[bassmaner]

But that's their hallmark though is to never give up on this sort of thing.

The memory hole awaits ...

[dead]

[Kerretarded]

The Democrat Party is right now firmly controlled by the Communist constiuent of their party.

McCarthyism - During this time many thousands of Americans were accused of being Communists or communist sympathizers and became the subject of aggressive investigations and questioning before government or private-industry panels, committees and agencies. The primary targets of such suspicions were government employees, those in the entertainment industry, educators and union activists.

This cartoon was made in 1919:

[Thommas]

But that's their hallmark though is to never give up on this sort of thing.

With the lefties, 1 + 1 will always = 0. Evidence be damned, they just feel that they are right...

[nathanbedford]

When I was a lad in becoming acquainted as through osmosis with politics, a more sophisticated observer could distinguish liberals from conservatives, Democrats from Republicans merely by asking which side of the Hiss Chambers controversy once stood. It was the great watershed of the time.

[hosepipe]

ONLY two words never ever heard in Washington D.C..

1) Communist.. 2) Socialist..
But since communism IS socialism they are the same thing..

[mjp]

NYU's new center has also tried to reopen the Rosenbergs nuclear spying case and has glorified Americans who fought for the left in the Spanish Civil War. This is clearly one "Center" not a bit "for the United States."

For contemptable ,despicable liberal commies,America is an unjust society, and all its wars are also unjust by virtue of that fact alone.

[CharlesThe Hammer]

The “progressives (read Commies) from NYU and The Nation wish to resurrect their icon, Alger Hiss. The facts that have amassed from his trial, the Chambers testimony, the Venona decrypts, and declassified Soviet files will not be erased by claims of a rejected homosexual advance, a radical pundit, and a Russian writer. The eighty-something witness they tout as a star is truly ridiculous. This is just lipstick on a pig. Communism crashed and burned. Get over it.

[late bloomer]

I don’t care as long as they don’t “Hiss for Booze”.

[rlmorel]

Reading “Witness” pretty much changed my life in many ways. Actually, I have to give the REAL credit to Ann Coulter and her books ‘Treason’ and ‘Slander’.

Those books induced me to research the McCarthy Era, I read a whole boatload of books about McCarthy, Hiss, the Venona files and so on.

The thing that got me was Ann Coulter’s portrayal of the famous Joseph Welch - Joseph McCarthy “Have you no Decency” exchange. The way she described it was SO far from all the accounts I had ever heard of it, that it completely bugged me out. I ended up actually getting the transcripts of the hearings from the National Archives and looking at them. Ann Coulter’s portrayal of McCarthy as patiently tolerating Welch badgering and baiting his assistant for most of the hearing is right on the money, at least it matches the transcripts.

So that meant that a lot of people have been intentionally misled about that, and a lot of other things. That was the nail in the coffin for the media for me.

And the nail in the coffin of Liberalism.

[rlmorel]

Another thing equally as revealing to me is the fact that the Rosenbergs WERE guilty as hell. And ALL those people swore up and down that was not the case. People based their ENTIRE moral values system on that premise.

I should say a lot of LIBERALS based their entire moral values system on that premise.

[what's up]

Hiss is at the root of a lot of ideological dynamics.

Conservatives have made progress over the Hiss case in recent years. That's why the commies are trying to turn that ship around again. If they can change curent thinking about Hiss, they can turn the conservative tide of recent progress back yet again.

[Paul Ross]

Bump!

They never give up.

[Verginius Rufus]

Tony Hiss, Alger's son, was writing for The Nation not long ago and may still be doing so, defending his father's reputation among other things. He's too young to have any direct knowledge of the case against his father.

[Chode]

Witness...

[doug from upland]

Leftists never give up trying to re-write history. They just love hating America and teaching that to their students.

[Fiji Hill]

Another thing equally as revealing to me is the fact that the Rosenbergs WERE guilty as hell.

In 1994 I was assigned to write a short biography of the Rosenbergs for a biographical dictionary of world history aimed at junior high school students. Apparently, the editors wanted me to portray them as victims of "McCarthyism." However, in my research, which indluded reading Ronald Radosh's authoritative history of the case as well as the then-recently-published memoirs of Robert Lamphere, an FBI agent involved in the Venona project, and Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet intelligence official, I was impressed by the extent of the Rosenbergs' espionage activities, and I said so in my article.

The editors paid me for the piece, but when the book was published, the article on the Rosenbergs was a different one, based heavily on pro-Communist sources, which portrayed the couple as innocent victims of "McCarthyism."

I felt vindicated a year later, when the Venona transcripts were released. Since that time, the Rosenbergs' Soviet case officer, Alexander Feklisov, has published his own memoirs, providing even more light on the subject.

[Hardastarboard]

ONLY two words never ever heard in Washington D.C..

1) Communist.. 2) Socialist..

You won't hear those words in the MSM either, my FRiend.

[LibFreeOrDie]

Hiss and the Rosenbergs were just the tip of the iceberg.

There were many others doing as much, if not more, damage: Ted Hall, the Cohens, ...

PBS (surprisingly!) broadcast an excellent 4-part series a few years ago, called “The Red Files.” The first episode described the spies in detail. The transcript and other info from that episode are here:

http://www.pbs.org/redfiles/kgb/index.htm

(Click on the graphic to enter the site.)

[rlmorel]

Yes! Interesting, is it not? I read Radosh’s book as well, another great read is ‘Radical Son’ by David Horowitz.

You were ahead of the curve back in 1994...I wish I had been that far ahead of the game as well.

The thing about ‘Witness’ that really made an impression on me, was that the tactics of liberals have not changed one iota since then. They invented, practiced, and perfected the politics of personal destruction.

Thanks for your valuable insight there.

[Mmmike]

Here's my perspective on the persistence of Hiss-worship. As a high school student in the 1990s, I was not taught directly about the Hiss case, and was certainly never informed that there ever was a Chambers -- but my classmates and I were given object lessons in the evils of "witch hunting" complete with a full reading of Arthur Miller's The Crucible and several of Hawthorne's short stories about the Puritans. We were encouraged to conclude the Communists of the 1950s were poor persecuted victims in a land of overbearing moral Puritans. At no time were we encouraged to inquire why the Communists found themselves on the receiving end of an especially intense opprobrium that other political minorities did not experience.

[WOSG]

“Another thing equally as revealing to me is the fact that the Rosenbergs WERE guilty as hell.

In 1994 I was assigned to write a short biography of the Rosenbergs for a biographical dictionary of world history aimed at junior high school students. Apparently, the editors wanted me to portray them as victims of “McCarthyism.” However, in my research, which indluded reading Ronald Radosh’s authoritative history of the case as well as the then-recently-published memoirs of Robert Lamphere, an FBI agent involved in the Venona project, and Pavel Sudoplatov, a Soviet intelligence official, I was impressed by the extent of the Rosenbergs’ espionage activities, and I said so in my article.

The editors paid me for the piece, but when the book was published, the article on the Rosenbergs was a different one, based heavily on pro-Communist sources, which portrayed the couple as innocent victims of “McCarthyism.”

I felt vindicated a year later, when the Venona transcripts were released. Since that time, the Rosenbergs’ Soviet case officer, Alexander Feklisov, has published his own memoirs, providing even more light on the subject.”

Your stroy says a lot.

[doberville]

Amazing cartoon. Certainly puts the commies in long-term perspective, eh?

Thank you for posting!

[Beowulf]

... the American left began its vendetta against Richard Nixon when in 1948 he exposed the high-ranking State Department official Hiss as a Russian agent ...

Until now I never understood the left's vehement loathing of Nixon, given the magnitude of the big-government liberalism that he supported.

I lifted the following paragraph (complete with links) from Wikipedia that chronicles some of Nixon's embracing of big-government intrusion and regulation:

"As president, Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He advocated gun control and eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program."

[Fiji Hill]

"As president, [President Richard M.] Nixon imposed wage and price controls, indexed Social Security for inflation, and created Supplemental Security Income (SSI). The number of pages added to the Federal Register each year doubled under Nixon. He advocated gun control and eradicated the last remnants of the gold standard. Nixon created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and implemented the Philadelphia Plan, the first significant federal affirmative action program."

And yet, to this day, the Left has never forgiven Nixon for nailing Alger Hiss.

[Kerretarded]

I should say a lot of LIBERALS based their entire moral values system on that premise.

You are asuming that they have moral values. I guess in a relativistic sense, they do.

[MarkL]

Between Whittaker Chambers and the Venona papers which vindicated pretty much everything he said, it's incredible that the lefties would actually continue to try and push this issue.

But that's their hallmark though is to never give up on this sort of thing.

These are the same sorts who are constantly trying to "rehabilitate" the memory of the Rosenbergs as well. They're depending on their friends who've been undermining the educational systems in the US for decades, until at some point, they'll be able to push through their beliefs, and make them "facts."

Mark

[rlmorel]

LOL...you got me there. But you are right...they DO have a moral value system, it just isn’t firmly anchored to anything, and can change as the situation changes.

Basically...they don’t have one.

[murdoog]

With the lefties, 1 + 1 will always = 0

In fairness, that holds in mod 2 arithmetic.