Posted on 05/26/2002 12:01:26 PM PDT by leadpenny
Writings of Whittaker Chambers
From the Chambers Farm in Maryland and from the Cannon House Office Building in Washington, DC, the guests will examine the early period of the Cold War and the attraction Soviet Communism held for Americans, like Whittaker Chambers. On August 3, 1948, Chambers, a senior editor at Time magazine and self-admitted ex-communist, appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) identifying Alger Hiss and several other federal officials as members of a Communist cell whose purpose had been to infiltrate the U.S. government. The accusations shocked a nation already entangled in the politics of the Cold War and set the stage for what was to become one of the most sensational American criminal trials of modern times. We will look at this trial as well as Chambers life, both outlined in his autobiography, Witness. Tanenhaus is the author of Whittaker Chambers: A Biography.
Whittaker Chambers was born in Philadelphia in 1901. He joined the American Communist Party in 1924 and at various times edited the New Masses and the Daily Worker. Chambers worked as a spy for the Soviet Union before leaving the party in 1938. The followed year he joined Time magazine. In August 1948 Chambers appeared before the House Un-American Activities Committee and during his testimony claimed that Alger Hiss, a senior U.S. State Department official, was a spy. After a federal grand jury investigation of the cases, Hiss was charged with perjury. His first trial in 1949 ended in a hung jury but in the second trial in 1950, he was found guilty and sentenced to five years imprisonment. Chambers died in July 1961.
Thanks, leadpenny -- I'd have missed it!
It was 2 1/2 years ago that I met Sam Tanenhaus at the gazebo in the Arboratum at Hillsdale College. He was hanging around the college after Lisa Roche committed suicide and he was writing the article for Vanity Fair. I'm from there and was snooping around the grounds just to get a feel for things. BTW, that is when he told me that he had been commissioned to be Buckley's biographer.
He quit the Communist Party USA BEFORE the war in 1938,but waited until 1948 to "out" commies working for King Franklin this whole time?
50 years from now, Americans will look back and ask the same question about Jamie Gallagher, Qorvis Communications, Sandler-Innocenzi, and other traitors on the Saudi payroll.
No; he was rebuffed in his earlier attempts. See "Whitaker Chambers - a Centenary Reflection":
"Two years after his break with communism, Chambers attempted to warn the Roosevelt Administration about communist infiltration of the government (the same information that he revealed to HUAC in 1948). Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle ’ brought Chambers’ information directly to Roosevelt, but the president refused to believe it. FDR’s response to Chambers’ information typified his administration’s lax attitude about the threat of communist subversion."
Hiss was the victim of a vicious smear. The Rosenburgs were lynched by hysterics. And McCarthy was nothing more than a sweaty drunk with delusions of seducing Roy Cohn.
In fact, McCarthy was one of the hardest working congressmen of his time, and scrupulously honest to his colleagues and constituents. There is little doubt the threat he perceived from communist infiltration of our media, our government, and our military was real, or that similar infestations exist today.
Look at Patrick Leahy. John Conyers. Ron Dellums. Barbara Boxer. Katherine McKinney. And the thousands of left-wing judges making law from the bench by fiat.
The problem wasn't that Joe McCarthy saw a communist around every corner. The problem was he didn't look around enough corners!
Not that I know of. If he did,I didn't see it.
Chambers tried to tell Burley? of the State Department about what he was up too in 39.
Thanks,I didn't know that.
Assistant Secretary of State Adolf Berle ’ brought Chambers’ information directly to Roosevelt, but the president refused to believe it.
King Franklin believed it allright,he just didn't want anything done about it. Eleanor was a communist,and was even sleeping with a young man who was being investigated by the HUAC. Hoover had them on tape in a hotel room. He and about 3 other commies were being investigated for trying to infiltrate communist professors into colleges,and while appearing (and refusing to testify) before the HUAC,Eleanor sat directly behind the table where he and his lawyers were seated. At the end of the day,they would all get into the White House limo and ride back to the White House for dinner and bed. The next morning they would all get up and eat breakfast,and have the WH chauffer drive them all back to the hearings. That's right,commies being investigated for un-American activities were riding in the WH limo and living in the WH while being investigaged by Congress. Even the Washington Post had a front page story about this,complete with a photo of Eleanor sitting behind them and knitting while waiting for them to be done.
Eleanor's boyfriend was later drafted into the army as a enlisted signal man,and King Franklin had him transfered to the Pacific.
Or even Goober Gore and his daddy. His daddy was owned outright by Armand Hammer and the communist bosses who ran the old Soviet Union,and Goober is owned by the same people,who now run the Russian Mafia. That's why all the World Bank and US Aid money sent to Russia dissapeared into criminal bank accounts. Goober was in charge of the money,and the criminals were in charge of Goober.
Chambers had a history of severe depression and suicide in his family as well as alcoholism, though he, himself was not an alcoholic. His father and brother were alcoholics, and his brother committed suicide as a young man in his early 20s. This was Chambers' only sibling, and he was devastated by it. Chambers, himself, fought with depression off and on for years. Back then, there wasn't the medication for it that exists, now.
Also, few people now realize the extent to which Chambers was vilified in the press and in "elite" society. He was prevented from taking back his job with Time Mag. after the Hiss affair was over by powerfull leftwing staffers on the payroll, there, though Henry Luce initially offered him the job back. His furtive homosexuality which also tormented him for years until he left that life for good was exposed by the left as well as untrue smears about alcoholism and insanity. Rumors were circulated about him for years after the Hiss case was over. When the left starts in on somebody, it never quits. His suicide attempt came at a very low point for him in the Hiss affair when nobody believed him.
Chambers was a brilliant man of letters who was torn to pieces by the left after he ditched the communist party and told the truth. He had only a few, loyal supporters like Nixon and Bill Buckley while Hiss was carried around on a golden platter by the left for years. Hiss lied till he died, Chambers told the truth. He was a man who reformed his life. He ran three farms and worked fulltime at Time Mag. for years before the Hiss thing came up, working horrendous hours. He was always troubled, but he was NOT a flake.
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