NYP Book Review: AN 'INNOCENT' SOVIET SPY re: ALGER HISS'S LOOKING-GLASS WAR (LIFE OF A SOVIET SPY)

...[T]here is no greater Cold War icon than Alger Hiss, the once high-ranking State Department official who went to prison for denying that he'd passed government secrets to the Soviet Union.

Nearly 60 years after he was exposed before Congress by Whittaker Chambers, a communist underground operative who later became a senior editor at Time magazine, belief in Hiss' complete innocence remains an article of faith for the political left.

For anti-communists, Hiss remains the prime example of how the Kremlin infiltrated the highest ranks of the U.S. government....

Over the years, Davis remained unpersuaded by new evidence of Hiss' guilt, while White reached an altogether different conclusion.

White's history breaks no new ground for those who have followed the case in detail. It's real importance is the book's coverage of... how Hiss spent the remaining 52 years of his life waging "a campaign for vindication" — and how, remarkably, that campaign largely succeeded.

Only since his death, in fact, has the tide begun to turn against Hiss, as newly disclosed U.S. and Soviet records have added to what was already an overwhelming case for his guilt...

And, indeed, Hiss' campaign picked up steam when he made common cause with '60s-era radicals and following Nixon's self-destruction.

The other key to Hiss' campaign was his refusal to admit anything, always insisting that he'd been the victim of a monstrous political frame-up.

The most controversial part of Hiss' campaign was the public "exoneration" announced in 1992 by Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov....

But Volkogonov had never checked the files of Soviet military intelligence, for whom Hiss worked....

The weight of the evidence is clear: Hiss was a Soviet agent and, when caught, lied about it. But most people aren't inclined to examine the evidence in detail....

"Nosenko was never proven to be a dangle one way or another. In fact, there are strong indications he was genuine."

Angleton was on to Nosenko, that's one of the reasons the traitor Colby had him fired. Golitsyn also knew Nosenko was a phony. And seeing how 139 (out of 148) of Golitsyn's specific predictions have come true, I'm inclined to go with Golitysn on this one.

"I can't believe that there is still any controversy about this. "

Like Julius and Ethel too, right? But for me, this picture came into sharp focus when I read Coulter's Treason. Here's the reason most folks didn't 'see' the danger: they, like me, went to public, gov't controlled, schools.

Do I overstate? Last weekend, during a church youth function, several youth suddenly started quoting R. Frost. I remember that from my school years too. I didn't like Frost, but absolutely the teachers thought he was the greatest american poet.

He lived a long time, and received, literally, dozens of honorary degrees. He Dad was a newpaper editor, and a delegate to a Democratic National Convention ...; by the time he was 11, Father was dead. Thus, the liberal begins to form, for most liberals have in common one thing: Dad was missing.

Frost gets married in the Swedeborgian church - bascially its unitarian, founded by a swedish unitarian type. He ends up screwing up his family life. His son eventually shoots himself. Frost said every path I took w/ him was the wrong one.

Frost committed up to 3 of his female relatives to state asylums, all three died there.

Frost, at the end visited N. Kruschev in S.Union, and made up quotes like 'america is too liberal to fight'.

In short, he was a typical, screw-up-your-family-and-country liberal .... but I didn't learn a thing about any of this when I went to public school; esp about Frost's church, and the man behind it, that Frost was baptized in. No, pulik sckools didn't see merit in sharing the biographical info...

Nope, he was a 'Great' poet; and the kids going to school today are learning the same thing. "And I, I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference". You sure did you self centered liberal.

What utter, complete S**T!

/rant off ... sorry. Likely a bit to wordy for a post, but oh well...

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