[Wallace T.]

Nixon's attack on Alger Hiss was justified, based on the historical evidence. His attack on Helen Gahagan Douglas was politically motivated. She was far from a hard core leftist or a Marxist; in fact, she was just a run of the mill liberal of the Adlai Stevenson type. However, Mrs. Douglas was Nixon's Democratic opponent in the 1950 U.S. Senate race in California. His attacks on his opponent were the sort of dirty politics Republicans decry when the other side uses them.