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hated Weinstein! I let it go.
For the next two or three hours Susan Butler interviewed me about
my work on The Haunted Wood, recording the conversation. Many of her
questions dealt with the material we had on Alger Hiss. Later we exchanged several e-mails, and I was astonished by her attitude toward
Hiss. On 17 June zooo she wrote to me: "It is actually not that Hiss transmitted information to the Russians that bothers me and many others. If
he did that when U.S. and Soviet interests coincided it is perfectly understandable." That was exactly what I would have said as an ex-KGB officer and ex-Communist, but I didn't expect to hear it from the other side
of the Atlantic in zooo. In the same e-mail Butler added, "And things
were very different back then. It was President Roosevelt himself who
sprung Earl Browder from jail. But if Chambers' charges were true, then
Alger Hiss was guilty of lying through two trials, and putting his many
supporters through a meaningless charade."
It was time to give a political lecture. I wrote the following on 18 June
2000:
Now about Hiss' "lying through two trials." Frankly speaking, the fact that
some people can't accept this idea bewilders me enormously Hiss was an extremely valuable, experienced and trusted member of the most powerful espionage network in the world. He did what he was supposed to do-he denied
everything. The Rosenbergs did it, Colonel Rudolf Abel did it. People who
don't do that, people who confess and testify, are called defectors and traitors.
If Hiss had testified he would have exposed other American sources and Soviet operatives. He would have become another Chambers. Neither [he] nor
the Rosenbergs wanted to do that because they still believed in what they had been doing for many years. As to the fact that Hiss put "his many supporters
through a meaningless charade," he probably thought first of all about people
he worked with-Americans and Soviets. What he did was absolutely right,
and it worked (though it didn't in the case of the Rosenbergs). In my opinion
these people should be admired for their commitment to their ideals.
Butler replied:
You see, whether Hiss was or was not an agent, that does not change the fact
that he was an enormous help to your country and to mine. And particularly
when compared to a character like Chambers, who set things back in the
United States so that everyone was afraid to speak, many were put in jail, and
we lost the best and brightest who stayed away from government service. I
doubt if we would have gone into Vietnam if we had had knowledgeable people in key posts. But still, Hiss shines brighter if what he did he did not as an
agent.
The correspondence with Susan Butler certainly expanded my knowledge of political life in the United States. The account of her interview
with me that she published in The Nation on 15 October zoos enlightened me about the methods Alger Hiss's supporters used to make their
idol "shine brighter." Having promoted me from ex-captain to ex-colonel,
Butler wrote the following:
The Haunted Wood was formed under conditions that should be known: The
co-authors are not really co-authors. There was the researcher, Alexander Vassiliev, who spent two years in the KGB archives gathering the material, and the
editor, Allen Weinstein, who put the book together. Vassiliev had virtually no
say on what went into the book. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Vassiliev, an
ex-KGB colonel, seems to have been overwhelmed by Weinstein's reputation,
his rhetoric and by the prospect that Weinstein kept dangling in front of him
of making big bucks from the book.... The uneven collaboration unfortunately weakens the book in more ways than one. The heavy anti-Hiss slant is
pure Weinstein.
There was a lot in common between me and Alger Hiss's fanatical defenders: we were all saying good things about him. The difference was
that I had written an honest book and told people what I had seen in
For the next two or three hours Susan Butler interviewed me about
my work on The Haunted Wood, recording the conversation. Many of her
questions dealt with the material we had on Alger Hiss. Later we exchanged several e-mails, and I was astonished by her attitude toward
Hiss. On 17 June zooo she wrote to me: "It is actually not that Hiss transmitted information to the Russians that bothers me and many others. If
he did that when U.S. and Soviet interests coincided it is perfectly understandable." That was exactly what I would have said as an ex-KGB officer and ex-Communist, but I didn't expect to hear it from the other side
of the Atlantic in zooo. In the same e-mail Butler added, "And things
were very different back then. It was President Roosevelt himself who
sprung Earl Browder from jail. But if Chambers' charges were true, then
Alger Hiss was guilty of lying through two trials, and putting his many
supporters through a meaningless charade."
It was time to give a political lecture. I wrote the following on 18 June
2000:
Now about Hiss' "lying through two trials." Frankly speaking, the fact that
some people can't accept this idea bewilders me enormously Hiss was an extremely valuable, experienced and trusted member of the most powerful espionage network in the world. He did what he was supposed to do-he denied
everything. The Rosenbergs did it, Colonel Rudolf Abel did it. People who
don't do that, people who confess and testify, are called defectors and traitors.
If Hiss had testified he would have exposed other American sources and Soviet operatives. He would have become another Chambers. Neither [he] nor
the Rosenbergs wanted to do that because they still believed in what they had been doing for many years. As to the fact that Hiss put "his many supporters
through a meaningless charade," he probably thought first of all about people
he worked with-Americans and Soviets. What he did was absolutely right,
and it worked (though it didn't in the case of the Rosenbergs). In my opinion
these people should be admired for their commitment to their ideals.
Butler replied:
You see, whether Hiss was or was not an agent, that does not change the fact
that he was an enormous help to your country and to mine. And particularly
when compared to a character like Chambers, who set things back in the
United States so that everyone was afraid to speak, many were put in jail, and
we lost the best and brightest who stayed away from government service. I
doubt if we would have gone into Vietnam if we had had knowledgeable people in key posts. But still, Hiss shines brighter if what he did he did not as an
agent.
The correspondence with Susan Butler certainly expanded my knowledge of political life in the United States. The account of her interview
with me that she published in The Nation on 15 October zoos enlightened me about the methods Alger Hiss's supporters used to make their
idol "shine brighter." Having promoted me from ex-captain to ex-colonel,
Butler wrote the following:
The Haunted Wood was formed under conditions that should be known: The
co-authors are not really co-authors. There was the researcher, Alexander Vassiliev, who spent two years in the KGB archives gathering the material, and the
editor, Allen Weinstein, who put the book together. Vassiliev had virtually no
say on what went into the book. It wasn't supposed to be that way. Vassiliev, an
ex-KGB colonel, seems to have been overwhelmed by Weinstein's reputation,
his rhetoric and by the prospect that Weinstein kept dangling in front of him
of making big bucks from the book.... The uneven collaboration unfortunately weakens the book in more ways than one. The heavy anti-Hiss slant is
pure Weinstein.
There was a lot in common between me and Alger Hiss's fanatical defenders: we were all saying good things about him. The difference was
that I had written an honest book and told people what I had seen in
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