Alger Hiss's Looking-Glass Wars: The Covert Life of a Soviet Spy

This highly speculative and ultimately annoying psycho-history depicts Hiss as the consummate confidence man, as demonstrated by the vigor and sustained effort he devoted to expunging the record; of course, this is what an innocent man with a highly developed sense of honor would do too. Take this particular statement: "For Hiss, convincing the public that he had been an innocent victim of a malevolent political culture, not a Soviet agent, was intimately connected to the overriding goal of helping the ideals of Soviet Communism spread throughout the world." No evidence is offered for this being the case and at that point I wanted to throw the book against the wall. I contented myself with a quick skim as the author had lost me.

This is keeping in mind that I do believe that Hiss was holding back something when he perjured himself, but whether that was actual spying, a history as a member of the Communist party, protecting other people, or simply distancing himself from Whittaker Chambers we might never know for sure. Certainly the conspiracy theories that Hiss came up to protect himself look absurd in retrospect. Manipulated typewriters; give me a break!

White seems to have entered into this project convinced that Hiss had to be a spy and doesn't seem to realize that the existing evidence isn't that convincing; at least I'm not that convinced. Too much of the case against Hiss still depends on taking Chambers seriously, and he's as dubious a figure as the author accuses Hiss of being; that White seems to realize this is one of the few things that makes this book tolerable. However, it's also not like I'm expecting the sort of air-tight evidence that can only come from Russian military intelligence to emerge anytime soon. The speculation about Hiss will thus continue. ( )