Witness: Cold War Classics

Chapter 11, “The Hiss Case,” begins with the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) issuing a subpoena to Chambers. He travels to Washington, where he learns of a shrewd committee member named Richard Nixon (R-CA) for the first time. Chambers does not want to betray his former Communist friends, but the subpoena gives him an irresistible opportunity to tell the entire world what he knows about Communism. He is also aware that his testimony about Communist infiltration of the government is likely to meet with a hostile reception.

Based on prior reports, Chambers expected the Committee to be a raucous and incompetent witch-hunt. Instead, he finds its members well-informed and courteous, even to hostile witnesses. Chambers enters the committee room and testifies that before his employment at Time, he was a Communist and paid agent of the Soviet Union. He tells the story of why he joined, what rattled his faith and ultimately prompted his departure, warns of an ongoing Communist conspiracy to destroy the American government and way of life, and calls upon all American Communists to break away from the movement. He publicly identifies key Communist agents by name, including Alger Hiss. Right away, Communist-affiliated journalists start spreading rumors about Chambers. He enjoys the support of his friends and family, and hopes the nation similarly believes in him.

Chambers eventually learns that Hiss has already begun a public relations campaign to restore his personal and professional reputation. Hiss categorically denies any knowledge of Chambers in his own testimony before HUAC. Hiss’s eloquence and absolute confidence won over the crowd and the media. The Committee might have dropped the case if not for the persistence of Richard Nixon, who questions Chambers in depth on his past association with Hiss. Chambers’s intimate knowledge of Hiss’s home, family, associates, automobiles, and hobbies offers a strong rebuttal to Hiss’ denial to having ever known Chambers. Nevertheless, the charm and charisma of Hiss’s witness is such that Hiss’s allies in the Justice Department prepare to indict Chambers.

Nixon subjects Hiss to a fresh round of questioning, during which he inadvertently confirms details of Chambers’s testimony. Hiss tries to elicit more information about Chambers so he can avoid any further contradictions, and resists divulging details that people could use against him. He also tries to discredit Chambers on the grounds that he is a confessed former Communist, while he is a well-respected government official and nonprofit officer. Congressman F. Edward Hébert (D-LA) rejected this on the grounds that anyone could redeem themselves. Hiss testifies that the closest person to Chambers he is aware of was a freelance journalist named George Crosley, a man with bad teeth who rented out one of Hiss’s apartments. Hiss talks about the Plymouth he bought, the Ford, and the rug he received from Crosley. He cannot confirm that Crosley and Chambers are the same person. Chambers sees Hiss once at a New York Hotel, but Hiss pointedly ignores him. This leaves Chambers sorrowful for his friend but no less determined to have his story vindicated.

Chambers and Hiss then confront one another directly before HUAC. As Chambers testifies, Hiss expresses doubts that he is the same person as George Crosley. Chambers admits to having had bad teeth in the past, just as Hiss remarked upon at the time and during his testimony. Hiss suddenly decides that it is likely that Chambers and Crosley are the same person, but he cannot produce anyone else to confirm Crosley’s name. Chambers also denies having ever gone by the name “George Crosley.” Under intense questioning, Hiss’s denials become increasingly less convincing.

Chambers returns to work, where the staunchly anti-Communist founder of Time, Henry Luce, provides him with comfort and encouragement. Nixon holds another public hearing, and the turn of popular opinion sways in favor of Chambers just in time to stop the Justice Department’s efforts to save Hiss.

Hiss’s attempts to placate HUAC are going poorly. He frequently refuses to answer the committee’s questions on the grounds that he will incriminate himself, which does nothing to restore public faith in his credibility. Hiss is likewise short on the paperwork to confirm his claims, and often claims to have a faulty memory whenever he is called out for making contradictory statements. The testimony of other suspected Communists further undermines Hiss’s narrative.

Hiss nevertheless continues to try and damage Chambers’s reputation. Hiss’s efforts in this regard are helped by his new lawyer, Harold Rosenwald, a leftist veteran of the Justice Department who later worked for the Communist regime in Yugoslavia.

Despite Rosenwald’s best attempts to defend his client, HUAC continues its interrogation of Hiss. Nixon insists that if Hiss is lying about Chambers, Hiss must be doing so to protect his own affiliation with Communism. Hiss’s gift for misdirection and obfuscation eventually tires his questioners, who catch him contradicting himself on the question of having given “Crosley” a Ford. As it turns out, the Communists’ very dedication to conspiracy led them to botch the paperwork rather than hide the transaction in plain sight. In fact, it is well documented that Hiss gave the vehicle to someone other than “Crosley.” HUAC therefore catches Hiss in his lie about the Ford, but he quickly recovers and blasts the committee’s integrity, saying that it is ruining his reputation on the basis of incomplete facts. Hiss affirms his impeccable record of government service and again cites his powerful connections. He further insists that HUAC subject Chambers’s own record to similar scrutiny, hinting that Chambers was institutionalized for mental health challenges. Chambers denies this charge in subsequent testimony, states again that he and Hiss were once good friends, and testifies that his choice to inform on Hiss was motivated by nothing but their rival ideologies.

In Chapter 12, “The Bridge,” Chambers has just completed his testimony and is pondering the concept of being a witness. He realizes he wants to be a witness on behalf of something greater than just Alger Hiss or even Communism.

The world may have seen his testimony against Hiss as a conflict between two individuals, but Chambers comes to recognize it as a clash between opposing faiths. He has to respect Hiss as a devoted servant to his Communist “faith,” even if that faith is hostile to the human spirit.

To be a true witness, Chambers decides, one must be willing to sacrifice himself on behalf of its beliefs, even if he still has hesitations and doubts.

Rather than being filled him with a sense of sudden resolve, Chambers compares the experience of this revelation to the feeling of gradually crossing a bridge having only a vague sense of what lies on the other side. One travels across this bridge one step at a time until one finally arrives.

With Hiss still holding many advantages, Chambers endeavors to press ahead in his fight to defend the free world.