Witness: Cold War Classics

Chapter 13, “the Hiss Case II” covers the final hundred days of Chambers’s showdown with Hiss. Chambers is invited to appear on Meet the Press, but initially declines because he worries about opening himself up to a libel suit. He changes his mind after reflecting on how the Party is already doing everything in its power to destroy him. Despite receiving a hostile treatment on the show, he succeeds in publicizing his claim that Alger Hiss was (and may still be) a Communist.

Reporters swarm to Chambers’s farm, puzzled by his rustic lifestyle. They tend to assume that Chambers is acting from base motives.

A period of relative inactivity follows, during which Chambers ponders the consequences of informing on a friend and fears retribution against himself or his family. Hiss then delivers the expected libel suit, demanding sums far in excess of Chambers’s personal assets.

Testifying before a different grand jury, Chambers denies direct knowledge of Soviet espionage so as not to repeat his conflict with Hiss dozens of times over. Although he regrets this lie, he hopes that it stands as a testament to the power of mercy.

Chambers worries that he does not have enough evidence to prove his accusations. He contacts his wife’s nephew, with whom he had left a cache of documents. Upon recovering them, he also finds microfilm that he knows can be used to back up his claims.

Armed with such compelling evidence, he realizes that not only can he win the trial, but also that he is more vulnerable than ever to Communist reprisal. Deciding to destroy himself rather than the documents, he hands them over to his attorney, while keeping the microfilm for himself, fearful of the powerful actors working on Hiss’s behalf.

After dropping off Esther for her own pretrial testimony, he again ponders the costs of bearing witness. Chambers then returns for his own pretrial testimony, where he introduces the documents to prove Hiss’ espionage. When the Washington Post implies that Chambers is withholding additional evidence, Chambers hides his microfilm in a pumpkin, which he places in a patch at his farm. The story of the pumpkin soon breaks. Chambers takes the film and has it developed.

The FBI Chambers questions Chambers again. He is called to testify before another grand jury in Southern New York, and receives the support of federal law enforcement. Chambers reluctantly resigns from Time and testifies before the grand jury, not just to present facts but to bear witness to the reality that everyone must be accountable for what they have done.

Chambers senses that he is failing to persuade the grand jury and begins to feel a profound loneliness. It becomes worse when Nixon calls to tell him that the microfilm, which Chambers said was from 1938, cannot have been made earlier than 1945. He is on the brink of despair when Nixon calls again to apologize for having misidentified the film.

Chambers testifies to HUAC about espionage for the first time in detail while the Justice Department examines the microfilm.

Chambers returns to his mother’s house, writes letters to his family, and attempts suicide. When he wakes up the next morning, he is physically weakened but spiritually stronger.

To make matters worse, Esther accidentally hits an old woman with her car, and the woman dies in the hospital. However, Esther is cleared of liability. The grand jury then confronts Hiss with the documents that he passed along to Chambers. Hiss denies having done so, instead suggesting that Chambers broke into Hiss’s house and used Hiss’s typewriter to write them himself. Hiss thereby perjures himself. While Chambers had expected a personal indictment, he instead learns that Hiss has been indicted.