Available:*
Library | Call Number | Status |
|---|---|---|
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury) | 921 HISS | Searching... Unknown |
Bound With These Titles
On Order
Summary
Summary
A definitive and comprehensive biography of infamous Soviet spy Alger Hiss by a former U.S. Intelligence and analyst who confirms both Hiss's guilt and how deeply the Soviets had infiltrated the government during and post WWII.
In 1948, former U.S. State Department official Alger Hiss was accused of being a Soviet spy. Because the statute of limitations on espionage had run out, he was convicted only of perjury. Decades later--after the Hiss trial had been long forgotten by most--archival evidence surfaced confirming the accusations: a public servant with access to classified documents had indeed passed crucial information to the Soviets for more than a decade.
Yet many on the American Left still consider Hiss an iconic figure--an innocent victim accused of unsubstantiated crimes. They prefer to focus on the collectivist ideals Hiss stood for, rather than confront the reality of a man who systematically and methodically betrayed his country.
Former U.S. Intelligence analyst Christina Shelton employs an in-depth knowledge of Soviet intelligence affairs as well as recently released Hungarian and KGB archival material to shine a fresh light on one of the most famous espionage cases. The story is dramatic, but Shelton's analysis goes beyond sensationalism as she explores both the ideological motivation behind Hiss's behavior and the lasting influence it has had on U.S. foreign policy.
Why exactly were the intellectual elite so deter-mined that Hiss was innocent? His accuser, Time magazine senior editor Whittaker Chambers--originally Hiss's Soviet handler--presented compelling written evidence. However, the intelligentsia were intent on supporting one of their own. They ignored the facts, a willful blindness that helped contribute to a polarization still in place in our country today.
Thirty years of intelligence analysis gives Shelton the expertise to approach the story from many different angles, especially:
* Her persuasive argument that Communism and Fascism are not polar opposites, as has so long been claimed, but highly similar ideologies.
* How Hiss's central role at the Yalta Conference and the founding of the United Nations are examples of the significance of Soviet intelligence recruitment of high-level Americans who could influence U.S. foreign policy in their favor.
* Why the silence surrounding the implications of Hiss's espionage continues--and why apologists fear that smearing his name would undercut New Deal policies and the United Nations. Shelton doesn't just detail the body of evidence pointing to Hiss's gui< she suggests new layers of meaning in light of the current political landscape.
Today, the importance of understanding Hiss's ideological commitment has never been more vital. His advocacy of collectivism and internationalism still resonate among the political elite, making this book an important and timely analysis of American thought at this critical juncture in our country's life.
Author Notes
Christina Shelton is a retired U.S. intelligence analyst. She spent twenty-two years working as a Soviet analyst and a Counterintelligence Branch Chief at the Defense Intelligence Agency. She has also been a staff analyst at various think tanks.
Reviews (4)
Publisher's Weekly Review
Nowadays, few doubt Alger Hiss (1904-1996) was a Soviet spy, but retired U.S. intelligence analyst Shelton writes that his story deserves retelling because he was a key 20th-century figure whose beliefs continue to influence America's intellectual elite as they struggle, in her opinion, against individual liberty, small government, and free enterprise. Shelton delivers a clear, detailed account of Hiss's privileged background, his 1933-1946 government career and that of dozens of fellow traveling and Communist associates; the stormy accusations of espionage; the 1948-1950 trials; his imprisonment, and life-long campaign to rehabilitate his reputation. Despite entire chapters devoted to evidence that he spied, most readers who accept Shelton's conservative editorializing will not need convincing. Those who agree with Shelton and commentators such as Glenn Beck that America began its decline into collectivism with Woodrow Wilson's progressivism, advancing into frank socialism with FDR's New Deal will accept this call to arms against liberals who aim, as Shelton believes, to turn America into a latter-day Soviet Union. Agent: (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Booklist Review
Shelton, formerly a Defense Intelligence Agency official involved with the Iraq War's prewar intelligence, shows how an intelligence analyst might view the Alger Hiss case, which embittered American politics in the 1950s. Although there is no doubt that the evidence inculpates Hiss as a Soviet spy, Shelton reviews it in detail, considering and refuting benign interpretations made by Hiss himself, his lawyers, and other defenders. What intrigues Shelton are Hiss' convictions, which emboldened him to maintain that he was never a Communist, let alone a betrayer of his country. Urbane and courteous in person, Hiss exuded serene disdain for such accusers as Whittaker Chambers. Shelton ascribes Hiss' sense of superiority to not only a belief in communism but also Hiss' acceptance, as a covert agent of Soviet military intelligence, of revolutionary discipline. Also pursuing damage assessment (Hiss' possible influence on U.S. foreign policy in the Soviet interest), Shelton has amassed seemingly everything openly known about the Hiss affair. Her exposition, if not entirely seamless, places on Hiss' supporters the onus to explain everything away.--Taylor, Gilbert Copyright 2010 Booklist
Kirkus Review
Time editor. By contrast and comparison, Shelton reveals how Hiss used his upper-middle-class German breeding, fancy education and good looks during his two perjury trials to discredit the more slovenly, dumpy Chambers. The two men, both committed New Dealers as many communists were, met each other when recruited during the mid '30s by the so-called Ware Group, a communist cell in Washington, D.C. As a high-placed government lawyer, Hiss had access to classified information and passed it to Chambers, who had the documents copied then delivered to his Soviet superior. However, Chambers' crisis of conscience over Stalin's crimes by 1938 prompted him to quit the party, going underground to save himself from assassination. Until the mid '40s, Hiss' activities were apparently known by many in the State Department and FBI, and Shelton confirms the fact (made unfashionable thanks to the subsequent "red scare") that communists had indeed "infiltrated" many agencies of the U.S. government. The author makes a good case for the willful blindness practiced by the pro-Hiss involved, delving carefully into the literature and documentation and wondering at Hiss' elaborate need for lying rather than making a public case for the eventual triumph of socialism. A solid look at the specifics of the case as well as a useful overview of the ideological debate gripping America.]] Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Library Journal Review
There are numerous books on Alger Hiss and his alleged spying for the Soviet Union. For most scholars, Allen Weinstein's definitive study-Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case (1978)-laid to rest any further doubts about Hiss's culpability during the period prior to 1945. The selective opening of Soviet archives in the 1990s has generated even more information about Hiss and his cohorts, propagating books such as John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev's Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America (2009). Given the wealth of extant literature, Shelton, a retired U.S. intelligence analyst, does not provide a lot of new information about Hiss and his era. Rather, she delves into some of the newly released family archival materials, held at New York University, in search of additional insights into Hiss's family life. The results, for the most part, are a familiar story, but for Shelton this is the tragic tale of a man with misplaced loyalties to a failed political system, who was surrounded by many who refused to admit that someone like Hiss-with his background and sterling credentials-could possibly be a spy. Verdict A well-written book on a topic already much covered. This may be a good choice for general audiences seeking the facts and accessible analysis.-Edward Goedeken, Iowa State Univ. Lib., Ames (c) Copyright 2012. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Table of Contents
| Introduction | p. xi |
| Foreword | p. xiii |
| Prologue | p. 1 |
| Part 1 The Early Years | p. 9 |
| I Growing Up in Baltimore | p. 11 |
| II Hopkins and Harvard Law | p. 21 |
| III Priscilla Hiss | p. 31 |
| IV Supreme Court Clerk and Attorney-at-Law | p. 43 |
| Part 2 A Committed Communist | p. 53 |
| V The New Dealer | p. 55 |
| VI The Ware Group | p. 65 |
| VII Whittaker Chambers | p. 87 |
| A The Witness | p. 87 |
| B GRU | p. 106 |
| VIII The State Department Bureaucrat | p. 111 |
| IX Yalta | p. 129 |
| X Fascism and Communism | p. 157 |
| Part 3 accused and convicted | p. 171 |
| XI The Case | p. 173 |
| XII Lewisburg Prison | p. 197 |
| XIII Crusade for Vindication, 1954-96 | p. 205 |
| Part 4 The Evidence | p. 219 |
| XIV Testimonies | p. 221 |
| XV Venona Program | p. 239 |
| XVI Archival Material: | p. 247 |
| A Hungarian Archives | p. 247 |
| B KGB Archives | p. 255 |
| Epilogue | p. 267 |
| Notes | p. 271 |
| Bibliography | p. 305 |
| Index | p. 311 |
