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 e was a liberal
hero once, a brilliant policy wonk at the pinnacle of government.
He was their martyr too, a victim of a
vast right-wing conspiracy, the target of a vicious congressional
witch hunt. In the end, he had to admit to perjury, but that was a
petty matter, a trumped-up technicality designed only to save a vindictive
prosecutor's face. Now, at long last, liberal opinion is changing.
There is new evidence that their hero was flawed after all, that he
may indeed have been the crook that the Right always said he was.
One by one, former defenders are beginning to change sides and admit
the truth: Alger Hiss was guilty.
Yes, Alger Hiss. Did you think that I meant anyone else?
The latest condemnation of the treacherous Mr. Hiss came, rather
surprisingly, in the usually predictably liberal TV show, The
West Wing. Last night's episode featured a sub-plot in which
Donna, one of West Wing's more irritating staffers (we have
been waiting for her to start an affair with her boss, the sanctimonious
Josh Lyman, for far too long) is approached by an old friend, Stephanie.
Stephanie wants a presidential pardon for her grandfather. Her grandfather,
a billionaire commodities trader, has been on the run from justice
for the best part of two decades, and is accused of having traded
with enemies of the United States. Actually, I made that up, no
one would ever believe that that sort of person would ever be eligible
for a pardon.
No, Stephanie's grandfather, Daniel, was something else. He had
been a high government official in the 1940s accused of spying for
the Soviets. The espionage was never proven, but Daniel Galt was
convicted of perjury. He served six months, and died some years
later, still proclaiming his innocence. He is, of course, the show's
proxy for Alger Hiss. The reason that Stephanie wants the pardon
is that her father (Daniel Galt's son) is now near his deathbed.
A pardon would be a farewell gift to the dying man.
Donna puts Stephanie in touch with Sam Seaborn (played by Rob Lowe),
the White House's deputy communications
| “A
prime-time liberal TV show was essentially admitting that
Whittaker Chambers was right.” |
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director,
an always entertaining figure who is part George Stephanopoulos, part
Melrose Place. Sam is having an emotional crisis, but agrees
to help. Some work he had done while at Princeton supported the case
for Galt's innocence.
To move the pardon forward, Sam calls the First Lady 's brothers,
followed by the president's half-brother and a number of Democratic
fundraisers. No, I made that up too. This West Wing has some sense
of propriety. Sam goes through more normal channels. He shows up
at the FBI to give them a heads up about a possible pardon. The
meeting goes badly, the FBI man is not enthusiastic, and it concludes
with a rant from Sam making the case for Galt. Anyone who has followed
the Alger Hiss saga in the pages of the New York Times will
be familiar with the arguments (never proven, unreliable witnesses,
post-Soviet exoneration, anti-Communist hysteria, madman prosecutor
and so on).
So far, so predictable, but then there is a surprise. Sam is summoned
in by the national-security adviser. She hands him what is, in effect,
the fictional equivalent of the Venona intercepts. As everyone should
know, (but too many still do not) these intercepted (and now declassified)
Soviet signals prove conclusively that Hiss was, indeed, in Stalin's
pay. Their fictional equivalents do the same for Daniel Galt. The
liberal martyr, Sam discovers, was guilty after all. Galt was a
Communist spy. Sam decides to proceed no further with the pardon.
Unfortunately, after a tense discussion with Donna, it is decided
not to explain the truth to the traitor's dying son. They blame
the lack of a pardon on bureaucratic delays. Daniel Galt will be
allowed to get away with one last deception.
But this is to quibble. In showbiz terms, the unmasking of the treacherous
Galt/Hiss was real progress. A prime-time liberal TV show was essentially
admitting that Whittaker Chambers was right. Hiss was a spy, a liar,
and a friend of the Gulag. This guest of honor at so many liberal
soirees was revealed as nothing more than an accomplice of mass
murder, a glorified Jeffrey Dahmer with a tweed jacket, clean hands,
and a dirty ideology. Of course, this truth was obvious years ago,
but even if the moment was long overdue, it was good to hear it
in a ratings-topping Hollywood show.
And this trend is set to continue. Next week, apparently, Sam Seaborn
will discover that the Earth is not flat.
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