On the Right

New York, April 7—The scene is dramatically described in a recent issue of Politicks magazine. Allen Weinstein, a professor of history at Smith College, is answering questions put by journalist Philip Nobile, who by the way is one of the sharpest interviewers in the business. Nobile begins by explaining that Alger Hiss has had many problems in the last thirty years, but that his main problem right now is the new book by Weinstein called Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. Briefly put, the book establishes beyond even unreasonable doubt that Alger Hiss was guilty.

The scene in question is the last of seven visits between Weinstein and Hiss. At the first visit, five years earlier, the young historian was eagerly resolved to document the innocence of Alger Hiss, to which end he secured the cooperation of Hiss, who turned over his huge defense file to Weinstein. One should add that Hiss, over the years, has become highly habituated to sycophantic journalists and historians who accept his innocence as dogma, and then scoop up whatever data are lying around and arrange them so as to confirm the previously established thesis. It is not true that all those who have proclaimed Hiss’s innocence were sycophantic to the man, Alger. I. F. Stone is sycophantic not to discrete individuals, so much as to doctrines. The relevant doctrine in this case is that the United States engaged in a hysterical witchhunt after the war. Reasoning backward, everyone tripped up during that period was in fact innocent. The sustenance of the myth of Hiss’s innocence comes from a Carthusian fidelity to that and cognate doctrines.

About the Author

William F. Buckley Jr.

William F. Buckley Jr. founded National Review magazine in 1955.

New York, April 7—The scene is dramatically described in a recent issue of Politicks magazine. Allen Weinstein, a professor of history at Smith College, is answering questions put by journalist Philip Nobile, who by the way is one of the sharpest interviewers in the business. Nobile begins by explaining that Alger Hiss has had many problems in the last thirty years, but that his main problem right now is the new book by Weinstein called Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. Briefly put, the book establishes beyond even unreasonable doubt that Alger Hiss was guilty.

The scene in question is the last of seven visits between Weinstein and Hiss. At the first visit, five years earlier, the young historian was eagerly resolved to document the innocence of Alger Hiss, to which end he secured the cooperation of Hiss, who turned over his huge defense file to Weinstein. One should add that Hiss, over the years, has become highly habituated to sycophantic journalists and historians who accept his innocence as dogma, and then scoop up whatever data are lying around and arrange them so as to confirm the previously established thesis. It is not true that all those who have proclaimed Hiss’s innocence were sycophantic to the man, Alger. I. F. Stone is sycophantic not to discrete individuals, so much as to doctrines. The relevant doctrine in this case is that the United States engaged in a hysterical witchhunt after the war. Reasoning backward, everyone tripped up during that period was in fact innocent. The sustenance of the myth of Hiss’s innocence comes from a Carthusian fidelity to that and cognate doctrines.