Whittaker Chambers by Sam Tanenhaus

Author:Sam Tanenhaus [Tanenhaus, Sam]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-307-78926-6
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2011-04-19T16:00:00+00:00

While the grand jury was deliberating, Chambers exited the waiting room and slipped down a back stairway. A group of reporters ran down a different stairway, hoping to intercept him. Moments later Hiss emerged, refusing comment. Reporters followed him into the elevator. It stopped at the eleventh floor. In walked Chambers. Accuser and accused rode down together in silence. Hiss was smiling. Chambers, poker-faced, stared down at his shoes.16

That afternoon the grand jury voted to indict Alger Hiss. He had lied in telling the grand jury he had not seen Chambers after January 1, 1937. And—of much greater significance—he had lied in saying he had not transmitted documents to the ex-Communist. Everyone understood the technical charge of perjury masked the deeper allegation of espionage.

Some on the panel wanted to indict Chambers too, for perjuring himself in October, but were dissuaded when Donegan pointed out that if Chambers were indicted, it “would substantially weaken the government’s case against Hiss.”17

Attorney General Clark was at the Waldorf, attending a dinner, when he learned of the indictment from reporters. He said he was not surprised. He expected the trial would commence in January.

Did he think President Truman would remain steadfast in his opinion that HUAC had pursued a red herring?

“I don’t think it will alter it.”18

HUAC bestowed congratulations on the grand jury and hailed the indictment as a “vindication” of its own efforts. Karl Mundt voiced his “hope that nobody will ever again refer to this case as a ‘red herring.’ ”

“It is a justification of our many months of work,” said Richard Nixon of the proceedings he had done his best to undermine. “We started at the beginning against overwhelming odds and we were opposed by the Administration and many commentators and news analysts.”

The committee could boast—and did—that it had uncovered a spy ring. Even skeptics bowed before this accomplishment. “It is now apparent,” said The Nation, “that this politics-ridden committee has broken one of the most sensational spy cases in American history,” outdoing both the Justice Department and the FBI. Nixon, soaking up the praise, expansively conceded that HUAC’s critics had often been right in the past about the committee’s many unfair practices. He promised reforms, including a new “code of procedure” that would protect future witnesses against unfounded accusations. At the same time the attorney general announced plans to seek new legislation “to tighten up the country’s espionage laws.”19

On the evening of December 17, two days after Hiss’s indictment, Chambers returned to Baltimore by train, expecting to be met at the station by Esther. She arrived more than an hour late, badly shaken. There had been an accident on the drive over. She had struck a pedestrian, an elderly woman now in the emergency room. The police had let Esther continue on to the depot. She and Whittaker hurried to the hospital but were not allowed to see the patient. Attending physicians sounded hopeful. The couple then drove to Westminster, Whittaker behind the wheel and Esther “convulsively shuddering” at the memory of the accident.

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