Weinstein,
Allen. Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. New York: Knopf, 1978. Toronto: Random House, 1978. Rev. ed. New York: Vintage, 1979. [pb] Newly rev. ed. New York: Random House, 1997.
Weinstein,
Allen. Perjury: The Hiss-Chambers Case. New York: Knopf, 1978. Toronto: Random House, 1978. Rev. ed. New York: Vintage, 1979. [pb] Newly rev. ed. New York: Random House, 1997.
Clark comment: After spending almost 10 years searching for information to vindicate Hiss, Weinstein concluded that Hiss was guilty of perjury and espionage. This remains the book to read on the Hiss case, especially the newly revised edition with its additional material. The downside of the new edition is that it seems to stretch to justify itself.
Ehrman, Studies, Winter-Spring 2001, comments that "since Perjury appeared, no significant work has repeated the claim of a frame-up or argued that Hiss was innocent." Pforzheimer calls Perjury "an important study of a major case of communist espionage in the U.S. in the 1930s and 1940s," while Petersen says it "is a meticulously researched scholarly treatment."
Victor Navasky, "Allen Weinstein's Docudrama," The Nation, 3 Nov. 1997, 11-16, remains unconvinced, and continues (Navasky, "The Case Not Proved Against Alger Hiss," The Nation, 8 Apr. 1978) to question Weinstein's use of his sources in arriving at his conclusion. Navasky argues that the revised edition of Perjury reprints interviews that have been challenged by the interviewees themselves "without indicating that they've been challenged." He also has reservations about the Venona transcripts, calling them "documents said to be decoded and annotated cable traffic ... between Moscow and its U.S. agents" (emphasis added.). Nevasky concludes that "it is at best a hazardous enterprise to attempt definitive readings of the tea leaves as soon as they are leaked, sold or selectively released by this or that intelligence source."
Allen Weinstein, "'Perjury,' Take Three," New Republic, 29 April 1978, 19-21, fires back at Navsky's criticisms of Perjury.
[SpyCases/U.S./Hiss/Chambers]
Weinstein,
Allen, and Alexander Vassiliev. The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in
America -- the Stalin Era. New York: Random House, 1999.
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[SpyCases/U.S./Venona]
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