Author Kai Bird said there was new evidence to suggest that the real spy was another U.S. official named Wilder Foote. Hiss was accused of feeding secrets to the Soviet military intelligence agency GRU under the code name Ales.
Meanwhile,
Timothy Hobson, an 80-year-old retired surgeon who was Hiss' stepson and grew up in the family home in Washington, D.C., said Whittaker Chambers, whose bombshell allegations against Hiss broke the case open, had lied about his personal relationship with Hiss and had never visited the Hiss home as he claimed.
Hobson said that during the time Chambers claimed to have visited the home, he was recuperating from a broken leg and met every person who came calling.
Chambers was a former American communist party member who spied for the Soviets during the 1930s. He defected before World War II and accused others of being spies, but his claims did not attract FBI interest until after the war. He joined Time magazine in 1939 and as a writer and editor was a severe critic of communism. He died in 1961.
"It is my conviction that he was in love with Alger Hiss, that he was rejected by Alger Hiss and he took that rejection in a vindictive way," Hobson said.
I've always found the reactions to Alger Hiss more interesting then the actual facts of the case. People often seem to have ideological reasons for believing that Hiss was or was not a spy rather than caring about the actual facts of the case. While they may recognize that trait in their opponents, they fail to see it in themselves. (4:38 AM)
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