Creates a literary and philosophical interview with Whittaker Chambers. In odyssey we see chambers again bear his soul. To young admirer, friend and colleague. I was struck, most of all by the deep emotional intensity and raw humanity that flows, of so many of these pages. Amen is trying to account to himself and two world how he made his choices, where he fell and where he blundered, but also there is no going back, doing the right thing can still mean anything, not just for his own soul but his family, couny and generation. Bill buckley as some of you know was a dramatic emotional man, very much so. It is not surprising to me chamberss odyssey moves bill profoundly. As my students know, bill buckley had many influences but the common in his life that was chambers certainly ranks as the most unexpected. The one to follow last year, at yale,. To help us get started today, who know much about the suspect. We had worked sitting in the middle, is distinguished fellow and conservative thought, the be simon center for principals and politics. Dr. Edwards has enjoyed a career as one of the leading historian of american conservatism. His works range from biographies of president reagan to a recent biography of william f. Buckley. Dr. Edwards is founding director of the institute of political journalism at georgetown and was a fellow at the institute of politics at jfk school of government at harvard. John lewis gaddis next to me is one of the leading historians of the cold war. He won the Pulitzer Prize for his biography of the diplomats george f. Cats. John lewis gaddiss work as Robert Lovett prof. Of history and influenced the work of cold war historians all over the world. Played a major role on uncovering the role of leadership personalities, the influence of his work can be seen in the 24 part Cnn Television series cold war. A graduate of universal yale university, class of, can you help me, i was missing that detail. Mr. Evans, his book blacklisted by history the untold story of senator joe mccarthy and his fight against americas enemies gives an account of the age of mccarthyism during the cold war. Evans has been the recipients of honorary doctorates from institutions Like Syracuse University and the John Marshall law school and has won accuracy in media irvine award for excellence in journalism. Join me in welcoming our panelists. [applause] [applause] lee, would you like to start . It is such a pleasure and honor to be here. Once again i was flattered to be asked to participate in the first seminar last year i didnt do too badly. I see some good friends out here and also some people i admire including if senator jim buckley. He deserve a round of applause. Let us begin with a paradox. Whitaker chambers. Whitaker chambers was a soviet spy who became in bill buckleys words, the most important american defector from communism. And its treasonous adherents, continued in august of 1948 when he identified alger hiss, a golden boy of the liberal establishment as a fellow member of his underground communist cell in the 1930s. This was a former assistant of the secretary of state and adviser to of franklin d. Roosevelt, acting secretarygeneral of United Nations founding conference in San Francisco and recently named president of the Carnegie Endowment for national peace. He emphatically denied chamberss allegation. A great deal more than the reputations of these two men was at stake. If this was innocent, anti communism, and those closely associated with the like richard nixon. It was dealt a devastating blow. If alger hiss was guilty, anti communism would occupy a prominent part of the political landscape, and his spokesman would become national leaders. Furthermore, chambers and alger hiss each represented one side in the epic struggle of the cold war. One man symbolized the philosophy of freedom and western civilization. The other the ideology of totalitarianism and marxism and leninism. Both left and right understood that america and the world was at a critical point in history. Considered a Major Political events had transpired between august of 1948 when chambers confronted alger hiss at a congressional hearing. In may of 1952 when chambers published his managerial and magisterial memoir witness. In february of 1948, the communists seized control of czechoslovakias. Was the first soviet seizure by force of a free popular government and it stunned official washington. In china mao tse tungs Peoples Liberation army and shanghai checks nationalist forces on the run the following year, the communists would assume command of the worlds most populous nation. 1950 was a particularly eventful year. In january scientists called fuchs surrendered to british authorities admitting he was a nuclear spy the same month a halter hiss was convicted of perjury. The statute of limitations on espionage have inspired and he was sent to jail. In may, the fbi arrested harry gold who identified julius and Ethel Rosenberg as conspirators in a plot to give Nuclear Secrets to moscow. In june, north korea invaded south korea and presented the u. S. With a choice, turn back the invasion or allow the communists to secure a key piece on the chessboard of asia. In 1952 whitaker chambers published witness. Which argued that the United States faced a transcendent, not a transitory crisis, was not one of politics or economics but of faith, and secular liberalism, a watereddown version, no wonder the liberals have never forgiven chambers nor have they been neighbor able to forgive him. And i know stan will be talking about a little bit. That man is alger hiss. And chambers and his place in history without examining alger hiss. Willard edwards, observed alger hiss for an estimated 500 hours. In april of 1956, mr. Edwards, my father, addressed a large audience of undergraduates at princeton, the evening before alger hiss was scheduled to speak at the university about u. S. Foreign policy. Alger hiss on Foreign Policy. Here are some of the things edwards said to the assembled stewards, quote, you will be observing, as adroit and charming personality as i have witnessed in 30 years of experience, quote, you will find it difficult to believe that you are listening to a man convicted by a jury of willful perjury to conceal his role as a traitor and a spy. And alger hiss indignantly denied chamberss allegations that he was the communist, i have never witnessed a more convincing display of righteous laugh, and swore he never laid eyes and whitaker chambers. He blinked at a photograph of chambers. Less than a month later, confronted with chambers himself, was to confess that he had indeed known the man and knew him intimately and given him an automobile. Out for his was not embarrassed. The picture of injured innocence, failed to recall man whose appearance is that of the man in the photograph shown him. This explained that he had known chambers but under another name, that of george crosby. It never occurred to him to think the committee might be talking about crosby, a did the newspaper man. Was at this point, my father said, that i began to realize that alger hiss was a dangerous man. Is important to remember that chamberss original charge against his former friend and coconspirator was not espionage but calm communist affiliations only. Has many others in the government did in 1930s, he would be involved in the establishment and the in acheson who on the day alger hisss acceptance said publicly that he would never turn his back on alger hiss. It was not in alger hiss, a man of monumental arrogance to admit he strayed ever so slightly from the path. He was, my father some up, a man of passion and pathological . Convictions of his own rectitude regardless of overwhelming evidence of guilt. As set forth by our colleague who is speaking to a later. The hiss case informed the American People that there was an internal communist threat. In the 1948 president ial campaign harry truman called any such notion a red herring but communists had infiltrated the federal government all the way up to and including the white house. Defending alger hiss became a liberal obsession, consequently the hiss chambers case contributed to liberalisms lurch to the left and its inability to view the soviet union objectively and to concede that it was a clear and present danger. The case demonstrated the intimate connection between communism and liberalism, quote, when i took out my little fling and aimed at communism, chambers wrote in witness, i also did something else. What i hit was the forces of that great socialist revolution which in the name of liberalism is been inching its ice cap. The one x liberal who saw the connection clearly was president ronald reagan. Who awarded the medal of freedom. Asked why, mr. Reagan replied, 100 years ago people will ever forgotten the details but i want them to remember that out his went to jail as a traitor and whitaker chambers was honored by his fellow citizens. His conviction verify anti communism as a potent element of american politics. It gave bill buckley and other and other conservative they caused by which to unite traditional conservatives and libertarians against the common enemy, liberalism. Historian george nash and others argued persuasively that without any communism there would have been no unified conservative movement beginning in 1950s without a conservative movement, and no president elect reagan in 1980. He could quote from memory the first pages of the forward for many years afterward. And the longtime publisher of National Review and libertarian columnist and author John Chamberlain and the prince of darkness. Whitaker chambers, was one of the great men of the time wrote henry gregory, why . Because of his enormous talent as a writer. His steadfast courage on the face of a ferocious liberal campaign to destroy him. His witness to gods grace and fortifying power. Whitaker chambers placed every conservative in his debt and for all time. Thank you very much. [applause] thank you. We are going to think ask our panelists professor gaddis. Thanks to 0 organizers, it is fair to say that have certain guilty, and i have been teaching history of this time and i have certainly been aware of the importance of the new book we are talking about today. My colleague told me she has been assigning this book to her students ever since she came here but the fact is until nathaniel persuaded me to do it, actually read witness. I take some consolation in Joseph Epsteins recent convictionconvention in the Weekly Standard that he does not got around to reading the bible after all this time. At said in his commentary there is great stuff there. Well, that is what i felt about witness. Over the last weekend days or so i have been reading it, every line of it, sitting up late, if you pass by my house you can see a lonely life in the darkness of the house, that is why ipad that has witness on it now. It was compelling and it kept me up at nights reading. There is great stuff there. For example, the aphorisms as that are imbedded, quote, men must do what they think right. And the multiple soviet apparatus in the 1930, the russians believe in bulk. There is faith reflected in it, without god, want only organizes the world against god. There is distinction made about personalities in fundamental ways and there are differences, chambers rights, in the pitch and purpose of life in the full angle. Well before i got to the end of this long book, i found myself wishing that Whittaker Chambers who was a famous and excellent editor had hired one to work with him on this book. Cy because as epstein says of the bible, there are a lot of gaps in it. Even sacred texts, he implies, can stand to be shortened in places and perhaps that is true of witness particularly as you move through the final part of it. I came with a sense of deep admiration and deep respect combined with getting to know it better. I was reading fangs that hadnt read before. That sense of admiration and exasperation resonated with me and it struck me, as a familiar emotion, and that combination and exasperation. And a merit these contradictions, they came from that. And what i think the exasperation here being the difficulty, i dont know what i think but i write. The real reason witness evoked these mixed emotions in me as i read it came from the parallel that i saw to a more recently book with which i had a closer connection. It is imaginatively titled george f. Cats, an american life. I am chagrined that looking at my book that its 800 pages it certainly is not brief. Theres not a single reference to whitaker chambers in it. I appreciate the forbearance of chamberss biographer for not mentioning this embarrassing fact of his long and thoughtful review last winter. I did refer briefly but only obliquely to chambers, and he took a couple pages to say he had followed chamberss case carefully 1 4 century earlier but still was unsure as many people were in 1972 of hutu believe in that case, who was telling the truth. We know the answer to that question much more clearly now thanks not only to the biography of Whittaker Chambers but the courageous scholarship of Allen Weinstein and others who followed his pioneering work. Nobody can reasonably doubt the truth particularly in light of the evidence that surfaced from soviet sources in the last 20 years or so. And if you stand in side streets in upper manhattan and shout out alger hiss was guilty. What so strongly struck me in reading witness for the first time, however, was less how well it holds up in the light of recent scholarship, that i had known about and expected. What i had not expected in reading this book was what seemed to me to be a number of peace similarities between the personalities of Whittaker Chambers and a man i spent a lot of time with recently, george f. Kennan. These reside in the fact that neither chambers nor can 6 categories or the compartments. They did not fit. Chambers was a unique blend of romantic religious pilgrims and political revolutionaries. He goes on to say chambers did not stop quarrelling about him. To some he was fascist, to some a martyr, to most a mystery. And on a public review, quote, one is hardpressed to think of another public individual so consistently driven not merely to revise himself but repudiate himself, agonizingly at times with the result that his words in defense or rebuttal. And the Foreign Policy position while canon can be cast in almost any light. He has become his admirers but also his detractors. This got me to think about plutarch and parallel lives, it got me to thinking what would happen with this brief intellectual exercise for friday afternoon, think about the parallel lives of George Kennan and whitaker chambers. If chambers and can wear like a few others, how much were they like each other and that is what i will spend rest of my time talking about. Chronologically, they are close in part, chambers as most of you know was born in 1901, kennan in 1904 but chambers lived to the aged 60, kennan lived to the age of 101 and delayed in publishing his biography. The source of profuse apologies over the years to me from the subject. And having difficult childhoods marked by a family tragedies. It was the death of his mother two months later, the suicide of a beloved brother and in his 20s. Chambers and kennan and i believe education, chambers at princeton but neither in years that followed, part of any establishment. And it is a deep cultural pessimism that was not foreseeing another world war, it is rooted in 1920s in the postworld war i period, and theyre very brief. And his editor it time in world war ii, and in the early days of the policy planning staff to make it work as he wished with the total support of general george marshall, these periods of optimism were fleeting. Both men sounded the alarm about soviet intentions. Chambers, the Roosevelt Administration as early as 1939. Roosevelt administration through diplomatic reporting from moscow in 194445 which he also felt to have been both men found themselves isolated from many contemporaries, even ostracized for having gone out on limbs but kennans came quickly and less painfully than that of Whittaker Chambers. Neither took satisfaction in vindication. Self congratulations for both men, most atypically in the modern age was almost impossible. That is remarkable of the 20th century. One reason for this was religious faith which became deeper for both of these men as they aged but that faith resided in the city of god, not the city of man, hence that phase, minimal expectation beyond bearing witness accomplished in his life. And the capacity, and leave the little country, the United States, survive in a sinister world. Both were at the same time dedicated american patriots whose only acts of witness eliminated the countrys path to survival through this horrible century. The despair was so deep that not only contemplated suicide but actually took steps to make it possible. Chambers describes it in witness, it was the day he went to a garden store in Lower Manhattan and kicked on damage picked cyanide based held in a can and try to mix it with the right amount of water and throw a towel over his head and breathe the fumes and hope to wake up not waking up but he was save by his own shortsightedness and could not read the instructions on the can and got the proportions wrong. It was during his brief bleak ambassadorship in 1952 when the situation was so grim that kennan insisted that the cia equate him with suicide pills but in the event of war he be in turned in nazi germany in 1942 but feared torture and that is the purpose of the suicide pills in his case. He didnt use them, told me he flushed them down the toilet eventually. That he ordered them is deeply significant. Both men later preoccupied themselves and overwhelmed anybody who would read them or listen to them with great fear is, great fears in capital letters, that the new deal and all that followed was part of the gigantic communist conspiracy, kennan said nuclearweapons could not be developed and deployed without placing at risk the fate of the earth. The significan