Mark Groubert On the Whittaker Chamber – Alger Hiss Case

“Whittaker Chambers is best known today as the veteran Soviet spy who became, in William F. Buckley Jr.’s words, “the most important American defector from Communism” when he testified against members of his underground Communist cell in the 1930s. Yet Chambers did more than reject Communism: He revealed a key problem with modern liberalism. In his now-classic autobiography Witness, he argued that Communism ought to be rejected in the name of something other than 20th-century modern liberalism by showing how the two grew out of a common ideology that places unbounded confidence in state power. As he remarked, New Deal acolytes had no principled reason for opposing unlimited state intrusion into the social, economic, and political realms. Herein lies the source of Chambers’ ongoing relevance: While Communism stands discredited, many still accept its fundamental conceit that man makes his own reality and that the government is the solution to all our ills.” Chambers was a Senior Editor for TIME magazine.—- Richard Reinsch

“This legendary raconteur (Mark Groubert) has known virtually everyone and been everywhere in his epic lifetime and eclectic careers in media, writing and editing, in magazines, tabloids, newspapers, television and radio, books, feature film and documentary screenwriter and producer. He is one of the great freelance journalislts and survivors in the disparate competitive literary and artistic cultures of the late 20th century and early 21st centuries.”— Charles Burris, Lew Rockwell

+ Greg Forster. Who really was Whittaker Chambers? Listen.

⚠️ strong language warning

Link: Listen to the Chambers – Hiss Episode Here.

Personal Note: I was present as a reporter / news director in the East Room when Chambers’ son accepted the Posthumous Medal of Freedom Award from Ronald Reagan on behalf of his father in 1984. I was actually there to interview Norman Vincent Peale a personal friend of the Station owner I worked at (WPUT / WRVH AM). SH.

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