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Editor says, what if Truman pardoned Alger Hiss? muses Eric Lipps. Please note that the opinions expressed in this post do not necessarily reflect the views of the author(s).
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In 1953, on his last full day in office, with nothing further to lose, President Harry S Truman pardons Alger Hiss, the State Department official accused in 1948 of spying for the Soviet Union in the 1930s and 1940s, and convicted of perjury in 1950 and currently in the federal prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania.
Truman pardons HissTruman cites what he calls "not just reasonable doubt but considerable doubt," and writes, "Mr. Hiss could not possibly have received a fair trial under the political climate of the time".
Hiss will accept the pardon, which allows him to be released from incarceration. However, he will insist to his dying day that he was innocent in the first place, and will press, without success, for a formal exoneration, arguing that a simple pardon carries with it a presumption of guilt.
Entry posted by
Eric Lipps
© Eric Lipps,2007-.Story Tags
Permalinks: Post, Day. Browse Thread: Beasts Source: Wikipedia Labels: Alger Hiss, Red Scare, Truman, America, Communism.
~ I think that if Truman had really pardoned Hiss, his public life would have been over. Then again, Truman pretty much disappeared from public view after he left the White House, so if he doubted the conviction it might have been the right move for him. I wonder: did Truman have some doubts about Hiss' guilt in real life?
~ Truman's pardon would have hurt the Democrats for quite a while; they were already in hottish water for all the boring-from-within by the Reds they'd let happen in FDR's time.
~ Why would Truman pardon Hiss? Hiss was a social contemporary of Acheson and the Ivy Leaguers not of Harry's.
~ I'm assuming some evidence came to his attention which cast doubt om Hiss's guilt--not necessarily completely exonerated him, just cast doubt.
Actually, this began life as someone else's post on another site; I just used it as the POD for a full timeline (in the original, there was no follow-up). And yes, it does hurt theDemcrats, and it pushes the U.S. rightward for many years.
~ And given the facts, why would Truman do something that was inherently unwarranted. No one believed Hiss was innocent, and later investigations were conclusine. Like all Stalinists, he lied. What next, Eric, the Verona intercepts were fakes? Stalin was a good guy? Remember, this was during the Korean War, which Stalin had uselessly prolonged for two years. (By the way, Eric, have you ever met a real Stalinist? I have. They were stupid fanatics who utterly believed every word that came out of the Kremlin as if it were revelations from heaven.
~ Truman objected to McCarthy, Nixon et al n partisan grounds. Saving Hiss was not on his radar. That was Acheson.
© Today in Alternate History, 2013-. All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
