Witness: Cold War Classics

Throughout Witness, Whittaker Chambers describes Communism as a two-sided paradox. The first is as a ruthless and highly disciplined organization, taking its orders from the Kremlin in Moscow, pursuing the goal of world revolution with absolute dedication. Its agents are everywhere; they have penetrated the highest circles of government and media. They can therefore dispatch enemies or traitors with ease and little fear of consequences. From the time that he breaks with the Party to the end of the Hiss trials, Chambers fears that unseen forces will, at the very least, squelch his testimony, if not lead to lethal retaliation against himself and his family. Chambers’s fears are not entirely baseless. There really were Communists or Communist sympathizers in positions of power, Stalin really did have an extensive network of agents around the globe capable of doing his bidding, and people really did turn up dead (as was famously true in the 1940 murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico). Chambers argues that Communists’ capacity for violence stems directly from their ideology, which promises a utopian future to those willing to work for it—no matter the cost. Those who resisted such a future, or the efforts of its agents to bring it about, could be considered enemies of human happiness; therefore, it was morally acceptable for Communists to eliminate them.