More
than 50 years after the verdict in the Hiss case, important
historical records that could throw new light on the charges
against Alger Hiss and on many other important mid-2Oth Century
events remain locked in government files in many countries
- including the United States, Russia, and a number of formerly
communist Eastern European countries. The Search for the
Truth is being thwarted.
In
Russia, most of Joseph Stalin's "personal" files
(actually office files) are still under lock and key in the
Kremlin. In this country, Congress does not plan to make public
either the executive (closed-door) hearings held by the old
House Committee on Un-American Activities after 1944, or post-1944
reports by that committee's investigators, until 2026 - more
than a quarter century from now.
You
can add your voice to those around the world who are pushing
for historical openness and the daylighting of long-suppressed
records by writing officials at government agencies in various
countries to urge them to encourage their governments to release
more information to scholars and to the public.
If
you are interested in participating, here are some useful
names and addresses:
The
Hon. F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr. (R-WI)
Chairman
House Committee on the Judiciary
2332 Rayburn HOB
Washington, D.C. 20515
(Rep.
Sensenbrenner's email address is sensen09@mail.house.gov;
the the Judiciary Committee's Web site is www.house.gov/judiciary).
The
Freedom in Information Act (FOIA) Reading Room in the J. Edgar
Hoover Building at FBI Headquarters, in Washington, D.C.,
offers 46,213 pages of released FBI documents about the Hiss
case for public inspection. Although many FBI documents from
other celebrated cases have been posted at the FBI Web site
(www.fbi.gov), no Hiss case
documents are available online. To request that the FBI digitize
and post these records, you could write to:
Mr.
Louis J. Freeh
Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
J. Edgar Hoover Office Building
935 Pennsylvania Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20535-0001
Please
also feel free to e-mail this Web site for additional information,
at hiss.info@nyu.edu.
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