My latest reading of Fawn Brodie's Richard Nixon: The Shaping of His Character
was about the Alger Hiss case. I won't go into a lot of detail about
that, but I will say that Brodie says some things that I did not learn
from other books about Nixon that I have read. For one, as I've said
before, there is controversy about whether Congressman Richard Nixon got
intelligence information about Hiss from Father John Cronin before
Whittaker Chambers and Hiss testified to the House Committee on
Un-American Activities. Nixon in Six Crises said that he first
learned of Hiss and Chambers' accusation that Hiss was a Communist when
they initially appeared before HUAC, whereas Father John Cronin said
for years that he fed Nixon intelligence prior to that point, a claim
that Cronin supposedly retracted later. The debate usually centers
around Cronin and whether his retraction occurred or was trustworthy,
but Brodie brings in another consideration: that Nixon himself "would
mention the Cronin briefing to [biographers] Earl Mazo and Bela
Kornitzer, both of whom published the fact" (pages 201-202). Second,
according to Brodie, French and Canadian intelligence cast suspicions on
Alger Hiss. I don't recall reading that elsewhere. I read about
Venona and Soviet intelligence, but not French and Canadian
intelligence.
What I want to use as my starting-point in this post
is something that Brodie says on page 203. Whittaker Chambers (who
would later accuse Alger Hiss of being a Communist and of engaging in
espionage) left the Communist Party, and he went on to write for Time Magazine, eventually becoming the magazine's editor. Brodie quotes Chambers as saying: "Time
gave me back my life. It gave me my voice. It gave me sanctuary,
professional respect, peace, and time in which to mature my changed view
of the world and men's destiny, and mine in it."
The part about
Chambers being given the space to mature in his new view of the world
stood out to me, for some reason. Chambers had left an environment that
many could label as fanatical and cultish, the Communist Party in the
United States. After leaving his old worldview, where would he go from
there? Could he build another worldview in its place? What would be
his compass and identity? Being a writer and an editor for Time gave him a chance to explore the world and what he believed, and why.
There
are plenty of people in Chambers' sort of situation. There are people
who become Christians, and they wonder how they can mature in their
newfound faith. They may find answers in solitude, as they read the
Bible and commune with God in prayer. They may also receive guidance
from communities and people who have been in the Christian faith for a
long time. There are people who quit drinking and join Alcoholics
Anonymous, and they are seeking to learn the ropes of a new life. They
do so by going to meetings and by being mentored by other recovering
alcoholics, including a sponsor. There are people who are detoxing from
fundamentalist Christianity, after concluding that it has been an
unhealthy worldview and an abusive environment for them. They may do
some searching on their own, reading books. Perhaps they, too, receive
help from some sort of community, maybe online. They're leaving the old
and entering the new, and they are looking for ways to mature on their
new path.
I myself have been reluctant to get "help" from other
people or communities on whatever new path I have found myself on. I
fear that others will try to recreate me into their image, rather than
allowing me the freedom to grow as I wish. On the other hand, there are
times when I realize that I need guidance from outside of myself, since
my own head can be a lonely place that distorts reality and focuses on
the negative. Perhaps a solution is for me to listen to the advice of
others, while remembering that I have the free choice to accept or to
reject it.