The case for Alger Hiss's treason was powerful in 1950, when Hiss was convicted of charges related to espionage.

The case for Alger Hiss's treason was powerful in 1950, when Hiss was convicted of charges related to espionage. Since then, it has only strengthened, with the 1978 publication of Allen Weinstein's groundbreaking book Perjury and the 1995 release of the decrypted Venona cables, which identify "Ales" (almost certainly Hiss) as a spy for the Soviet Union. Yet an ever-dwindling band of never-say-die leftists still cling to the fantasy of their man's innocence. On April 5, they gathered at New York University. Author Kai Bird claimed to have found the "real spy"--not Hiss, of course, but Wilder Foote, a long-dead State Department aide who previously had escaped all suspicion. The conference organizers also dragged out Timothy Hobson, an 80-year-old stepson of Hiss. He spent part of his childhood living with Hiss and claims that there's no way his stepfather could have spied because he surely would have detected evidence of it, presumably in the very best Hardy Boys style. What these desperate loyalists offer is a Hobson's choice: any verdict on the Hiss case, as long as it is exoneration.