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Alger Hiss made almost a fetish of his unflappable objectivity. Presumptuously, no doubt, one imagines that there were shadows in his mind so disturbing (his father's betrayal-suicide, a black hole of grief and abandonment and shame) that cauterized objectivity became the only salvation. I have always believed the Chambers rather than the Hiss version of events, just as I think Chambers was the more gifted and interesting of the two men; there seemed less to Hiss than first appeared and more to Chambers. But I wonder if their lives did not intersect at some subterranean level, some hidden confluence of global history and personal trauma.
Here is a triangulation, a sort of syllogism, that seemed to be at work: Except for evil itself (if you believe in evil, as Chambers did), what mystery is deeper than that of betrayal? What betrayal is deeper, and more decisive, than suicide? What deeper political or social suicide can a man commit than to betray his country?