SOURCE: Abbott, Philip. “Judging: Whittaker Chambers and Lillian Hellman.” In States of Perfect Freedom: Autobiography and American Political Thought, pp. 91-124. Amherst, Mass.: The University of Massachusetts Press, 1987.

In the following essay, Abbott contrasts Witness and Lillian Hellman's Scoundrel Time, contending that “both these autobiographies fail from the standpoint of political theory.”

Consider the testimony of these two witnesses before the House of Representatives' Un-American Activities Committee.

“Almost exactly nine years ago—that is, two days after Hitler and Stalin signed their pact—I went to Washington and reported to the authorities what I knew about the infiltration of the United States Government by Communists. For years, international Communism, of which the United States Communist Party is an integral part, had been in a state of undeclared war with this Republic. With the Hitler-Stalin pact that war reached a new stage. I regarded my action in going to...