POSTSCRIPT: If anything, reading the account in Stalin's Secret Agents, Chs 19, 20, re how other agencies were rolled into State, setting the stage for the hearings and grand jury proceedings of 1948, (These in turn led to McCarthyism.) I understated the numbers of Soviet agents and Communists in State and elsewhere: "Communist and pro-Soviet penetration at the American government was extensive, involving many hundreds of suspects......the now available documentation to this effect is massive." p 254.
See also, In Denial, "...The deciphered VENONA messages alone identified more than three hundred Americans, the vast majority of them Communists and a disturbing number highly placed in the government, who cooperated with Soviet intelligence...." p. 6
Bear in mind, what we have in Venona is a small fragment of total transmissions, and that Venona is only one source, which has been augmented by various other investigations and sources of information, most notably FBI files, Congressional investigations, Soviet files reviewed by the authors, and defectors' files published in several places.
As the authors explain, the grand jury of 1947 1948 was begun and intended as a kangeroo acquittal of all Reds and Democrats concerned, especially Truman FDR, Treasury, State, etc., and the Justice Dept, and as a final defeat for the FBI on this subject, and would have suceeded until Chambers versus Hiss became the topic for House Committee hearings.
Trump's real analog
Professor
Great stuff.
Trump and McCarthy.
It has become a real pig's breakfast in American politics.
I just want to note a few things about the McCarthy era.
Interestingly, Christopher Andrew said that McCarthy arguably performed the role, albeit unconsciously, of the KGB's most successful Cold War Agent of influence.
Roy Cohn, a Jewish Democrat, prosecuted the Rosenbergs, also Jews, who were as guilty of espionage and fully deserved their deaths as the day is long. As did so many other Soviet agents who evaded that fate. That Cohn was a queer and died of AIDS is neither here nor there. McCarthy wasn't going after queers but rather communists.
The State Department was lousy with them, as was Treasury, and most of the rest of the Roosevelt administration as well, regardless of McCarthy's antics or your scepticism.
As Andrew notes, in The Secret World, p. 672, McCarthy's witch hunt made liberal opinion naively sceptical of the reality of the Soviet intelligence offensive (both the past and the future), for the remainder of the Cold War.
McCarthy's estimate, when he burst on the scene, having discovered 200 card carrying Communists in the State Department, was probably actually an understatement. See for example Venona books, Haunted Wood, The Mitrokhin Archive, etc.
All the best
Great stuff.
Trump and McCarthy.
It has become a real pig's breakfast in American politics.
I just want to note a few things about the McCarthy era.
Interestingly, Christopher Andrew said that McCarthy arguably performed the role, albeit unconsciously, of the KGB's most successful Cold War Agent of influence.
Roy Cohn, a Jewish Democrat, prosecuted the Rosenbergs, also Jews, who were as guilty of espionage and fully deserved their deaths as the day is long. As did so many other Soviet agents who evaded that fate. That Cohn was a queer and died of AIDS is neither here nor there. McCarthy wasn't going after queers but rather communists.
The State Department was lousy with them, as was Treasury, and most of the rest of the Roosevelt administration as well, regardless of McCarthy's antics or your scepticism.
As Andrew notes, in The Secret World, p. 672, McCarthy's witch hunt made liberal opinion naively sceptical of the reality of the Soviet intelligence offensive (both the past and the future), for the remainder of the Cold War.
McCarthy's estimate, when he burst on the scene, having discovered 200 card carrying Communists in the State Department, was probably actually an understatement. See for example Venona books, Haunted Wood, The Mitrokhin Archive, etc.
All the best
Bozon, I believe you are mistaken on several points. The Venona book certainly did not confirm 200 Communists in the State Department. It is well documented that McCarthy never discovered a single Communist--everyone he named had either already been named by some one else, or wasn't a Communist. And it's certainly news to me that Roy Cohn was ever a Democrat. Or that Ethel Rosenberg, who never did any spying, deserved execution.
Professor
Thanks for this note.
Not that McCarthy did a good job, but it would have often been difficult to prove someone not a communist, but you seem able to see those cases. I guess that proof must have come out somehow.
I only read one of the main books on Venona, and part of another. They were not so much about mere communists, but did discussed at some points the use of the much more numerous communists by actual Soviet agents and American traitors. It is these numerous communists everywhere in government that I was referring to, not actual agents like White at Treasury, or Hiss, etc.
I forget the sources, but Venona books and or Haunted Wood confirmed that both Rosenbergs were deeply involved in espionage for a long time together. The Venona material seems incontrovertible where it identifies an agent where doubt had previously existed.
They were singled out for execution, when perhaps fifty or a hundred others richly deserved it too.
See Venona project, Wikipedia, for reference to Venona project discussion of Ethel as a spy accessory, recruiter of atomic espionage personnel, and traitor.
There is no doubt that she deserved the death she got.
All the best
Thanks for this note.
Not that McCarthy did a good job, but it would have often been difficult to prove someone not a communist, but you seem able to see those cases. I guess that proof must have come out somehow.
I only read one of the main books on Venona, and part of another. They were not so much about mere communists, but did discussed at some points the use of the much more numerous communists by actual Soviet agents and American traitors. It is these numerous communists everywhere in government that I was referring to, not actual agents like White at Treasury, or Hiss, etc.
I forget the sources, but Venona books and or Haunted Wood confirmed that both Rosenbergs were deeply involved in espionage for a long time together. The Venona material seems incontrovertible where it identifies an agent where doubt had previously existed.
They were singled out for execution, when perhaps fifty or a hundred others richly deserved it too.
See Venona project, Wikipedia, for reference to Venona project discussion of Ethel as a spy accessory, recruiter of atomic espionage personnel, and traitor.
There is no doubt that she deserved the death she got.
All the best
Fn
Apparently, McCarthy hired Cohn over Robert Kennedy.
Cohn's father was a very well connected New York Supreme Court Justice, and very active in Democratic politics.
I don't know what Cohn's political alignment actually was, but had assumed that it was Deomcratic. I could be wrong.
All the best
Apparently, McCarthy hired Cohn over Robert Kennedy.
Cohn's father was a very well connected New York Supreme Court Justice, and very active in Democratic politics.
I don't know what Cohn's political alignment actually was, but had assumed that it was Deomcratic. I could be wrong.
All the best
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