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Originally Posted by JohnR
How is the book on the Venona papers? Been told by a few people I need to read up on that.
Lots of Active Measures going on today
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The Venona papers prove beyond doubt the massive extent that the Soviet Union infiltrated our government during WWII. They also verified the veracity of the previous House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) chaired by Democrat Martin Dies beginning in 1938 which investigated the presence of Communist agents in various as well as very important Federal Government agencies, Cabinets, and close advisers of FDR. They also to a great extent vindicated Republican Joseph McCarthy.
What was revealed was not only that Communist agents were spies, but, probably more important, was their ability to influence U.S. government policy in the most stunning way.
Using Venona, the release of KGB files after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and FBI files (the FBi had done considerable investigation and discovery of the infiltration, but their information was not made use of by the FDR administration), it has been confirmed that not only were those named by the Dies committee and by McCarthy actually working for, or had worked for, the Soviets as spies, but, more importantly, they were able to shift policy in favor of Moscow. The deliverance of Eastern Europe into the Soviet sphere, the abandonment of Chiang Kai-shek and favoring of Mao and the Communists thus forcing China into the Communist sphere, and even the attack on Pearl Harbor, were all influenced and orchestrated by Communist agents (in those cases, Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter White, Laughlin Currie and others) who were employed in High government places as well as being close advisors to FDR. Other policies of agencies created by the New Deal, especially the Agriculture and Labor Departments, were influenced directly by Soviet agents in those and other departments.
So much of what happened then is similarly happening now. As Yogi Berra would say, deja vu all over again--politics being the motive to cover up truth. Even though Dies was a Democrat, the FDR administration, for the most part, did not for various reasons follow through on removing Communist agents from government employment. And it was denied that some close advisors to FDR were Communists (they were). But Dies was not discredited.
McCarthy, on the other hand, was a Republican. When he pointed out the Communist infiltration, and the failure to remove it, the Democrats could not abide someone from the other party being the one pointing out what was obviously true. That would make them and their Hero FDR and his New Deal look bad. So they destroyed McCarthy and created the misconceived notion of "McCarthyism" which has been used ever since as a bludgeon to discredit opponents.
The three books I am reading which lays it all out are:
Stalin's Secret Agents by M. Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein,
Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans, and
The Venona Secrets By Herbert Romerstein and Eric Breindel. The first one is the shortest and easiest read. The latter two are 500+ and 600+ paged tomes. They all are exceedingly well researched, indexed, and laden with notes and footnotes. The latter two having appendixes with copies of documents and the last with an extensive bibliography of sources. Scholarly and reputable works worth reading. Though I am slogging through the long ones and may skip parts in order to finish them.
What also was revealed was the improper security measures and inadequate vetting in hiring or appointing government employees--issues with which we are, arguably, dealing now with refugees, illegal immigrants, and with government employees and advisers (Huma Abedin, e.g.).
Of course, now it is no longer considered by the left a risk to employ those with Marxist leanings. And it would not be surprising if we have been infiltrated to some degree by those with Islamist leanings who have the ear of the administration, influencing it in favor of their agenda (deal with Iran, e.g.).
As you say, lots of Active Measures going on today. Hopefully, the measures don't turn out as horribly as those that shaped events and maps during WWII and its aftermath. Or, even worse for us as a country, a departure from a truly liberal and limited government and the embracing of an authoritarion one.