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Stalin’s Secret Agents: The Subversion of Roosevelt’s Government
A Simon & Schuster eBook
304 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2012
31 people are currently reading
360 people want to read
About the author
M. Stanton Evans
24 books15 followersAmerican journalist, author and educator. As an undergraduate, Evans was an editor for the Yale Daily News. Upon graduation, Evans became assistant editor of The Freeman, where Chodorov was editor. The following year, he joined the staff of William F. Buckley's fledgling National Review (where he served as associate editor from 1960 to 1973)and became managing editor of Human Events, where he is currently a contributing editor. In 1959, Evans became head editorial writer of The Indianapolis News, rising to editor the following year. In 1971, Evans became a commentator for the CBS Television and Radio Networks, and in 1980 became a commentator for National Public Radio, the Voice of America, Radio America and WGMS-FM in Washington, D.C. In 1974, he became a nationally syndicated columnist for the Los Angeles Times syndicate. In 1977, Evans founded the National Journalism Center, where he served as director until 2002. In 1980, he became an adjunct professor of journalism at Troy University in Troy, Alabama, where he currently holds the Buchanan Chair of Journalism. In 1981-2002, he was publisher of Consumers' Research magazine. In 1971-1977, Evans served as chairman of the American Conservative Union (ACU). In 1974, Evans founded the Education and Research Institute, of which he is still chairman. He has also served as president of the Philadelphia Society, a member of the Council for National Policy and Young Americans for Freedom National Advisory Board, and a trustee of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute (ISI), and is a member of the Board of Advisers of the National Tax Limitation Committee.
Evans became a proponent of National Review co-editor Frank Meyer's "fusionism," a political philosophy reconciling the traditionalist and libertarian tendencies of the conservative movement.
Evans became a proponent of National Review co-editor Frank Meyer's "fusionism," a political philosophy reconciling the traditionalist and libertarian tendencies of the conservative movement.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews
February 17, 2014
Not to be too melodramatic, but I was literally stunned at some of the revelations in this book. At times, while reading this, I felt like Neo in "The Matrix" when he first gets wind that all is not as it seems.
One of the most disturbing revelations was how pitiful FDR's physical and mental health was during the critical negotiations at Yalta. He had no business being there, surrounded by Communist moles, deciding the fate of the free world. Stalin had to have been licking his chops like a wolf watching a lone sheep.
Another revelation was the extent to which the war with Japan was manipulated to favor Soviet interests. It's chilling to think of alternate outcomes and the huge number of Americans who might not have died had a soft peace in the Pacific been possible, or if the Japanese had turned north towards the USSR instead of south as they pursued empire.
Although not as shocking, the extent to which the China question was manipulated and China essentially being handed to the Communists was seriously disturbing. Especially considering how Chinese/US tensions keep mounting. Considering how we gave China to the communists, their leadership should have a monument to the likes of FDR, John Service and Joseph Stilwell right next to Mao.
One of the most disturbing revelations was how pitiful FDR's physical and mental health was during the critical negotiations at Yalta. He had no business being there, surrounded by Communist moles, deciding the fate of the free world. Stalin had to have been licking his chops like a wolf watching a lone sheep.
Another revelation was the extent to which the war with Japan was manipulated to favor Soviet interests. It's chilling to think of alternate outcomes and the huge number of Americans who might not have died had a soft peace in the Pacific been possible, or if the Japanese had turned north towards the USSR instead of south as they pursued empire.
Although not as shocking, the extent to which the China question was manipulated and China essentially being handed to the Communists was seriously disturbing. Especially considering how Chinese/US tensions keep mounting. Considering how we gave China to the communists, their leadership should have a monument to the likes of FDR, John Service and Joseph Stilwell right next to Mao.
October 4, 2013
Where does one begin? With all the concealed, forgotten, and intentionally dissimulated information regarding that era, modern historians could tell you Yalta was some fairy-dust miracle and we'd believe them.
The real truth is not for the timid. What took place during the FDR dictatorship is stunning!
Not only was FDR run by now-known Soviet assets, but he was almost completely incapacitated during Yalta and Quebec.
"Slack jawed and glassy eyed" is how his friends described him. Lapsing in and out of consciousness is how his presence at Yalta should be reported.
With no real Secretary of State, or anyone who would stand up to the Soviets, Stalin ran roughshod over the conference.
Hiss figures prominently as one who suddenly appears, drives US policy into the ditch, and goes on to destroy the State Department.
With all the communist infiltrators it's amazing that anyone was loyal to the US during those times.
The cost in blood and treasure world wide exceeds 100 million dead and a cold war lasting two generations.
And then how this all led to the Ameraisia scandals and the US handing all of China over to the murderous Mao.
That was serious. And FDR was trusting on his charisma?
This research adds to and includes Evan's original book, "Blacklisted by History".
Both books need to be taught in school. Both will largely never see the light of a government school.
Pity, things are looking a lot like yesterday.
The real truth is not for the timid. What took place during the FDR dictatorship is stunning!
Not only was FDR run by now-known Soviet assets, but he was almost completely incapacitated during Yalta and Quebec.
"Slack jawed and glassy eyed" is how his friends described him. Lapsing in and out of consciousness is how his presence at Yalta should be reported.
With no real Secretary of State, or anyone who would stand up to the Soviets, Stalin ran roughshod over the conference.
Hiss figures prominently as one who suddenly appears, drives US policy into the ditch, and goes on to destroy the State Department.
With all the communist infiltrators it's amazing that anyone was loyal to the US during those times.
The cost in blood and treasure world wide exceeds 100 million dead and a cold war lasting two generations.
And then how this all led to the Ameraisia scandals and the US handing all of China over to the murderous Mao.
That was serious. And FDR was trusting on his charisma?
This research adds to and includes Evan's original book, "Blacklisted by History".
Both books need to be taught in school. Both will largely never see the light of a government school.
Pity, things are looking a lot like yesterday.
October 12, 2022
Stalin's Secret Agents is a book about the subversion of the American Government in the period of the 1930s and all the way to the late 1940s by various agents of the Soviet Union.
There were several types of people that worked in the interest of the Soviet Union. First there were the straight up spies and Soviet agents, these were generally Americans that were hired by Soviet intelligence and worked directly for them (for example Alger Hiss). Then there were agents of influence, people that did not work directly for the Soviet Union but had Communist sympathies and as such worked towards their benefit. Finally, there were people which weren't Soviet agents and weren't even Communists but who believed that the interests of the USA and the USSR aligned or who unwittingly favoured the Soviet regime through their actions (or inactions).
The information for the book comes from two major sources: the most important one is the Venona project. Venona was a US counter-intelligence programme to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union to its US agents which ran from 1943 to 1980. The information in the Venona was declassified 1995 and that was when the public found out about a huge number of suspected or convicted Soviet agents in the US. The second major source is the testimonies of former US Communists like Whittaker Chambers. These people were either Communists or even Soviet spies that later became disillusioned with the USSR due to Stalin's regime. They then confessed all of their actions and uncovered all of the other US citizens that they worked with and who were undercover Soviet spies. There were huge public trials in the late 1940s and early 1950s that involved the revelations of these former Soviet agents.
The major problem was that at the time of these events the US and the USSR were allied in the struggle against Nazi Germany. As such, the US preferred to ignore some of the warnings or revelations about Soviet agents in order not to affect the relationship with the USSR. In fact many of the people that uncovered the Soviet agents were suppressed by the US government and the espionage swept under the rug. It was only after WW2 ended and it became clear the USSR would become a major enemy that the US started paying attention to the Soviet espionage but by this time it would be too late and the damage already done.
The main areas where the Soviet agents influenced the US policy include:
- Pushing Japan towards a war with the US. Some of the main diplomats and advisers that dealt with the US-Japan relation were Soviet agents and they made sure that the US kept a hardline with Japan and did not attempt to negotiate. The Soviet Union had a vested interest in a war breaking out between Japan and the US which would ensure that Japan would no longer threaten the Soviet Far East.
- The abandonment of Chiang Kai-Chek, the Chinese nationalist leader who had fought against the Japanese during World War II at a time when Soviet Russia and its Maoist allies in China had non-aggression pacts with Japan. Many of the American diplomats in China that influenced US policy were undercover Soviet agents (some of them even defected to Communist China after the war) and they determined the US government to stop helping Chiang and to favour the Yenan Communists.
- The abandonment of the anti-communist forces in Eastern Europe in countries like Poland, Yugoslavia or Romania. Soviet agents of influence in the American and British government worked ardently to support the Communist forces (for example the Lublin Poles) at the expense of the legitimate and democratic forces of those countries. For example, in Poland the US swept under the rug the Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets, abandoned the Polish resistance who fought against the Nazis and ignored the legitimate Polish government in exile to favour the new Soviet installed puppet regime.
- The transfer of huge amounts of US materiel as part of the Lend-Lease programme which ensured the survival of the Soviet regime. This materiel was later used by the Communist forces in China to defeat Chang's forces and win the civil war. At the same time the Soviets stole a large number American military secrets and technology and even sold some of the materiel to Japan who was at war with the US.
- The negotiations between the Allies and the USSR at Cairo, Teheran and Yalta were all heavily influenced by Soviet agents in the entourage of President Roosevelt. At this point unfortunately President Roosevelt was heavily incapacitated by illness and was unable to perform many of his duties. As such, his aides took care of many of the negotiations to the detriment of the US and the benefit of the USSR.
- The entrance of the USSR in the war against Japan a few days before the end of the war at a time when the US no longer needed help in defeating Japan. The Americans accepted the Soviet terms and handed over to them control of the Northern islands of Japan and Mongolia.
- The abandonment of large number of former Soviet citizens (this included people from all walks of life, ranging from Nazi collaborators all the way to defectors, refugees, prisoners of war, women and children) which were handed over to the Soviet Union to be imprisoned or executed.
- The treatment of defeated Germany. The US Treasury Department under the auspices of Morgenthau and the Soviet agent Harry Dexter White had a plan to turn Germany into an agrarian nation which would never be able to challenge the world order and that large amounts of Germans would be handed over to the USSR as slave labour. This plan was initially approved by the Roosevelt administration but was later cancelled by the Truman administration. Having a poor, underdeveloped Germany would have allowed the USSR to practically control all of Europe. This was not in the US interest and hence the Marshall plan was enacted to rebuild Europe and Germany in order to have a counter-balance to the USSR.
For anyone that comes from a former Communist country none of the history in this book comes at a great surprise. The Western democracies all but abandoned many of the countries in Europe and Asia at the end of the war and allowed the Communists to occupy them and take power. This could have easily been avoided, especially in China. But the infiltrated Soviet agents of influence made sure that the US favoured the Communist forces and worked against their countries' interests.
The major drawback of the book is that it is written by known conservative authors and sometimes their subjectivity can really be felt in the text. The authors definitely have a bone to pick with President Roosevelt and his administration. However, this does not make the facts in the book any less true.
As we now know the US government was heavily penetrated by Soviet influence agents and the damage they have done is hard to quantify. Many of the former Communist countries still pay the price today for the decades of stagnation and poverty. The US will probably pay a heavy price for its inaction and allowing the Soviet agents to influence its policy as China gradually displaces it as a world power.
There were several types of people that worked in the interest of the Soviet Union. First there were the straight up spies and Soviet agents, these were generally Americans that were hired by Soviet intelligence and worked directly for them (for example Alger Hiss). Then there were agents of influence, people that did not work directly for the Soviet Union but had Communist sympathies and as such worked towards their benefit. Finally, there were people which weren't Soviet agents and weren't even Communists but who believed that the interests of the USA and the USSR aligned or who unwittingly favoured the Soviet regime through their actions (or inactions).
The information for the book comes from two major sources: the most important one is the Venona project. Venona was a US counter-intelligence programme to decrypt messages transmitted by the intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union to its US agents which ran from 1943 to 1980. The information in the Venona was declassified 1995 and that was when the public found out about a huge number of suspected or convicted Soviet agents in the US. The second major source is the testimonies of former US Communists like Whittaker Chambers. These people were either Communists or even Soviet spies that later became disillusioned with the USSR due to Stalin's regime. They then confessed all of their actions and uncovered all of the other US citizens that they worked with and who were undercover Soviet spies. There were huge public trials in the late 1940s and early 1950s that involved the revelations of these former Soviet agents.
The major problem was that at the time of these events the US and the USSR were allied in the struggle against Nazi Germany. As such, the US preferred to ignore some of the warnings or revelations about Soviet agents in order not to affect the relationship with the USSR. In fact many of the people that uncovered the Soviet agents were suppressed by the US government and the espionage swept under the rug. It was only after WW2 ended and it became clear the USSR would become a major enemy that the US started paying attention to the Soviet espionage but by this time it would be too late and the damage already done.
The main areas where the Soviet agents influenced the US policy include:
- Pushing Japan towards a war with the US. Some of the main diplomats and advisers that dealt with the US-Japan relation were Soviet agents and they made sure that the US kept a hardline with Japan and did not attempt to negotiate. The Soviet Union had a vested interest in a war breaking out between Japan and the US which would ensure that Japan would no longer threaten the Soviet Far East.
- The abandonment of Chiang Kai-Chek, the Chinese nationalist leader who had fought against the Japanese during World War II at a time when Soviet Russia and its Maoist allies in China had non-aggression pacts with Japan. Many of the American diplomats in China that influenced US policy were undercover Soviet agents (some of them even defected to Communist China after the war) and they determined the US government to stop helping Chiang and to favour the Yenan Communists.
- The abandonment of the anti-communist forces in Eastern Europe in countries like Poland, Yugoslavia or Romania. Soviet agents of influence in the American and British government worked ardently to support the Communist forces (for example the Lublin Poles) at the expense of the legitimate and democratic forces of those countries. For example, in Poland the US swept under the rug the Katyn massacre perpetrated by the Soviets, abandoned the Polish resistance who fought against the Nazis and ignored the legitimate Polish government in exile to favour the new Soviet installed puppet regime.
- The transfer of huge amounts of US materiel as part of the Lend-Lease programme which ensured the survival of the Soviet regime. This materiel was later used by the Communist forces in China to defeat Chang's forces and win the civil war. At the same time the Soviets stole a large number American military secrets and technology and even sold some of the materiel to Japan who was at war with the US.
- The negotiations between the Allies and the USSR at Cairo, Teheran and Yalta were all heavily influenced by Soviet agents in the entourage of President Roosevelt. At this point unfortunately President Roosevelt was heavily incapacitated by illness and was unable to perform many of his duties. As such, his aides took care of many of the negotiations to the detriment of the US and the benefit of the USSR.
- The entrance of the USSR in the war against Japan a few days before the end of the war at a time when the US no longer needed help in defeating Japan. The Americans accepted the Soviet terms and handed over to them control of the Northern islands of Japan and Mongolia.
- The abandonment of large number of former Soviet citizens (this included people from all walks of life, ranging from Nazi collaborators all the way to defectors, refugees, prisoners of war, women and children) which were handed over to the Soviet Union to be imprisoned or executed.
- The treatment of defeated Germany. The US Treasury Department under the auspices of Morgenthau and the Soviet agent Harry Dexter White had a plan to turn Germany into an agrarian nation which would never be able to challenge the world order and that large amounts of Germans would be handed over to the USSR as slave labour. This plan was initially approved by the Roosevelt administration but was later cancelled by the Truman administration. Having a poor, underdeveloped Germany would have allowed the USSR to practically control all of Europe. This was not in the US interest and hence the Marshall plan was enacted to rebuild Europe and Germany in order to have a counter-balance to the USSR.
For anyone that comes from a former Communist country none of the history in this book comes at a great surprise. The Western democracies all but abandoned many of the countries in Europe and Asia at the end of the war and allowed the Communists to occupy them and take power. This could have easily been avoided, especially in China. But the infiltrated Soviet agents of influence made sure that the US favoured the Communist forces and worked against their countries' interests.
The major drawback of the book is that it is written by known conservative authors and sometimes their subjectivity can really be felt in the text. The authors definitely have a bone to pick with President Roosevelt and his administration. However, this does not make the facts in the book any less true.
As we now know the US government was heavily penetrated by Soviet influence agents and the damage they have done is hard to quantify. Many of the former Communist countries still pay the price today for the decades of stagnation and poverty. The US will probably pay a heavy price for its inaction and allowing the Soviet agents to influence its policy as China gradually displaces it as a world power.
July 11, 2013
It's incredible and mind-boggling to see how much information that has been confirmed to be true is still being ignored, denied, and suppressed. Soviet archives and FBI files contain evidence to support long-believed theories that Communists infiltrated US government agencies at the highest levels. And these individuals actually influenced top level Administration members, including the president, which led to major policy decisions!
October 18, 2014
Essential primer on Soviet subversion
This book, though brief, is an extremely enlightening overview of some of the key Soviet subversive and agents who so effectively advanced Soviet interests from within the U.S. government. it is a shameful and sad story that all Americans should know. what is shocking is how deeply embedded these agents were at the highest levels of government.
This book, though brief, is an extremely enlightening overview of some of the key Soviet subversive and agents who so effectively advanced Soviet interests from within the U.S. government. it is a shameful and sad story that all Americans should know. what is shocking is how deeply embedded these agents were at the highest levels of government.
March 7, 2015
Pedantic and ill conceived. Multitudes of unsupported accusations and unsubstantiated character assassination in the guise of academic historiography. One of the weakest efforts of ideological driven nonsense I have seen in a long time. This could have been a topic worth serious study but this effort surely does not meet that standard.
August 14, 2018
Until now, many sinister events that transpired in the clash of the world's superpowers at the close of World War II and the ensuing Cold War era have been ignored, distorted, and kept hidden from the public. Through a meticulous examination of primary sources and disclosure of formerly secret records, this riveting account of the widespread infiltration of the federal government by Stalin's "agents of influence" and the damage they inflicted will shock readers. Focusing on the wartime conferences of Teheran and Yalta, veteran journalist M. Stanton Evans and intelligence expert Herbert Romerstein, the former head of the U.S. Office to Counter Soviet Disinformation, draw upon years of research and a meticulous examination of primary sources to trace the vast deception that kept Stalin's henchmen on the federal payroll and sabotaged policy overseas in favor of the Soviet Union. While FDR's health and mental capacities weakened, aides such as Lauchlin Currie and Harry Hopkins exerted pro-Red influence on U.S. policy--leading to massive breaches of internal security and the betrayal of free-world interests. Along with revealing the extent to which the Soviet threat was obfuscated or denied, this in-depth analysis exposes the rigging of at least two grand juries and the subsequent multilayered cover-up to protect those who let the infiltration happen. Countless officials of the Roosevelt and Truman administrations turned a blind eye to the penetration problem. The documents and facts presented in this thoroughly researched expose indict in historical retrospect the people responsible for these corruptions of justice.
June 9, 2016
If only 1/4 of this book is accurate, then we as a people really need to re-evaluate the Presidency of FDR...and the possibility that all the troubling issues the country has experienced after WWII are in direct relation to his failed ability to handle the USSR and their infiltration into our country's working mechanisms. Maybe Joe McCarthy wasn't as far off the reservation as the Academics would have us believe...also, maybe now this explains why so many government officials seem to purposely do things that are so obviously in direct opposition to what would be beneficial to America as a whole.
August 25, 2015
If this book is accurate, then FDR was either incredibly naive, a fool or a closet commie! This book is a persuasive indictment of FDR's foreign policy and uncovers Soviet Russian influence at the highest levels of his administration.
December 12, 2015
The history we never knew. If the people of FDR's time knew how little he was aware of what was going around him there's no doubt he'd never have been re-elected to a second term, much less a fourth. It's a wonder we survived the cold war. Even harder to believe we won it.
October 12, 2013
Author's point of view leans heavily to the right. I felt as if Joseph McCarthy was resurrected and sat in front of his favorite scribes with a bottle of bourbon and ice.
June 3, 2018
Book #9: “Stalin’s Secret Agents” by the late M. Stanton Evans and Herbert Romerstein. (RIP.) I looked up to and even was briefly acquainted with Mr. Evans before his death in 2015. Stan was one of the foremost scholars of Soviet crimes and misdeeds.
This book confirms much of what I heard from Family or historians growing up. I knew Soviet apparatchiks were embedded in the US government, but underestimated its reach. In fact, the highest echelons of FDR’s administration were Soviet spies—as confirmed by the Venona papers and declassified documents from the CIA/FBI. Did you know our government, during the FDR years, played a chief role in toppling anti-communist leaders in Europe and Asia? A result of FDR admin’s machinations resulted in the installation of Tito in former Yugoslavia, Mao Zhedong in China, and the rape of Poland and the Baltic’s under the Hitler-Stalin Pact. This is an eye-opening book, and I hope you consider it.
This book confirms much of what I heard from Family or historians growing up. I knew Soviet apparatchiks were embedded in the US government, but underestimated its reach. In fact, the highest echelons of FDR’s administration were Soviet spies—as confirmed by the Venona papers and declassified documents from the CIA/FBI. Did you know our government, during the FDR years, played a chief role in toppling anti-communist leaders in Europe and Asia? A result of FDR admin’s machinations resulted in the installation of Tito in former Yugoslavia, Mao Zhedong in China, and the rape of Poland and the Baltic’s under the Hitler-Stalin Pact. This is an eye-opening book, and I hope you consider it.
December 21, 2016
If I could give this book 500 stars, I would. It explains so many unanswered questions I had about the twentieth century, even after being a history major as an undergraduate. Some questions are:
-Why didn't the US do more to support Chiang Kai-shek in China instead of Mao?
-Why didn't the US support the Whites in Russia during the Russian Civil War?
-Why was FDR's government so soft on Communism/Stalin/the Soviet Union?
The answers to these questions, and a lot more, are in this book. Seriously, it should be required reading for every English speaker in the Western world. It's an easy read and definitely something worth your time.
-Why didn't the US do more to support Chiang Kai-shek in China instead of Mao?
-Why didn't the US support the Whites in Russia during the Russian Civil War?
-Why was FDR's government so soft on Communism/Stalin/the Soviet Union?
The answers to these questions, and a lot more, are in this book. Seriously, it should be required reading for every English speaker in the Western world. It's an easy read and definitely something worth your time.
December 13, 2017
A discussion about subversive elements within the Rooseveldt administration. It is well accepted that Stalin had spies throughout the west, but it is also well accepted that this particular writer is among a group of historians who operate on the fringe. At places this account relies on unsupported conjecture to advance the author's account and circular reasoning to defend the account. Worth a read but with a mindful dose of skepticism.
May 29, 2019
A magnific presentation of the extraordinary penetration of US government by hundreds of spies of communist affiliation that decisively determined that the victor of World War II was indeed the Soviet Union.
October 16, 2023
Excellent and well-researched.
Eerily similar to Woodrow Wilson presidency and Biden’s today, media and democrats actively hiding the decline of a president. FDRs ego got in the way of protecting US and the World. And his compromised, unelected bureaucrats running the war and negotiations in Russias favor. Communism never sleeps. Mainly because America is asleep or sleep walking thru a dangerous world.
Too bad the FBI wasn’t the politicized organization it is now as they could have exposed all of this in a way that FDR and Truman would have made Nixon look like a Boy Scout.
Eerily similar to Woodrow Wilson presidency and Biden’s today, media and democrats actively hiding the decline of a president. FDRs ego got in the way of protecting US and the World. And his compromised, unelected bureaucrats running the war and negotiations in Russias favor. Communism never sleeps. Mainly because America is asleep or sleep walking thru a dangerous world.
Too bad the FBI wasn’t the politicized organization it is now as they could have exposed all of this in a way that FDR and Truman would have made Nixon look like a Boy Scout.
February 23, 2016
Doesn't quite evolve beyond its original form as a series of essays. Very cursory discussions, with frequent cross-references to other chapters where the topic is given equally short shrift. Not enough substance.
Read
October 27, 2013Well written accounts of FDR's incompetence and birth of the Cold war
June 9, 2017
Let's remember a time when there actually were Russian spies in the White House and the government successfully covered it up.
August 29, 2018
Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs - this makes the former but is completely lacking the later.
December 15, 2018
Historical Eye Opener
A scary Orwellian read that opens up the memory hole of historical narrative. Evans replaces the accepted narrative with facts that describe an episode in pre and post WWII history that was swept away by the good guys and the bad guys. How could this happen? Evans does a great job describing what happened but what leaves the ready perplexed is why it happened and to a large degree is still happening. For 100s of communists, and sympathizers of communism to ignore atrocities and influence US policy to communistic/socialistic ends needs an explanation. What makes this ideology so tempting for 100s of Americans to commit treason?
A scary Orwellian read that opens up the memory hole of historical narrative. Evans replaces the accepted narrative with facts that describe an episode in pre and post WWII history that was swept away by the good guys and the bad guys. How could this happen? Evans does a great job describing what happened but what leaves the ready perplexed is why it happened and to a large degree is still happening. For 100s of communists, and sympathizers of communism to ignore atrocities and influence US policy to communistic/socialistic ends needs an explanation. What makes this ideology so tempting for 100s of Americans to commit treason?
August 22, 2025
Utter trash. Couldn't even make it 10% in.
This book is not written by a historian, which should've been my first red flag. Also, the author's bio states he was an editor for National Review and is currently an editor for Human Events, a couple of right-wing rags. The writing reflects this supremely slanted opinion in even recounting the basic background, using very definite and concrete language—this is a classic sign of the author not being a historian.
This book is not written by a historian, which should've been my first red flag. Also, the author's bio states he was an editor for National Review and is currently an editor for Human Events, a couple of right-wing rags. The writing reflects this supremely slanted opinion in even recounting the basic background, using very definite and concrete language—this is a classic sign of the author not being a historian.
October 15, 2018
McCarthy, is it you pal?
April 20, 2020
A great introduction into this area of historical/political/espionage interest. This should be the first book someone who is curious about these issues should read. Readable, accurate, unsparing.
July 23, 2021
This book is the red pill.
March 3, 2023
Great information. Well sourced. You need to read this if you are student of the Cold War and/or U.S. history. It has opened me up to many other sources. Remarkable.
March 5, 2023
Grad school book - felt a lot like propaganda but interesting topic.
July 17, 2025
An account of Communist agents and sympathizers in Franklin Roosevelt’s administration. The book’s argument is that agents of influence were much more damaging than those who were engaged in espionage. The documents that wound up in a pumpkin patch were not as important as the manipulations and agenda pushing behind the scenes. If the reader is familiar with the investigations and controversies of the era, they won’t find anything new. For the reader who doesn’t have that background, this book will be eye opening.
April 10, 2014
This shows why "agents of influence" are more destructive than textbook spys. It is worth considering.
July 5, 2014
Utterly depressing.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 31 reviews