Stalin
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Jonathan Brent is a an anti-communist shill.
"...he editors of this book have cherry picked and interpreted Russian documents to allege 1) that the "Communist Party of the United States of America was a conspiracy financed by a hostile foreign power that recruited members for clandestine work, developed an elaborate underground apparatus and used that apparatus to collaborate with espionage services of that power"; and 2) that a number of individuals lied about their affiliation and connection with the CPUSA or their activities as intelligence agents.
The evidence, however, is not convincing, to say nothing of a court of law. The editors deny that they are making a case that every U.S. Communist was disloyal. But this rings hollow because they frequently engage in the tactic of guilt by association. They exaggerate the extent and depth of communist penetration into government and they maintain that Russia was a hostile country throughout the period 1932-45. But it hardly needs to be pointed out that there were no hostilities, but rather from 1941-45 a wartime alliance between Russia and the United States.
The conclusion that the CPUSA was a proxy of Russia fails to account for the pre-1918 socialist movement in the United States out of which the CPUSA was born. Indeed, virtually every member of the newly formed CPUSA had been a member of Eugene Debs's Socialist Party long before the Russian Revolution. More significantly, the CPUSA exists today in the absence of foreign funding and remains as influential as during the Cold War. Even if the argument concerning the dependence of the CPUSA on Russia is to be accepted, then it would only be consistent to scrutinize countless political organizations used throughout the world by the CIA to subvert the politics of countries around the world e.g. the Contras, Jonas Savimbi, General Pinochet, Ahmad Shah Massoud, and the many thousands of puppet NGOs. Such a lack of consistency on the part of the editors reduces their book to a mindless polemic.
This book is unsound because of its accusatory tone, the use of innuendo and the stretching of thin evidence. Hungarian-born communist J.Peters who was a key figure in the clandestine activities of the CPUSA and who played an important part in Whittaker Chambers' testimony against Hiss, has a peculiar biography for a man of his alleged importance to the Comintern. According to a secret report, the Comintern had no knowledge of the whereabouts of Peters from 1933-35, nor for the period 1941-47, that is during the most crucial period, if we are to believe the editors, for communist espionage in the U.S. Some agent! Some conspiracy!
On the issue of atomic spies, the real impact was made by Klaus Fuchs. The role of American communists was marginal. But to suggest that the development of Russia's nuclear program was owed mostly due to its intelligence service is dishonest. The British scientists who participated in the Manhattan Project returned to England in 1946. They knew more than Russian intelligence officers did. Yet England created its first atomic bomb only in 1952, while Igor Kurchatov did that in 1949.
Characteristic of the editors' tendency to exaggerate consequences is their conclusion that the Russian explosion of a "nuclear bomb" in 1949 meant that the US "now faced an enemy led by a ruthless dictator who could wipe out any American city with a single bomb." Of course, Russia had no way of delivering its bomb to "any American city" until well after Stalin's death. The editors do not even entertain the Russian perspective on the factors that necessitated the pursuit for the development of an atomic bomb. In August 1945, two atomic bombs with a power of about 20 kilotons were dropped on Japanese cities. The explosions caused enormous civilian casualties (more than 200,000 dead) and colossal destruction. The use of nuclear weapons was not prompted by any military necessity. The ruling circles of the United States were pursuing political goals of demonstrating their own force to terrify peace-loving peoples and to instill fear in Russia. In August 1949 Russia tested its own atomic devise, which led to the end of any possibility of atomic blackmail against Russia. That Russia was able to achieve nuclear parity allowed the world to avert a global nuclear catastrophe.
This book is not at all about history. It is part of a continued effort on the part of the most reactionary right-wing circles to win the history of the Cold War, at home as well as abroad. Similar to Christopher Andrews' "The Mitrokhin Archive", this book is meant to hold our attention on the communist enemy and to distract from more significant issues facing the world.
http://www.amazon.com/review/R3I21VYFFJO9U5/ref=cm_cr_pr_viewpnt#R3I21VYFFJO9U5
Avoid
Comrade Stalin
