Customer Reviews

The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--The Stalin Era (Modern Library Paperbacks)

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1 star:		(3)

 

 

My original review:

For reasons still unclear, President Franklin Roosevelt had a mental block about Communism. He just couldn't believe that the Soviet Union would spy on his administration. In the late thirties, his political enemies insisted on pointing out reasons to believe that the Soviets had in fact penetrated the govt. Thus began a long running political controversy.

By the seventies, this should have been settled. Weinstein's previous book, PERJURY, and Robert Lamphere's THE FBI/KGB WAR: A SPECIAL AGENT'S STORY had established beyond reasonable doubt that large numbers of USAmericans had been Soviet spies, particularly those exposed by ex-spies such as Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley.

If you are new to the story, THE HAUNTED WOOD is probably the best introduction to the tale of Soviet espionage in the Stalin era. If you're one of the ones with unreasonable doubts, it will crush your last pretenses, because the KGB let Weinstein and Vassiliev look at some of their files, confirming the identities of numerous agents. But if you're one of those who has previously looked into this subject, there won't be much new. Worth reading, but no bombshells.

Afterword, 2002:
I've come to appreciate this volume more with time. There is valuable information here that I didn't notice on my first reading. And, as I said before, it is the best introduction to the subject of espionage against the United States by the former Soviet Union (and I still LOVE typing 'former Soviet Union.' ...)

Authors Weinstein and Vassiliev were in the relatively unique position, in writing "The Haunted Wood", of having access to the Soviet as well as the American side of the story. They took advantage of a brief period of access to Soviet espionage achives after the breakup of the Soviet Union. What emerges is an exhaustive study of the penetration by Soviet spies of the U.S. government in the 1930's and 1940's.

The Soviets were materially aided in their espionage efforts by an admiration of Soviet communism shared by some Americans. This admiration looks badly misguided in retrospect, but apparently seemed very rational in the context of the 1929 Stock Market Crash and the subsequent Great Depression and rise of Fascism. This admiration produced a generation of American (and British) traitors who gave away information on American foreign policy, military and industrial secrets.

Some of the names are familiar: Alger Hiss and the Rosenbergs, among others. Less familiar may be the names and operating methods of their Soviet handlers, who worked not just against American counterintelligence but also against the increasing paranoia of the Soviet Government they served. Despite the continuing delivery of invaluable information, Josef Stalin repeatedly purged Soviet intelligence. The disruption caused by the purges almost certainly kept the Soviets from acquiring even more information than they did.

"The Haunted Wood" is written primarily for an audience already fascinated by the topic of espionage. The average reader may find long stretches of dry and sometimes repetitive reading. This book is highly recommended for those studying the history of espionage.

I bought this book with high expectations after reading Sam Tanenhaus' wonderful biography of Whittaker Chambers, expecting to get the full story on Soviet espionage in America in the 30s and 40s, since the latter book, of necessity, could not give the complete picture of Soviet espionage. I found The Haunted Wood, however, to be a mild disappointment. There is no narrative flow; it reads more like the notes for a book than a finished work. The authors do little more than describe the information revealed by the secret KGB archives to which they obtained access and by the U.S. government's declassified VENONA transcriptions. The almost exclusive reliance on the secret communications between Soviet spies and their superiors create a distortion, because, as one might expect, those communications are dominated by discussions of problems. The coded messages flew across the Atlantic when there were crises, not when things were going smoothly. There is also understandably little explicit discussion in the messages of the goods that were obtained by the spy rings. It is therefore easy to get the (very false) impression that the Soviets' espionage efforts were unsuccessful. Nevertheless, this book is worthwhile reading and one day should serve as the sturdy foundation on which a more comprehensive history of Soviet espionage and its consequences can be built.

A little dry, but an important book. It shows that there was a cold war long before the Cold War, a war of subversion declared by the Soviet Union. It also shows (as if anybody ever had any doubts) that the Communist Party USA was no more than an appendage of the Soviet government. American communists used to insist they were just 'liberals in a hurry'. Where were they going in such a hurry? Now we know.

What if we found out there was a Nazi underground operating throughout all sectors of American life between 1930-1960? There would surely be outrage. What if we found out that the deadliest and most oppressive philosophy in the world had entrenched itself in our culture and its institutions from the theatre, movies, and literature to the defense establishment, executive offices of the President, and even members of the United States Congress??? Allen Weinstein illustrates just that in The Haunted Wood. Thanks to the end of the Cold War and the lure of cash the files of the former KGB provide undeniable proof that "The Red Scare" was not based on superstition and paranoia, but the geniune defense of the United States from those who carried water for the Communist conspiracy. A conspiracy that collectively killed more people in this century than any other. Now the question must be asked. Where is the shaming and accountability for those who cast dispersions upon those who tried to root out the problem and questioned their motives. Would we do the same to those who had tried to expose shadow members of the American Bund Party? Communism is a dead and dark belief that feeds on the individual freedoms of the common man. Those who supported its expansion or cast a blind eye to its crimes all bear the stain of the blood from the millions who died at its altar.

This book should be required reading for the left wing sympathizers who still maintain the fiction of: a. Alger Hiss was innocent, b. Elia Kazan is a bad guy, c. The Rosenbergs were innocent, d.the Communist Party of the United States was not affiliated with the Kremlin, e. Whittaker Chambers and Elizabeth Bentley were lying. This history, illuminated by KGB files, uncovers the lies and deceit of the fellow travelers and communists who claimed their innocence. They committed treason and should be ashamed of it.

This is probably one of the landmark books of this century and will contribute enormously to the history of Soviet intelligence operations during the crucial years of the late 1930's, throughout the war and after. The KGB opened its files to American historian Weinstein (also author of the classic work on the Hiss/Chambers case, PERJURY, just recently out in a revised edition from Random House also) and his Russian counterpart as part of a sequence of studies of intelligence operations as seen in through the eyes of participants on both sides. THE HAUNTED WOOD answers many questions, including what was the real role of Alger Hiss and how effective KGB, GRU and other Soviet intelligence penetration was--and how ineffectively they used so much of this goldmine of information. This will be a definitive study--and a superb, engrossing read--for decades to come.

The Haunted Wood: Soviet Espionage in America--The Stalin Era (Modern Library Paperbacks)

For a short time in the 1990s writers from the West had access to KGB archives. These give a definitive picture of the range and depth of Russian espionage in the USA from the 1930s to the 1950s, and this account of information from these archives is fascinating and chilling. The American author knows the period and the people well, and his account passes no judgements on those involved; however, it shows something of the extent to which people with progressive ideas in the USA were able and willing to deceive themselves over the nature of Soviet society and to pass potentially damaging information to their country's potential enemies. Most of the British traitors of that period are well known (or so we suppose); those in the States are less publicly recognized. For instance, when I was in the USA in the late 1950's Agler Hiss was regarded by much of liberal opinion as a victim, but this book shows that his guilt can hardly now be doubted. I was shocked to discover how much of what seems to me to be treasonable activity lay behind the wickednesses of the McCarthy era. The book is a little disjointed; because it deals with groups of individuals chapter by chapter, there is a lot of cross-referencing and repeating, but I recommend it strongly.

When I was young, I believed in the innocence of Ethel and Julius. I believed that McCarthy was a monster. I remember from our black and white tv Have you no shame ?

Now it appears, I was wrong. Worse, my parents were wrong, their friends, and their class. If not entirely, at least in part or in degree. Its a good lesson, and maybe a sad one. And, given the season, it makes you wonder about Virginia and Santa Claus.

I have read many books on the issue of intelligence. The insight provided by this book is excellent. In particular, the nature and history of America's volunteer ideological spies is the very best I have ever read. But I have found it a hard read. It is possible to be too through. Honest, it is. I had an easier time with Mitrokhin.