American Betrayal: The Secret Assault on Our Nation’s Character Hardcover – May 28, 2013

This book has been unfairly savaged by the establishment foreign policy academia - the usual suspect who take advantage of a foreign-policy circlefest whereby each of the "insiders" favorably reviews your book because they know you will reciprocate by a favorable view of theirs. The only problem is that if you are not part of their circle, they attack - not by presenting a thoughtful reponse, but by taking a small part here and there, distorting it, and savaging the author. Diana West is not part of that circlefest. What she is, rather, is an extremely thorough researcher and writer who looks at the source material and asks questions the others are unwilling to ask. She is willing to let the facts lead to upsetting conclusions and presents them clearly and convincingly. One need not agree with all of her "what if" speculations to see that she definitely has a point worth discussing.
Since she is not part of that cabal, she does not have to parrot the safe conformist conclusions of the insiders club, she brings a refreshingly honest look at Communist subversion in the United States and the West. Her analysis asks the questions the others fear to ask.
So what are those questions? Basically, we know and almost everyone acknowledges that Communist agents had deeply penetrated the United States government and their influence was immense in the highest levels of the government. There was Alger Hiss in the State Department and a main architect of the United Nations; Harry Dexter White in Treasury who ran the 1944 Bretton Woods Conference and established the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; Laughlin Currie, executive assistant to President Roosevelt; John Stewart Service, who helped steer U.S. policy to a Communist victory in China; and dozens more in official positions both high and low. Everyone acknowledges this much. What has not been presented until now is an analysis of what the results of this Soviet penetration into the top levels of the U.S. government policy circles meant in the real world. Are we to believe that a subversive campaign this widespread and this successful had NO effect of U.S. policy and decision-making about WWII? Not likely!
It is one thing to say that Soviet espionage and subversion caused some government secrets to be leaked to the Soviet Union - but what were the probable results of this treason by high-level Americans on behalf of the USSR? This is where Diana West shines and why she has been vilified by the establishment (many of whom seem to be more concerned about continued access to Russia for research than with "speaking truth to power"). Diana West shows how decisions made against American interests at the highest levels of the U.S. government led to the death of tens of thousands of American servicemen - and to the death of hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans when the Soviets seized control of what became the Warsaw Pact nations. This subversion probably also extended WWII by over a year. These were some of the fruits of high level treason.
This book is essential to understanding how we got to where we are today and how a communist fifth-column stabbed the free world and the U.S. in the back. Did you know? That Harry Hopkins (FDR's closest advisor) shipped tons of nuclear material to the USSR - as well as essentially the entire contents of the U.S. Patent Office files? That top State Department officials ignored or rebuffed several attempts by top German generals to get rid of Hitler and start peace talks in 1943 and again in 1944? That the Allies sent over 2 million Russians who opposed both Nazism and Communism (and were willing to fight both) back to Russia and certain death after the war (known appropriately as "Operation Keelhaul")? That the United States sent combat aircraft to the USSR (FREE under lend-lease) while our own Pacific forces were screaming for more? Read this book!
One final comment: One of the reasons some have attacked Diana West was because of the very strong circumstantial case she presents that shows that President Roosevelt's alter ego and closest advisor, Harry Hopkins, was very likely a Soviet agent. This, of course, would taint the President even more and could lead to a much more thorough look at the questions she raises. Many consider the historical record on Harry Hopkins to be inconclusive as to whether he was a Soviet agent. I personally had come to the conclusion some time ago that he was a Soviet agent after reading scores of other sources. Make up your own mind - but read this book!

I am thinking of buying 20 copies to pass out to all my friends.

I ordered this book before it came out, because I had just read Whittaker Chamber's "Witness," plus books on the Venona papers and how Communists in the Roosevelt White House manipulated China and Eastern Europe into the Soviet orbit. But I did not read "Betrayal" until this week because commentators I respected excoriated it.

This is a shame. Reading it has been like finding a box of matches when you are lost in the woods on a moonless night. The question "How did we get here," -- from a country which began with the Constitution, a country unique in that the victors renounced power and gave it to the people, to one where no one speaks the plain truth for fear of offending someone -- is one I have been trying to answer for decades.

With enormous intelligence and courage, Ms. West strips plausible deniability from lies that are so fundamental to our view of the world that I had to set the book down every few graphs to let the ideas shudder through my brain. Example: she conclusively proves that the Soviets were the real winners of WW2,conquering Eastern Europe with Lend Lease tanks, and that the Soviets got the material for making an atomic bomb from us and that whistleblowers were ignored because the Roosevelt administration was not only influenced by but basically controlled by Russian agents.

Who will enjoy this book? Anyone who believes that understanding our history -- the ugly truth not the lovely myth -- is essential to making good decisions at the ballot box. Anyone who knows in their soul that right and wrong are important concepts, and that moral relativism Is tiresome sophistry not witty sophistication. Anyone who suspects that the Soviets manipulated us into defeating ourselves and that the Islamists are now doing the same thing. Anyone who believes the truth shall set you free.

Thank you, Diana West.

I first became aware of this book shortly after publication because of the flap that erupted within the conservative blogosphere. Consequently, my first exposure to American Betrayal was through the various "takedowns" and Ms. West's rebuttals thereto. Frankly, I think the eruption of criticism has done more to buttress the narrative and conclusions contained in American Betrayal than anything a proponent of Ms. West's contentions ever could.

Careful review of all the "takedowns" reveals little real factual dispute. You will be hard pressed to find anything more than a counterargument narrative along the lines of "You can't be serious!"

Well, she is serious, and with good reason.

Is she right? I don't know, and I can't devote the time and resources to independently research it to find out. That having been said, Ms. West makes a very convincing case that is well documented and which I have yet to see rebutted by any that have tried.

This is just my opinion, but I recommend buying The Rebuttal: Defending 'American Betrayal' from the Book-Burners and read that first because it effectively frames and debunks the counterargument. In doing so, you will find the facts presented in American Betrayal all the more compelling in what Ms. West's critics did not even attempt to dispute.