Venona and In Denial

Books by Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr

John Carey is the newly anointed president of the Bush-lied opposition. But now that the Iraqi Governing Council has approved a bill of rights and the most democratic constitution in the Arab world, informed, principled objections to the success of the Iraq war continue to evaporate, leaving only a sludge of unconscionable partisanship and its near alloy, anti-Americanism.

Two books, Venona, published in 1999, and its companion, In Denial published last year, by historians, John Haynes and Harvey Klehr, provide a definitive account of the early, cold war espionage offensive conducted by the Soviet Union against the U.S. and also answer two very timely questions, what is the genesis of our home-grown anti-Americanism? and how pervasive is it now ? The two books are must reading not only for students about to embark on a four-year indoctrination at one of the nation’s radicalized universities, but also for their concerned parents.

Venona reads as if it were two parts history and one part spy novel but is without any partisan jabs, even though the source documents provide such rich opportunities. For example, we find that the KGB often referred to Western organizations or persons who were Soviet aligned by using the same word that Howard Dean used to refer to his devoted voters, Progressives (Carey instead cautiously refers to his voters’ progressive values). The code name given to Julius Rosenburg by his Soviet handlers was Liberal. More »