EARLY COLD WAR SPIES

Transcription

1 EARLY COLD WAR SPIES Communism was never a popular ideology in America, but the vehemence of American anticommunism varied from passive disdain in the 1920s to fervent hostility in the early years of the Cold War. Nothing so stimulated the white-hot anticommunism of the late 1940s and 1950s more than a series of spy trials that revealed that American Communists had cooperated with Soviet espionage against the United States and had assisted in stealing the technical secrets of the atomic bomb as well as penetrating the U.S. State Department, the Treasury Department, and the White House itself. This book reviews the major spy cases of the early Cold War (Hiss-Chambers, Rosenberg, Bentley, Gouzenko, Coplon, Amerasia, and others) and the often-frustrating clashes between the exacting rules of the American criminal justice system and the requirements of effective counterespionage. John Earl Haynes is a 20th-Century Political Historian in the Manuscript Division of the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota. He is the author or editor of four books: Calvin Coolidge and the Coolidge Era: Essays on the History of the 1920s (editor, 1998); Red Scare or Red Menace? American Communism and Anticommunism in the Cold War Era (1996); Communism and Anti-Communism in the United States: An Annotated Guide to Historical Writings (1987); and Dubious Alliance: The Making of Minnesota s DFL Party (1984). Harvey Klehr is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Politics and History at Emory University in Atlanta. He received his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He is the author of five books, Communist Cadre: The Social Background of the American Communist Party Elite (1978); The Heyday of American Communism: The Depression Decade (1984); Biographical Dictionary of the American Left (1986); Far Left of Center: The American Radical Left Today (1988); and The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism (1996). He was honored with the Emory Williams Distinguished Teaching Award from Emory College in Haynes and Klehr have jointly coauthored five books: In Denial: Historians, Communism and Espionage (2002); Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (1999); The Soviet World of American Communism (1998); The Secret World of American Communism (1995); and The American Communist Movement: Storming Heaven Itself (1992). In addition, their articles have appeared in scholarly journals including International Newsletter of Communist Studies, Film History, American Communist History, Journal of Cold War Studies, Labor History, Labour History Review, and Problems of Post-Communism, as well as in such journals of opinion as Commentary, the New Republic, New York Review of Books, Wall Street Journal, American Spectator, and the Weekly Standard.

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3 CAMBRIDGE ESSENTIAL HISTORIES Series Editor Donald Critchlow, Saint Louis University Cambridge Essential Histories is devoted to introducing critical events, periods, or individuals in history to students. Volumes in this series emphasize narrative as a means of familiarizing students with historical analysis. In this series leading scholars focus on topics in European, American, Asian, Latin American, Middle Eastern, African, and world history through thesis-driven, concise volumes designed for survey and upper-division undergraduate history courses. The books contain an introduction that acquaints readers with the historical event and reveals the book s thesis; narrative chapters that cover the chronology of the event or problem; and a concluding summary that provides the historical interpretation and analysis. Volumes also include a bibliographic essay.

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5 Early Cold War Spies The Espionage Trials That Shaped American Politics JOHN EARL HAYNES Washington, D.C. HARVEY KLEHR Emory University

6 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City Cambridge University Press 32 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY , USA Information on this title: / This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2006 Reprinted 2008, 2011 A catalog record for this publication is available from the British Library. Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Haynes, John Earl. Early Cold War spies : the espionage trials that shaped American politics / John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr. p. cm. (Cambridge essential histories) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN (hardback) ISBN (pbk.) 1. Spies Soviet Union History 20th century. 2. Espionage, Soviet History 20th century. 3. Trials (Espionage) United States History 20th century. 4. Communism Soviet Union History 20th century. 5. Anti-communist movements United States History 20th century. 6. United States Politics and government I. Klehr, Harvey. II. Title. III. Series. UB271.R9H dc ISBN Hardback ISBN Paperback Cambridge University Press has no responsibility for the persistence or accuracy of URLs for external or third-party Internet Web sites referred to in this publication and does not guarantee that any content on such Web sites is, or will remain, accurate or appropriate.

7 John Earl Haynes To my son Joshua Harvey Klehr To Mickey and Marilyn Steinberg, my father-in-law and mother-in-law, with love, admiration, and gratitude

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9 Contents Series Editor s Foreword page xi 1 Introduction: Early Cold War Spy Cases...1 Early Cold War Spy Trials 3 AWord about Trials and History 6 Spy Trials and McCarthyism 7 Politics of the Early Cold War 8 2 The Precursors...23 Amerasia: The First Cold War Spy Case 25 Gouzenko: A Canadian Spy Case with American Repercussions 48 3 Elizabeth Bentley: The Case of the Blond Spy Queen...60 The Silvermaster Group 66 The Perlo Group 67 The Trials of William Remington 73 Venona and Bentley s Vindication 82 The Bentley Case: A Conclusion 88 4 The Alger Hiss Whittaker Chambers Case...92 Whittaker Chambers 93 Alger Hiss 97 Dueling Testimony 99 The Slander Suit, the Baltimore Documents, and the Pumpkin Papers 103 The Grand Jury 107 The First Hiss Trial 120 ix

10 x Contents The Second Hiss Trial 124 Chambers after the Trial 130 Hiss after the Trial 132 The Historical Argument The Atomic Espionage Cases Klaus Fuchs: The Background 139 Theodore Hall: The Background 142 Rosenberg and Greenglass: The Background 143 J. Robert Oppenheimer and Communists at the Berkeley Radiation Laboratory 146 The Red Bomb and the Postwar Trials 151 J. Robert Oppenheimer after the Manhattan Project 177 The Trials of Rudolf Abel and Morris and Lona Cohen Judith Coplon: The Spy Who Got Away with It Coplon s Recruitment into Espionage 193 The Washington Trial 199 The New York Trial 204 On Appeal: Justice Frustrated The Soble-Soblen Case: Last of the Early Cold War Spy Trials Infiltrating the Trotskyist Movement 209 Mark Zborowski 212 Boris Morros: Double Agent 220 The Soble Ring Trials 222 The Robert Soblen Trial Conclusion: The Decline of the Ideological Spy Spy Trials and Understanding Soviet Espionage 232 Counterespionage and the American Criminal Justice System 234 The Elusive Balance between Security and Liberty 236 Index 243

11 Series Editor s Foreword In the late 1940s, the shock waves that followed the sensational news of Communist spy rings operating deep inside the government in Washington, D.C., affected American politics, culture, and society for the next decade. The first reverberations of spy activities began in the summer of 1945 when six people, including a high-ranking State Department official, were arrested for passing classified government documents to the left-leaning journal, Amerasia, edited by Philip Jaffe, a friend of Communist Party chieftain Earl Browder. Shortly afterward, the American public learned of other spy operations through the revelations of Elizabeth Bentley, a former Communist and courier for a Soviet spy network; Igor Gouzenko, an intelligence officer working in the Soviet embassy in Canada; and Whittaker Chambers, a former underground Communist agent in the 1930s. These reports revealed the existence of an atomic spy ring headed by Julius and Ethel Rosenberg; two spy rings operating in Washington, D.C., that implicated high officials in the Roosevelt administration, including White House aide Lauchlin Currie, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury Harry Dexter White, and Alger Hiss, a former State Department official in the Roosevelt and Truman administrations. Other cases followed. Fears of widespread Communist infiltration into American institutions intensified as U.S. relations with the Soviet Union deteriorated, China fell to the Communists in 1949, and the Korean War began in Republicans used the spy cases to attack Roosevelt s New Deal government and its successor, the Truman administration, for having ignored the insidious nature of Soviet communism. The Truman administration responded by pursuing policies to root out disloyal employees in government. At the same time, liberal anti-communists, through groups such as the Americans for Democratic Action (ADA), joined efforts to regain control of unions, political organizations, and student groups in which Communists xi

12 xii Series Editor s Foreword had gained control. In Hollywood, studio executives blacklisted Communist screenwriters and actors who refused to swear loyalty oaths to the United States. The issue of Soviet espionage raised important issues for a democratic system founded on the rule of law and the protection of civil liberties. The legal cases of American citizens accused of Soviet espionage revealed the precarious balance between protecting national security and preserving individual civil liberties. Government officials seeking legal prosecution of those accused of Soviet espionage found that their cases were often made difficult because their evidence of guilt was based on classified intelligence that, if revealed, would be of use to Soviet spies. As a result, catching one spy meant providing active Soviet espionage agents with detailed information about American intelligence operations. In some cases, federal officials decided it was not worth it. As a consequence, a number of American agents working for the Soviet Union went scot-free. tell a dramatic story that readers will find hard to tear themselves away from. The authors present a complex story in a coherent and engaging manner. Readers interested in Soviet espionage will appreciate the authors clear organization, readability, and judicious approach. In telling the history of Soviet espionage and the legal cases that followed, Haynes and Klehr raise profound questions for American democracy, foremost among them, Can a balance be struck between the security interests of a nation and the rights of citizens enjoying the liberties of a democratic nation? Such questions are not easily resolved, but they remain fundamental to a democracy such as ours. Donald T. Critchlow General Editor Cambridge Essential Histories