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transnational melange” in the 1990s than it Indeed, a case can be made that class divi- was in the 1890s, when enormous sions are growing in the United States, European diasporas in America had their even as the historic disparities between own newspapers, neighborhoods, religious regions and races continue to narrow. “But institutions, and political machines. Apart what if such wide, rigid class distinctions from a pool of Spanish-speakers that would reemerge—with a deepening chasm quickly shrink without continual Latin between an enlarged underclass and a American immigration, there is no single globally oriented upper class—while the foreign-language bloc comparable to the dialogue between ruler and ruled becomes once-enormous German-speaking popula- increasingly ritualistic and superficial? tion of the United States. To judge from Will the form of democracy remain while today’s high rates of intermarriage across its substance decays?” The real danger fac- ethnic and racial lines, not only assimilation ing the United States may be not that it but amalgamation is occurring more rapid- will be split along regional lines into five ly than it did in the past. As Kaplan himself or six countries, but that it will fissure notes, “A third of all U.S.-born Latinos and along class lines into two nations. more than a quarter of all U.S.-born Asians Although weakened somewhat by mis- in the five-county greater Los Angeles leading analogies and apocalyptic pes- region intermarry with other races. Almost simism, Kaplan’s tour of his own country one out of ten blacks in greater Los Angeles is an impressive synthesis of observation intermarries, a percentage high enough to and analysis that confirms the author’s create significant changes in black racial standing as one of this country’s leading identity in years to come.” intellectual journalists. Whether or not An Empire Wilderness is, as advertised in aplan is much more persuasive the subtitle, “travels into America’s K when he writes about the secession future,” Robert Kaplan has provided a of elite neighborhoods within regions, “as rich and rewarding account of his travels wealthier Americans increasingly live their into America’s present. lives within protected communities, heavi- ly zoned suburbs, defended corporate > Michael Lind is the Washington editor of Harper’s enclaves, private malls, and health clubs.” Magazine. History THE HAUNTED WOOD: who maintained that Soviet aggression was Soviet Espionage in to blame. On the other were the revisionists America–The Stalin Era. who argued that the United States was the By Allen Weinstein and culprit: our hysterical fear of communism Alexander Vassiliev. Random House. turned the Soviet Union into an enemy and 402 pp. $30 provoked a witch-hunt of innocent Americans at home. VENONA: With the collapse of the Soviet empire Decoding Soviet and the opening of the archives, the revi- Espionage in America. sionist line, never very persuasive, has been By John Earl Haynes and given a fresh pasting. These two new books Harvey Klehr. Yale Univ. Press. go some way toward clearing up the question 487 pp. $30 of Soviet espionage in the United States. One of the peculiarities of the Cold War Both show that Stalin and company were was that the battle over its causes and conse- treating the United States as an enemy long quences began even as it was being waged. before the Cold War began. On the one side were the orthodox historians Weinstein is no stranger to Cold War con- 130 WQ Spring 1999 troversies: his earlier work, Perjury: The Hiss- The implications of these findings are not Chambers Case, enraged the American Left trivial. Had American spies not handed over by demonstrating that Alger Hiss was in fact atomic secrets, Haynes and Klehr argue, a Soviet agent. Vassiliev is a former KGB Stalin would not have been able to build the agent. Based on thousands of classified bomb so quickly and might have hesitated Soviet documents, their book suggests that before authorizing North Korea’s incursion New Deal Washington was riddled with into the South. What is more, the authors Americans spying for the Soviet Union. contend, President Harry S. Truman’s efforts Congressman Samuel Dickstein, Treasury to ferret out spies during the late 1940s were official Harry Dexter White, State no overreaction, but a necessary corrective Department official Laurence Duggan, to years of indulgence toward Soviet skull- FDR’s personal assistant Laurence duggery. Lauchlin—these are just a few of the drama- Neither of the books succeeds in plumbing tis personae who figure in Weinstein and the motivations of Moscow’s American spies. Vassiliev’s narrative. The American Left, Surely one reason for the readiness of foremost among its champions the Nation Americans to betray their country was the magazine, long maintained the innocence naive belief that the Soviet Union was the only of suspects such as Duggan. But by drawing power in the 1930s standing up to fascist on Soviet documents, the authors are able to Germany. Nevertheless, these two books shat- show definitively that Duggan and other ter the fable of communist innocence in spies delivered numerous secret government America. documents to their Soviet handlers, thereby —Jacob Heilbrunn giving Stalin a window into the workings of official Washington. While Weinstein and Vassiliev’s book is THE PRIDE OF HAVANA: solid fare, Haynes and Klehr’s is better. A History of Cuban Baseball. Haynes, a historian in the Manuscripts By Roberto González Echevarría. Division of the Library of Congress, and Oxford Univ. Press. 464 pp. $35 Klehr, a professor at Emory University, As a boy in the late 1940s and early ’50s, I Atlanta, offer a superbly detailed and schol- whiled away my time poring over sports mag- arly examination of Soviet espionage. The azines and baseball books, soaking up the authors focus on American decryptions of lore and memorizing names, dates, and sta- Soviet cables during World War II. These cables, only recently declassified, indicate that the Communist Party of America did not, as revisionist historians maintain, act independently of Moscow, focusing on social work. Instead, according to Haynes and Klehr, the Venona transcripts “expose beyond cavil the American Communist party as an auxiliary of the intelligence agen- cies of the Soviet Union.” Defenders of Hiss and other spies argue that the Soviet cables cannot be trusted. They say that the agents, trying to impress their bosses back home, embellished or downright invent- ed sources. Haynes and Klehr say this is bunk. They detail the intricate recruiting process and note that “a faked or exaggerated source would show up quickly and might entail severe consequences for the offending officer. In most cases Moscow expected the delivery of actual or filmed documents of reports written personally by the source.” Books 131.

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