lomerstein/Brehdel Revelations in The Venona Secrets Soviet Penetration ofthe U.S. Gets Fresh Look iY Allan H. Ryskind

HerbRomerslein comes by his expertise While was also a notorious Soviet spy. of his role in ihesuccess of Operation Snow n Soviet communism first-hand. Bom in In the pre-war years, he furnished secret few York City, he joined the Communist in which White had played such a critical Treasury information and documents to jrty at the tender age of 15. left two years part. , who turned them over iter, and then dedicated hislife toexposing Could war have been avoided? Most his to Soviet military intelligence. Famed torians say no, but a softer Hull message lisstunningcriminalconspiracy thatnear- Soviet courier Elizabeth Bentley informed conquered the world. the FBIin 1945 that White passed informa He probed Communist summer camps tion to the Soviets through Nathan Gregory trchildrenfor the New York State legisla- Silvermaster, the leader of another notorious ire in the 1950s, became an investigator for spy ring that included White House adviser e House Committee on Un-American Ac Lauchlin Currie. Venona intercepts reveal uities in the 1960s, and served as minority that White continued to feed the Soviets lief" (HCUA) investigatorfor its successor, intelligence throughout World WarQ. e House Committee on Internal Security, But White's espionage activities may 1the early to mid-'70s, have paled in comparison to his success in Romerslein joined the House Committee shaping U.S. policy. Vitaliy Pavlov, an 1 Intelligence as a professional staffer in NKVD (later KGB) official, was picked by his superiors in Moscow topersuade White to participate in Operation Snow, which involved Soviet efforts to worsen U.S. Japanese [felalions. The purpose: toencour age Japan's war party to view the , notRussia, as itsmain enemy. Pavlov phoned White in Washington in and they launched a disinformation cam May1941, made a dateforlunch andthen, at paign to discredit both him and his work, the restaurant, handed White an outline of Harry Dexter White including the forging ofa phony letter bear themes that he wanted White to promote ingRomerstein's legitimate signature*. among key U.S. policymakers. Among them Thus it is hardly surprising that, along was a demand, to bewrapped in lough riieto- might havedelayedanyattack,whichwould with New YorkPost executive and editorial ric, that Japan recall its armed forces from have given the U.S. more time to prepare. page editor —who tragically China. White Ihen sent this proposed diplo Gen. George Marshall, army chief of staff died at age42 in the midst of theproject— maticdemand, abrasive language and all, to prior lo Pearl Harbor, was tncUncd lo this Romerstein has produced a superb book on Treasury Secretary Henry Moigenlhau, Jr. position. Soviet espionageand policysubversion.The Venona Secrets, published by Regnery Publishers, Inc.,a sistercompany of Human Harry Hopkins Events. (To order directly from Regnery Nowhere was Soviet success more evident than in their recruiting of call at 1-888-219-4747.) Harry Dexter White. White became a major figure in the Treasury Using the Venona documents—nearly 78 (overseeing the CIA and FBI, while 3,000U.S. decrypted cablesbetween Soviet Department and was Instrumental In the founding of the International •dying KGB activities against the West) spies inAmerica and their Moscow superi IWonetary Fund and the World Bank. White was also a notorious Soviet I,during theReagan years, headed upthe ors—and other Russian archival evidence, spy. He furnished secret Treasury Information and documents to lA's (United States Information Romerstein sheds new light on the massive Whittaker Chambers, who turned them over to Soviet military intelli ency's) critical Office to Counter Soviet Soviet penetration of our most sensitive gence. Famed Soviet courier Elizabeth Bentley informed the FBI in 1945 ^information. In this post, he embar- government agencies. sed Moscow so extensively with his During the '30s and '40s, U.S.' Com that White passed information to the Soviets through Nathan Gregory >oses of fraudulent Soviet calumnies munists, under direct Soviet control, Silvermaster, the leader of another notorious spy ring that included White linst the West that the Soviets finally felt swarmed intotheTreasury andState Depart House adviser Lauchlin Currle. But White's espionage activities may celled to curb some of their most oulra- ments. the Office of Strategic Services have paled In comparison to his success in shaping U.S. policy. >us charges. (forerunner to the CIA) and even the upper What'smore,Sovietofficials tipped their reaches of the White House itself. They s to Romerslein in significant ways; looted our atomic energy secrets, enabling cy frequently expressed admiration for the Soviets to develop the atomic bomb far Morgenthau didn't act on While's memo detailed knowledge of Soviet history. "What is certain," Romerstein notes, "is earlier than experts believed possible, and at the lime, bui the issue of how lo confront thai Operation Snow was beingcarriedout they learned how to turn U.S. policy toward Japanese aggression resurfaced immediately with Soviet, not American interests, in Soviet ends. * In Aiigusl /9S6, ihe Washing/on Posi received a prior to Pearl Harbor, as many in the U.S. mind." iifa "Uller" iillejjeilly Seiil li> a Rtpiiblwmi stnulor. Nowhere was Soviet success more evi government began frantically searching for ingRiunersiein !v tignoiure anddeitiilinf; a su/iposed dentthan in their recruiting of Hairy Dexter Another of White's major contributions ways lo avoid hostilities in the Pacific, at to the Soviet effort, writes Romerslein. "was t pint tu spreailfalse infonnoUon about ihe terrible White. Holding a Harvard Ph.D. in eco nkibylilisasierintheSoviet Union. ViePosirepon- least unlil ihe United Slates was belter pre his role in the Morgenthau Planfor postwar nomics, While becamea majorfigure in the lunilu lener was a fake and Ronyirsiein provedthe pared militarily. Germany." The Venona decryptions dis IIfllcrluadaiulthesignature block tvere liftedfrom Treasury Department, especially during White, however, had dilTerenl ideas. He close thai a high-level NKVD official, •mineteller he luulpreviously writtenin I9S5 to U. World War 11 and the immediate posi-war RobertSchweitzer concerning yet another Soviet rewrote his hard-edged memo to Morgen whose code name was "Koltsov," had a period. And he was instrumented in the try. thisone niih Schweituras the victim. Aftera thau, which was then largely incorporated lengthy meeting in the United States in 1944 •ressioiuil hearing on how the Soviets framed founding of two existing major economic into Secretary of State Cordell Hull's with White in which thesubject of Germany yeitzer. Romerstein furnished a copy of his letter institutions, the International Monetary famous ultimatum to theJapanese on Nov. came up. White also informed Koltsov he •essed toSchweitzeranalyzing Soviet skulduggery to Fund and the World Bank. :e(h Embassy press attach^, who later admitted he 26. 1941. That message, many historians was "ready for any self-sacrifice" in his a copyto Moscow. TheSovietsundoubtedly used believe, goaded the war party inTokyo into work for Moscow. Whiledidn't disappoint. USIA letterhead and the Romerstein signature to Mr Ryskind is editor at large of HlfMAN striking early in December at the U.S. fleet iifiicture theforgery on Chernobyl. EvEim. at Pearl Harbor. Years later, Pavlov boasted Continued on page 20

The WeekOF January 29, 2001 • HlWLW EvE.VTS has derided the book (but not reviewed it), insisting that Breindel would never have Joviet Penetration of the U.S. Continuedfrom page 9 subscribed to Romerstein's conclusion that Oppenheimer was "a conscious collaborator with the Soviet secret police," that Harry Hopkins was a "Soviet agent" and that 1. F. Stone "in the end agreed to work for the Encouraged by White's harsh ideas for a elections, and so on, ad nauseam. regularly with Akhmerov, a high-powered NKVD." •stwar Gennany, Morgenthau told British In the early 1960s, Oleg Gordievsky, a illegal operative whose activities the Soviets ficials at the 1944 Qucbec Conference KGB officer who aided British intelligence zealously sought to conceal. tween FDR and Churchill that Gennany for ten years before his defection, attended a More evidence abounds. A Venona doc Duld be divided into smaller provinces, lecture by Iskhak Akhmerov, who headed a ument signed by Akhmerov reveals that industrialized and converted into small, super-sensitive "illegal" Soviet intelligence Soviet agent "19" reported directly to ricultural landhoiclings. The Morgenthau operation in the United States. Tlie Soviets Akhmerov on discussions he was privy to in paralleled Stalin's own thinking on a distinguished between "legal" and "illegal" between Churchill and Roosevelt. Eduard stwar German economy. intelligence operations. Illegal intelligence Mark,a military historian, after thoroughly Though initially supportive, both leaders officers such as Akhmerov had false identi scrutinizing the Venona files and U.S. cntually rejected the plan. But a leak to ties, worked with only the most secret archives, concludes Uiat agent "19" could ; press on Sept. 23. 1944, "apparently Soviet agents and took pains to conceal the have beenonly one man—Hopkins. The Venona Secrets is chock-full ofother fascinating information, both critical and trivial, about the Soviet Union, American Romerstein's more controversial charge is that Harry Hopkins, FDR's Communists andSoviet espionage. ost trusted adviser,was also a Sovietspy. Romerstein details Hopkins' Romerstein presents highly persuasive o-Soviet activities, including his efforts to get the Soviets materials for evidence that J. Robert Oppenheimer, the director of the LosAlamos project thatpro anufacturing an atomic bomb, his hiring of a Communist as general duced the atomic bomb, was also a Soviet >unsel to the Federal Employment Relief Administration, his stunning spy; thattheVenona messages plusinforma forts—In line with Stalin's desires—to torpedo assistance to the Polish tion from former KGB general Oleg iderground Home Army as it rose to resist the Nazi occupation, and his Kalugin show that journalist I. F. Stone, an Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer icon of the American left, was on the take idermlning of the demands by anti-Communist Poles for free elections. from Moscow (though he refused further payments after the Soviet invasion of The charge is blatantly false, as New Czechoslovakia in 1968), and that Venona York Post columnist Eric Fettman. who nails atomic spy Julius Rosenberg. as, in worked extensively with colleague Breindel •tn the Treasury Department," notes fact that they were even Soviets from those Romerstein's words, "a direct link between on the manuscript, has informed the New merstein, "suggested that the Morgen- who might know them in their cover roles. Soviet intelligence andtheleadership of the Republic. "I can say without a doubt," u Plan was official policy." The resulting Akhmerov mentioned his contact with American Communist Party." Fetlman has written NR. "that Breindel sub •storm hugely endangered U.S. war aims. , but Gordievsky said he Romerstein demonstrates that our chief scribed to the information and theories in As Secretary of State James Byrnes later dej:cribed Hopkinsas "the most importantof wartime intelligence agency, the Office of tliis book." ailed, the leak was used by Nazi propa- all Soviet wartime agents in the United Strategic Services, wascrawlingwiihSoviet The largertruth is thatliberals—nVt just idists "to inspire the Germans to fight States." Gordievsky discussed Akhmerov's ler than to sunender" The Soviets, revelations with both British and U.S. intel >ugh undoubtedly disappointed that the ligence officials (as well as with Romerstein n was never implemented, took advan- e of the fiiror to try to persuade the Romerstein presents highly persuasive evidence that J. Robert rmans to surrender to them rather than the Oppenheimer, the director of the Los Alamos project that produced the 'posedly vengeful-minded Americans. atomic bomb, was also a Soviet spy; that the Venona messages plus White was identified by Chambers as a Information from former KGB general Oleg Kalugin, show thatjournalist .•iet spy before HCUA in ISWS, but he orously denied the .charge and died of a I.F. Stone, an Icon of the American left, was on the take from Moscow and rt attack shortly thereafter. But the that Venona nails atomic spy Julius Rosenberg as, in Romerstein's lona intercepts are filled with messages fib ifj words, "a direct link between Soviet intelligence andthe leadership ofthe wing White's crucial role in aiding American Communist Party." iet espionage operations and attempting nanipulate U.S. policy. They also reveal : he had a number of NKVD "handlers." Lhe was used to place other agents in emment and that he steadily informed spies, and that Lauchlin Currie, one of the far left—appear afraid to confront the Moscow superiors of internal discus- FDR's most trusted advisers, served Soviet Romerstein/Breindel revelations in an hon is on how the United Stales hoped to intelligence operations while based in the est way. By any objective criteria. Romer ,1 with Russia. Hence, he proved to be a White House and deliberately sabotaged stein is one of the worid's foremost experts •or Moscow success story. U.S. interests. So easilyhad Moscow pene on Soviet communism and the American Romerstein's more controversial charge is trated the U.S. government, the Soviets actu Communist Party, recognized as such by Harry Hopkins. FDR's most trusted Lauchlin Currie ally developed a bizarre but unsuccessful Soviet and ex-Soviet officials and such iser, was also a Soviet spy. Romerstein plan to recruit FDR's wife—woolly headed American authorities on communism as lils Hopkins' pro-Soviet activities, includ- when it came to the subject of commu John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, authors his effortito get the Soviets materials for nism—as a Soviet agent. Romerstein also of the famed Yale University book series lufacturing an atomic bomb, his hiring of himself), but British historian Christopher recounts how the Truman Administration, to dealing with Soviet espionage. ^ommunist as general counsel to the Andrew toned down this charge and accused avoid political embarrassment, covered up The record of the enormous Soviet infil -eral Employment Relief Administration Hopkins of just being "an unconscious ... this massive penetration. tration of the U.S. government has been evi i;r the Works Progress Administration), agent." Romerstein's book has not been dent for many years. What also seems clear stunning efforts—in line with Stalin's Romerstein dismisses the word "uncon reviewed by the major liberal media, includ is that far too many members of the liberal ires—to torpedo assistance to the Polish scious" as an absurd notion, and stresses that ing theNewYorkTimes andtheWashington community still cannot bring themselves to erground Home Army as it rose to resist even such an exalted American figure as Post. , a liberal anti- admit that so many of their heroes were Nazi occupation, his undermining of the Hopkins—unless he was a Soviet agent him Communist magazine thatusedto ftrequent- Soviet collaborators. Romerstein and lands by anti-Communist Poles for free self—would not have been allowed to meet ly run the writings of co-author Breindel. Breindelset the record straight. •

lIUMAiV Evkxts • The Week OF January 29, 2001 BOOKBEViEWr Spies in tlie Stalinist Era

s=S'=:;s;=zTz?z=sszs.h,, Tfc- n m , ,. by Thomas R. Eddlem Romerstein and Eric Breindel's book. The are brought to bear in the book, and the Venona Secrets. Both authors are well- The Venona Secrets: Exposing Soviet qualified for the work of commenting on Venona materials are compared and con Espionage and America's Traitors, by Venona. Breindel, who died in 1998,'had trasted with the public statements of ac and Eric Breindel, served as a staffmember of the U.S. Sen cused spies, conclusions ofcongressional Washington; , Inc., investigations, and the memoirs ofKGB ate Intelligence Committee. More impres agents. The result is a complete exposure 2000,608 pages, hardcover. $29.95. Avail sive areRomerstein's credentials. able from American Opinion Book of the article of faith among apologists Services, RO. Box 8040, Appleton, ofthe Left that Communist Party mem WI54912 (add $7.50 for shipping and J bers were loyal citizens merely engaged handling); by phone at 920-749-3783; I in dissent and only bent on reform of'the or online at www.aobs-store.com. I American system." "Venona proves the The U.S. Army Signal Intelligence 1 opposite," Romerstein notes, concluding. Agency, predecessor of today's Na- | Communists did not represent just an tional Security Agency, broke the Sovi- I other political party. Their loyalty was to et diplomatic code in the years between | a foreign power, the Soviet Union, and 1943 and 1947. It then began the labo- | their goal was nothing less than the sub rious task of decoding Soviet secret po- 1 version and destruction of American lice reports which had been sent through | democracy." diplomatic channels over commercial i telegraph. The secret code-breaking proj- I 9 Traitors in Our Midst ect was given the code name "Venona." | Q Some ofthe people covered in the book In 1948, the British foreign intelli- | are already known to have been traitors gence agency, MI6, wasgiven access to I M spies. Venona only further confirms the Venona project. Later that same year, \ men like Alger Hiss, Harry Dexter the Soviets changed their diplomatic j gj White, and the Rosenbergs were work- code and the river ofnew intelligence in- ^ H ing for the Soviets. The book is there- formation dried up. The Americans had j • fore areview of sorts for those already unknowingly been betrayed to the Sovi- i • familiar with this history. But the book ets by the English MI6 liaison, Kim Phil- j also provides several new revelations. by, and a little-known American traitor Venona has shown conclusively named William W. Weisband. Philby was I that the highest-level American gov exposed as a Soviet spy in 1953, and fled ernment official working for Soviet to the Soviet Union, where helived outthe Since the end ofthe Korean War, intelligence was Harry Hopkins," the book Romerstein has investigated Communist reports. Hopkins, who was perhaps the rest of his life as a Stalinist hero. summer camps for the state of New York, Despite the treachery ofPhilby and Weis been an investigator for congressional most important member of Franklin Roo band, a mountain ofraw diplomatic code sevelt's New Deal Brain Trust, had long had been recorded, beginning as early as committees such as the House Committee been criticized for faithfully helping the on Un-American Activities, the House In Soviet Union in his capacity as an advisor 1940. Work to identify the real names of ternal Security Committee, and the House the code-named spies described in the to President Roosevelt, but few knew he Intelligence Committee, and has served recorded diplomatic dispatches continued was working with Soviet intelligence as an for several decades after new information iwith the anti-Soviet propaganda depart agent ofinfluence until the Venona papers ment of the United States Information were released. Also exposed by Venona is stopped arriving. Today, much of the Agency. Retired but still working as afree Venona material is publicly available on ] atomic scientist J.Robert Oppenheimer It lance journalist and researcher, Romerstein has long been known that Oppenheimer the NSA's website, having been declassi- 1had personally inspected the declassified fied in 1995. j sympathized with the Soviet Union, even The extent of Soviet penetration of ssections of the archives of the KGB and the though proof that he was working for Stalin secret police agencies of Czechoslovakia seemedelusive. Thescientist hadbeen in America, as exposed by the Venona pro- aand East Germany in 1992 and 1993. gram, makes up the basis of Herbert directly connected to Soviet intelligence All of this experience and knowledge through his brother Frank, who has lon^^ THE NEW AMERICAN • FEBRUARY 26. 2001 BOOKREVIEW

the KGB. He had intimate term "Hindu" also implies an ethnic The Venona Secrete generally limits ifslK s 'l knowledge of how the se group.) Stalin persecuted and purged Jews analysis to Soviet Intelligence operations curity organs of the Com on an ethnic basis — even if they were munist state worked and atheists andloyal Communists — as a de from the 1930s tlirough the 1950s: within had obviously made count fense against Trotsky. Though never Jew this scope the book stands asvaluable . ,; less contacts throughout ish in a religious sense, Trotsky was bom these agencies; a counter- Lev Davidovich Bronstein and had ethni historical documentatlon/But the i-e^^is li coup in favor ofTrotsky re cally been brought upasa Jew. Stalinfore left with the impression that everything WfHi mained possible long after saw the possibility ofTrotsky parlaying his his exile. old Bolshevik contacts and ethnic solidar right with the world today. The book woblcnNl As for Stalin's anti-Semi- ity with ethnic Jew Communists inthe Bol be more relevant to the present day without V; tism, theSovietdictatorhad shevik regime into acounter-coup. The re been a vigorous anti-Sem such a rosy view of the post-Cold War world W sult was the anti-Semitic purges, a classic ite since before the Bolshe paranoid Stalinist over-reaction tothereal vik revolution, but his re- —but improbable —Trotskyite threat. newed anti-Semitism and been known to be a Soviet agent. Bui the purges after Trotsky's exilecan be attrib Venona documents combined with evidence uted —at least in part —to Trotsky. Stalin Post-Communist Implications from retired KGB agents proved that Op- 77ie Venona Secrets is generally limited in penheimer was a Soviet spy. Romerstein its analysis to Soviet intelligence opera and Breindel note that "it had been con tions from the 1930s through the 1950s; sidered bad manners even to suggest that within this scope the book stands as valu the sensitive Oppenheimer could possibly be able historical documentation. But the so crude as to be a conscious collaborator reader is left with the distinct impression with the Soviet secret police. Bui he was." that everything is right with the world to day because the United States "won" the Trotskyand Anti-Semitism cold war. Despite theenormous success the Apartfrom examining the evidence ofSo KGB had in penetrating our government, viet espionage against the United States, Romerstein and Breindel assure the read The Venona Secrets delves into other mat er that "in the long run, democracy won." ters as well. The authors often marvel, for This is the greatest problem with thebook. instance, about Stalin's concerted efforts It is true that the old Soviet-bloc states to destroy both Jews and Trotskyites. But no longer deploy Communist dogma as an Romerstein and Breindel may have failed ideological cover to justify dictatorship. It to connect the dots in the relationship be is also true that much of the open terror tween Trotsky himself and Stalin's anti- that took place under the old USSR has Semitic purges. been put into the background. Butthe fact The book observes that Stalin's "inten remains that revolutionaries have learned sive spying [on Trotskyites] seems exces toemploy "democracy" and"economic re siveconsidering howsmall andineffective form" astheir new ideological covers. The the movement was." That the authors Top-level treason: Harry Hopkins served as a old Bolsheviks and KGB spymasters did would focus on the numbers in the Trot- top advisor to President Franklin Roosevelt. The notjust fade away; they became the new skyite movement is disappointing, since authors of The Venona Secrets point out that topcapitalists by controlling the means of only afew disciplined and well-placed rev Venona has proven conclusively that Hopkins quasi-privatization. State controls remain was "the highest-level American government throughout much of the old Soviet bloc, olutionaries are needed tooverthrow a dic official working for Soviet intelligence." tatorship (as was demonstrated in St. Pe though on a less obvious and less openly tersburg in 1917). Indeed, the book admits tyrannical scale. Much of the terror is attacked the religion ofJudaism justas he chalked up tothe criminal syndicates, such that some Trotskyites, including Trotsky had attacked Catholicism, Russian Ortho himself, "possessed important information as the Russian Mafia, which is mainly run doxy, and Islam. All of these religions by old KGB cadres. The tactics have about Soviet activities and even about in teach that there is a higher authority than telligence operations." Trotsky had been changed, butthe warbetween freedom and the Soviet Slate in the form ofa personal tyranny continues today as itdid during the head ofthe Soviet army until 1925, and re God. Each therefore constituted a threatto mained in the Soviet Union until he was Cold War. Romerstein and Breindel seem Stalin's dictatorship. Bui Stalin also per to be oblivious to this continued silent forced into exile by Stalin in 1929. As head :secuted Jews on an ethnic basis. Judaism of the Soviet army, Trotsky commanded isi different from the above listed religions struggle. The Venona Secrets would be military intelligence, theGRU, andworked iin that "Jew" also implies an ethnic group. stronger and more relevant to the present heavily with the Cheka. predecessor of ( day without such a rosy view of the post- (Judaism is not unique in this respect; the Cold War world. •

THE NEW AMERICAN • FEBRUARY26, 2001