Harvey Klehr, Ronald Radosh. The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism. Chapel Hill and London: University of North Carolina Press, 1996. xiii + 266 pp. $29.95, cloth, ISBN 978-0-8078-2245-6.
Reviewed by Michal Belknap
Published on H-Law (April, 1996)
On June 7, 1945, as the United States and its the six men taken into custody in June of 1945, Allies were approaching fnal victory in their long they illuminate the conniving that prevented war against the Axis, newspapers announced that what could have been one of America's great po‐ three federal employees, one prominent journal‐ litical trials from ever taking place at all. It is per‐ ist, and two editors of the left-wing magazine, Am‐ haps fortunate that they are telling the story of a erasia, had been arrested on charges of conspira‐ political trial that did not happen. For, though cy to commit espionage. The accused had ties to Klehr and Radosh are superb storytellers who the American Communist Party, and one of them have written an often riveting account of espi‐ had been in contact with a Soviet agent. Thus, the onage and intrigue, they are not very good legal Amerasia afair could have become the frst fa‐ historians. mous spy case associated with the Cold War that It is perhaps unfair to expect that they should would soon develop between the United States be. Klehr's expertise is in the history of American and its wartime ally, the USSR. It could have pro‐ communism, a feld in which he has written such duced--several years before the Smith Act prose‐ important books as The American Communist cution of the top leaders of the Communist Party Movement: Storming Heaven Itself (1992) and The of the United States, the perjury trials of Alger Secret World of American Communism (1995). Ra‐ Hiss, and the Rosenberg atomic espionage case-- dosh's best-known work is The Rosenberg File: A the frst great political trial of the McCarthy era. Search for the Truth (1983), in which he and Joyce That did not happen, and for years the Amerasia Milton sought with considerable success to estab‐ afair received little more than passing mention lish that Julius Rosenberg was guilty of spying for in accounts of the second American red scare. the Soviet Union. Although that book discussed In this fascinating book, Harvey Klehr and the Rosenberg trial, neither Radosh nor Klehr Ronald Radosh explain why. Besides describing in could accurately be characterized as a legal histo‐ great detail the incidents that led to the arrests of rian. H-Net Reviews
Their lack of expertise in that feld faws what at least one of them, Philip Jafe, attempted to is in most respects a superb book. After an intro‐ commit espionage on behalf of the Soviet Union. duction that recounts the arrests of the defen‐ They also document numerous violations of the dants, following the discovery by Ofce of Strate‐ Fourth Amendment by the OSS and the FBI, which gic Services (OSS) investigators of scores of classi‐ tainted much extremely damning evidence and fed government documents in Amerasia's New made prosecution of clearly guilty defendants York ofces, Klehr and Radosh discuss the contro‐ problematic. Relying heavily on records of Bureau versy over U.S. policy in China that lay behind the wiretaps, the authors establish that Tommy Corco‐ case. Their chapter on "The China Hands" focuses ran (a former New Dealer and by the late 1940s on John Stewart Service, who was one of those ar‐ the preeminent Washington insider and liberal in‐ rested in June 1945. In the second chapter they in‐ fuence peddler) orchestrated a "political fx" that troduce the other defendants (Amerasia editors saved Service from indictment by extinguishing Philip Jafe and Kate Mitchell, Navy Lieutenant opposition to the confrmation of conservative Andrew Roth, State Department employee Em‐ Texan Tom Clark, whom President Harry Truman manuel Sigurd "Jimmy" Larsen, and magazine had nominated to be his attorney general. Klehr writer Mark Gayn) and discuss the origins of the and Radosh also show how Jafe avoided indict‐ case and the investigation by OSS of how Amera‐ ment on serious charges by hiring as his attorney sia managed to plagiarize and publish an OSS the law partner of Representative Emmanuel classifed report. They then examine the seeming‐ Celler (D--N.Y.), chairman of the powerful House ly premature arrest of the defendants by the FBI, Judiciary Committee, and they reveal that after along with the wiretapping the Bureau used to Kate Mitchell was cleared by the grand jury, Jus‐ collect evidence against them. tice Department prosecutor Robert Hitchock took In what is perhaps the most important chap‐ a job with her uncle's Bufalo law frm. ter in the book, Klehr and Radosh illuminate the Besides exposing the blunders and machina‐ various facets of what they characterize as a "po‐ tions that kept the Amerasia case from coming to litical fx," which saved all of the Amerasia defen‐ trial, prevented some of the defendants from be‐ dants from signifcant punishment and ensured ing punished at all, and saved even Jafe and that there would never be a trial in the case. Sub‐ Larsen from anything more than fnes, Klehr and sequent chapters detail eforts to cover up the Radosh also document extensive endeavors to roles that a number of prominent people played cover up the mistakes and misdeeds that led to in squelching prosecution and explain why they these results. They reveal that in an attempt to succeeded, despite heightened interest in the Am‐ hide what had gone on in 1945 and 1946, high of‐ erasia afair caused by the "fall" of China, the in‐ cials of the FBI and the Department of Justice dis‐ vestigation of the matter by two congressional sembled before congressional committees and committees, and the attention focused on it by that one of them, Attorney General James Mc‐ Senator Joseph R. McCarthy (R--Wis.) during the Granery, committed perjury during his confrma‐ early days of his demagogic crusade against al‐ tion hearings. leged Communist infuences in the State Depart‐ To prove their charges of fx and cover-up, as ment. well as to obtain the details about the activities of Most of this Klehr and Radosh do very well. the Amerasia defendants that they masterfully They manage to prove beyond a reasonable doubt weave together into what often reads like a spy that the principals in the Amerasia case were novel, Klehr and Radosh rely heavily on docu‐ guilty of stealing government documents and that ments liberated from FBI fles using the Freedom
2 H-Net Reviews of Information Act. These are not their only would shed light on his activities as attorney gen‐ sources. They have consulted the hearings of con‐ eral is at the Truman Library. gressional committees that looked into the Amera‐ Besides failing to utilize the manuscript col‐ sia afair and have interviewed and corresponded lections there, Klehr and Radosh have ignored le‐ with a number of people involved in the case. In gal sources. When discussing Supreme Court deci‐ addition, their bibliography lists ten manuscript sions, they cite secondary accounts of what the collections that they consulted. As Klehr and Ra‐ Court held, rather than the opinions themselves. dosh themselves explain, however, "The most One particularly distressing result of their failure valuable information for this book was gathered to examine legal sources is a muddled discussion from the enormous FBI fles on the Amerasia of the laws that the defendants might have been case, which include the extensive wiretaps of charged with violating. So far as one can deter‐ Mark Gayn, Philip Jafe, Emmanuel Larsen, Kate mine, they have confused a provision of the Espi‐ Mitchell, and Andrew Roth" (p. 249). Much of this onage Act with 18 U.S.C.A. section 371, the law material is now in the Philip Jafe Papers at criminalizing conspiracy to defraud the United Emory University's Woodruf Library in Atlanta. States. The reason for their confusion is that they As the notes make clear, these FBI documents are have based their discussion on an FBI report, ap‐ the evidentiary foundation on which Klehr and parently never bothering to consult the United Radosh's account rests. States Code itself. Consequently, what they ofer their readers is The authors' heavy reliance on FBI docu‐ the FBI perspective on the Amerasia case. Al‐ ments is both the greatest strength and the great‐ though detailing the alleged machinations of a est weakness of The Amerasia Spy Case. It has en‐ number of high-level fgures in the Truman ad‐ abled them to write one of the most engaging his‐ ministration, the authors have apparently con‐ torical works I have ever read. Often, this mono‐ sulted none of the manuscript collections at the graph is as hard to put down as a good novel. But Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. Thus, Klehr and Radosh seem insufciently sensitive to for example, their account of what was discussed the possibility that the biases of the FBI personnel at a White House meeting between President Tru‐ who wrote the reports on which they rely so man and Julius Holmes of the State Department is heavily might have shaped the contents of those based on an internal FBI report, which is clearly documents. Furthermore, they seem a bit too hearsay. Although Klehr and Radosh make a num‐ ready to accept as fact anything found in the se‐ ber of charges against Tom Clark and report a cret fles of the FBI. As someone who once worked number of things Clark allegedly said, they have in the intelligence feld, and who wrote as well as apparently made no efort to confrm what FBI read the kind of reports on which these authors documents relate about these matters by consult‐ rely, I am far more reluctant than they seem to be ing Clark's papers at the Truman Library. Klehr to place blind faith in such sources. and Radosh do include the "Tom Clark Papers" in It is difcult to accept their failure to attempt their bibliographical essay, but there are no cita‐ to verify information found in FBI reports by con‐ tions to them in the notes. That is not surprising, sulting relevant manuscript collections at the Tru‐ since the Clark collection they list is the one at the man Library or their failure to consult legal University of Texas Law School, which contains sources on legal issues. The Amerasia Spy Case is only material related to Clark's Supreme Court ca‐ a fascinating account of espionage and intrigue. It reer and his lengthy campaign to promote reform makes an invaluable contribution to the literature of the administration of justice. Anything that of American legal history by explaining why a
3 H-Net Reviews case that might have given rise to one of Ameri‐ ca's most important political trials never made it to the courtroom. The Amerasia Spy Case is unde‐ niably a terrifc read. But it is a book that legal historians should read with considerable skepti‐ cism. Copyright (c) 1996 by H-Net, all rights re‐ served. This work may be copied for non-proft educational use if proper credit is given to the au‐ thor and the list. For other permission, please con‐ tact [email protected].
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Citation: Michal Belknap. Review of Klehr, Harvey; Radosh, Ronald. The Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism. H-Law, H-Net Reviews. April, 1996.
URL: https://www.h-net.org/reviews/showrev.php?id=366
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