The Power of the Media
Similar to (I believe) most people, I had always bought the Hollywood line, expressed in film after film, that the "Red Scare" was an unconscionable witch hunt in which thousands of innocent people were harassed and even destroyed by malicious false allegations.
Thanks to a novel called "A Quiet Life" I have been inspired over the last month or so to do a little fact-checking. The latest book, make that TOME, I'm engaged with is "Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America".
The extent of the Soviet web of American informants is truly astonishing. Even in the Manhattan Project, there were at least 5 American citizens (no, Klaus Fuchs was a naturalized British Austrian, I believe) who informed to the Soviet Union. Those are only the ones who've been identified. There were spies in the State Department, Treasury, the OSS, the White House itself, the Signal Corps, Aviation, etc, etc. And this is all confirmed by documents from the KGB itself!
It is amazing to me how warped a vision we get from Hollywood, with paeans to Dalton Trumbo, an unrepentant Soviet agent, John Howard Lawson, Will Geer, et. al. (And I loved Will Geer in The Waltons!).
There were those like the Rosenbergs who were at least committed beyond defecting. But the vast majority vehemently denied their involvement and hid behind the "I'm a victim of a witch hunt" scenario.
It makes me wonder what other myths have been popularized by the media.
Thanks to a novel called "A Quiet Life" I have been inspired over the last month or so to do a little fact-checking. The latest book, make that TOME, I'm engaged with is "Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America".
The extent of the Soviet web of American informants is truly astonishing. Even in the Manhattan Project, there were at least 5 American citizens (no, Klaus Fuchs was a naturalized British Austrian, I believe) who informed to the Soviet Union. Those are only the ones who've been identified. There were spies in the State Department, Treasury, the OSS, the White House itself, the Signal Corps, Aviation, etc, etc. And this is all confirmed by documents from the KGB itself!
It is amazing to me how warped a vision we get from Hollywood, with paeans to Dalton Trumbo, an unrepentant Soviet agent, John Howard Lawson, Will Geer, et. al. (And I loved Will Geer in The Waltons!).
There were those like the Rosenbergs who were at least committed beyond defecting. But the vast majority vehemently denied their involvement and hid behind the "I'm a victim of a witch hunt" scenario.
It makes me wonder what other myths have been popularized by the media.
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