it had learned from Soviet secret communications.rnThese materials, known b-rntheir American code name of “V’enona,”rnalso reveal much of what the Soviets andrntheir American collaborators were doingrnon a clandestine and illegal levelrnthroughout the Cold War, from thern1940’s onward.rnBut the book by British historianrnChristopher Andrew and his Russianrncoauthor Vasili Mitrokhin is based on yetrna third source, unauthorized by the Sovietsrnand unknown to American intelligence.rnMr. Mitrokhin, who worked forrnthe KGB as an archivist until his retirementrnin 1984, for 12 years without thernknowledge of his superxisors squirreledrnaway six cases of secret documents datingrnback to the Russian Revolution in 1918.rnThe Sword and the Shield is based onrnthose documents, or at least on part ofrnthem. Yet even with their disclosure, arnvast amount of information remains hidden.rnAs revolutionar)’ as the implicationsrnof the available documents are, futurernrevelations may turn out to be even morernso.rnThe burden of the Andrew-Mitrokhinrnbook is to substantiate many ofrnthe most nightmarish theories of the anticommunistrnright during the Cold War.rnIt is now proved that the U.S. CommunistrnPart}’ was financially controlled byrnthe Soviets, who routinely used it for espionagernpurposes; that the Soviet Unionrnand its leadership were motivated byrncommunist ideology (as well as other fixations);rnand that the Soviets regarded thernUnited States as tlieir “main enemy”rn(though Mr. Andrew, a man of leftishrnsentiments, insists on using the phrasern”main adversary”). “The NKVD succeededrnnone the less in penetrating allrnthe most sensitive sections of the Rooseveltrnadministration,” he writes. ByrnApril 1941, agents in the NKVD networkrnin the United States numbered 221; ProfessorrnHerman, in his biographv’ of JoernMcCarthy, reports an estimate of 3 SO secretrnSoiet agents working in this countryrnat the end of World War II. Among thernmajor Soviet spies confirmed in the Andrew-rnMitrokhin book are (in addition tornthe Rosenberg spy ring and those whornpenetrated Los Alamos) Lauchlin Currie,rna top administrative assistant to PresidentrnFranklin Roosevelt who had a particularrninfluence on Asia policy andrnhelped push China into communism;rnTreasury official Harry Dexter White,rnwho dropped dead of a heart attack shortlyrnafter being named by Chambers; DuncanrnChaplin Lee, personal assistant tornWilliam O. Donovan, head of the Officernof Strategic Serices; and Laurence Duggan,rnhead of the Latin American divisionrnat the State Department.rnHenry Wallace, vice-president duringrnRoosevelt’s third term (1941 torn45), said later that if the ailing Rooseveltrnhad died during that periodrnand he had become president, itrnhad been his intention to makernDuggan his Secretar’ of State andrnWhite his Secretarv’ of the Treasury.rnHiss, too, would have stood an excellentrnchance of beconring secretary of staternhad he not been exposed.rnAndrew is more than charitable to yetrnanother major Roosevelt advisor who wasrnalmost certainly a conscious Sovietrnagent—Harry Hopkins. Andrew claimsrnthat Hopkins was “an American patriotrnwith little sympathy for the Soiet system,”rnbut he also acknovledges that thernsecrets Hopkins gave to the Soviets, includingrnthe chief of their illegal network,rnIskhak Akhmerox, w ere so impressivernthat “some KCB officers boasted that hernhad been a Soviet agent.” In fact,rnAkhmerov later boasted that Hopkins wasrnby far the most important spy tiie KCBrncontrolled during World War II.rnMuch of this information was knownrnbefore, at least to those who had tire earsrnand brains to pay attention; the Mitrokhinrndocuments merely confirm it oncernand for all. But the- also confirm the realit}’rnof Soviet support for terrorism in thern1970’s and 80’s (despite the snortings ofrnWestern liberals that conservatives whornpointed to it were mereK’ mouthing Reaganiternpropaganda) as well as tire successrnof Soviet disinformation in repeatedly befuddlingrnthe liberal mind. Among thernlies that Soviet propaganda injected intornthe Western media and the heads ofrnthose dim enough to believe them wasrnthat J. Edgar Hoover was a homosexual;rnthat the American right wing and thernCIA were behind the assassination ofrnPresident Kennedy (the KCB forged arnnote that Lee Harve Oswald had supposedlyrnwritten to right-wing oil magnaternH.L. Hunt; the New York ‘limes laterrnclaimed the note had been authenticatedrnby three handwritiirg experts, and it regularlyrnpops up in Kenned}- assassinationrnconspiracy books), and that AIDS was anrninvention of the CIA.rnAndrew also discusses how the Sovietsrnbecame disenchanted w ith Martin LutherrnKing, Jr., and disseminated disinformationrnabout him to African and AmericanrnNegro news media, though he seemsrnto underestimate the amount of influencernthat domestic communists exertedrnon King. Andrew is aware of the rolerncommunist Stanley Levison played in advisingrnand writing for King, but discountsrnCommunist Partv’ claims that its agentsrnwould be able to direct King’s policies.rnHe also discounts Cus Hall’s claims tornMoscow that Andrew Young “himself didrnnot know that several of his close friendsrnin Atlanta were covert Communists, andrnhe listened to them” while Young wasrnambassador to the United Nations underrnPresident Carter. (Hall reported as wellrnthat Young’s view of the Soviet Unionrnwas basically “negative.”) As for King,rnthe Soviets came to seek his replacementrnby more militant leaders such as StokeleyrnCarmichael and then disseminated disinformationrnthat King had been murderedrnby the U.S. government in collusionrnwith “white racists.”rnAndrew has little to tell about tire socalledrn”McCarthy period,” except tornclaim at least h ice that, at the time whenrnMcCarthy was talking about the influencernof communists in government, “Sovietrnpenetration of the American governmentrnwas at its lowest ebb for almostrnthirty years” and that “McCarthy ultimatelyrndid more for the Soviet cause flianrnany agent of influence the KCB everrnhad.” The latter statement, if not also thernformer, is especially preposterous in lightrnof Prof Arthur Herman’s brilliant andrnreadable reintcrpretation of the Wisconsinrnsenator’s career and achievement.rnWiereas the Andrew-Mitrokhin book,rnfor all its devastating documeirtationrnof treason in tlie United States, GreatrnBritain, and other Western govemnrents,rnis ponderously written and almost pedanticallyrndetailed, Mr. Herman’s biographyrnis neither. Less of an authoritative,rnarchivally based stud’ tiian, as its subtitierntells us, a “reexamination” of McCarthy,rnit does not replace the heavier academicrnlifting of Thomas Reeves’ 1982 biography.rnBut the main difference betweenrnthe two books is that, while Reeves findsrnthe existence of a communist imdergroundrnalmost unbelievable and certainlyrnunimportant, Mr. Herman is wellversedrniir its history and activities. Takingrnadvantage of recent scholarship on Soviet-rncommunist espionage activities disclosedrnby Soviet archives and the Venonarn30/CHRONlCLESrnrnrn