Every Secret Thingrnby Samuel Francisrn”The tone and tendency of liberalism … is to attack the institutions of the countryrnunder the name of reform and to make war on the manners and customs of thernpeople under the pretext of progress.”rn— Benjamin Disraeli, “Speech in London”rnThe Sword and the Shield:rnThe Mitrokhin Archive and the SecretrnHistory of the KGBrnby Christopher Andrewrnand VasiU MitrokhinrnNew York: Basic Books;rn700 pp., $32.50rnJoseph McCarthy: Reexamining thernLife and Legacy of America’srnMost Hated SenatorrnArthur HermanrnNew York: The Free Press;rn404 pp., $26.00rnThe collapse of the Soviet Union notrnonly ended the Cold War but initiatedrna revolution in American historiography,rnif not in American politics andrnculture. The historiographical revolutionrnconsists of the increasing documentationrnand verification of many of thernclaims made in the 1940’s and 50’s by thernmost outspoken American anticommunistsrn—Whittaker Chambers, ElizabethrnBentley, Louis Budenz, the investigatorsrnof the House Un-American ActivitiesrnCommittee, and Sen. Joseph McCarthy,rnto name only a few—that the U.S. governmentrnand other major American institutionsrnhad been deeply penetrated byrnSamuel Francis is a nationallyrnsyndicated columnist and thernWashington editor of Chronicles.rncommunists and Soviet agents and thatrnthis penetration shaped American foreignrnpolicy significantly in the interests ofrncommunism in Russia, Europe, andrnAsia. Today, there is no doubt that thesernclaims were true, though those who advancedrnthem were vilified and oftenrnruined during their lifetimes for makingrnthem and have been damned as liars,rnfrauds, or psychotics ever since.rnThe political and cultural revolutionrnthat may follow the historiographical onernought to consist of the discrediting ofrnthose political figures and cultural leadersrnwho mounted the crusade of vilificationrnand damnation, who sneeringly ignoredrnanticommunist warnings andrnevidence, scorned those who voicedrnthem, and consistendy denied that internalrncommunist activities posed any dangerrnto national security. Since those whornled the crusade were and are part of therndominant elites that have acquired powerrnin the United States since the NewrnDeal-Depression-World War II era, therndiscrediting of their anti-anticommunismrnought to go far toward discreditingrntheir claims to national leadership inrngeneral. Their stupidity, greed for power,rnideological blindness, partisan obsessions,rnsocial snobbery, smug self-delusion,rnand sheer indifference enabledrntraitors in government to flourish and tornhelp push Eastern Europe and China intorncommunism, deliver nuclear weaponsrnto Stalinist Russia, and allow the ColdrnWar itself to take place. Enough of therngrotesque truth about their blunders hasrnalready emerged to destroy forever theirrnreputations as competent political actors,rnlet alone as the heroes and geniuses theyrnare purported to be, and to remove theirrnpolitical and cultural heirs from any accessrnto power in the future.rnWe know the truth —at least part ofrnit—about the realit}’ of communist treasonrnin the United States through twornmain sources (disregarding what the anticommrmistsrntried to tell us 40 years ago).rnIn the first place, the fall of the SovietrnUnion led to the partial opening of thernarchives of the KGB, the Soviet secret policernand foreign intelligence service;rnmuch of what we know about Soviet espionagernand those who collaborated withrnit comes from its files. Secondly, after thernend of the Cold War, the U.S. governmentrnbegan releasing the details of whatrnMAY 2000/29rnrnrn