Book Review - Treasonable Doubt: The Harry Dexter White Spy Case by R. Bruce Craig

R. Bruce Craig has written a comprehensive study of Harry Dexter White, Treasury Secretary Morgenthau’s most influential advisor. By 1945 White, “was numbered among the most powerful and influential men in the government.” He was also what can be termed a “trusted individual” by the Soviets. According to Soviet defector Igor Gouzenko a trusted individual was “worth 20 agents to us.” Craig provides a detailed account of White’s activities. Yet he can still come to the conclusion that White was looking out for the best interests of both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union and the United States were wartime allies. It is natural that their interests would “dovetail.” However, when White met with Vitalii Pavlov to discuss U.S. policy toward Japan, the Soviet Union was allied with Nazi Germany. The Soviets were attempting to manipulate U.S. policy in order to cause conflict with Japan.

White was the major architect of the Morgenthau Plan. Craig states, “There is simply no convincing evidence in the Venona decrypts , the Russian archives, or in any other collection to conclude that the Morgenthau Plan was devised to weaken Germany so the Soviets could march in and take over the country as claimed by right-wing conservatives.” There is no written confession, no video tape, nothing. Therefore is cannot be true. Many of White’s defenders rely on the contention that this economic genius was naive. When White helped the Soviets obtain material to produce German occupation currency, Craig remarks, "Neither White nor anyone else in a position of authority in the Treasury or State departments could have anticipated the serious economic repercussions that developed in the ensuing months as a result of the War Department's failure to address occupation-currency redemption policies and practices."

Craig makes much of White’s apparent attachment to Lithuania. White was born in Boston of Lithuanian immigrant parents. He writes, “White’s loyalties transcended any that he may have felt for his ancestral homeland, Mother Russia, the country of his birth.” Of course Craig was aware of White’s birthplace. Considering the atrocities committed by the Communists if he had any affection for Lithuania he would have been a rabid anti-communist.

Harry Dexter White was a devoted Stalinist. For some reason Craig does not want to admit that. He claims both Morgenthau and White “possessed strong humanitarian instincts.” “The internationalist solution was perceived by representatives in both departments (State and Treasury) as the soundest means for averting the punitive vengeance embodied in the peace of Versailles that ended World War I.” These are odd statements to make about the authors of the genocidal Morgenthau Plan. In spite of what I believe are erroneous conclusions, I give the book four stars for its thorough research.

Book Review - Caught between Roosevelt and Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow by Dennis Dunn

Caught between Roosevelt and Stalin: America's Ambassadors to Moscow (Hardcover)

Dennis Dunn's book provides an excellent account of the five ambassadors to Moscow appointed by FDR. The consistent theme is that these individual went to Moscow with enthusiasm for the Soviet "experiment" and returned disillusioned with the exception of Joseph E. Davies who returned with a looted art collection. Dunn points out that, "If a whole succession of representatives and experts are nearly unanimous in their view of a policy or issue, the president should have absolutely no qualms about implementing their recommendations." Roosevelt did not question why these enthusiasts became critics.

There are several explanations for FDR's proSoviet policies. One explanations is that FDR was a foreign policy naif. Dunn quotes George Kennan's remark, "The truth is that Franklin Roosevelt, for all his charm and for all his skill as a political leader, was, when it came to foreign policy, a very superficial man, ignorant, dilettantish, with a severely limited intellectual horizon." (p. 272). Others attributed it to his illness in the latter part of his administration. It has also been suggested that he was not receiving good advice. However, Dunn points out that, "the concessionary policy was consistent from the very beginning of FDR's relationship with Stalin."

Proof of Roosevelt's enthusiasm for the Soviets began shortly after his inauguration. He recognized the Soviet Union during its government engineered Ukrainian famine. His enthusiasm did not wane during the purge trials, the Nazi-Soviet pact, the Soviet attack on Finland and the Baltic States, the Katyn Forest massacre, the stalled assistance for the Warsaw uprising and numerous other indications that the Soviet were not great humanitarians.

Dunn repeats the myth, reported by FDR's son, that FDR came up with the concept unconditional surrender during the Casablanca Conference after he recalled U.S. Grant's moniker during the American Civil War. Diana West points out in her American Betrayal that this decision was made in 1942 by a committee that included several Soviet agents, among them Harry Dexter White.

The most significant revelation in Dunn's book is his account of Soviet efforts to involve the U.S. in a war with Japan. One of the first subjects Stalin brought up in his initial meeting with Ambassador Bullitt was his concern about Japan. When Ambassador Joseph Davis met with Commissar Litvinov the first subject brought up was relations with Japan. In 1935 Bullitt informed Secretary of State Hull, "Moscow hoped for a war between the United States and Japan, and then it would move in a take Manchuria and spread Communism into China at the war's end." These efforts give more credibility to John Koster's book, Operation Snow, and his account of Harry Dexter White's role in provoking war between the U.S. and Japan.

Book Review - No Fear by Diana West

Diana West’s appropriately entitled book, No Fear, is an extensive account of United States policy toward the Middle East. She demonstrates that President Obama’s policy is essentially a continuation of the Bush policy. This policy is heavily influenced by political correctness, or a fear of accurately describing the enemy we are confronting. She quotes Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s comment at his Harvard address: “Must one point out that from ancient times a decline in courage has been considered the first symptom of the end?” What are people afraid of? In the United States this might include social ostracism, loss of employment or assignment to a re-education camp, sometimes called sensitivity training. In Europe it could include a jail sentence. In the Middle East it could involve beheading.
She quotes Secretary of State Clinton: “The United States deplores any intentional effort to denigrate the religious beliefs of other.” This from a government that has sacrilegious subsidized “art works” like “Piss Christ,” “Tongues of Flame,” “The Holy Virgin Mary,” “Tie Rack,” etc., etc., etc. As columnist John Leo stated: “In paintings and sculpture, the bashing of Christian symbols is so mainstream that it’s barely noticed.” The defenders of these examples of “artistic expression” are the same people who are outraged by the slightest criticism of islam.
More disturbing is the fact that numerous terrorists have been released from prison while U.S. servicemen are serving terms in federal prisons for apparent violations of the Rules of Engagement. These rules are so ludicrous that it prompted her to write, “They call this strategy COIN and wear uniforms, but really it’s psychosis and these strategist should be wearing hospital robes.”
This book illustrates how the elite has created much of the problems in the Middle East. Their nation building efforts have resulted in a surfeit of arms in the Middle East and the overthrow of admittedly corrupt regimes replaced by even more dangerous regimes. We must question the depth of the elite’s commitment to the U.S. by their actions. Our survival is at stake. As Diana West writes, “When a civilization no longer inculcates an overriding attachment to its own survival it no longer survives as a civilization.”