Secret Soviet Intelligence Operations That Changed America - Cold War Espionage History & Impact on US Politics" (Use for history research, political studies & Cold War documentaries)

Historians are still writing about megalomaniacs who attempted to conquer the world by force and subversion in order to impose their ideology on society. HITLER and STALIN come quickly to mind. And while both employed intelligence operations to further their objectives, only the Soviet Union systematically integrated espionage, deception, and terror to advance its worldwide foreign policy and maintain domestic security. Many books have been written describing the operations, the personnel, and the organizations-KGB and GRU-involved. Jerrold and Leona SCHECTER have written one, Special Tasks, the story of KGB officer Pavel SUDOPLATOV. And Jerrold SCHECTER co-authored another with former KGB officer Peter DERIABIN, The Spy Who Saved The World, the story of GRU Colonel Oleg PENKOVSKY. But not until Sacred Secrets has the emphasis shifted to the impact of intelligence operations on the history of two societies-the United States and the Soviet Union.We learn that a KGB agent of influence in the American government shaped American the policy that led to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor. And, despite pledges to the contrary, the Soviet Union spied on its American ally throughout WWII using agents recruited from the American Communist Party. Robert OPENHEIMER was one such source as the letter to NKGB Chairman BERIA reproduced in the book, makes clear. Furthermore, as was their way, after the war the Soviets were largely successful in blaming America for not giving them the war time secrets desired outright, so spies wouldn't be necessary-it was America's fault. At first, many Americans either supported this view or denied that any serious espionage had even occurred. The FBI knew them to be wrong-disillusioned defectors had made that clear. But their evidence could not at first be made public. The most valuable revelations-contained in broken KGB codes-would not surface for 50 years. Liberal doubts and right-wing certainty-both wrong-became part of the daily news diet in the 1940s and 50s. But once aroused, using straight forward counter-espionage techniques and the results of government cryptanalysis, the FBI shut down the Soviet networks and ended the era of the ideological spy.Scared Secrets makes clear that despite these losses, Moscow did not end its espionage program after WWII. In fact, it quickly attempted to reestablish its illegal networks and in later years it took advantage of the greed-incentive made attractive by American walk-ins from WALKER to HANSSEN, with many in between. America had its own Cold War successes and the SCHECTERS describe several including a new twist on the acquisition of the KRUSHCHEV secret speech-interesting despite their use of the oxymoron defector-in-place. In the end, America's technological prowess overcame the Soviet espionage and military threat, bankrupting the Soviet Union in the process-America won the Cold War. Sacred Secrets documents well these often ironic contradictions.The SCHECTERS make a persuasive case that, contrary to the moral relativism advocates of the political-left, the United States did not start the Cold War or force the Soviet Union to do so. Would America's post WWII policies have been different had Soviet espionage and subversion in America not been so politically oriented and active? Read Sacred Secrets for the answer.