LATEST BOOKS MENTIONING WHITTAKER CHAMBERS
2008-7 LONGER BOOK MENTIONS OF WHITTAKER CHAMBERS
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2008-7 BOOKS WITH SHORT MENTIONS OF WHITTAKER CHAMBERS
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Spy Wars by Tennent H. Bagely (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007)
Actually does not mention Chambers, but Hiss mention is noteworthy:
Alger Hiss was another beneficiary of willful neglect of the obvious. His secret collaboration with Soviet Intelligence was known to Western authorities long before he moved up to play a substantive role in conferences where America's posture toward the Soviet regime was being worked out, and more than a decade before he was finally brought down before a court... Why do we fall prey to hoaxes, deceptive tricks, lies, and misrepresentations that seem obvious to others less emotional or less involve? Why, once duped, do we then hang on to our misconception, sometimes against the evidence of our senses? Why, when supplied with that evidence, are we more likely to attack its suppliers -- a Burtsev, Bukharin, Marton, Sneevliet, or Chambers -- instead of the deceiver? (pp. 272-273)
If American are not alone in suffering this form of blindess, they are particularly predisposed to it. Whittaker Chambers wrote of that "invincible ignorance, rooted in what was most generous in the American character, which because it was incapable of such conspiracy itself, cold not believe that others practiced it. It was rooted, too, in what was most singular i the American experience, which because it has prospered so much apart from the rest of the world, could not really grasp... why [Communists] acted as they did." (p. 274)
Reviews:
Washington Post, Yale Press Log, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, CI Centre, National Review
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Blacklisted by History by M. Stanton Evans (New York: Crown Forum, 2007)
Index cites Whittaker Chambers pages: 52-53, 54, 71, 77, 91, 101, 111, 123, 125, 129, 134, 139, 141, 157, 307, 319, 335, 342, 374, 463, 508, 522n 609, 610
As to the purpose of such infiltration, Chambers made a couple of further points that in subsequent security debates would be too much neglected. First, that the Communists with whom he worked were, either directly or indirectly, agents of Moscow, albeit with varying levels of commitment, and that the whole operation was managed by Russian or other foreign commissars to whom Chambers as middleman reported. And second, that the object of the infiltration wasn't merely to filch secret papers, though his did occur, but to place people in position of trust where they could affect the course of policy in favor of the Soviet Union. (p. 53)
As the postwar diaspora suggested, and as FBI agent Guy Hottel observed to Director Hoover, large number of the Bentley people had moved, or were moving, to policy-making jobs that wold affect the shape of things to come in the dawning East-West struggle. They were often well placed to guide or implement decisions, not simply kibitz as others did so. And people actually making policy, rather than learning about it secondhand, generally, doens't have much time--or need--for spying. As Whittaker Chambers had pointed out, it was the policy making that counted. (p. 134)
Soviet Espionage in the United States, November 27, 1945. This is a remarkable report of fifty pages, single spaced, that ties together the Bentley data, COMRAP/CINRAD, Amerasia, information from defectors (including Victor Kravchenko and Whittaker Chambers), and other bureau sources. It shows that the FBI, at the threshold of the Cold War, had a detailed, comprehensive understanding of Soviet-communist operations n the United States. (p. 139)
There was evidence of hostility to anti-communist spokesmen and leaders. Employees of the French-language service [of VOA] testified that, when Whittaker Chambers' Witness appeared and a proposal was made to review it on the air, the head of the section had said, "Whittaker Chambers is a psychopath. Don't touch him with a ten-foot pole." (p. 463)
Reviews:
C-SPAN2 BookTV, San Francisco Chronicle, Boston Globe, Heritage Foundation, National Review
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Legacy of Ashes by Tim Weiner (New York: Doubleday, 2007)
Actually does not mention Chambers, but Hiss mention is noteworthy:
When McCarthy privately told Dulles face-to-face "that CIA was neither sacrosanct nor immune from investigation," the director know its survival was at stake. Foster Dulles had opened his doors to McCarthy's bloodhounds in a public display of sanctimony that devastated the State Department for a decade. But Allen fought them off. He rebuffed the senator's attampt to subpoena the CIA's Bill Bundy, who out of old-school loyalties had contributed $400 to the defense fund of Alger Hiss, the suspected communist spy... (p. 106)
Reviews:
Economist, Mother Jones, NPR, International Herald Tribune, New York Times, Washington Post
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An Un-American Life by Sam Tanenhaus (London: Old Street Publishing, 2007)
Despite the new title, this book is merely a reprint of the American edition of Whittaker Chambers: A Biography (New York: Random House, 1988). Even the new prologue appeared as an article in The New Republic ("Athwart History"). Save the money, and read the article online (or print out a copy to stick into the American edition). Tanenhaus' analysis in the introduction about the Bush 43 applies as well to the newly republished book: "distressingly little has changed."
Reviews:
Financial Times, The Times, Guardian, Spectator, Future Cities Project
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