Next Alterman spins Vassiliev’s revelations to give them the most benign interpretation possible. To Alterman, I.F. Stone was merely “a man of avowed anti-Fascist sympathies…still-foolishly naive about Stalin and the Soviet Union,” who therefore “agreed on a couple of occasions, to help those whom he believed to be actually fighting fascism, while his own country, still mired in childish isolationism, preferred to look away.” In other words, Alterman is acknowledging that perhaps Stone did cooperate, but for good anti-fascist motives.
Alterman ends up saying he will not argue that what Klehr, Haynes and Vasiliev found “does not affect the historical record at all.” But Alterman finds it hard to believe, since he writes that “Stone and I were close friends during the final decade or so of his life and he never mentioned anything of this to me.” This means, in other words, Alterman believes that if it was true, Stone would have told him!
Alterman should remember that Alger Hiss lived the lie to his dying day, despite the fact he must have known the truth would eventually come out, and that all those who believed him and fought for him would appear to be fools. So did the Rosenbergs, who told their sons never to forget they were innocent, and urged them to fight to clear their names. As Haynes et al write: “That Stone chose never to reveal this part of his life strongly suggests that he knew just how incompatible it would be with his public image as a courageous and independent journalist.”
I myself know that Stone thoughts ran along these lines, even after he had become thoroughly disillusioned with the Soviet Union. When Joyce Milton and I wrote The Rosenberg File, we found that way before publication, I.F. Stone had become a strong supporter. He got in touch with our editor, and invited me to his home in Washington, D.C., to discuss the case. Stone told me that he always thought they were guilty, and was delighted that the full truth would come out in our book. But then we did something that caused a sudden reversal on his part.
We began The Rosenberg File with a quote from Stone that demonstrated his doubts about the couple’s innocence. But when he saw the galleys, with the quote from him in the frontpiece, he went ballistic. Stone demanded that it be removed, that it seemed to indicate to readers that he supported our book, and that he would sue unless it was taken out. I answered Stone with a letter, in which I said I was shocked that I. F. Stone would seek to censor a book, to prohibit us from using his own words from one of his own columns that clearly was not a blurb, but rather indicated our approval of Stone for being one of the few on the Left to question the official line on the Rosenberg case. I told Stone that we were going to use the quote no matter what he did. He came to his senses, and backed down.
His original anger made no sense, since he agreed with our view of the case and had said as much, especially when I spent that whole day with him at his home. It could have been prompted by his awareness that some of his best friends-like his relative Leonard Boudin and Boudin’s law partner Victor Rabinowitz-would be very upset by his words. Stone’s relatives and others of his close friends were still either Communists or fellow-travelers, and Stone clearly wanted to be clear to all that he was a man of the Left, and did not want to be identified with those who said Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were real Soviet agents. Or perhaps he realized that the revelations about the Rosenbergs were hitting too close to home.
Alterman suggests that if Stone was alive, he could have sued the authors for libel, since they have proved nothing. Putting aside that a defender of free speech such as Stone would never sue for historical interpretation of genuine documents, Alterman’s words reveal only that he cannot at this late date accept the truth about his own personal journalistic hero.
Sorry, Eric. I.F. Stone was a Soviet spy!
“Sorry, Eric. I.F. Stone was a Soviet spy!”
“Izzy” Stone was most assuredly a Soviet spy. I don’t doubt that for a moment. The odds, however, are that he regretted his actions in his later years. Stone probably died as nothing more than a muddled headed socialist. Julius and Ethel Rosenberg adored Joseph Stalin and the Communist cause to the bitter end. Alger Hiss likely never lost his commitment for the utopian vision of his youth.
Many of today’s American leftists are objectively traitorous. It was a serious mistake not prosecuting Jane Fonda for her disgraceful behavior supporting the North Vietnamese Communists. Ignoring the infamous actress has left many confused. They sadly conclude their own actions cannot be that of a traitor because Fonda escaped being prosecuted and convicted in a court of law.
Yes, the left can and does get away with traitorous acts. Stone, Fonda, Ayers, rosenbergs. We are so PC in this country now you can do anything as a leftist. It has been discouraging of late.
Dear Mr. Alterman,
We would like the record to reflect that we are assuredly NOT ducks.
Sincerely,
Daffy and Donald
From what I have read, Stone was a Soviet spy 1936-38-9, who during that time wrote as a Soviet agent would when he tried to deflect attention away from the Moscow Show Trials. Unlike some, he did not do an about face regarding opposing fascism when the USSR and Germany signed the Nonagression Pact that insured the start of WW2. That is to Stone’s credit. He did back away somewhat from his previous positions. In later years he continued to back away from the USSR, but apparently was too ashamed of his time as a Soviet agent to admit his previous connection. At least Robert Byrd publicly admitted he was a member of the KKK.
One question can be. While his being a Soviet agent in the 1930s discredits him, to what degree does this discredit Stone’s – or should I say Pancake-later stances when he was still a Leftist but no longer a Soviet agent?
Commentary has a good article on it. HT:
Maggie’s Farm.
It was a serious mistake not to prosecute John Kerry for treason when he met with North Vietnamese diplomats in Paris and undoubtedly undermined our diplomatic efforts. Kerry was still in the active Naval reserve when he betrayed his country.
Well, in America has become cool to be a communist, it is cool and rebellious to wear Che gear….but my goodness, God help you if dare support the other evil in the political spectrum, Fascim.
the fact is that BOTH Communism and Fascims are incredibly and horribly evil. But leave it to the Liberals in America to support Communist ideas.
what remains troubling about this subject is the extent to which, for example, several authors like those of The Haunted Wood seriously believe and argue – using as their credentials their exposures of Alger Hiss, for example – that this kind of penetration and subversion ceased following the general ideological deflation following Khruschev’s speech to the 20th Congress.
i humbly submit this is complete b-llshit and almost triggers suspicions of disinformation wrapped inside valid information.
i have this view not because i’m a Bircher but because Communism Itself Is Not An Ideology About Equity And Justice – It Is An Ideology Promoted By Manipulative A-sh-les For Power.
Therefore, it does not matter that the doctrine of dialectical materialism, imperialism as the highest/latest form of capitalism, or any of the other Leninist crap is fashionable or not: all that’s required is to be a manipulative a-sh-le who craves power – and for someone to hand some power to you on the basis that you can be useful to him. that’s all.
so the idealistic-deflation thesis is ignorant or disinformative.
this is an important subject because even Sergei Tretyakov’s story as written by Pete Earley contains disinformation. why is it that so many people are interested in colluding with this extremely damaging, and possibly lethal, threat to the non-Left world? are there really *that* many political prostitutes out there? it’s enough to make one pray for nuclear war.
and by the way folks i hate to break it you but kalugin and gordievsky are agents of the higher phase of this disinformation strategy.
ask yourself: does anyone really believe the KGB cares whether someone throws IF Stone under the bus? of course they don’t; it’s absurd.
ask yourself: but do they make their claims about other, later, possibly operative persons’ innocence seem credible by throwing under the bus old Communist celebrities who mean absolutely *nothing* now?
the answer is: Yes. they even do it with contemporary people. Living people. who have to die, even, of their sacrifice preserves more important assets and victories.
do not be fooled. this is what they do; they don’t make (good) cars, they don’t innovate (legal) finances, they don’t do anything, in fact, except spy, and they are unparalleled geniuses at it. oleg kalugin, for example, is a total plant.
It doesn’t matter how guilty he is. People CONFESS to being spies ( like the Rosenberg’s partner in crime ) and the left still denies denies denies.
In Stones time the Commies had to pay Stone for their propaganda to be infused into the NYT ink.
But today, because of the complete takeover of the educational system in America by Marxists. No one has to pay anyone anymore, they just sprout leftists, & their Marxist propaganda like weeds
in the cracks of our Destabilized Constitutional Republic. The weeds have taken over, and we’re bad and evil if we call weeds weeds, as they eradicate
the luscious garden America created.
TO: Ron Radosh, et al.
RE: I’ve Found….
…that when peoples’ behaviors don’t make much sense, you’re missing important information.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[The Truth will out.....]
TO: AnnieB
RE: Indeed….
….people of that sort cannot admit to their problem. Instead, they’ll do whatever they can to tell the rest of US to Shut Up!
But in reality, we’re hardly likely to convince them of their problem. As, you said, they’ll just deny it. And there’s an explanation for it that figures in with my comment to Ron (above). Take a few minutes to watch THIS! YouTube item by a former KGB agent. It goes FAR to explain the problem we face with the people you describe.
Regards,
Chuck(le)
[Know your enemy and know yourself. -- Sun Tzu, The Art of War]
Mr. Radosh:
“For the next few years, the authors write, “Stone worked closely with the KGB” as a talent spotter and recruiter of other people for KGB work, including William A. Dodd, Jr., son of the US Ambassador to Hitler’s Germany. He also worked with the American Communist Victor Perlo, who while an economist at the War Production Group, led a Soviet espionage apparatus. Perlo compiled material for Stone that he could use in journalistic exposes beneficial to the Soviets.”
The reason that the Left is still in denial,(and hotly denying), the penetration of US society at all levels by Soviet agents is that no one has yet “run the string down” to the present day.
Alger Hiss was a mentor to someone, and that guy was a “rabbi” to someone else.
Shouldn’t we have a look at who these latter-day beneficiaries of highly-placed and deeply-covered traitors are?
I’ve been asking this question now for almost forty years, and no marxist has ever answered it: Why do leftists always deny their leftism?
And, in a related story, why do conservatives never deny their conservatism?
I subscribed faithfully to I.F. Stone’s WEEKLY until he ceased publishing it. However, I began noticing the Soviet line he followed when his lead article was entitled “Who Cares About A Few Jews?” about Jews in Seagate, N.Y. who had generously invited Negroes to live in the area – and were beaten up as a consequence. Stone’s point was that the beating up of the Jews was of little consequence since the issue of the welfare of Negroes was what was important. After that, I never took Stone seriously.
Ron, good work. Saying the lefties involved were just morrally motivated, thus their hostility and denial makes no sense ignores the reality that they became spys because the wanted to serve their countries enemies. They could have done other things if they were morally motivated, but chose to join the violent opposition to the country they hate. They were and are motivated by violent hatred, not morality or truth.
leftists deny their leftism and engage in semantic manipulation because (1) outright leninism, stalinism, or other iteration of communism is possibly more instantly lethal to credibility than even “communist conspiracy” thinking, and (2) it is not polite to accuse someone of lying, especially when the person has such lofty, equitable goals.
I.F. Stone died an anti-Soviet man of the Left, which seems more fitting to remember than a brief period of employment as some kind of agent by the MVD. (The KGB did not exist in the Stalinist USSR, but don’t let history interfere with a good rant, posters.) In 1936-39, the United States was not at war with the USSR, which makes hyperventilating about treason beside the point. The Constitution provides a way to label an nation as an enemy of the United States. It’s called a declaration of war. I thought conservatives were all about the Constitution?
Re #11, Bilgeman: Bingo!
A certain Chicago Alinsky-Ayers “rabbinate” comes to mind.
James you ask:
“I’ve been asking this question now for almost forty years, and no marxist has ever answered it: Why do leftists always deny their leftism?
And, in a related story, why do conservatives never deny their conservatism?”
Because “Subterfuge” is their MO.
These days the spin would be that he was a former spy. After all, if Ayers can be a former terrorist (or radical, or whatever), what’s the big deal being a former soviet spy? Byrd is a former Grand Kleagle. See?
Learn how the spin is done.
who cares now?
In 1936-39, the United States was not at war with the USSR, which makes hyperventilating about treason beside the point. The Constitution provides a way to label an nation as an enemy of the United States. It’s called a declaration of war. I thought conservatives were all about the Constitution?
By 1936-1939, the USSR had proven itself to be an enemy of all mankind, as shown by the millions of its citizens killed or imprisoned in the Gulag. Not to mention the Ukraine Famine. Pancake/Stone allied himself with an enemy of mankind. You might research Pancake/Stone’s writings on the Moscow Show Trials. Like I said, Pancake/Stone allied himself with an enemy of mankind. There was plenty of evidence out about the USSR, as long as you didn’t read Walter Duranty’s lies in the NYT about the USSR, such as what he wrote about the Ukraine Famine. Pancake/Stone was willfully ignorant.
I don’t know what YOU are all about, but coherent thinking is not on the list.
WELL FOLK’S WE REALLY AER IN TROUBLE BECASUE THE LEFTIST’S AT CNN (CLINTON NEWS NETWORK LOL) AND MSNBC OBVIOSULY DO BETTER UNDER LIB ADMINSTRUATIONS SUCH AS THE CURRENT ONE OBAMA, AND IT HAS BEEN PROVEN TODAY ON THE CONFERENCE CALL THAT MEMBER’S OF GE BOARD ARE TRUELY COMMUNIST’S, WE NEED TO KEEP READING “PAJAMA MEDIA” TO GET THE STRAIGHT DOPE!!
The summation here of Alterman’s post was a joke. His main point was that Stone didn’t know he was dealing with Soviet agents and he was only working to fight Nazis. And once the Soviets stopped fighting Nazis, he broke with them. Now, maybe this isn’t true, but this is Alterman’s primary point. Yet you didn’t address it at all. Someone working for three years to fight Nazis doesn’t a spy make. And as Alterman points out, the Soviets were America’s allies at the time, for the same reason Stone was working with them. Duh!
And no, Alterman most definitely did NOT suggest that his personal relationship refutes the spy charge. Your reading comprehension skills are egregious. It’s obvious that he thinks that, assuming the basis of these charges are true, that Stone did what the authors say. But his point was that calling him a “spy” is incorrect. Particularly as this is only an important point if Stone was spying on America or America’s allies. He wasn’t. He was apparently unwittingly helping agents of America’s allies to combat America’s foes. And Alterman isn’t denying that at all.
Geez, can you people be any more obtuse?
In 1936-39, the United States was not at war with the USSR, which makes hyperventilating about treason beside the point.
Tell that to the Soviet citizens who were being executed for allegedly working for the United States. Working for another country agsint your own is and has ever been treason be it war or peace. The differnce is at war you don’t go to jail but to the gaol.
Ron -
I read this story earlier at the Commentary site(as good a site as PJM) I was not surprised. But what troubles in all this is the widespread involvement of my coreligionists in this deeply evil ideology. It is beyond comprehension that they continued to be associated with it after its evil had been exposed. Of course, I find it equally incomprehensible that my coreligionists continue to associate with the political left which is shading into the Liberal Fascism described by Jonah Goldberg.
#20 whocares now?:
Only the retarded, the guilty, and the frightened.
“In 1936-39, the United States was not at war with the USSR, which makes hyperventilating about treason beside the point. ”
What planet do you inhabit? We do not have to be at war with a country for a treason conviction to be returned.
The USA has never been at war with Israel, yet that pig Jonathan Pollard is going to rightfully rot to death in a Federal prison.
” I thought conservatives were all about the Constitution?”
I quote Justice Robert Jackson in Terminiello v. Chicago, 1949:
“The Constitution is not a suicide pact”.
Interesting case, that, you should read it further.
The Rosenbergs? Forever innocent even though inconveniently guilty. Virtual saints except for that small technicality. You know who was bad though? That Joe McCarthy guy! Hey, Clooney! Let’s make a movie about him and how evil he was!
The three authors who dug up the goods on I.F. Stone have done a great service. Past is proglogue. Watch and learn.
what happened to the lefty american families that emigrated to the soviet union during Stalin era ? I saw once a report on TV ; I can’t find any interesting source …
http://www.larrymclerran.co...
Some day we will probably find out the truth about the present occupant of the White House too.
what happened to the lefty american families that emigrated to the soviet union during Stalin era ? I saw once a report on TV ; I can’t find any interesting source …
Marie Claude: Check Martin Amis’ book:Koba the Dread,the majority,I’m happy to say, were shot, sent to the Gulags, and otherwise brutalized.The executions raised the collective IQ of the world by several points.The survivors probably returned,and their spawn are running the Obama administration.
deguello, I found a few interesting links that are not fictions but historical investigations and narration, I’m waiting that they can be edited
I heard once that, “McCarthy was wrong, there was not a communist behind every bush; there were TWO behind every bush.” McCarthy was a true American hero that to this day is slandered and derided, especially in “higher” educational institutions.
Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joe McCarthy, by M. Stanton Evans
“The KGB did not exist in the Stalinist USSR, but don’t let history interfere with a good rant, posters.”
Ha – this my favorite post. “KGB” is just a name. In Soviet Russia, like Jack Nicholson in The Shining, the KGB “has always been here.”
“ignores the reality that they became spys because the wanted to serve their countries enemies”
i’m not so sure the motivation isn’t just ego-money-romance. if you’re of a romantic bent, know a few poems, and so on, and a real live soviet agent appeared out of the shadows and offered you some money or even just kept reappearing out of those shadows in that dramatic way like a ray of glittering Significance in your – if you’re honest – pretty boring life (and you were kind of an egotistic little as-hole on top of it all) – hey, it might seem like the best thing you could be doing with your time, yknow?
#20 “Who cares now?”
I do. You don’t think it’s valuable to know whether he was a useful idiot? Really? It should just go down the memory hole?
There’s the navel-gazing left for you – what’s historically worth knowing depends upon whether it embarrasses your world view. Disingenuous, self-regarding and ignorant.
“The KGB did not exist in the Stalinist USSR, but don’t let history interfere with a good rant, posters.”
Is that your best point? It’s OK, because it was the MVD?
uh there is a problem,
I didn’t repeat my comments, besides the afore link wasn’t posted there, and plus it doesn’t fonction
on twitter rat_des_champs I posted the link there
“I.F. Stone died an anti-Soviet man of the Left, which seems more fitting to remember than a brief period of employment as some kind of agent by the MVD. (The KGB did not exist in the Stalinist USSR, but don’t let history interfere with a good rant, posters.)”
The OGPU handled state security in the 1930s, not the MVD. But, don’t let that interfere with your rant.
And, besides most American agents were working for the GRU not OGPU/NKVD/KGB. I suspect that’s probably true of Stone as well.
Great work, Mr. Radosh. As for the claim that Stone had “anti-fascist” sympathies which apparenlty excused his love of communism, I say that the Soviet Union during the period of 1936 to 1938 was not an enemy of fascist Germany and Italy but an ally! The whole anti-fascist nonsense of the world communist movement came about after Hitler and allies invaded USSR. Before then Hitler and Stalin were at least cozy and probably much more. Geez I hate how the left can skew history and all the “best” people submit to the deception.
#45:DAVE SLURS: Albert Speer died as an anti-nazi,after a brief period of employment as an alleged Nazi.Wow! I’m in awe of your pedantic,research skills:I’m sure those whose parents and mothers were beaten to death by Stalinists thugs,or died in the GULAGS, are comforted by knowing that thir torturers weren’t members of the KGB, but the OGPU.It makes such a difference! ANYONE who served as agent of Stalin,the murderer of 20,000,000 people, no matter how briefly,should be held in contempt,and so should you and other “useful idiots”!
DAVE SURLS Apologies! above post aimed at WHO CARES NOW!
#20 WHO CARES NOW:Albert Speer died as an anti-nazi,after a brief period of employment as an alleged nazi.I am in AWE of your research skills! I’m sure those who were tortured,brutalized, or done to death in the Gulags,would have been so comforted to know that their murderers worked for the OGPU instead of the KGB.It makes SUCH a differnce!Anyone who served as an agent of Stalin,the murderer of 20,000,000 people,no matter how briefly, should be held in contempt,and so should you, and all the other useful idiots who still defend Communism.
#26:DR. BIOHAZARDBRAIN: Stone was a spy for Stalin;if your brain weren’t damaged, you’d see that! We are”obtuse”! How ironic coming from you!
Altman probably associates himself with Murrow. I beleieve on of Murrow’s friends was a Soviet spy responsible for the death of at least one person.
#29 Jack in Silver Spring.
I feel your pain and understand your puzzlement. One thing, ‘though, is clear. The Vanguard of the Proletariat of which we speak is not made up of your co-religionists, because they have explicitly rejected religion. They do, however, disproportionately share an ethnicity, and thus a network. What does drive their Leftism? Is it sheer Lust for Power? Is it a desire for a “religion surrogate?” Is it Revenge on Christians who oppressed them in Odessa? We know that on average they ARE very intelligent with IQs well above those of us peasants. (OK, I have two degrees from Harvard, so I can compete, but their condescension even toward this muzhik is frequently palpable…) Do their high SAT’s and lofty academic perches just make them feel more chosen than others? Try to help us understand. BTW, do not misunderstand me. I greatly admire many of your co-religionists. But many of your co-ethnics quite terrify me.
Isn’t it funny how the infestation of communists in the USA were all dumbasscrats? My…. how times have not changed.
I would like to know if there is any books written about I.F.Stone involvement with the KGB.Please send me the names – thanks
Also what did I.F.Stone ever write about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara – thanks
What did Stone die of – thanks
John Tinoco
Best Book title describing I.F.Stone’s involvement with the KGB?
What did I.F.Stone ever write about Fidel Castro and Che Guevara
Thanks
I.F. Stone may have helped the USSR in the late thirties, but spent much of the next forty years performing useful journalistic work.
His journalistic takedown of the official US case for war in Vietnam is an example, as is his article attacking the use of Soviet psychiatric hospitals to repress dissidents.
Many figures brushed fascism, and have had their reputations suffer; so should Stone for the similar brush with Communism. But a few actions taken in 1938 do not define his life, which included much real achievement.