Spies

May 15, 2023
Historian Waldron (Empire of Secrets) presents an authoritative appraisal of 100 years of intelligence operations between Russia and the West. Drawing on declassified records in American, British, Russian, and former Soviet bloc intelligence archives, Walton contends that the espionage of the Cold War was just another step in a still-ongoing covert conflict that began with the Russian Revolution of 1917—though it took the West until the Cold War to realize the extent of Soviet infiltration, which Walton argues was as real as Senator Joseph McCarthy alleged during the Red Scare of the 1950s, despite most of McCarthy’s specific claims being “inaccurate and overblown” and his “purges” unnecessary for national security. (“Between 1947 and 1956, 39,000 federal employees were sacked and or resigned.... In Britain, the total for the same period was just 124,” and most were reassigned, not fired.) Still, Walton contends that Russian intelligence operations outpaced the West, pointing for example to Soviet espionage inside the U.S. atomic bomb project. He concludes with lessons to apply to the struggle now unfolding between the U.S. and China, and warns against “a new Chinese red scare.” This is an encyclopedic yet entertaining dossier on the people, organizations, and events that shaped one of the 20th century’s defining ideological battles.