The Foreign Service Journal, May 2008

than India. In sum, this book would be a valuable addition to any Foreign Service employee’s bookshelf. Jim Patterson, a former Foreign Service officer, is an economist and freelance journalist whose work has appeared in the Foreign Service Journal, New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, The Hill and the Columbus (Ohio) Dispatch, among other publications. Joe Was Right Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies M. Stanton Evans, Crown Forum, 2007, $29.95, hardcover, 672 pages. R EVIEWED BY B OB M C M AHAN It is conventional wisdom that the efforts of Senator Joseph McCarthy, D-Wis., to reveal and contain the extent of Soviet infiltration of our gov- ernment and society back in the 1950s were both wrongheaded and counter- productive. Even at the time, senior members of the Truman and Eisenhower administrations chose to attack him and his supporters instead of removing communists from govern- ment positions. (In fact, many sus- pected Soviet agents were allowed to transfer to other federal agencies or to the United Nations and other interna- tional organizations.) McCarthy was a discredited figure when he died in 1957, at the age of 48. But in Blacklisted by History: The Untold Story of Senator Joseph McCarthy and His Fight Against America’s Enemies , M. Stanton Evans persuasively argues that, however dis- agreeable his tactics, the senator was indeed on the right track. Over the past half-century, many closely held documents, including FBI files and Senate records, have now been declassified. We also now have access to the Venona intercepts, U.S. Army recordings of Soviet tele- graphic message traffic that could not be decrypted until recently. And after the fall of the Soviet Union, scholars were (all too briefly) given access to the Soviet archives. Evans, a journal- ist, author and Cold War scholar, calls upon much of this newly available evi- dence to make his case. Many Soviet agents are profiled in this volume, but the ones of most interest to Foreign Service readers are probably John Paton Davies, John Service and John Vincent. All three of these State Department officers served in China and worked hard to throw sand in the gears of the Nationalist Chinese, led by Chiang Kai-shek. In 1946, before Soviet military aid and training began flowing to Mao Tse-tung’s forces, they were weak and on the run from the Nationalist arm- ies. Drawing on numerous sources, Evans concludes that such Soviet agents as Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White (inter alia) in high positions at both State and Treasury successfully delayed the provision of economic and military aid to the Nationalists, blunt- ing what might have been an early vic- tory over the communists. This effort included reporting by several Foreign Service officers assigned to the com- munist base at Yenan, including Ser- vice and Davies, to the effect that Mao was simply a democrat, opposed to the rule of “privilege.” General (later Secretary of State) George Marshall was apparently under the influence of both Davies and Service. He developed the idea that the two competing Chinese enti- ties should seek “peace and unity.” Accordingly, Chiang was instructed to seek accommodation with Mao and then denied arms and economic sup- port when hostilities flared up, in effect giving the communists a veto over U.S. aid to the Nationalists. In the same vein, Evans cites fasci- nating evidence of a proposal — apparently a John Vincent project — after the Nationalist government’s removal to Taiwan to offer Gen. Sun Li-jen money and arms if he would agree to overthrow Chiang. The author notes that this incident eerily presages events in Vietnam, where U.S. officials conspired in the over- throw and murder of President Ngo Dinh Diem. Sen. McCarthy got into trouble and discredited himself with a lot of Americans when he accused promi- nent officials, including Gen. Mar- shall, of being under Soviet influence. As Evans observes, just because an official makes bad decisions does not mean that he does so intentionally. Thus, in this case at least, McCarthy overstepped. But on the whole, his fears of communist subversion were well placed. One of the truly nifty benefits of growing old is learning that what we were sure we knew is all wrong, or at least not as clear as we thought. This book will change forever how you think about Sen. McCarthy and the Soviet penetration of the U.S. govern- ment and society. Bob McMahan was a Foreign Service officer from 1976 to 1999, serving in Ecuador, Thailand, Taiwan and Wash- ington, D.C., among other posts. He currently seeks, somewhat ineffective- ly, to influence the political process at the local level. Though he serves as secretary/treasurer of the Foreign Affairs Retirees of Northern Virginia, this review represents his personal views only. M A Y 2 0 0 8 / F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L 65 B O O K S