Book Review: Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

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by John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr

New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. xiii, 487 pp. Illus, glossary, append, notes, index. $30.00. ISBN:0-300-07771-8

Venona is but latest in a series of works revealing the extent of Soviet intelligence operations in the U.S. and the complicity of the CPUSA in those operations. The work deals particularly with “Venona,” a highly secret service that during the Cold War successfully decrypted thousands of messages between the KGB intelligence service and Soviet agents in the U.S. Although Venona and a number of other similar revelatory works have now firmly established the guilt of the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss, among others, while identifying numerous other agents, and confirming the deep involvement of the CPUSA in espionage, it goes without saying that true believers and their apologists will not be convinced. Invaluable for anyone interested in the Cold War.
Reviewer: A. A. Nofi   


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