HD White and the Soviets

Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu
Tue Jul 7 10:11:29 PDT 1998


Michael,

Obviously one does not know for sure about these things, and I would suggest that you look at Andrew and Gordievsky to pass judgment (and they may not be reliable, although that book has had a better track record than most on a lot of these matters). In any case, according to them he was sufficiently involved to have had a code name, among other things, and was identified by them as an "agent," not merely a "fellow traveler." This was more than just "hanging out" with Soviets.

BTW, by all accounts, Harry Dexter White was a rather obnoxious individual, whatever his affiliations or offscreen activities. And, again, most of his overt policy actions were strongly oriented to cementing US power in the postwar order. Barkley Rosser On Tue, 7 Jul 1998 07:25:48 -0700 (PDT) michael at ecst.csuchico.edu wrote:


> I suspect that the key to White's status might be the word, "agent." I
> can imagine a high level government agent being sympathetic to a
> particular state, or even a cause -- say Tibet. The official might push
> for policies that favor the supposed interests of the Tibetens. He/she
> might enjoy getting together with Richrd Gere or even the Dali Lama.
>
> To be an ominous sounding "agent" would require a stronger association.
> Just having records of contacts does not prove much to me.
> --
> Michael Perelman
> Economics Department
> California State University
> Chico, CA 95929
>
> Tel. 530-898-5321
> E-Mail michael at ecst.csuchico.edu

-- Rosser Jr, John Barkley rosserjb at jmu.edu



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