| |||
Unless correspondents ask us not to, this Website will post selected letters that it receives and invite open debate. |
Was Harry Hopkins really Moscow's agent?
AS
someone with a lifelong obsession with history, I have read
quite a bit about the Soviet rule in Eastern Europe and the
various satellite leaders. So I am somewhat familiar with
Matthias (Matyas) Rakosi. You write that Rakosi's
birth name was "Matthias Roth". In all my other sources, it
is given as "Matthias Rosenberg". Which is correct? I have
found other references to Rakosi being given the
unflattering nickname by his countrymen of "Roth Mano" (the
red dwarf), so maybe this is the source of the
confusion.
SINCE I apparently have your ear, I will take advantage of your vast knowledge of WWII to enquire about an unrelated matter. As you undoubtedly know, Brian Crozier has recently made a fairly strong case (in The Venona Files) that FDR's closest adviser, Harry Hopkins, was a Soviet agent. This is interesting for two reasons:
First, Hopkins was born in Iowa. As a native Iowan, I have always thought that we Hawkeyes are congenitally incapable of communism. They give us all a little pill at birth which immunises us to Marxist-Leninist infection.
Another (and perhaps somewhat weightier) reason is this: In February 1941 Hopkins was in London negotiating with Churchill for Lend Lease assistance to Britain, at a time when Hitler and Stalin were de facto allies. So why was Hopkins labouring so mightily (and successfully) to help England when Stalin was Hitler's ally and therefore England's enemy? Three possibilities come to mind:
- Crozier is simply wrong about Hopkins;
- Hopkins wasn't a Soviet agent in 1941, but became one later in the war; and
- Stalin was hedging his bets six months before the German invasion.
I have brought this matter up with numerous friends, but none of them has heard of Crozier and few have more than a dim knowledge of Hopkins. So I thought I would try it on a real expert.
I hope that this isn't too much of an imposition, but being a history nut doesn't necessarily make me a nice person.
David Irving: Uprising
free download
Bookmark the download page to find the latest new free books |
David Irving replies:
INTERESTING letter; your correction re Rakosi is appreciated and I will amend all new editions accordingly.
2. On Crozier, my own instinct is that Crozier is wrong, whatever Venona says. You can incidentally check the Venona files in the original on the FBI website. Certainly Hopkins was not helping Moscow at the beginning of the war; he did however make several journeys to Moscow, and he may have been converted during these. At the time the conversion would have seemed less momentous than later during the Cold War.
I WELCOME all letters with corrections and comments on my books; when new editions are published, we will endeavour to incorporate these, although it will usually take some time before the corresponding pdf file is updated in our "free download" section.
David Irving