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The Venona Project: What the Left Doesn't Want Us to Know
After decades of hysteria about McCarthy, the Left and the left-dominated media have kept remarkably quiet about one of the most shocking disclosures ever from declassified government documents. I refer to the massive documentation from the VENONA PROJECT, which finally became declassified in 1995. The declassified documents from the US government provide the worst possible news for the Left: overwhelming evidence that McCarthy was at least partially right.
Here is an excerpt Wikepedia's entry on the Venona Project, as viewed May 16, 2005:
The VENONA documents, and the extent of their significance, were not made public until 1995. They show that the US and others were targeted in major espionage campaigns by the Soviet Union as early as 1942.
The decrypts include code names for 349 individuals who were maintaining a covert relationship with the Soviet Union. It can be safely assumed that more than 349 agents were active, as that number is from a small sample of the total intercepted message traffic. Among those thought to be identified are Alger Hiss, believed to have been the agent "ALES"; Harry Dexter White, the second-highest official in the Treasury Department; Lauchlin Currie, a personal aide to Franklin Roosevelt; and Maurice Halperin, a section head in the Office of Strategic Services. Almost every military and diplomatic agency of any importance was compromised to some extent, including, of course, the Manhattan Project. Even today, the identities of fewer than half of the 349 agents are known with any certainty. Agents who were never identified include "Mole", a senior Washington official who passed information on American diplomatic policy, and "Quantum", a scientist on the Manhattan Project.
Some known spies, including Theodore Hall, were neither prosecuted nor publicly implicated, because the VENONA evidence against them could not be made public. VENONA evidence has also clarified the case of Ethel and Julius Rosenberg, making it clear that Julius was guilty of espionage while Ethel was guilty of cooperating, while also showing that their contributions to Soviet nuclear espionage were less important than was publicly alleged at the time. In fact, Ethel had been only an accomplice, and Julius' information was probably not as valuable as that provided by sources like "Quantum" and "Pers" (both still unidentified.)
This is an extremely different picture from the one that which had developed over most of 50 years in the absence of solid evidence. While critics debate the identity of individual agents, the overall picture of infiltration is more difficult to refute. The release of the VENONA information has forced reevaluation of the Red Scare in the US.
Further information and original documents can be found at the National Security Agency's section on the Venona Project.
Does any history textbook for high school students mention the Venona Project. or give any hint that there actually were over 300 Communist spies in the US government, including Alger Hiss and others that McCarthy was concerned about? Let me know if you see one. But the history books I've seen, including the ones my own kids have, go out of their way to slander McCarthy and leave no room for him being absolutely correct about the seriousness of Red infiltration in the government. The Left covered that up back inhis day, and in spite of the release of information from the Venona Project, they continue the cover up today.