Subject: Re: unwitting Dobb?
Date: Wed, 23 Oct 1996 00:48:26 -0400 ()


     See the book by Andrew and Gordievsky on the history 
of the KGB.  There is a lot in and about this book that I 
do not like (Gordievsky was a double agent working for 
British intelligence out of the Soviet embassy in London 
who eventually defected).  But much in it continues to be 
confirmed.  Thus just two days ago in the Washington Post 
there was a long piece on the recent conference on the 
Venona transcripts at which Michael Meeropol (are you still 
on this list, Michael?) made an eloquent argument about the 
evil of the execution of his mother, those transcripts 
confirming that at most she passively knew of her husband's 
relatively minor activities for Soviet intelligence, a 
point that led the FBI's Robert Lamphere to exaggerate 
claims that he and Hoover had not supported the execution 
of either of Michael's parents (if you are reading this, 
and I have misrepresented anything, Michael, please correct 
me on this deeply sensitive matter).  In the Post article 
there was a long bit about Meredith Knox Gardner and how he 
had broken the Soviet code in the Venona transcripts and 
how his work had been compromised by William Weisband and 
Kim Philby, until the former was caught and the latter left 
the US and how barely any of this had been reported by 
anybody. All of this was in Andrew and Gordievsky's book, 
as it appeared in the Post.  That book also first revealed 
the role of Cairncross, since confirmed by numerous sources.
     I don't have the book in front of me, but my memory is 
that what it claimed about Dobb was that, as a member of 
the CPGB, which he certainly was, he was friends with the 
main Soviet agent at Cambridge (don't remember his name but 
could easily get it if you insist, Jerry), but that Dobb 
did not know he was a Soviet intelligence agent (the 
agent was under a false name, cover, blah blah).  As 
resident main heavy lefty intellectual at Cambridge, he 
encountered young lefty student Apostles members, blah 
blah, and in some cases introduced them to this covert 
Soviet agent, who then recruited them.  If I remember 
correctly, Dobb did this with at least Philby and I think 
one or two others of the "Magnificent Five," as the KGB 
called them.  But he was unwitting, simply introducing one 
committed progressive leftist person to another, without 
realizing that one was going to recruit the other to be a 
Soviet intelligence agent.  I see neither an insult to 
Dobb's intelligence nor to his integrity in any of this, 
>from any perspective.  This point is all the more relevant 
in that in more recent years Soviet agents were generally 
in it strictly for the money rather than out of ideological 
commitment, in contrast to this earlier crew.
     I might note that at this point it is probably worth 
putting a lot of this stuff in more perspective.  We have 
for too long been weighted down by the combined memory of 
the McCarthy hysteria and the Stalinist counterhysteria.  
The latter essentially involved denying that anybody was an 
agent for the USSR in the aftermath of the McCarthyite 
hysteria which claimed that many were who weren't.  Let's 
put this in perspective.  In every country at every time, 
there are people who support the position of other 
countries and who work for their country to be friends and 
in agreement with that country.  During WWII the US and the 
USSR were allies against Hitler.  Many Americans supported 
the USSR and it was considered by most to be a perfectly OK 
and patriotic thing to do.  Most, not all, of those who 
became agents did so out of idealist support for the 
Communist cause.  This includes the much villified "Atom 
Spies," not all of whom have been identified, and many of 
whom operated out of a genuine and understandable dislike 
of the idea of the US dominating the postwar world with a 
monopoly of the nuclear bomb.  In the hysteria of the 
postwar conflict between the US and the USSR, perspective 
on all this was lost and the execution of the Rosenbergs 
was the ultimate in this, an act of despicable and horrible 
hypocrisy and scapegoating of the lowest sort.
     I could go on about this at some length, but I have 
probably already offended a lot of peoples' sensibilities 
enough.  But the only person I shall really accept serious 
criticism from on this matter is mentioned in this post, 
and if in his eyes I have misrepresented the facts, I 
sincerely apologize in advance, and stand prepared to be 
corrected.
     BTW, thanks to all who sent references on the 
environmental policy question.
Barkley Rosser 
On Tue, 22 Oct 1996 18:33:12 -0400 (EDT) Gerald Levy 
<glevy-AT-pratt.edu> wrote:


> > Maurice Dobb apparently served
> > as a more or less unwitting talent spotter for Soviet
> > intelligence at Cambridge in the 1930s.
> > Barkley Rosser
> 
> Huh?
> 
> How was Dobb "more or less unwitting"?  Are you suggesting that he
> was being blackmailed or otherwise used against his will? Or, are you
> suggesting that he didn't know what he was doing?
> 
> I know of no evidence in support of the "unwitting" hypothesis.
> 
> Jerry
> 
> 
> 
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-- 
Rosser Jr, John Barkley
rosserjb-AT-jmu.edu




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