Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America by John Earl Haynes
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

What a fun book, I read it like a thriller. I always saw this generation's focus on the communist witch hunt as awkward. Yes, everything about me hates the idea of accusing people who have no way of defending themselves. I in general don't like any sort of conspiracy theories or idea that someone out there is trying to do us harm. But I always wondered if it was the witch hunts that made sure this country never became a communist country. What if they spent all this energy preventing a problem and when it was over, everyone said, "why did you get so worked up."

This book is exactly that. The soviet union had a very strong interest in spying on the united states and turning the the USA into a communist country. And they were much better at spying on us than we were at them. They also did a great job of getting the American communist party to do the work for them. All those people, like the Rosenbergs and Alger Hiss, who people said were victims of a witch hunt, really were spies. I still don't know if it justifies our response, but it changes the conversation, and it definitely makes me rethink McCarthyism.

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