ABSTRACT
In 1988, Joel Kovel orchestrated a conference on anti-communism at Harvard University that was dedicated to the proposition that anti-communism had deformed American political, cultural, and social life. In a breathtaking synthesis of American history, Kovel traced the roots of American anticommunism to the first red scare-the encounter between Puritan and Indian, during which the reds were unjustly persecuted, setting the stage for the 1940s. The Comintern files, the Communist Party of the United States of America (CPUSA) files, the KGB files and the Venona decryptions fit together, reinforce each other and give us great confidence that each is accurate. One cable from Soviet agent Jack Soble noted that Lauterbach was a secret member of the Communist Party and, upon his return from Moscow, had passed along information complaining about Time's anti-Sovietism; the cable recommended formally recruiting him as a KGB agent.
