Venona

By John Earl Haynes, Harvey Klehr,

Book cover of Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America

Book description

Only in 1995 did the United States government officially reveal the existence of the super-secret Venona Project. For nearly fifty years American intelligence agents had been decoding thousands of Soviet messages, uncovering an enormous range of espionage activities carried out against the United States during World War II by its…

Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

2 authors picked Venona as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Starting in World War II, American cryptanalysts broke Soviet codes and determined that hundreds of Americans working for the Soviet Union were active within the federal government during the New Deal and throughout the Second World War. Code named Venona, this operation was a closely guarded secret until declassification in 1996. When these intercepts were combined with information acquired from Soviet archives after the collapse of the USSR, they revealed not only a massive penetration of American government, science, and industry by Soviet spies but an American Communist Party that had assisted in these efforts, serving as an arm of…

Haynes and Klehr are two of the few Cold War scholars who could be considered neutral, which means they enrage both colleagues who see the second Red Scare as a paranoid reaction and those who see it as a Godsend. In this volume, Haynes and Klehr use newly-unveiled cables between Soviet spies and spymasters to unwind fantasy from reality in the charges leveled by McCarthy and his fellow alarmists.

From Larry's list on red scares in the USA.

Want books like Venona?

Our community of 10,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Venona.

Browse books like Venona

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in the Soviet Union, espionage, and communism?

10,000+ authors have recommended their favorite books and what they love about them. Browse their picks for the best books about the Soviet Union, espionage, and communism.

The Soviet Union Explore 319 books about the Soviet Union
Espionage Explore 546 books about espionage
Communism Explore 82 books about communism