To the Editors:

We appreciate Andrew C. McCarthy’s kind words about our research into Communist espionage, but it would be mistaken to believe our work aligns us with Diana West’s conclusions or arguments. West’s American Betrayal makes serious historical interpretive errors that incorrectly attribute American military and diplomatic policy decisions to a coordinated plot by Soviet intelligence. In our more than twenty years of archivally based research on Soviet espionage in America, we have uncovered ample documentation of Soviet intelligence obtaining American technical, military, and diplomatic information but very little indicating successful policy manipulation.

It is equally mistaken to believe that our archival research on Soviet espionage vindicates figures like Martin Dies and Joseph McCarthy. In our various books, we have repeatedly indicated that we believe, along with Whittaker Chambers, that Senator McCarthy, although correct about the larger issue of Soviet infiltration of the government, greatly harmed the anti-Communist cause with reckless errors and unsubstantiated charges. Where he was correct, he was only repeating the earlier and far more reliable statements of Elizabeth Bentley, Whittaker Chambers, and others, and where he was original he was, almost without exception, factually wrong.

Precision matters when you are accusing someone of activities akin to treason. That is why it makes a big difference whether Harry Hopkins was a Soviet spy or pushed pro-Soviet policies. The archival evidence is clear that he was not Agent 19, and much of the other evidence is hearsay or subject to other interpretations. Mr.