I. F. Stone - Allegations of Being A Soviet Agent - 2009 Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev Book

2009 Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev Book

In 2009, Klehr and Haynes together with Alexander Vassiliev, a former Russian KGB agent turned journalist, published Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America. The Yale University Press book was partially financed by the Smith Richardson Foundation, which also hosted a symposium to publicize it in May 2009 at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington, DC. The authors cite a KGB file (seen by Vassiliev while in Russia) that explicitly named "Isidor Feinstein, a commentator for the New York Post" in the 1930s, as BLIN and indicating that in 1936 BLIN "entered the channel of normal operational work." Another note listed BLIN as one of the New York KGB Station's agents in late 1938. Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev claim that Stone "assisted Soviet intelligence on a number of tasks, ranging from doing some talent spotting, acting as a courier by relaying information to other agents, and providing private journalist tidbits and data the KGB found interesting." Specifically, they state that "Pancake" was supposed to help recruit and support anti-Nazi resistance activity in Berlin, Germany, at this time (1936–38). The authors admit that Stone broke with the KGB after the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939; and they speculate that later Soviet contacts were in the nature of trying to reactivate the previous relationship. They conclude: "The documentary record shows that I. F. Stone consciously cooperated with Soviet intelligence from 1936 through 1938 . An effort was made by Soviet intelligence to reestablish that relationship in 1944-45; we do not know whether that effort succeeded. To put it plainly, from 1936 to 1939 I. F. Stone was a Soviet spy."

Jim Naureckas, writing for Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting, counters that Klehr, Haynes, and Vassiliev's allegations, if true, indicate merely that Stone was "just gossiping," and he assails the authors for their "nefarious" and "tendentious" magnification of “relatively innocuous behavior” on the basis of one anti-Nazi maneuver. As for Stone being listed as an "agent", Naureckas points out that Walter Lippmann is listed as an agent as well.

Max Holland argues that, while in his opinion there is no question I. F. Stone was a "fully recruited and witting agent" from 1936 to 1938, Stone "was not a 'spy' in that he did not engage in espionage and had no access to classified material".

Reviewing Spies in the The Nation (May 25, 2009), Guttenplan opines "Spies never explains why we should believe KGB officers, pushed to justify their existence (and expense accounts) when they claim information comes from an elaborately recruited 'agent' rather than merely a source or contact." He says the authors of Spies distort the report from VENONA 1506 (October 1944) and never prove that BLIN was Stone in 1936. He adds that their charges merely show that Stone "was a good reporter", and notes that Walter Lippmann is quoted in Spies as having professional contacts with "a Soviet journalist with whom he traded insights and information." This is the same man (Pravdin) whom Stone is said to have avoided.

Also, it is important to note that Stone was in fact critical of the Soviet Union during the 1930s, as Stalin consolidated control of that nation. In a December 7, 1934 editorial in the New York Post, Stone denounced Stalin's execution of Soviet citizens as similar to those executions occurring in Nazi Germany. Shortly thereafter, he said that Stalin's regime had adopted the tactics of "Fascist thugs and racketeers." As Stalin's show trials proceeded in the mid-1930s, Stone attacked those trials as heralding a new "Thermidor," which was the time of terror in the French Revolution of the 1790s. Stone was also critical of both Lenin and Trotsky for their "cruel and bloody ruthlessness" in deposing the czars of Russia, and later scolded Trotskyists in America for believing that Trotsky would have been any different than Stalin in terms of repressing those who opposed him. Stone also bitterly denounced the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, both publicly and in private.