When the Soviet Union was attacked by Germany in June of 1941, Stalin could not believe it. Despite warnings from his secret police and his spies across Europe, this surprise attack by Adolf Hitler and his forces came as a shock. Having gutted his own forces with paranoiac purges, Stalin needed to stall the German advance. But with rumblings of war in the Pacific, he also needed to avoid a Japanese attack on his eastern flank.
Using an extensive network of Communist agents and supporters of the Soviet Union (presented with great effectiveness in A Time of Fear: America in the Era of Red Scares), Stalin forcibly sought to promote divisions between Japan and the United States. Employing Harry Dexter White, a Soviet mole deep inside the US Government in June 1941, hostile policy towards the Japanese were implemented, leading to the eventual attack on Pearl Harbor and the United States entering the Second World War as allies of Britain and of the Soviet Union.
What has been deemed by some an intelligence failure to detect Japanese intentions, or what others considered a conspiracy by President Roosevelt to provide a rationale for entering the war, was in fact a large-scale successful covert Soviet operation bent on preventing a Japanese attack on its far-east territories while it struggled with Germany in Europe.
Fans of history will appreciate the meticulous research that went into this book and will be provided with a more rounded understanding of a day that will live in infamy.
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