Have you ever been curious about the origins of the Communist Party and how the revolutionary movement took hold in the United States? Masters of Deceit - subtitled: The Story of Communism in America and How to Fight it, published in 1958 was one of the first publications revealing in-depth details.

The good news; if there was anything relevant to be discovered about the Communists, J. Edgar Hoover would have uncovered it. He was the head of the FBI from 1924 to 1972 serving under 8 Presidents. In his lengthy, contentious career he dealt with notorious gangsters, the American Mafia, and espionage during WW II.

The bad news; his spying extended far beyond the scope of acceptable limits to anyone he suspected of subversive activity. He used unconventional methods and often illegal procedures of investigation. He was feared by everyone including his co-workers, politicians, and the Presidents he served.

Having clarified the source of the information in this book, I must say, it does present some very enlightening details about the Communists. From the inception of the Communist organization under Karl Marx, Engles, Lenin, and Stalin to the time of the first publication of Masters of Deception: how the movement began, how and when the first Communists appeared in the United States, what life was like within the party, the tactics they used to gain a foothold in public organizations, and the Communist underground.

One thing is made very clear. The Communists will never be satisfied until there is a complete over-throw of the current USA government. They want to abolish all religion, destroy freedom of speech and freedom of the press, ruin all American traditions, and destroy Capitalism. Hoover states, “the Communist is not an angel of mercy, ministering to the weak, oppressed, and wounded, but a menacing demon”. He warns that they will dupe the unsuspecting innocent liberals who are merely seeking social reform to join with them in their quest to destroy America.

J. Edgar Hoover describes all the tactics they use to gain power - violence (riots, demonstrations, and rallies) and thought control through the media - fake news. They infiltrate social organizations to generate credibility, gain new party members, and cause division. They also infiltrate labor unions, the military, government, and the education system, and ultimately they stir up discontent and evoke agitation - with the single goal in mind of revolution. One favored tactic is to undermine the American Judicial process - especially discredit the police. Does all this sound familiar?

Hoover concludes with methods of fighting back and warns his reader that Communism is like a cancer that if ignored, will kill the American way of life.

Definitely a worthwhile read. ( )

The cover, decorated with red splatter, repeats a theme I only recently heard in the 2008-2012 political campaigns: "What the communist bosses are doing now to bring America to its knees". Ironically, the de-regulated monopolists brought America to its knees with a complete global economic collapse in the summer of 2008. Communists were no where in sight.

It is true that the USSR financed and directed infiltration of industry in America primarily through the labor movement. In the run-up to the 1929 Crash which was caused by capitalist abuses, the Unions had become strong and effective--at great loss of life and sacrifice.

What J. Edgar Hoover did, unfortunately, was to attack the Labor Unions. Instead of seeing that they had been the victims of communist infiltration, he saw the entire working class as an enemy from the outset. He never steps outside of this "habit" of mind. This book is an excellent exhibit which documents Hoover's profound and extreme prejudices. And it is this same "belief" that the only danger is on the Left, that contributed to the ease with which the Right has been able to repeatedly destroy America. The monopolist plutocracy, with control of three successive Presidents and Congress, and with Hoover in its payroll, did it in 1929. The Bush II/GOP Congress did it again in the summer of 2008.

Hoover is correct about the turn of the century Soviet Union and its naked international imperialist aspirations. He distinguishes carefully those Russians who fought for freedom from the "small clique of communist rulers" of Soviet Russia". [vi] Today the entire world shares Hoover's convictions about Lenin and Stalin. The courage and testimony of eyewitnesses like George Orwell, Jack London, Big Bill Haywood, and Arthur Koestler was already in the record long before Hoover published this gratuitous 1958 declaration of war against communism. My point is that he did more to inject "fear" instead of valuable information. His facts come late to the fight, and only serve to justify Hoover's continued expanding control of a secret budget for a campaign already won on the larger field. Khrushev himself had thrown the hypocrisy and "shabby, deceitful" dogma of communism into the trash in his de-sanctification of Stalin [309]. This book was published about a year after Khrushev's report to the 20th Congress in 1956. It is as if Hoover was concerned that the USSR would be less imperialist and wanted to publish a book that kept the fire hot.

Hoover acknowledges that "The vast majority of Negro leaders have rebuffed the communists' attempts to exploit them" [310, 235] and yet we know now that Hoover specifically targeted non-communist black leaders. For example, Malcomb X, MLKing Jr., Black Panthers/Rice / COINTELPRO, Danny Glover, Angela Davis. He admits as much here [235].

Hoover's solution is for a "reawakening", and he makes five proposals all based on what the communists themselves have done:

1. Ideological studies. Where the communists have produced criticisms of our democracy, he urges time spent "studying the Bible and the basic documents of American history, government and culture".[312]

2. Where communists emphasize training of Youth, we must offer every American youth a "place within a group that expresses rather than contradicts the real values of society".[312]

3. Where communists stress "action", we need to provide constant "activity groups".

4. Where communists accent the "positive", we need to "strive for goals that are genuinely b etter, higher, and more noble".

5. "Most important of all is faith". Hoover cites the Walt Whitman poem often praised by Mother Bloor, entitled "The Mystic Trumpeter". Hoover turns to "man's innate desire for freedom" which will enable us to "uphold the ideals of justice and liberty which have made this nation great". [314]

Incredibly, that is the entirety of his 5-part "solution". It remains vague, abstract, and incoherent. For me, the appeals to vague patriot ideals smack of Bismark's program to unify Germany. Bismark used deception and repeatedly breached every promise and treaty -- even privately admitting that he did so. Within a 50 year period, he moved Prussia from a minor power to the strongest military state in Europe. He laid the foundation for the 3d Reich -- all by using deception. Lenin and Stalin learned those lessons well, and they faced that power, twice. While it is true that they became "masters of deceit", it is not true that such mastery is only threatening us from the Left.

The book is filled in with a Glossary of terms "frequently used by communists". He damns the communists by accurately using their own terms. For example, he includes Lenin's description of the "Dictatorship of the Proletariat" which is fundamental to the Soviets : The revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat is power won and maintained by the violence of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie, power that is unrestricted by any laws". [321] The definitions of "dialectical materialism" are included --with no comment on the irony that communism brooks no dialogue and provides less and less material.

Another valuable contribution is the fair Bibliography of Communist "Classics". [328 ff] The books of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin are very briefly and fairly summarized. The three-volume Das Kapital is described as a statistical compilation used to prove that capitalism was doomed. Hoover adds that "Time after time history has proved the errors, fallacious logic, and unscientific premises of the major thoughts contained..." [328]. He seems to admit that job has really already been done and not by this, his book.

Interesting from a historical perspective, but deeply flawed. ( )