RUTHFULLY YOURS

Note to readers.

In just one of today’s installments of the Smear Me Show at Frontpage, Radosh tells readers that an episode he criticized in his original “review,” and that I flagged yesteday for not being in the book, is in the book — and in three places.

This is a lie, too.

But it gets worse. First, he has to swap the first episode (not in book) for a new one (also not in book), and hope no one notices.

I noticed.

His original episode (still not in book) relates that “George Elsey found confidential files in the Map Room that showed FDR naively thinking he could trust Stalin, and instructed Hopkins to tell Soviet Foreign Minister Molotov that FDR was in favor of a Second Front in 1942.”

Remember: Elsey, Map Room, confidential files, FDR telling Hopkins to tell Molotov he favored a Second Front.

Today he writes:

Maybe she couldn’t find the anecdote. But it is there in three different places where she writes how FDR told Hopkins to go into Molotov’s bedroom while he was staying in the White House so that he could meet with the President, and at that meeting, Hopkins told Molotov that FDR was in favor of a Second Front.

Whoa, whoa, whoa — where’s George Elsey? Where’s the Map Room? Where are those “confidential files”?

Will anyone be surprised to learn that this new episode isn’t in my book either?

It gets worse — as in even more incorrect.

About these supposedly three instances of the (new) anecdote, he writes:

They can be found on p. 129, p. 268 and p. 296. She missed them because of a trivial error I did make [DW: Such a big man] which was to associate the anecdote she took from her source, Laurence Rees’ WW II Behind Closed Doors: Stalin, the Nazis and the West, with the anecdote about Elsey’s find, which is in another part of Rees’ book. West may not have mentioned Elsey’s role in her own text, but it is the anecdote itself about the Second Front that is the crux of this matter and she does refer to it on three occasions.

No, in fact (something Radosh has an aversion to), I don’t. And Rees is not my source. Radosh Is Wrong Again.

This time, it’s a compound error. He has now seized on two different episodes (not one episode repeated three times as he claims) and, as noted, Laurence Rees is not the source of any of them. Plus, neither of these two episodes are events as he describes them and attributes to being in my book.

From American Betrayal.

p. 129:

When Soviet foreign minister Molotov made his first visit to Washington in May 1942, Secretary of State Cordell Hull handed Hopkins a memorandum indicating the things he wanted taken up with Molotov.70

Careful (non-Radosh) readers will notice this anecdote not only has nothing to do with Elsey and Map Room (Radosh Delusion No. 1), but also nothing to do with FDR telling Hopkins to go to Molotov’s bedroom or the Second Front (Radosh Delusion No. 2)

Not surprisingly to everyone (except Radosh) my source here isn’t Rees.

Note 70: Sherwood, Hopkins, 2:562

p. 268:

Was it merely paradoxical back in May 1942, when, according to Sovietrecords, Harry Hopkins privately coached Foreign Minister Molotov on what to say to FDR to overcome U.S. military arguments against a “second front” in France in May 1942?58

Here we come to a triple, maybe quadruple whammy. Not only does this bear no resemblance to Radosh Delusion No. 1 from the “review.” it also doesn’t resemble Radosh Delusion No. 2.  In fact, it is very much the opposite of what Radosh reports. He says my anecdote has FDR telling Hopkins to go to Molotov, with Hopkins telling Molotov FDR favors the Second Front.

Mine has Hopkins coaching Molotov on how to overcome opposition to a Second Front.

Bonus: again, my source isn’t Rees. It’s Mark.

Note 58, Mark, Venona Source, 20

p. 296:

Such “good Germans” might have spoiled the chances for both unconditional surrender, recently “reaffirmed” in May 1942, and, of course, Stalin’s “second front,” the subject of Molotov’s secret discussions with Hopkins, also in May 1942.

Same source as Note 58.

This is a disgrace.