Amerasia Spy Case: Prelude to McCarthyism

Less well-known than the Hiss and Rosenberg cases, the Amerasia affair was the first major postwar espionage case, and was cited by Senator Joseph McCarthy as proof of his contention that the State Department had been infiltrated by a clique of ``card carrying'' Communists. The case revolved largely around the arrests of Philip Jaffe, editor of the pro-Communist magazine Amerasia, for conspiracy to commit espionage for the Soviets and of John Stewart Service, one of the State Department's ``China hands,'' who favored Mao's victory over the Nationalists. The authors of this well-researched study, working from FBI files and interviews, reveal new details of Service's efforts to undermine U.S. ambassador Patrick Hurley's diplomatic mission to China in 1945. (``As the Amerasia case ought to teach us,'' they comment, ``not everyone accused of disloyalty or espionage was innocent.'') The study also includes fresh revelations of how lobbyist Thomas Corcoran successfully pressured the Justice Department not to indict the Amerasia defendants; the department feared that a full-scale prosecution would unduly publicize the threat of Communist espionage and embarrass the Truman administration. Klehr is professor of politics at Emory University; Radosh is a history professor at Adelphi. Photos. (Feb.)