Clever Girl: Elizabeth Bentley, the Spy Who Ushered in the McCarthy Era

This is the story of Elizabeth Turrill Bentley. No one suspected a "well-bred, Vassar educated descendent of Puritan Clergy" would join a communist party and run "two of the most productive spy rings in America." That is exactly what Bentley, code name Clever Girl, did. Equally unexpected was her transformation from spy to FBI informant. It all started in March of 1935 when Bentley was lured to an American League Against War and Fascism meeting by a neighbour. It turned out to be a front for the Communist Party. Kessler's descriptions draw the reader into the setting and give an idea of the atmosphere, as well as Bentley's mentality. Clever Girl attempts to shed light on the motivations of the most important woman to affect the McCarthy Era. Bentley's early dealings with the party made her feel important and independent. She lived in a one room apartment and was unemployed. She was lonely. Going to meetings may have started off as a social event but it turned into something more. A calling. She was impressionable. In the opening chapter I felt she had been brainwashed and lured into the fold because of her loneliness, desire to have a family and ties with others. Shortly after joining, Bentley met and fell in love with soviet handler Jacob Golos whom she affectionately called Yasha. Golos was the glue that attached Bentley to the party for years despite him not being as loyal to her. She let him interpret the world for her through his communist eyes. Regardless of what she gave up for him, it is because of her association with Golos she was able to move up through the ranks. After only 6 years (1935-1941), Bentley was running things. When it was discovered he was no longer in control she had to fight to maintain her status. She quickly became deemed a problem and after Golos death her status was taken away. Although Kessler doesn't come out and say it, I think this had more to do with her being a woman than the fact she was an American in a high ranking, Soviet spy position. When things started to look worse, she decided it as time to go to the FBI for help. In exchange Bentley named hundreds of Americans involved with the party. It is incomprehensible, the number of people who willingly supplied sensitive information from the Treasury Department to the party. It isn't so hard to believe or see the Soviet Union (the US wartime ally) as an "evil-doer" but what is difficult to believe is that Americans could be spies against their own country. What I found most interesting was not Bentley's plunge into the depths of communism but her relationship with the FBI and media after she became an informant; as well as her flip flop between a secure, independent woman of means and a neurotic paranoid, probably brought on by the alcohol abuse. Bentley played a game with both sides, never winning in either. She survived under a short-lived spotlight in each. Being an FBI informant wasn't as glamorous as being a Soviet spy. As a spy she basically

Liz Bentley was born in a society that had limited opportunities for women. In the 1930's with the Great Depression this Vassar graduate had only the socila outlet of the Communist party. Kessler documents the importance that Bentley played as a Communist spy. Indeed before this book was written I always had the impression she was a courier or a bit player. Kessler documents that when bentley's lover got sick that she ran the spy ring. I always thoguth of Communist espionage in the 1950's as male driven from Greenglass, Julius Rosenberg, Whittaker Chambers and Alger Hiss. But this book docwement without Bently the FBI would not had the collaboratiog evidence for the secret Venona intercepts. Because these tapes were secret ,Bentley had no collaboration and only one person -William remington went to jail arising directly fromn her accusations. Bentley had to endure the hatred of the far left for being a rat , a liar and worse. She contributed to rise of McCarthy and for J Edgar Hoover getting more powerful. Benley was years ahead of herself -running a businees (admitedly a Communist front). She was sexually expressive and her lover -Jakob Golos (whom was married) was her boss in epsionage. Benley exposed 2 spy rings the Perlo and Silvermaster ring and in doing so performed a patriotic duty. Where I fault this book is that more details on the spy ring could have been given. Kessler seems to weant to defend Bentley against the far left but is uncomfortable delineating the extent of Soviet infiltration of the US Government. Such a thing sounds like McCarthyism (proof of the validity) and she may be showing her poltical bias in not making this connection. This book is a quick read and gives this fascinating part of US history. This book should be included in a Women's Study group.

Although the life of Elizabeth Bently deserves a bigger book, I enjoyed this first biography of the enigmatic but fascinating commie spy, Elizabeth Bently. The author attempts to explain this Vassar educated American woman who became a Russian spy, but Bently still remains a vague phantom. Since I'm fascinated by that whole period--of Joe McCarthy, Alger Hiss, the shocking presence of real-life commnists in American government back in the 30s and 40s--I found this book very readable. You might also enjoy related books, especially Ann Coulter's best-selling, "Treason," which really delivers the goods about how the Communist scare of the 40s and 50s was not the imaginary fear of paranoid Americans. It really was something to cause genuine fear. Elizabeth Bently revealed just have intensive this spy network was.

The subject of the book is hard to understand, even with all the facts laid out so admirably. Kessler's writing style commands attention without getting in the way of the facts, but those facts are so twisting that at times even the most diligent student of history may be confused. That's a small quible, however, in an overarching work of vigor and suspense. Well worth a read.