Book Reviews : Agents of Deceit: Frauds, Forgeries, and Political Intrigue Among Nations. By PAUL W. BLACKSTOCK. (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1966. Pp. 315. $6.50.)

• Date: 01 December 1966
• Published date: 01 December 1966
• DOI: 10.1177/106591296601900413
• Subject Matter: Articles

735
this ideal will be universalized. A fresh appraisal of our own institutions, however,
is required. Democracy cannot be meaningful unless it realizes its libertarian
beliefs more completely.&dquo;
CONRAD JOYNER
University of Arizona
Agents of Deceit: Frauds, Forgeries, and Political Intrigue Among Nations. By
PAUL W. BLACKSTOCK. (Chicago: Quadrangle Books, 1966. Pp. 315. $6.50.)
Frauds, forgeries, and political intrigues among nations have always been a
part of the international scene. No~ doubt some of these have been completely
harmless. But -
although governments have never fallen and other world-shaking
events have not occurred because of them - public opinion has often been so
greatly disturbed as to generate ill-feeling toward peoples of other nations.
One of the best examples cited in Blackstock’s book is the Testament of Peter
the Great. This document is completely fraudulent, yet has been revived numerous
times in the last 240 years to direct hatred against Russia - in Poland in 1795,
as a French memoir in 1836, by the Anti-Bolsheviks in 1917, and in anticommunist
nations in 1947. At these times there were many people who would have liked this
Testament to be authentic. Today some would use it as proof that Russian foreign
policy has always favored aggression and that the Communists are no different
from the Czars.
How such documents as the Testament of Peter the Great get written and
how they are used is the subject of Agents of Deceit. Some efforts emanated from
6migr6s who could not find work in their newly adopted countries and turned to
writing propaganda for their old countries’ causes. Others resulted from more
complex causes, conditions, and events. Among other documents discussed in this
book are the Penkovskiy Papers, the Sisson Documents, the Zinoviev letter, the
Protocols of Zion, and the Bacteriological Warfare Fraud.
This book is not one which should have wide popular appeal. It is too detailed
and complex. However, for the scholar it...