Un-American Activities

Drawing on FBI and other once-classified security files, this important biography tells the story of a tragic life in a tragic era in American history. William Remington was a promising young government official from 1940 to 1949, serving on various wartime boards, the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and eventually as a major official in the Department of Commerce. In 1948 he was accused by Elizabeth Bentley, an admitted former Communist and Soviet spy turned state's...
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Drawing on FBI and other once-classified security files, this important biography tells the story of a tragic life in a tragic era in American history. William Remington was a promising young government official from 1940 to 1949, serving on various wartime boards, the President's Council of Economic Advisers, and eventually as a major official in the Department of Commerce. In 1948 he was accused by Elizabeth Bentley, an admitted former Communist and Soviet spy turned state's evidence, of having given her classified military data. Remington was forced to appear before a Government Loyalty Review Board, which exonerated him. He was later indicted, however, by a grand jury whose foreman was secretly helping Bentley to prepare her memoirs, and the key witness against Remington was his ex-wife. Remington denied the espionage charges but was then indicted for perjury. He was convicted and sent to a federal penitentiary, where a year and half later he was murdered by three inmates under suspicious circumstances. Shedding new light on the political crisis of the anti-Communist era in America, May uncovers evidence the government was guilty of major improprieties, if not illegalities, in pursuing its case against Remington, while Remington himself was probably guilty of both perjury and espionage.