the most productive operations in thernUnited States, told a group of high-rankingrnKGB officers in Moscow that as importantrnas Alger Hiss was to the SovietrnUnion, another Soviet agent in thernAmerican administration—within thernWhite House, no less—was even morernimportant. That agent was Harry Hopkins,rntop advisor to and confidant of Roosevelt,rnand widely called “the assistantrnPresident” in the United States at therntime.rnHarry Hopkins represented the Presidentrnon numerous important foreignrnmissions and actually lived in the WhiternHouse for a time, so close was he to thernPresident. Such a figure would be thernjewel in the crown of any intelligencernservice. Interestingly, some of Hopkins’rnquestionable activities were revealed afterrnthe war by Lieutenant General LesliernGroves, former head of the “ManhattanrnProject,” the wartime atomic bomb effort,rnand by Major George Racey Jordan,rnArmy Air Corps, who had been liaisonrnofficer to the Soviets at an American airrnbase from which much Lend-Lease materialrnwas shipped to the Soviet Union.rnAccording to Groves, Hopkins, as headrnof Lend-Lease, had actually sent uraniumrn(highly classified at the time) to thernSoviets. Major Jordan confirmed this.rnWe now have the shipping document tornprove it. The Soviets, when the espionagerntook place, were not even supposedrnto know of our atomic development,rnmuch less receive Americanrnuranium for their own atomic bomb program.rnIt is no wonder the Soviets consideredrnHopkins a more important agentrnthan even Hiss.rnThe question of improper Ghinese influencernin Washington today, particularlyrnin the White House, is justly disturbing.rnBut just as disturbing are thernconstitutional problems highlighted byrnthis scandal. According to Senator ArlenrnSpecter (R-PA), chairman of the SenaternJudiciary Gommittee, “Attorney GeneralrnJanet Reno testified … before the SenaternJudiciary Gommittee that the FBI hadrnwithheld national security informationrnfrom the President because he is a potentialrnsubject in a pending investigation.rnThat revelation has critical implicationsrnfor our constitutional government.”rnGovernments exert influence on otherrngovernments all the time. The essentialrnquestion is how they go about it.rnThere are degrees of impropriety, afterrnall. In the Chinese influence case,rnmuch depends on what, if any, laws werernbroken and who broke them. The mostrnculpable will probably turn out to be thernAmericans who franslated Ghinese influencerninto American policy, if that is whatrnhappened.rnThere are probably not dedicated,rncommunist agents in high places inrnWashington like there were in the 1930’srnand 40’s. Errant administration officialsrntoday are more likely bedeviled by poorrnethics than motivated by treason andrntreachery, too obsessed with reelectionrnconcerns and short-term political advantage.rnIf, however, the investigations dragrnon and obstruction continues, the questionrnwill arise: Has America been betrayedrnas it was half a century ago? Is this,rnin the immortal words of Yogi Berra,rn”Deja vu, all over again”?rnLawrence B. Sulc was a C.I.A. operationsrnofficer for 23 years.rnPOLITICSrnThe Yugoslav GodrnThat Failedrnby Alex N. DragnichrnThe fate of one family rarely mattersrnexcept to those directly involved.rnYet family histories—often tragediescanrnsometimes tell us a great deal aboutrna nation’s social fabric. One such storyrninvolves my aunt, Vida Knezevich Kontichrn—my mother’s older sister—and herrnfamily. Their fate was never far fromrnmind during my diplomatic assignmentrnwith the American Embassy in Yugoslaviarnand many years of teaching andrnwriting about communist systems.rnI met the Kontiches when I first visitedrnYugoslavia in the summer of 1939, whilernI was a graduate student at the Universityrnof California at Berkeley. Aunt Vida,rngarbed in black, was widowed; her husbandrnhad been killed during World WarrnI. They lived in poverty after the war inrntheir native Montenegro. When Vidarnlearned that Yugoslavia’s monarch. KingrnAlexander I Karadjordjevich, would bernvisiting the capital, Getinje, she traveledrnto see him. Alexander walked amongrnthose present, and shook hands with Vidarnand asked her how she was. Whenrnshe told him that her husband had beenrnkilled in the war and that she neededrnhelp with her four small children, hernpromised her a pension, which she soonrnreceived. I never did learn when or whyrnshe moved to Belgrade, but it was a movernthat provided some education andrnprogress for her children.rnThe 1939 visit was largely social, althoughrnI detected a critical attitude towardrnthe government of Prince RegentrnPaul, Alexander’s first cousin. Paul becamernfirst regent after Alexander was assassinatedrnduring a state visit to France inrn1934. The assassination was plotted byrnCroatian extremists, followers of Ustashirnleader Ante Pavelic, then living in selfimposedrnexile in Mussolini’s Italy.rnThe Kontiches seemed to have some reverentialrnfeeling toward the departedrnmonarch, but none toward Paul and hisrnwife, Olga, whom they accused of wantingrnto become king and queen.rnMy cousins and I went to local cafesrnseveral times, where we smoked andrndrank beer and Serbian coffees. My relativesrnwere not rich, but they seemed ofrnmoderate means. They appeared to enjoyrnour visit, but what they did not tellrnme—what I was to learn only afterrnWorld War II—was that they were membersrnof the outlawed Yugoslav CommunistrnParty. I never knew whether AuntrnVida was actually a member, but herrnsons and daughter were.rnCousin Danica and I exchanged a fewrnletters before Hitier and Mussolini destroyedrnthe first Yugoslavia in April 1941.rnThere were no contacts with my relativesrnduring the war years. Then in 1947,rnshortly before I was to leave for Belgradernas cultural attache in the American Embassy,rnI received a letter from Danica. Itrnwas full of praise for Tito’s communistrnregime. Among other things, she saidrnthat the only place outside Yugoslaviarnthat she might like to visit was the SovietrnUnion, “the first workers’ state.”rnMy wife, Adele, and our three smallrnchildren arrived in Belgrade in November.rnJudging by the shortages and the rationingrnof food, we were sure that thernKontiches could use some help. Theyrndid not have a phone, but we had an address.rnOne evening my wife and I tookrnsome sacks of food items and had an embassyrncar drop us at the Kontich address,rnwith a request that the driver call for us inrnan hour.rnTheir apartment was near the Belgradernrailway station, a poor section ofrnthe city. After walking up four flights ofrnJANUARY 1998/43rnrnrn