Louis Budenz was born in 1891 and died in 1972. He was a labor activist who joined the Communist Party USA, became managing editor of the Party’s newspaper, Daily Worker, and then became a Soviet spy. In 1945 he renounced communism, testifying under oath about communist subversion and espionage. He wrote books in which he attempted to warn the American people about the dangers of communism. In 1965 Louis Budenz said, “The record of the past thirty years … cannot be depicted as a happy or encouraging one. Since recognition of the Bolshevik Revolution by the United States, the history of the period is dotted with American setbacks….” If Budenz were alive today, he would describe the last thirty years in similar terms.
