The power that Communist thought had over the European elite, and the American media was palpable.
The media then influenced the people, and what resulted did irreparable damage to this country........which was their intent.
The KGB/Communist operatives had far more success in damaging America than most people realize. This is just further evidence.
Some, not all, of the students in the long haired hippie college I went to in the late 60's clearly bought into these lies, with great energy. They hated 'the man' and distrusted the government, and this played into it well.
And even now, my mother-in-law here on the left coast, who is in her early 80's, shows off to me the peace signs she makes for the demonstrations she goes to, and her husband explains how Israel has blown any chance they have their own nation by imprisoning and terrorizing the poor Palestinians for the last 50 years.
By not recognizing the real dangers that these ideas have, their large capacity to mislead millions of people (my neighbors, my relatives, my fellow workers, my fellow students, ...), by discrediting the work of the KGB in helping to plant the seeds of these ideas as frivolous or exaggerations because clearly the KGB didn't have the direct power to order this (and if they did, we'd all be Communists now), you miss out on the real dangers we continue to face.
Wake up - we are at war - have been at war for a century now, and will continue to be at war with the faithless forces of terror and tyranny.