The Corner

Vlasov

One of the junior OSS operatives charged with guarding, then handing over the Vlasovites, was William Sloane Coffin. He described the episode in his memoirs, and identifies his guilt as one of the reasons for his later distrust of the American government during the Vietnam War. When I reviewed the book for NR, I acknowledged the power of his description, but lamented the fact that his initial error helped Stalin, while his penance helped Ho Chi Minh.

Historian Richard Brookhiser is a senior editor of National Review and a senior fellow at the National Review Institute.
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