I recommend Malcolm Muggeridge&#x27;s autobiography for a compelling look at the circle of Western journalists in Moscow in the &#x27;20s and &#x27;30s, of which Muggeridge was a part.  Scott Alexander has a good review:<p><a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;08&#x2F;11&#x2F;book-review-chronicles-of-wasted-time&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;slatestarcodex.com&#x2F;2015&#x2F;08&#x2F;11&#x2F;book-review-chronicles-...</a><p>You either stayed in that circle or dropped out; there was no in-between.  Of the reporters listed in the link, W.H. Chamberlin is the only other one who defected.  Duranty (whose Pulitzer the NYT still refuses to return) was the norm, not the exception.<p>Also note that Thompson was part of the most bloodthirsty wing of New Dealists (eg, Rex Stout, also seen in the link) who supported prewar and postwar anti-German atrocities.  It was certainly Nazi policy from 1941-45 to kill as many Jews as physically possible, but it was also Allied policy from 1941-45 to kill as many Germans as physically possible -- and that policy by no means stopped on a dime in May 1945:<p><a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Food_in_occupied_Germany" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Food_in_occupied_Germany</a><p>A real and complete moral reckoning for the period has yet to come, and will be more interested in <i>our</i> crimes than those of our defeated enemies.