Antony C. Sutton

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Antony Cyril Sutton (February 14, 1925 - June 17, 2002) was a British-born economist, historian, and writer. He was educated at the universities of London, Göttingen, and California. He was a research fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution from 1968 to 1973.

Sutton published many books, including Wall Street and the Rise of Hitler, Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (in three volumes), and The Best Enemy Money Can Buy and was (in Sutton's own words) "persecuted but never prosecuted" for his research and subsequent publication of his findings.

In 1968, Sutton wrote Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development, which was first published by the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. Sutton alleged that the Soviet Union's technological and manufacturing base -- which was then engaged in supplying the Viet Cong -- was built by United States corporations and largely funded by US taxpayers. Steel and iron plants, the GAZ automobile factory, and many other Soviet industrial enterprises were, according to Sutton, built with the help or technical assistance of the United States or U.S. corporations. He alleged further that the Soviet Union's acquisition of MIRV technology was made possible by receiving (from U.S. sources) machining equipment for the manufacture of precision ball bearings, necessary to mass-produce MIRV-enabled missiles.

In the early 1980s, using membership lists purportedly revealing the historical membership of Yale's Skull and Bones society, dating from 1832 -- which Sutton said he received from an anonymous source -- he speculated about political and economic relationships underlying significant historical events, from which he extrapolated the apparent purpose of these relationships. He published these conclusions as America's Secret Establishment: An Introduction to the Order of Skull and Bones -- which, according to Sutton, was his most important work.

Professor Richard Pipes, of Harvard, said in his book, Survival Is Not Enough: Soviet Realities and America's Future (Simon & Schuster;1984):

"In his three-volume detailed account of Soviet Purchases of Western Equipment and Technology ... "Sutton comes to conclusions that are uncomfortable for many businessmen and economists. For this reason his work tends to be either dismissed out of hand as 'extreme' or, more often, simply ignored."