Espionage
This true story deals with the real issue of political espionage. A government operates at high levels by managing the flow of information between the departments of the government, but when Chambers reveals his involvement in a government conspiracy, it is revealed that the spy operation has been successfully gleaning information from the Secretary of the State's office, the Secretary of the Treasury's office, and even the military.
Ignorance and innocence
From Chambers point of view, his argument might hold some water. As a young guy, he saw the damage that political corruption and warfare had caused in Germany, and he identified with the voice of the people there, but when he returned to the US, his loyal had shifted. Chambers eventually allowed himself to become manipulable, and he lived a lie as a spy for Russia, and it took him a long time to ever realize that perhaps Russian Communism was broken and corrupt, just like American Capitalism.
Communism vs the free market
This is a historical demonstration of the battle between two different economic points of view. In the Communist model, the government controls industries and companies, ensuring equal, egalitarian payment to all the working class (like Marxism). But in the free market, companies only have to follow federal rules, and often, big businesses lobby to shape legislation.
This book shows that these two ways of life were competing against one another, because Russia and the US were (and have continued to be) in political tension. As this book illustrates, the Americans became incredibly paranoid that perhaps the Russians were planning to threaten their way of life. People like Chambers certainly didn't help, because instead of having meaningful conversations about the pros and cons of different economic options, the world eventually spiraled into perpetual paranoia (the Cold War) because the US and Russia spied on each other.
