Rebecca West, in her book "The New Meaning of Treason" (1964) demurred from the notion that Vassall was "a weak and silly little man ... This was unlikely to be the correct view of a man who for seven years had carried on an occupation demanding unremitting industry in a skilled craft carried on in clandestine conditions, an endless capacity for dissimulation, and sustained contempt for personal danger." West termed him, rather, "a professional spy, working within the conventions of his profession, [who had no more been blackmailed into the exercise of his profession than any lawyer". West suggested that the claim of blackmail was "putting up a smoke-screen to conceal what he had done." Observing that Vassall had been well paid by the Soviets for his spying, West wrote: "The drunken party may have taken place, but it was probably engineered so that Vassall might refer to it should his treachery ever be discovered ... Only a very stupid and helpless man would have succumbed a blackmail threat, and Vassall was not stupid; he was extremely resourceful."