Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies (2002)
Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies (2002) This episode of the PBS Nova series exposes how atomic bomb secrets were relayed to the Soviet Union at the start of the Cold War. The film offers a surprising and informative look into previously classified U.S. surveillance, counterintelligence, and code-breaking. The decrypted “Venona transcripts” reveal that Soviet agents had penetrated virtually every part of the U.S. federal government by the late 1940s. The espionage activities of Klaus Fuchs, Julius Rosenberg, and Theodore Hall are given special focus. Ultimately, the film is a rebuttal to the conventional wisdom that the U.S. was gripped by an irrational “Red Scare” in the 1940s and 1950s. Venona, later confirmed by Soviet records made public after the fall of the USSR, demonstrates how American anticommunist fears were grounded in a measure of reality. However, Venona remained classified for years and was not made available for prosecutors to use as evidence; as a result, the most flagrant Soviet spies were never tried, while low-level agents who were easier to prosecute received the harshest punishments.
The documentary possesses nothing special in terms of visuals. It relies heavily on black-and-white still photographs and archival film footage. Simple computer-generated graphics are used to illustrate code-breaking and how an atomic bomb functions. Presentation is also straightforward and traditional. Explanations are provided through voice-over narration. From time to time, on-screen commentators offer extra insights. Particularly intriguing is the surviving wife of one of the Soviet moles; she still energetically defends why her late husband did what he did. Not all of the film, unfortunately, is so lively: Segments on the mathematics of code-breaking may be too technical and run too long for the tastes of viewers more interested in the historical angle.
The total running time is just under 60 minutes. The film could fit into one full class period in most secondary or college classrooms. Unfortunately, this episode is not available on DVD—educators who want to show parts of the
film in class would have to play it with a VCR and manually fast-forward. It is definitely worth using in the classroom as a counterpoint to how the Cold War on the U.S. home front in the 1950s is commonly portrayed in history textbooks, which usually emphasize the reckless and mostly baseless charges of demagogues like McCarthy while overlooking the real nature of the Soviet spy threat.
Scott Metzger Pennsylvania State University sam59@psu.edu
Secrets, Lies & Atomic Spies (NOVA/WGBH, 2002) This documentary adds modestly to what recently has been revealed about VENONA, America’s decryption of some wartime Soviet messages, and how this relates to what we knew about Americans who provided Los Alamos atomic secrets to the Soviets. John Earle Haynes’ and Harvey Klehr’s Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (2000) is the best single account of a period on which definitive information has yet to be produced from Soviet and U. S. archives. Joseph Albright’s and Marcia Kunsdtel’s Bombshell: The Secret Story of America’s Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy (1997) describes, with considerable sympathy, the story of Ted Hall, perhaps the most important unindicted Los Alamos American spy for the Soviets.
The major contribution of this documentary is extensive interviews with individuals who actually worked on decrypting wartime VENONA intercepts,
With a colleague who worked with Mr. Hall, with FBI agents who interrogated Mr. Hall, and with Joan Hall, Ted Hall’s widow.
Mr. Hall was a brilliant young physicist who, as an army sergeant, had close proximity to major aspects of the secret Los Alamos atomic bomb project. As he expressed it, his concern that the United States would become a reactionary country after the war compelled him to pass on atomic secrets to the Soviets. After an amateurish approach to a New York NKGB agent, subsequently he delivered critical information that contributed to the Soviets exploding an atomic bomb in 1949, perhaps two years before they might have developed it independently.
The documentary focuses on the difficulties that Arlington Hall (the Army’s codebreaking unit) had in deciphering wartime Soviet messages. A cryptographer describes how the carelessness of Soviet code machine operators provided a breakthrough that enabled, in 1946, the reading of a small portion of Soviet messages intercepted in the early 1940s.
These fragmentary messages indicated that the Soviets had a number of American spies in diverse U. S. government agencies. [Though the figure over 300 is given, historians question what proportion of these individuals were actually spies rather than casual informants.] The most incendiary information related to individuals who leaked atomic secrets to the Soviets. In addition to Ted Hall, Karl Fuchs, Julius Rosenberg and David Greenglass were identified as Soviet spies. Ethel Rosenberg, Julius’s wife, seemed to be on the periphery of her husband’s activities.
The FBI pounced on this VENONA information. Because of the tight secrecy restrictions placed on VENONA decryptions, as well as the doubt that they would be admissible in court under the hearsay test for evidence, VENONA was not used in the prosecution of possible spies. Mr. Hall withstood various FBI interrogations and, ultimately, pursued a distinguish physics career in England. By contrast Julius and Ethel Rosenberg were sentenced to death. Based on VENONA messages, it seems likely that Ethel was not considered a spy by the Soviets.
Shortly before his death, Mr. Hall, in a televised interview, expressed no remorse for his treacherous actions. Joan Hill, his widow, interviewed for this documentary, expressed the view that his providing of atomic to the Soviets was a ‘humanitarian act.’ Sam Cohn, who had been Mr. Hill’s close colleague at Los Alamos, declared that Mr. Hill should have been court-martialed, then executed, for his treachery.
The documentary concludes with some general observations on the relationship between VENONA and the McCarthy spy scare of the 1950s. Though VENONA indicated that, at least in the 1940s, there had been a number of Americans spying for the Soviets, only two of the hundreds of persons that McCarthy had publicly attacked were mentioned in VENONA messages.
The documentary’s claim that VENONA was ‘the greatest intelligence coup in U. S. history’ is, in this writer’s opinion, an overstatement. VENONA did provide critical insights into a vexing period in American history. The outcome, however, was less monumental then, for example, the timely breaking of Japanese naval codes that led to the American smashing victory at Midway. Moreover, there may be other U. S. codebreaking successes of which the public is still unaware.
