Transcript Venona
“Of spies and spin: Cold War politics and communist espionage” Newberry Teachers’ Consortium November 10, 2006 David Krugler, presenter Origins of the CPUSA Why did the USSR want to spy? Stalinist Valentine—creepy… Why did Soviet spying go undetected? •Lack of coordinated procedure •More worried about the Fascists Why did people spy? • Greed • True believers in communism • Nationalism • Arrogance, the glory of spying Spies for the Soviet Union Lawrence Duggan a.k.a KNYaZ •State Department •Found out in 1948, jumped out of a building in NYC •Some say he was murdered Congressman(!) Samuel Dickstein •a.k.a CROOK •Took bribes, spied for money •Made $150,000 (2006 dollars) Harry Dexter White • Top official in the Treasury Department • Used spy Nathan Gregory Silvermaster to pass documents & information • In 1944, he told the Soviets that Vice President Henry Wallace and Secretary of State Cordell Hull had discussed giving the USSR a $5 billion loan Atomic spy Klaus Fuchs David & Ruth Greenglass Julius and Ethel Rosenberg • Photograph taken during a court appearance, August 23, 1950 • The Rosenbergs were executed in June, 1953 • Their two young sons were left orphans Theodore Alvin Hall • Hall graduated from Harvard at age 18 • Both he and his roommate were communists • The Manhattan Project recruited Hall; he then offered his services to the Soviets Elizabeth Bentley • Graduate of Vassar and Columbia • Joined CPUSA in 1935 • She worked as a courier • In 1945, she “defected” & became a FBI informant Whittaker Chambers Chambers shown at his desk at Time Magazine Alger Hiss, a.k.a “ALES” • Hiss testifying before HUAC in August 1948 • Hiss emphatically denied passing government documents to Chambers Hiss on stage with President Harry S. Truman, 1945 Congressman Richard Nixon reviewing the “Pumpkin Papers” provided by Chambers Venona Uncovering the secrets of Soviet espionage in the 1940s Venona was an extraordinary decoding operation that remained secret for 50 years • It “broke” the code to 3000 Soviet messages—more than 5000 pages of text • Begun in 1943 as a wartime precaution, Venona did not decode messages until 1946 • Thanks to Venona, the US uncovered the depth of and damage caused by Soviet espionage Venona Shows that Hiss is Guilty Soviet encryption and encoding • Text converted into 4 digit numerical codes • Codebooks were like dictionaries, except they converted words into numbers [Following examples taken from John Earl Haynes and Harvey Klehr, Venona: Decoding Soviet Espionage in America (Yale University Press, 1999), 26-28] Example of 4 digit coding PILOT DELIVERED REPORT ABOUT FUEL 7934 2157 1139 3872 2166 Conversion into 5 digit sets Pilot delivered report about fuel 7934 2157 1139 3872 2166 79342 15711 39387 22166 One-Time Pads Each page has 60 five digit groups Sending clerk uses “cue” group: first group from the upper left-hand corner of the first page Groups are paired, then added . . . Adding the numbers Codebook One-time pad 79342 15711 39387 22166 26473 56328 29731 35682 23798 (cue group) Enciphered 26473 25660 34442 64969 45854 message Numbers then converted into letters 1. = I 2. 3. 4. 5. = = = = U Z T R 6. = E 7.= W 8.= A 9.= P 0.= O Our message thus becomes . . . UETWZ UREEO ZTTTU ETPEP TRART Receiving clerk then . . . • Converts letters back into numbers • Using cue group, consults the proper onetime pad • Subtracts the pad groupings to produce the original five digit sets • Slides the 5th number back to the preceding set. • Consults the code book . . . . . . . and is able to read the message: “PILOT delivered report about fuel” Venona and McCarthy Telegram and Wheeling Speech Truman’s Response (unsent?)