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Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy

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What can be said about a man who in his youth followed his conscience, albeit rashly, and betrayed to another country the most devastating secrets of military weaponry the world had ever known? This is a difficult moral question, not easily answered. This book shows the roots of Ted Hall's thought processes, his naturally rebellious nature, and the reasons why he chose to spy against his own country in a time of war. It also shows that he was far from alone in his ultimate decision to do so. There are other questions that are almost as difficult to answer. Why was security ridiculously lax at the Los Alamos facilities? How did Ted Hall and others manage to escape discovery for so long? While one cannot condone what occurred, it is easy to see why intelligent people felt compelled not to allow such potent information to remain the exclusive property of any one country. The aftermath of this information's dissemination may indeed have spared us another world war, but it also foreshadowed the inevitable consequences of the McCarthy witchhunt and an uncontrolled arms race. This is one of the more informative chapters of history at last unconvered.

Beyond Fuchs et al, there had always been suspicions of an extra spy. Now we know. This is the gripping account of Ted Hall,code name Mlad, a teenage whiz kid who suddenly found himself at Los Alamos, savy enough to be at the dead center of bomb calculations, and deciding for idealistic reasons, refusing all payment, to share the secret of the atomic weapon with the Russians. Soon the a virtually complete description of how to construct a weapon is in the hands of the Communists. It is interesting that the original communication was decoded in the late forties, and that he was almost caught, but simply slipped through, until the opening of the archives after 1989.

4/28/99: Almost all histories of the Manhattan Project mention the quiet German refugee scientist, Klaus Fuchs, code name Charlz, who gave the Soviet Union a good working blueprint of the Nagasaki bomb. But a couple of weeks before Harry Gold picked up Fuch's information, KGB courier Lona Cohen met Ted Hall, code name Mlad ('youth'), in Albuquerque, and got an equally revealing description. BOMBSHELL fills in one of the major missing pieces of the puzzle of Soviet Espionage against the Manhatten Project. Now, if we can just find out who code names Pers, Kvant and Nejtron were, and what information Oppenheimer passed... Highly Recommended.

The authors present detailed and complex research very clearly and offer the reader a comprehensive study of one particular Manhattan project spy (Ted Hall). There are places, however, where history is turned into to sensationalism. Granted, this is meant to be a case study, but at times too much emphasis is placed on Hall's contribution to the spy network. One questions how important any individual person was in a secret operation so large. The authors fail to distance themselves from their subject and consequently do not write from a totally credible perspective.

Bombshell, J. Albright & M. Kunstel

The authors are former foreign correspondents for the Cox Newspapers. They received journalism awards for their investigative reporting, and live in Washington DC. The 1949 news of an atomic explosion in the USSR caused a surprise in Washington DC. How did this happen? Although the US used many scientists trained in Europe for the atomic bomb they imagined there was no nuclear science east of Berlin. [H.G. Wells used the phrase "atomic bomb" in a 1914 novel. Eric Ambler did the same in his 1935 novel.] There was scientific exchange of information before 1939, as there is today in uncensored sciences. The authors don't understand the real estate transaction where Mary Petka bought a home in 1915 then sold it to Walter for $1 in 1916 (p.19). Taxes then were based on "true value" so this deal meant the lowest possible house tax.

Chapter 5 tells about the life of Ted Hall. Was his contrariness a sign of a personality disorder? Or excess pride? Nuclear fission was observed in January 1939 (p.40). Would it provide vast new cheap energy? Chapter 6 describes the work of Morris Cohen and Lona Petka. Building an atomic bomb wasn't hard if you had "active material" (Chapter 8). The trick was to create a "critical mass" (p.64). Impurities in plutonium created spontaneous fission (p.70). The scientists discussed future plans for peace (p.86). Security meant to keep the secrets from enemies or friends (p.103). Uranium compounds were sent officially to Moscow in early 1943 (p.104)! The secret of the atomic bomb was the use of implosion to create a critical mass (Chapter 14). The atomic bomb was tested in July 16, then dropped on Hiroshima August 6 and Nagasaki August 15. The end of WW II saw the start of the Cold War. The Smyth Report had a pile of classified information (p.154). The information from Los Alamos allowed faster production (p.157).

Chapter 21 tells about the post-war years. Hall returned to spying. A former Junior College for Girls became the Army's code breaking base (Chapter 22). A copy of all overseas cable messages was given to the Army. The FBI supplied plain-text originals to the enciphered messages (p.207). Chapter 23 describes the search for spies. Hall and Sax became suspects; so did Edward Teller. The confession of Greenglass ended the Hall-Sax investigation (p.220). The Cohens were ordered to flee the country for safety (Chapter 24). Hall ended his connections in July 1953 when the Soviets tested their hydrogen bomb (Chapter 25). The Cohens were caught in 1961 England operating as spy-masters (Chapter 26). [What about those old pictures of the Cohens said to be found in Rudolf Abel's possessions (p.253)? I think they were planted to bring publicity from their discovery.]

Chapter 28 tells about the last years of the Cohens/Krogers. They were part of a documentary for British television (p.274). Information on the first American bomb was censored as it could allow a small nation to duplicate it (p.275). Investigations led to the exposure of Ted Hall (Chapter 29). What could have happened without a balance of power (p.283)? Why did more than 100 people pass on secrets in 1944-1945 (p.286)? Chapter 30 has Hall's justifications. "Sources and Methods" explain how their reporting led to this book.

The 1945 movie "The House on 92nd Street" is a good drama about safeguarding the secret of the atomic bomb. Its entertainment, not history.

I was fascinated by both the topic & the depth of the research that was done to compile this outstanding book. One can't help but to explore the possibilities, had this action not taken place.

But this is an excellent book, save for Madeleine Albright's ex-hubby's studied "objectivity"...

To understand the motivation of those Americans who chose to betray their country for the sake of one of the 20th century's worst monsters, Uncle Joe Stalin, is almost unexplainable. Yet Joe Albright and Marcia Kunstel, his (current) wife do an admirable job in explaining why a toady, a pathetic self-righteous "intellectual" by the name of Ted Hall chose to turn over the secrets of Los Alamos and the Nagasaki A-bomb to the Soviet Union.

In doing so, the Albrights also uncover the story of the parallel Rosenberg spy ring, the one headed by Lincoln Brigade veteran Morris Cohen. Cohen and his wife, two of the most despicable people to ever be born in this country, chose a creed no better than Nazism to betray both their country and their people - the Jews of America, as did Hall. Cohen, who truly believed that the future of the world was better off in the hands of Stalin, went to Spain to fight Fascism but ended up becoming a Fascist himself. Wounded in action, he was co-opted to Soviet Intelligence along with several other Lincoln brigaders. The Hitler-Stalin Pact never fazed him, nor Hall, and like the Rosenbergs they didn't care about betraying the America that ensured their freedoms and those of their families. Indeed, when the Rosenbergs were arrested, Cohen and his equally obnoxious wife fled to their beloved Russia.

The justification? According the commentary attributed to both Hall and the late, unlamented Cohen scum, they felt that with the Soviet Union also possessing the A-Bomb it would be prevent an aggressive Capitalist America from pre-empting nuclear war on both the Soviet Union and China. Indeed, Hall, the scientist who handed over the secrets to the Cohens, was passionate in his belief that he prevented the dropping of the bomb on China in 1949. Ironically, Cohen's buddy in the Lincoln brigade, one Jack Bjoze, who is also quoted in this book, also feels the same way. Of course Mao was such a benevolent agarian reformer.

The book is a well-written read, but one gets sickened when confronted with the depravity and moral cowardice of a weasel like Hall and by his traitor pal Cohen who put Stalin above all including Washington, Lincoln, and everything good about America. Unlike the majority of the Lincolns who later left the Party or at least were honest and open about their Communist affiliations, Cohen comes across as a stool pigeon, a toady, and a servile lackey of Stalin. Ironically, and outrageously, the so-called Democrat Boris Yeltsin named Soviet spy Cohen, before he passed on - too late for the good of the world - a hero of Russia. So much for Yeltsin being America's friend.

The Albrights can also be faulted for not portraying Ted Hall and his friends as what they were - they prefer objectivity and letting history decide, in effect giving Hall a pass. In reading "Bombshell" one fervently wishes that Hall and the Cohens were dealt with American justice - at least they would have had their day in court, unlike the hapless masses in Eastern Europe during the Stalin era.

While there might not have been mushroom clouds over American, Soviet and Chinese cities, there were indeed the captive nations of Eastern Europe, the icy dread of the Gulag, the savage purges of Stalin, the hell on earth known as North Korea, and the repressive entity known as Castro's Cuba. Not to mention the thousands of American boys who died on the battlefields of Korea and Vietnam because our leaders were (rightly) concerned over the nuclear armed Communist nations - and still must be today. Not surprisingly both Hall and the Cohens would later express solidarity with Yasser Arafat and Palestinian terrorism. Watch your blood pressure while reading this book about some of the worst traitors in American history.

Interesting book, well written. Fascinating. Fills gaps in my appreciation of 20th Century history.