“Of spies and spin: Cold War politics and communist espionage”

1. “Of spies and spin: Cold War politics and communist espionage” Newberry Teachers’ Consortium November 10, 2006 David Krugler, presenter

2. Origins of the CPUSA

3. Why did the USSR want to spy? Stalinist Valentine—creepy…

4. Why did Soviet spying go undetected? • Lack of coordinated procedure • More worried about the Fascists

5. Why did people spy? • Greed • True believers in communism • Nationalism • Arrogance, the glory of spying

6. Spies for the Soviet Union

7. Lawrence Duggan a.k.a KNYaZ • State Department • Found out in 1948, jumped out of a building in NYC • Some say he was murdered

8. Congressman(!) Samuel Dickstein • a.k.a CROOK • Took bribes, spied for money • Made $150,000 (2006 dollars)

9. 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

10. Atomic spy Klaus Fuchs

11. David & Ruth Greenglass

12. 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

13. 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

14. Elizabeth Bentley • Graduate of Vassar and Columbia • Joined CPUSA in 1935 • She worked as a courier • In 1945, she “defected” & became a FBI informant

15. Whittaker Chambers Chambers shown at his desk at Time Magazine

16. Alger Hiss, a.k.a “ALES” • Hiss testifying before HUAC in August 1948 • Hiss emphatically denied passing government documents to Chambers

17. Hiss on stage with President Harry S. Truman, 1945

18. Congressman Richard Nixon reviewing the “Pumpkin Papers” provided by Chambers

19. Venona Uncovering the secrets of Soviet espionage in the 1940s

20. 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

21. Venona Shows that Hiss is Guilty

22. 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]

23. Example of 4 digit coding

24. Conversion into 5 digit sets

25. 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 . . .

26. Adding the numbers

27. = I = U = Z = T = R 6. = E 7. = W 8. = A 9. = P 0. = O Numbers then converted into letters

28. Our message thus becomes . . . UETWZ UREEO ZTTTU ETPEP TRART

29. Receiving clerk then . . . • Converts letters back into numbers • Using cue group, consults the proper one-time 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 . . . .

30. . . . and is able to read the message: “PILOT delivered report about fuel”

31. Venona and McCarthy

32. Telegram and Wheeling Speech

38. Truman’s Response (unsent?)