Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies,.....Or... Joe McCarthy was more right than he ever knew

PBS Nova ^ | February 5, 2002 | Peter Tyson

[quietolong]

NOVA reveals startling new evidence that Soviet spies penetrated America's deepest secrets, including the Manhattan Project, in the 1940's. By cracking the code of Soviet diplomatic cables, the FBI was able to hunt down "atom spies" such as Klaus Fuchs and Julius Rosenberg. But the true "master spy," a physicist named Ted Hall, got away -- and his gripping story is presented for the first time by NOVA. Read Venona Intercepts By Peter Tyson

In 1995, the U.S. National Security Agency broke a half century of silence by releasing translations of Soviet cables decrypted back in the 1940s by the Venona Project. Venona was a top-secret U.S. effort to gather and decrypt messages sent in the 1940s by agents of what is now called the KGB and the GRU, the Soviet military intelligence agency. The cables revealed the identities of numerous Americans who were spies for the Soviet Union, including those chronicled in NOVA's "Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies."

The four Venona cables presented here provide striking evidence of the covert activities of several atomic-era spies, including Klaus Fuchs, Julius Rosenberg, and Theodore Alvin Hall. Through the cables and accompanying stories, peer through the keyhole into the secret lives of these and other agents, who gave away details of the atomic bomb and other highly sensitive technologies. Watch for code words such as "Enormous," which stood for the Manhattan Project, America's atomic-bomb program

Link to Nova web sight on this show

[Diago]

This thread deserves a second life.

[quietolong]

Venona Project Homepage, NSA (Decrypted Soviet Cables, Coulter source for Treason book)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/935929/posts

[quietolong]

Introduction to the VENONA Project

http://www.nsa.gov/docs/venona/

[hosepipe]

[ Interesting article,but the author is wrong in one premise. Being a Soviet communist spy does NOT mean you are not also a "Democrat to the bone".In fact,it could be considered to be additional evidence. ]

"...I would like to be clearly understood...we, the Soviet people, are for socialism.... We want more socialism and, therefore, more democracy." Mikhail Gorbachev

"Socialism has a bad name in America, and no amount of wishful thinking on the part of the left is going to change that.... The words Economic Democracy are an adequate and effective replacement." Derek Shearer cited in Reason 1982

[MEG33]

mark

[WOSG]

I had the exact same reaction you had.

"They seem to claim that because the Soviets never actually named Ethel Rosenberg as an "agent" in any of their cable traffic or in the Moscow archives, she is not guilty of espionage. But she is identified as Julius' wife (she did not have a code name, he was code named LIBERAL) and in context it is pretty clear that she was an active participant, and so recognized by Moscow."

She was a spy, and they show she was complicit, but then they try to be sympathetic to her, like the FBI went too far and claim her life might have been spared "if the venona files were public". Nonsense. She deserved it.

The real problem is that others deserved it more (Ted Hall) and got away.

Their bashing of McCarthy was incongruous, non-factual and irrelevent. How do they know McCarthy would have publicized Venona secrets? McCarthy kept his own hearings secret until the other side demanded they be public.

[CyberAnt]

PBS - NOVA ..?? WOW !! What's the name of the program - I'll watch for it - this is great! It definitely proves Ann Coulter's assertion that McCarthy knew the truth - and the DEMOCRATS hid it by using the POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION. So what else is new!!

[quietolong]

Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies

Watch it if you can in rerun. It's a good show.

I still don't think McCarthy knew what he was on to.

[quietolong]

VENONA
The Cold War's "Smoking Gun"

http://www.unc.edu/depts/diplomat/AD_Issues/amdipl_15/platt_15.html

[MEG33]

Must read bump!

[SoDak]

Or Economic Justice, Social Justice, and even Proressive.

[GOPJ]

Oldie but goodie bump

[MortMan]

Just to make sure that the so-called "blacklist" and McCarthy are completely separated (as they should be):

Senator McCarthy was never part of the House Unamerican Activities Committee. McCarthy was never anywhere near the "blacklist".

BTW - I'm not yelling at you, but I know there is a lot of confusion on this subject. The dumbing down of American education has taken its toll over the years.

[Little Ray]

The Nazis and Fascists are "right-wing" in that they are Nationalists (of which I approve) and "left-wing" in that they attempt to impose central control over the economy (something I really dislike!).
Basically they are just another group of totalitarians. If you want to figure the difference: Nazis and Fascists are Nationalis Socialists, and Commies are International Socialists.

[SkyPilot]

Senator McCarthy was never part of the House Unamerican Activities Committee.

Gee, thanks. I never said he was.

[MortMan]

I know you didn't say it, SkyPilot. I just wanted to inject the info to make sure those less knowledgeable didn'tmake that fundamental mistake. I guess I'm just riled up this morning - more caffeine might help (I hope:).

[lentulusgracchus]

Well, it's true that socialists tend less to be nationalists than Rightists, but I think the criterion of socialism is still the touchstone.

German National Socialists, btw, didn't insist on formally owning all the means of production. They just appointed people like Fritz Todt and Albert Speer to control them.......which btw is what FDR did over here, and even went so far as to have troops throw Mr. Avery, chairman of Montgomery Ward I think it was, out of his own office, to make his point -- that everyone had to toe the mark and pull together for Victory. Stalin would have had the guy shot, but the end result was the same.

And the idea of controlling property without owning it has been voguish in the U.S. Left for a while: Barry Commoner ran for President in 1980, as you may recall, and he made that same idea his own: we'll let people continue to own property -- we'll just separate them from control, which we'll exert to turn capital to public purposes. Broadcasting that idea netted Commoner a lot of appeals from liberals to shut up -- he was letting their favorite cat out of the bag!

Whether they are outright Communists or corporatist fascists like the Nazis who permit a private sphere to continue in existence under State controls and intervention, socialists are all still parties of Government Control and are therefore leftist, IMHO.

[lentulusgracchus]

[CyberAnt] It definitely proves Ann Coulter's assertion that McCarthy knew the truth - and the DEMOCRATS hid it by using the POLITICS OF PERSONAL DESTRUCTION. So what else is new!!

What I would like to know is, why did Liberals turn on McCarthy and set out deliberately to destroy him?

Because he was an alcoholic? Lots of alcoholics in the Congress.

Because he was a Republican? They liked Arthur Vandenburg and Dwight Eisenhower just fine.

Because he dealt in innuendo like J. Edgar Hoover did?

I still don't see an obvious peg. It had to have been cultural, the fact that he was a boostrapper, a nobody. It had to be pride of place, and snobbery.

[SkyPilot]

No problem, I have had a bad day too.

[CyberAnt]

The dems hated and went after McCarthy because he exposed their darling communist Alger Hiss. That's according to Ann.

And .. the reason the dems hated and went after Nixon was because he was a member of the House UnAmerican Activities Committee, and outed all the Hollyweird people.