NCJ Number
156029
Date Published
1995
Length
350 pages
Annotation
Based on the author's (Robert J. Lamphere) work with the FBI, this book traces the history of the FBI's efforts to identify Russian KGB agents in the United States following World War II.
Abstract
Although the FBI knew that KGB networks were active in the United States following World War II, based on their deeds, their names had not been identified. This book tells the story of how those names became known to the FBI and how the persons were called to account. Following World War II, FBI Special Agent Robert J. Lamphere had the task of uncovering the extensive American networks of the KGB. He used a large file of secret Russian messages intercepted during the war. This book details how those messages were finally decoded to lead to such persons as Judith Coplon, Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg. Lamphere reveals, for example, how the FBI first learned of the Rosenbergs' network, even before the FBI knew their names. He tells why the KGB, not the FBI, wanted the Rosenbergs dead; why Judith Coplon is still under indictment; how Burgess, Maclean, and Philby were exposed as spies and Philby's true role in compromising the FBI's case; and how Fuchs finally identified Harry Gold to Lamphere and not the British, who had him under arrest. Lamphere concludes that the KGB won the war against the FBI, since the FBI almost always learned of Soviet operations after they had been underway for some time and after significant damage to the United States had already occurred. Chapter notes and a subject index