Was Oppenheimer a good Soviet Spy? A good Roundtable Dialogue
Just last year, Jerrold L. and you can Leona P. Schecter demonstrated results from their recently had written guide: Sacred Treasures: How Soviet Intelligence Procedures Changed Western Background, at the a cool Combat In the world History Project (CWIHP) seminarments towards demonstration was basically provided with Kai Bird (author of a certain bio regarding Oppenheimer and you can previous Wilson Center Fellow), R. Bruce Craig (Federal Coalition getting Record), Ronald Radosh (co-publisher out-of The country of spain Deceived: The newest Soviet Relationship on the Foreign language Municipal Combat) and Hayden Peake (Joint Military-intelligence College or university)
Mcdougal of your letter so you’re able to Stalin are revealed simply from inside the 1994 by the Lieutenant general Pavel Sudoplatov in his memoir Special Jobs (pp
The majority of this new conversation during the meeting worried about a formerly unknown Russian document gotten by the Schecters, hence boosted the concern regarding whether or not Robert Oppenheimer, one of the leading experts of the Manhattan Enterprise you to definitely setup brand new nuclear bomb, ended up being good Soviet spy.
The document concerned try a page by the Merkulov so you’re able to Lavrenti Beria, your head of the Soviet atomic enterprise, 2 Oct 1944 (click to read through the newest document).
The brand new Merkulov page so you’re able to Beria enhances the case of if Robert Oppenheimer are good spy towards Soviet Union for the wartime several months when he led brand new New york endeavor. The page should be read inside the framework regarding Soviet cleverness functions in america through the The second world war. Robert Oppenheimer’s lifetime membership in the Communist People of your All of us is made secret inside 1942 given that he was being used once the a great Soviet intelligence resource from the Communist Underground to help you assist obtain atomic treasures. Oppenheimer was being tell you the fortsett denne lenken nГҐ brand new American Communist Group together with Comintern, the fresh Communist Internationally up until 1944. Soviet cleverness decided that like businesses have been as well high-risk due to increased FBI monitoring of Communist People operatives. At that time one Stalin acceded to President Roosevelt’s demand and you can mixed brand new Comintern inside the 1943, Soviet cleverness must rearrange their espionage avenues from the United States. The fresh new letter tackles that situation, as well as others.
Lower than i present three analytical commentaries to your Merkulov letter:
The newest page was requested of the Gregg Herken,whowrote during the Brotherhood of one’s Bomb “it is hard to understand whether it cord try proof of Oppenheimer’s complicity otherwise reflects the latest (understandable) notice of Kheifetz or other NKVD operatives in order to curry prefer that have the workplace.” (p.93) Gregory Kheifetz is performing less than shelter because the Soviet vice consul San Francisco out of late 1941 with the june of 1944. Herken argued within the a revision on H-Diplo: ” We believe Kheifetz, who was simply remembered so you can Moscow during the middle-1944, out-of ‘cushioning his resume’ from the claiming that he had employed Oppenheimer. Kheifetz’s objective is effortless: he was looking to avoid performance for failure to perform when you’re he was new NKVD’s main spy on San francisco bay area.”
Herken is actually mistaken. Kheifetz wasn’t appreciated to have failing continually to do nor for laziness. Nor is the guy provided for the newest gulag. He was remembered while the he had been called inside the a secret page so you can Stalin because of the an NKVD manager about Arizona, DC rezidentura. He was implicated of being part of a ring contributed by the brand new rezident Vasili Zarubin, purportedly working for this new Germans and the Japanese. Stalin purchased every one of them recalled to Moscow to research the fresh charges, that happen to be ignored. The brand new manager, Lieutenant Colonel Vasili Dimitrovich Mironov, and additionally sent an enthusiastic unsigned letter to J. Edgar Hoover, launching the fresh new intelligence items of one’s Zarubins and Kheifetz, that the FBI named brand new Unknown Page. 196-197). It’s clear regarding content that both emails to Hoover and Stalin was in fact sent of the Mironov.
For those curious, the newest Anonymous Letterto Vacuum, received toward August eight, 1943, throughout the Russian new that have English translations, exists to your pp. 51-53 from inside the Robert Louis Benson and you can Michael Warner, eds, VENONA Soviet Espionage additionally the Western Effect 1919-1957, NSA, CIA. Arizona, DC. 1996.
