The Secret Story of America's Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy (1997)

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Theodore Alvin Hall (October 20, 1925 – November 1, 1999) was an American physicist and an atomic spy for the Soviet Union, who, during his work on US efforts to develop the first and second atomic bombs during World War II (the Manhattan Project), gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of several processes for purifying plutonium, to Soviet intelligence. His brother, Edward Hall, was a rocket scientist who worked on ICBMs for the United States government. At the age of 19, and through the recommendation of John Van Vleck, Hall was the youngest scientist to be recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.[3][5] At Los Alamos Hall handled experiments for the implosion device ("Fat Man") and helped determine the critical mass of uranium for "Little Boy".[2] Theodore Hall later claimed that he became concerned about the consequences of an American monopoly of atomic weapons after the war. He was especially worried about the possibility of the emergence of a fascist government in the United States. Could such a government use nuclear weapons to dominate the world? [6] While on a vacation in New York City in October 1944, he visited to the CPUSA offices, instead of the Soviet Consulate (where he feared FBI surveillance), in order to locate a contact to pass information on the Manhattan Project along to the Soviet Union.[7] After a few recommendations, he met Sergey Kurnakov, a military writer for Soviety Russia Today and Russky Golos, and handed him a report on the scientists who worked at Los Alamos, the conditions at Los Alamos, and the basic science behind the bomb.[7] Saville Sax delivered the same report to the Soviet Consulate a few days later under the guise of inquiring about relatives still in the Soviet Union. The two eventually met with Anatoly Yatskov, the New York station chief, who later transmitted the information to the NKVD using a one-time pad cipher.[7] After officially becoming informants for the Soviet Union, Hall was given the code-name MLAD, a Slavic root meaning "young", and Sax was given the code-name was STAR, a Slavic root meaning "old". Kurnakov reported in November 1944: "Rather tall, slender, brown-haired, pale and a bit pimply-faced, dressed carelessly, boots appear not cleaned for a long time, slipped socks. His hair is parted and often falls on his forehead. His English is highly cultured and rich. He answers quickly and very fluently, especially to scientific questions. Eyes are set closely together; evidently, neurasthenic. Perhaps because of premature mental development, he is witty and somewhat sarcastic but without a shadow of undue familiarity and cynicism. His main trait - a highly sensitive brain and quick responsiveness. In conversation, he is sharp and flexible as a sword.... He comes from a Jewish family, though doesn't look like a Jew. His father is a furrier; his mother is dead.... He is not in the army because, until now, young physicists in government jobs at a military installation were not being drafted. Now, he is to be drafted but has no doubts that he will be kept at the same place, only dressed in a military uniform and with a correspondingly lower salary." [8] Unbeknown to Hall, Klaus Fuchs, a Los Alamos colleague, and others still unidentified, were also spying for the USSR; none seems to have known of the others. Harvard friend Saville Sax acted as Hall's couriers, until spring of 1945 when he was replaced by Lona Cohen.[4][9] Igor Kurchatov, a brilliant scientist and the head of the Soviet atomic bomb effort, probably used information provided by Klaus Fuchs to confirm corresponding information provided earlier by Hall. Despite other scientists giving information to the Soviet Union, Hall was the only known scientist to give details on the design of an atomic bomb. In the autumn of 1946, Hall left Los Alamos for the University of Chicago, where he finished out his Master's and Doctoral degrees in Physics, met his wife, and started a family.[2][3] He continued feeding information to the Soviet Union about a new generation of nuclear weapons being developed at the University of Chicago.[4] After graduating he became a biologist. In Chicago he pioneered important techniques in X-ray microanalysis, until, in 1962, he became unsatisfied with his equipment and the techniques available to him. He then moved to Vernon Ellis Cosslett's electron microscopy research laboratory at Cambridge University in England.[10] At Cambridge he created the Hall method of continuum normalization, developed for the specific purpose of analyzing thin sections of biological tissue.[3] He remained working at Cambridge until he retired at age 59 in 1984. Hall later became active in obtaining signatures for the Stockholm Peace Pledge. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodore_Hall