Cold War/Russian Spies Flashcards
Klaus Fuchs
Apart of the 1950’s Atomic Spies, Fuchs committed nuclear espionage during WWII and the early Cold War for the Soviet Union. Fuchs was discovered during the Venona Project along with several other spies at Los Alamos.
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Apart of the 1950’s Atomic Spies, The Rosenbergs were spying for the Soviet Union providing top information about nuclear weapon designs. Thy became the first America civilians to be executed for such charges and the first to be executed during peacetimes.
Cambridge Five
A ring of spies that passed information to the Soviet Union during WWII and the Cold War. Kim Philiby, Guy Burgess, Donald McLean, Anthony Blunt and John Caincross (who was added later.) Student recruits from Cambridge University from the 1930’s to early 1950. None of the five were other prosecuted for spying. McClean and Burgess will escape to the USSR. Philby defects to the USSR in the 1960s and Caincross/Blunt were given immunity. This spy circle represents a legacy of mistrust between the US-UK intelligence.
Kim Philby
Philby was considered the mot successful in providing secret information to the Soviets. Philby defected to the USSR in the 1960’s where he is still considered a hero to this day, he even has a stamp. Philby was close with James Angleton which made Angleton’s trust issues even worse.
John Walker
Walker began spying for the USSR in 1968 when he walked-in to the Soviet Embassy in DC. Walker was a United States Navy chief warrant officer and communications specialist who retired in 1976. Walker created a spy ring with his friend, brother, daughter, and son. His career lasted until 1985 while he earned more than a million dollars for his service. His cover was being a vocal conservative as well as a member of the John Birch Society. His wife reported him, he was sentenced to life in prison. He caused $100 million worth of damages, accesses to U.S ship movements, contingency attack plans, helped soviets decipher more than one million encrypted naval messages and allowed Soviets to make significant gains in naval warfare capacity.
Edward Lee Howard
“The Spy Who Got Away”
Howard became an USSR walk-in in 1983. Armed with extensive C.I.A training at the Farm while in the C.I.A before he was fired for drug problems, Howard joined the FBI and betrayed Tolkachev. He escaped from FBI surveillance in 1985 and was smuggled into the USSR from Helsinki. Howard would spend the rest of his life in Russia before his death in 2002 in an a suspicious accident. He also received a stamp for his “heroics”.
Ronald Pelton
Pelton was a former employee of the National Security Agency(NSA). He specialization was in NSA operations against the soviets. He spends 14 years as a cryptologist before resigning in 1979. His motive was money not ideology, Pelton was a walk-in to the soviet embassy in DC. His photographic memory and knowledge of previous secrets at NSA allowed him to pass on large amount of information. He is exposed by Yurchenko. Peltons biggest damage is revealing “IVY BELLS” which was an expensive and Risky U.S Naval Operation to top into a soviet communications cable at the bottom of the Sea of Okhotsk. It was shut down in 1980 when Pelton reveled it to the Soviets.
Clayton Lonetree
Lonetree was a Marine Security Guard as the U.S Embassy in Moscow. Lonetree was closely watched by the KGB Second Chief Directorate. Lonetree was a victime of a Honey Trap Operation in 1984 when Violetta Seina introduces him to her “uncle” who us actually a KGB spy. His damage is supplying the KGB with floor plans of the embassy and identifying embassy personnel among photo books. He is transferred to Vienna in 1986 where he continues his spying. He confesses as he loses all connection with Violetta, released after serving ten year prison term. A case of a Soviet “Red Sparrow”.
Aldrich Ames
Ames was a CIA counterintelligence officer and a KGB double agent. In 1985 he became a walk-in to the Soviets. Ames debriefed Yurchenko during his 1985 defection in 1985. Ames had marriage and financial difficulties and was a heavy drinker. He had an ffair with Maria del Rosario who was Colombian embassy cultural attaché. In 1994 he plead guiltily to a life sentence. His damage is compromising more highly classified CIA assets than any other officer in history until Robert Hanssen.
Robert Hanssen
Known as RAMON to the KGB, Hanssen began spying as a walk-in double agent for the USSR in 1985-2001, never meeting personally with any handlers the entire time. Hanssen held few friendships and was a devout Catholic but had many deviant sexual behaviors and a non-sexual relationship with a stripper. This makes his motives difficult to assess, neither financial nor ideological. His damage assessment is one of the worst spy scandals in American history compromising more US Intelligence assets than any other spy in history.
Legacy in Russia: He was a great spy… that’s the way he’ll be described in Russian textbooks and the media.
Ana Belon Montes
Montes begins spying for Cuba with the DOJ in 1984 until her discovery 16 years later. Her brother and sister worked for the FBI and described her as a workaholic who was very un-social. She was caught to to internal suspicions from forgetting to erase her hard drive. Her motives were purely ideological as she felt the U.S was being cruel towards Cuba, did not receive any money. Her Damage assessment were exposing identities of undercover intelligence officers, a US defense contingency planning for Cuba; Central American proxy wars and was a agent of influence in shaping policy.
Oleg Penkovsky
“The Spy who Saved the World” - Penkovsky was a soviet military intelligence(GRU) colonel in the late 1950s/1960s. A successful walk-in in 1961 when he made contact with the British. Informed UK about soviet Placement of missiles in Cuba and reported that the nuclear aresnal was small and the delivery systems were not yet fully developed. Some argue that Penkovsky was the largest intellgence failure of the USSR. Penkovsky was executed in 1963 after his discovery by the KGB.
Penkovsky is seen as the U.S Kim Philby
Anatoli Golitsyn
Golitsyn defected to the C.I.A in 1961. He confirmed the “Cambridge Five” and claimed widespread KGB double agent infiltration in CIA, claims PM Harold Wilson of UK was a KGB informer and agent of Influence. Golitsyn also claimed that the KGB would try to plant defectors to discredit his information.
Yuri Nosenko
In 1964, Nosenko, known as Foxtrot, was a walk-in. He claimed Golitsyn was the actual “dangle”. Stated that any Soicet defector or spy after him would be a double agent directed by the KGB. James Angleton doubted his credibility, put him in 18 months of solitary confinement in CIA safe house where he was virtually tortured. In 1968, the CIA reports that he is a genuine defector.
Vitaly Yurchenko
Yurchenko was the KGB head of Security in Soviet DC Embassy until 1980, where he was promoted to deputy chief of the Fifth department in Directorate K. In 1985, he becomes a walk-in in the US Embassy in Rome. Yurchenko was the highest ranking KGB officer ever to defect to the US. He reveled information about double-agents, Edward Lee Howard, and held personal motives as he believes he is dying and wants to see his mistress but she rejects him. Yurchenko was debriefed by Aldrich Ames. Yurchenko then re-defects to USSR and returns as a hero in the same year.
