Atomic spies

Uncommon card · No. 160210

Atomic spies or atom spies were people in the United States, the United Kingdom, or Canada, who are known to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design, to the Soviet Union, during World War II and the early Cold War. Exactly what was given, and whether everyone so accused actually gave it, are still matters of some scholarly dispute. In some cases, some of the arrested suspects or government witnesses had given strong testimonies or confessions, which they recanted later or said were fabricated. Their work constitutes the most publicly well-known and well-documented case of nuclear espionage in the history of nuclear weapons. At the same time, numerous nuclear scientists favored sharing classified information with the world scientific community. This proposal was firmly quashed by the U.S. government. Atomic spies were motivated by a range of factors. For some, ideology (such as a commitment to communism or other socialist models committed to advancing...

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