Mortal Crimes: The Greatest Theft in History: Soviet Penetration of the Manhattan Project

Rating:
Summary: An Update on the Soviet Intelligence Attack on the Bomb
Review: This is not the book to start with for an understanding of the fascinating Soviet intelligence attack on the American/British atomic weapons program. It does fill in some blanks for readers who understand the background but it is easy to get lost in the changing code names and variety of agents and handlers. For example: "While there was to be a vital clue in the change of HURON's codename to ERNEST, ERIE is more difficult, as the unrecovered group is most likely either GEORGES or LEADER ." Nigel West does provide some appendices with tables tying code names to people.

Before reading this book, some background would be helpful. Start with Rhodes' "The Making of the Atomic Bomb" for a great history of development of the bomb. Other works such as Lamphere's "The FBI-KGB War" and "Bombshell" by Albright and Kunstel will give some insight into the personalities and motivations that the Soviets exploited. Some background on the Venona intercepts would be helpful such as the presentation on PBS's Nova.