Cold War espionage
Encyclopedia
Cold War espionage describes the intelligence gathering
activities during the Cold War
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact
. Because each side was preparing to fight the other, intelligence on the opposing side's intentions, military, and technology was of paramount importance. To gather this information, the two relied on a wide variety of military and civilian agencies. While several such as the CIA and KGB
became synonymous with Cold War
espionage, many other organizations played key roles in the collection and analysis of a wide host of intelligence disciplines.
Soviet espionage in the United States
during the Cold War was an outgrowth of World War II
nuclear espionage
, and Cold War espionage was depicted in works such as the James Bond
and Matt Helm
books and movies.
}
The GRU
reestablished contact with Klaus Fuchs
, who transferred from the British Tube Alloys
program to the US Manhattan Project
in 1943.
|-
| 1942
| Nuclear espionage
| US communist Jacob Golos
placed the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
cell of engineers in direct contact with Soviet intelligence operatives in New York.
|-
| 1944
| Nuclear espionage
| Yuri Modin
began leading the Cambridge Five
ring of atomic spies
.
|-
| 1946-12-20
| VENONA Project
|
Meredith Gardner
's codebreaking discovered the Soviet spying within the Manhattan Project.
|-
| 1949
| Nuclear espionage
| A Mossad
agent assumed, seeing CIA agent James Jesus Angleton
dining with Cambridge Five mole Kim Philby
, that the former had turned the latter into a triple agent.
|-
| 1959-06
| Corona (satellite)
| Discoverer 4 was the first CORONA satellite with an IMINT camera.
|-
| 1959-10-15
| Active measures
| Ukrainian politician Stepan Bandera
was assassinated on KGB orders.
|-
| 1960
| 1960 U-2 incident
| Pilot Francis Gary Powers' Lockheed U-2
spy plane was downed by a Soviet SAM
(he was convicted of espionage & exchanged in 1962 for spy Rudolph Abel.)
|-
| 1963-10-26
| Cuban Missile Crisis
| Under the pseudonym of Aleksandr Fomin, the KGB Station Chief in Washington proposed the crisis' diplomatic solution.
|-
| 1964
| Operation Neptune
| A ruse was used to indicate West Germany
's spies remaining from WWII had been exposed.
|-
| 1985-03-23
|
| On a mission to photograph a Soviet tank storage building, US intelligence officer Major Arthur D. Nicholson
was killed by a Soviet soldier.
|-
|}
Intelligence (information gathering)
Intelligence assessment is the development of forecasts of behaviour or recommended courses of action to the leadership of an organization, based on a wide range of available information sources both overt and covert. Assessments are developed in response to requirements declared by the leadership...
activities during the Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
between NATO and the Warsaw Pact
Warsaw Pact
The Warsaw Treaty Organization of Friendship, Cooperation, and Mutual Assistance , or more commonly referred to as the Warsaw Pact, was a mutual defense treaty subscribed to by eight communist states in Eastern Europe...
. Because each side was preparing to fight the other, intelligence on the opposing side's intentions, military, and technology was of paramount importance. To gather this information, the two relied on a wide variety of military and civilian agencies. While several such as the CIA and KGB
KGB
The KGB was the commonly used acronym for the . It was the national security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 until 1991, and was the premier internal security, intelligence, and secret police organization during that time.The State Security Agency of the Republic of Belarus currently uses the...
became synonymous with Cold War
Cold War
The Cold War was the continuing state from roughly 1946 to 1991 of political conflict, military tension, proxy wars, and economic competition between the Communist World—primarily the Soviet Union and its satellite states and allies—and the powers of the Western world, primarily the United States...
espionage, many other organizations played key roles in the collection and analysis of a wide host of intelligence disciplines.
Soviet espionage in the United States
History of Soviet espionage in the United States
Since the late 1920s, the Soviet Union, through its OGPU and NKVD intelligence services, used Russians and foreign-born nationals as well as Communist, and people of American origin to perform espionage activities in the United States. These various espionage networks eventually succeeded in...
during the Cold War was an outgrowth of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
, and Cold War espionage was depicted in works such as the James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
and Matt Helm
Matt Helm
Matt Helm is a fictional character created by author Donald Hamilton. He is a U.S. government counter-agent—a man whose primary job is to kill or nullify enemy agents—not a spy or secret agent in the ordinary sense of the term as used in spy thrillers.-The character and the series:The...
books and movies.
| Date | Topic | Event This list is incomplete; you can help by editing it. |
|---|---|---|
| 1941-08-10 | Nuclear espionage Nuclear espionage Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage... |
The GRUGRU
GRU or Glavnoye Razvedyvatel'noye Upravleniye is the foreign military intelligence directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation...
reestablished contact with Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Fuchs
Klaus Emil Julius Fuchs was a German theoretical physicist and atomic spy who in 1950 was convicted of supplying information from the American, British and Canadian atomic bomb research to the USSR during and shortly after World War II...
, who transferred from the British Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys
Tube Alloys was the code-name for the British nuclear weapon directorate during World War II, when the development of nuclear weapons was kept at such a high level of secrecy that it had to be referred to by code even in the highest circles of government...
program to the US Manhattan Project
Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was a research and development program, led by the United States with participation from the United Kingdom and Canada, that produced the first atomic bomb during World War II. From 1942 to 1946, the project was under the direction of Major General Leslie Groves of the US Army...
in 1943.
|-
| 1942
| Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
|
US communist Jacob GolosJacob Golos
Jacob Golos, , was a Ukrainian-born Bolshevik revolutionary of ethnic Jewish heritage who became a secret police operative on behalf of the USSR in the United States...
placed the Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Julius and Ethel Rosenberg
Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg and Julius Rosenberg were American communists who were convicted and executed in 1953 for conspiracy to commit espionage during a time of war. The charges related to their passing information about the atomic bomb to the Soviet Union...
cell of engineers in direct contact with Soviet intelligence operatives in New York.
|-
| 1944
| Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
|
Yuri ModinYuri Modin
Yuri Modin was the KGB controller for the "Cambridge Five" from 1944 to 1955, during which period Donald MacLean was said to have passed atomic secrets to the Soviets. In 1951 Modin arranged the defections of Maclean and Guy Burgess...
began leading the Cambridge Five
Cambridge Five
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies, recruited in part by Russian talent spotter Arnold Deutsch in the United Kingdom, who passed information to the Soviet Union during World War II and at least into the early 1950s...
ring of atomic spies
Atomic Spies
Atomic Spies and Atom Spies are terms that refer to various people in the United States, Great Britain, and Canada who are thought to have illicitly given information about nuclear weapons production or design to the Soviet Union during World War II and the early Cold War...
.
|-
| 1946-12-20
| VENONA Project
Venona project
The VENONA project was a long-running secret collaboration of the United States and United Kingdom intelligence agencies involving cryptanalysis of messages sent by intelligence agencies of the Soviet Union, the majority during World War II...
|
Meredith GardnerMeredith Gardner
Meredith Knox Gardner was an American linguist and codebreaker. Gardner worked in counter-intelligence, decoding Soviet intelligence traffic regarding espionage in the United States, in what came to be known as the Venona project.-Early life and career:Gardner was born in Okolona, Mississippi and...
's codebreaking discovered the Soviet spying within the Manhattan Project.
|-
| 1949
| Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage
Nuclear espionage is the purposeful giving of state secrets regarding nuclear weapons to other states without authorization . During the history of nuclear weapons there have been many cases of known nuclear espionage, and also many cases of suspected or alleged espionage...
|
A MossadMossad
The Mossad , short for HaMossad leModi'in uleTafkidim Meyuchadim , is the national intelligence agency of Israel....
agent assumed, seeing CIA agent James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton
James Jesus Angleton was chief of the Central Intelligence Agency's counterintelligence staff from 1954 to 1975...
dining with Cambridge Five mole Kim Philby
Kim Philby
Harold Adrian Russell "Kim" Philby was a high-ranking member of British intelligence who worked as a spy for and later defected to the Soviet Union...
, that the former had turned the latter into a triple agent.
|-
| 1959-06
| Corona (satellite)
Corona (satellite)
The Corona program was a series of American strategic reconnaissance satellites produced and operated by the Central Intelligence Agency Directorate of Science & Technology with substantial assistance from the U.S. Air Force...
|
Discoverer 4 was the first CORONA satellite with an IMINT camera.|-
| 1959-10-15
| Active measures
Active measures
Active Measures were a form of political warfare conducted by the Soviet security services to influence the course of world events, "in addition to collecting intelligence and producing politically correct assessment of it". Active measures ranged "from media manipulations to special actions...
|
Ukrainian politician Stepan BanderaStepan Bandera
Stepan Andriyovych Bandera was a Ukrainian politician and one of the leaders of Ukrainian national movement in Western Ukraine , who headed the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists...
was assassinated on KGB orders.
|-
| 1960
| 1960 U-2 incident
|
Pilot Francis Gary Powers' Lockheed U-2Lockheed U-2
The Lockheed U-2, nicknamed "Dragon Lady", is a single-engine, very high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft operated by the United States Air Force and previously flown by the Central Intelligence Agency . It provides day and night, very high-altitude , all-weather intelligence gathering...
spy plane was downed by a Soviet SAM
Surface-to-air missile
A surface-to-air missile or ground-to-air missile is a missile designed to be launched from the ground to destroy aircraft or other missiles...
(he was convicted of espionage & exchanged in 1962 for spy Rudolph Abel.)
|-
| 1963-10-26
| Cuban Missile Crisis
Cuban Missile Crisis
The Cuban Missile Crisis was a confrontation among the Soviet Union, Cuba and the United States in October 1962, during the Cold War...
|
Under the pseudonym of Aleksandr Fomin, the KGB Station Chief in Washington proposed the crisis' diplomatic solution.|-
| 1964
| Operation Neptune
Operation Neptune (Espionage)
In 1964, as part of Operation Neptune, the Czech intelligence apparatus publicly claimed to have discovered Nazi-era intelligence files hidden beneath the surface of Černé jezero lake. The claim was false. It was a Soviet deception operation....
|
A ruse was used to indicate West GermanyWest Germany
West Germany is the common English, but not official, name for the Federal Republic of Germany or FRG in the period between its creation in May 1949 to German reunification on 3 October 1990....
's spies remaining from WWII had been exposed.
|-
| 1985-03-23
|
|
On a mission to photograph a Soviet tank storage building, US intelligence officer Major Arthur D. NicholsonArthur D. Nicholson
Arthur D. Nicholson was a United States Army military intelligence officer shot by a Soviet sentry while engaged in intelligence-gathering activities as part of an authorized Military Liaison Mission which operated under reciprocal U.S. - Soviet authority. Military Liaison Missions were ostensibly...
was killed by a Soviet soldier.
|-
|}
External links
- http://www.nicholasanderson.info NOC by NicholasAnderson. eBook published 2008, traditional book published by Enigma Books 2009. Fictionalised (as stipulated by UK law) autobiography of a British SIS/MI6 intelligence officer's stories from the Cold War. Original non-fiction version vetoed in 2000 per UK Official Secrets Act and appeared in banned books listing in 2003 as seen at http://www.fatchuck.com/z4.html