"The matter which most engaged my sympathies and interests was the war in Spain ... Even when the war in Spain was manifestly lost, these activities continued ... I remember that the end of the war and the defeat of the Loyalists caused me sorrow almost like a personal bereavement ... I went to a big Spanish relief party the night before Pearl Harbor; and the next day, as we heard the news of the outbreak of war, I decided that I had had about enough of the Spanish cause, and that there were other and more pressing crises in the world."
— J. Robert Oppenheimer [1]
The VOLUNTERY
The literature on atomic espionage is definitive on the existence and importance of the Volunteer Group, a fact perhaps underscored by a collective codename, the VOLUNTERY. Soviet KGB Officer Alexander Feklisov made a noteworthy, if limited, reference to the Volunteer Group in his 2001 memoir, Man Behind the Rosenbergs: “The technical and scientific intelligence gathered by the New York Rezidentura alone was no less impressive. I didn’t know it at the time but my friend Yatskov and our boss Kvasnikov directed the most important network—actually the only network—dedicated to atomic espionage.” Mr. Feklisov might have been more informative given that his service, the SVR, in 1995 revealed the name and signal achievement of this network: “The Volunteer group were able to guarantee the transmittal to the Center of super secret information concerning the development of the American atomic bomb." [2]
The key to understanding the Volunteer Group is its organizing principle, the Spanish Civil War (SCW). Individuals who went to Spain in the late 1930’s as members of the International Brigades were known as Volunteers. The term is still used today by the Abraham Lincoln Brigade Archives (ALBA), an organization which preserves the history of volunteers from North America. ALBA’s membership publication is The Volunteer. Arguably the most notorious SCW volunteer from the U.S. was Stephan Mesarosh, also known as Steve Nelson. In 1953, as a rallying cry for American veterans, Nelson published a memoir titled The Volunteers. [3]
The deep reality of Nelson is that he was a member of the Communist Party, USSR, and a Soviet intelligence officer. During WW II, he was stationed in Oakland, CA, where he operated against the Berkeley Radiation Lab. He also was a trusted confidant of American Communist Party member (secret) Robert Oppenheimer. In March 1943, just days before he left Berkeley for Los Alamos, Oppenheimer called Nelson and set up a lunch date. Committing a breach of security, Oppenheimer advised Nelson that he was leaving Berkeley to work on a war project. FBI records show that Nelson had penetrated the Radiation Lab as early as October 1942 and understood, from Oppenheimer, the "nature of the project." Most significant is that Steve Nelson was acquainted with Morris Cohen, a fellow SCW veteran and Soviet intelligence agent. Cohen's covername in Venona was VOLUNTEER, and he was the head and namesake of the VOLUNTERY. [4]
Stalin's Atomic Spies
The Volunteer Group is synonymous with the expressive phrase, Stalin’s atomic spies. This catchphrase was the subject of an extensive public relations campaign undertaken by the SVR (KGB) in the early 1990’s. One of the officials assigned to the project was then Lt. Colonel Vladimir Chikov of the newly created SVR Press Bureau. Chikov’s initial work resulted in several articles placed in periodicals and newspapers. The essence of these stories was that an American KGB operative by the name of Morris Cohen (LUIS) had recruited an important atomic physicist in the first half of 1942. In all of these accounts the description of the initial recruitment contact began, “Our source 'Luis' was addressed by the physicist Arthur Fielding, a Spanish War acquaintance of his.” Such is the beginning of the atomic Volunteer Group. [5]
Subsequent to the early articles, a full-length book project was authorized. American Gary Kern, a Russian linguist and expert on the Soivet Union, was brought in to work with Chikov on an English language manuscript. The manuscript, titled Stalin’s Atomic Spies, KGB File 13676 was completed in 1994. The Morris Cohen spy story, however, was impacted before it got into print by the 1995 declassification of the Venona Program. Another important event was the defection of Vasili Mitrokhin and publication of The Mitrokhin Archive in 1999. At present, these three references, Stalin's Atomic Spies, the Venona messages and the Mitrokhin Archive, are the primary, public sources on the Volunteer Group. A fourth, non-public (confidential) source materialized in 1997. This source enumerated the Volunteer Group by covername as follows: “SERB, LUIS, LESLI, SIL’VER, YURBA (a woman), KLIBI, MLAD, STAR, ANTA and ADEN.” Significantly, this listing was consistent with the three public sources, but added two new covernames, YURBA and KLIBI. [6]
SERB
There are 4 SERB messages in Venona. One is a covername change from RELE. The RELE/SERB messages provide two explicit points of identity: in mid-1944 SERB was residing in the Philadelphia area and he had a severe leg disability. Based on a Mirtokhin archive file, Andrews and Mitrkohin were able to write, “The VOLUNTEER network expanded to include, in addition to MLAD, three other agents: ADEN, SERB and SILVER.” Finally, a confidential source stated that SERB was a secret member of the CPUSA, participated in the Spanish Civil War, was recruited by Morris Cohen in 1942 and was an engineer in radio. At present, Soviet agent SERB is unidentified. [7]
LUIS and LESLI
According to Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Morris Cohen received the codename LUIS on or about the time he was activated by the Ovakimian rezidency in New York, circa summer 1939. That LUIS was the pseudonym of Morris Cohen is corroborated by a Mitrokhin archive file. Potentially confusing is the fact that Cohen had a second covername, VOLUNTEER, observed in Venona. As previoulsy indicated, this second covername stemmed from his status as head of the Volunteer Group. In view of its identification with atomic espionage, the Volunteer Group was undoubtedly a specially compartmented line between the New York Residency and Moscow Center. The covername LESLI is found in Venona with attribution to “VOLUNTER’s wife.” A Mitrokhin archive file reflects that LESLI was the covername of Lona Cohen. LUIS and LESLI were Morris and Lona Cohen. [8]
SIL'VER
The primary reference for SIL’VER as part of the Volunteer Group is The Mitrokhin Arhive, specifically file Vol. 6, ch. 5, part 2. Mitrokhin therefore corroborated the confidential source, whose information is dated to 1997. It is observed that the confidential source correctly used the ‘soft sign’ after the “l” in silver to indicate the proper Russian pronunciation of the consonant. Soviet agent SIL’VER is unidentified. [9]
YURBA and KLIBI
Julius Rosenberg's contact/control was Morris Cohen (VOLUNTER). This fact along with his involvement in atomic espionage indicate that Rosenberg was a member of the Volunteer Group. Rosenberg's covername in Venona was LIBERAL (from ANTENNA). His case officer, Alexander Feklisov, shortened Liberal to “the affectionate nickname Libi” in contemporaneous reports. In Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Vladimir Chikov used the pseudonym KLIBI for an agent who was considered for a mission to New Mexico to courier an atomic spy who had been recruited by Cohen. A confidential source listed the Volunteer Group as SERB, LUIS, LESLI, SIL’VER, YURBA (a woman), KLIBI, STAR, MLAD, ANTA and ADEN. Since KLIBI is not a word in Russian or English, it is almost certainly a pseudonym contrived by Chikov from Feklisov's "Libi." Ethel Rosenberg was as committed a Communist as her husband. It is reported she was recruited at the same time as Julius by NKVD resident Gaik Ovakimian. It is possible that YURBA represents Ethel Rosenberg. [10]
MLAD and STAR
MLAD (Youngster) and STAR (Oldtimer) are Venona covernames known to stand for Theodore Hall and Saville Sax, respectively. This fact notwithstanding, Hall and Sax's inclusion in the Volunteer Group should be afforded more circumspection by authors and historians. There are several reasons for this. To begin with, the Mitrokhin Archive gives the clear sense that MLAD was an early member of the Volunteer Group: “The VOLUNTEER network expanded to include, in addition to MLAD, three other agents: ADEN, SERB and SILVER.” Thus, not only was MLAD ostensibly an early Volunteer, but this agent preceded SERB and two other volunteers, ADEN and SILVER. A number of Venona messages give support to the Mitrokhin inference regarding precedence. For example, the first instance of SERB in Venona is July 1944—almost 4 months before Ted Hall first contacted Soviet intelligence in New York. SERB was therefore a Soviet agent before Hall. The first positive linkage of covername MLAD with Hall is Venona message No. 94 of 23 January 1945. This message shows that as of the end of January 1945 Hall and Sax were still being vetted by the New York residency. Yet Venona No. 50 of 11 January 1945 shows SERB reporting on VOLUNTEER: "SERB has asdvised that VOLUNTEER has died at the front in Europe." The evidence is straight forward: MLAD preceded SERB, SERB preceded Hall, ergo, MLAD preceded Hall (MLAD). If Mitrokhin is accurate—as Venona indicates—there is the strong presumption that Soviet intelligence had at least two agents covernamed MLAD. In respect to the Volunteer Group, it can be added that Hall was not recruited by Morris Cohen or any other member of the Volunteer Group. Nor has it been reported that Hall or Sax had any involvement in the Spanish Civil War, a seeming attribute of the Volunteer Group. [11]
There is other strong evidence against categorical assumption that MLAD and STAR in the Volunteer Group stand for Ted Hall and Saville Sax. It is well-established that Hall’s first contact with the Volunteer group was not until August 1945, i.e. after Trinity, after Hiroshima, after the war was over. This contact was a rendezvous with Lona Cohen (LESLI), reportedly on the campus of the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. In interviews in Moscow years later, Morris Cohen confirmed that Lona’s contact with Hall had been in August and it was their first meeting. ("She understood what he looked like according to the information given her.") Moreover, Hall himself recalled that the linkup with Lona Cohen happened after Trinity (16 July 1945). These facts and others underscore the great mystery presented in the book Bombshell by authors Albright and Kunstel. How to explain Venona message, New York to Moscow, No. 799, 26 May 1945, which begins, “MLAD’s material contains”? From Bombshell:
“Kvasnikov had an extra reason to be cautious about the way he reported Mlad’s materials. There was something strange about the way Lona Cohen had obtained the information; she had not even met Ted Hall and yet had some how come back from New Mexico with these documents.” [12]
Simply stated, Ted Hall was not the MLAD who supplied secret materials in May 1945. The solution to this problem lies in the correct identities of MLAD and STAR. These identities are rooted in the information from Chikov that MLAD and STAR were pseudonyms associated with an atomic physicist recruited by Morris Cohen in 1942. This individual, however, can not be Hall, who, in Spring 1942, was a sophomore at Queens College, NYC, with no connection to the U.S. atomic program. Chikov used the literary pseudonym PERSEUS to represent Cohen’s atomic recruit. From Stalin’s Atomic Spies: “MLAD was, in fact, the Center’s first code name for PERSEUS. For the Center, MLAD formed a logical pair with his initial courier, STAR.” [13]
It so happens that there is additional information concerning MLAD-PERSEUS from a reliable, confidential source, to wit:
“The [material] states directly that six months/a few months before Morris Cohen was called into the army, he had a meeting with a young man who was presented to him as a doctor of physics from Chicago. It does not say who presented the young man. LUKA [Pastelnyak] informed the Center of the meeting, but the Center thought the physicist was a plant. Kvasnikov, however, insisted that the opportunity should not be lost, and the order went out to TVEN [Semyonov] to do a check on the young physicist: does he really work at the Met Lab in Chicago, is he a specialist in uranium, does he have a doctor's degree? When the candidate passed, Cohen was assigned to carry out the recruitment. Yatskov directed the recruitment. It took place in the Spring of 1942. MLAD sent information on the Met Lab from that time to 1944.” [14]
Official U.S Government records show that this background profile—Met Lab, Spring 1942, ending 1944—matches the early atomic career of American physicist Philip Morrison. In September 1941, Morrison joined the Physics Department of the University of Illinois, Urbana. This was entirely due to an intercession by Robert Oppenheimer. In April 1942, while on the Ubana faculty, Morrison was recommended by Oppenheimer for employment on DSM at the Met Lab. Morrison's initial status was that of a part time consultant (perhaps unpaid). In reality, he was Oppenheimer's personal representative (eyes and ears) at the Met Lab. Later, at the end of 1942, Morrison resigned from Urbana to become a full time Met Lab employee beginning in February 1943. In Spring 1944, Morrison was assigned to a project at the E. I. duPont du Nemours Company in Wilmington, Deleware. Several months later he was detailed to a special study run out of General Groves' office in Washington, the ALSOS Project. (This was a top secret intelligence program to determine the status of atomic research in Germany.) Then, in October 1944, again on the personal initiative of Robert Oppenheimer, Morrison was transferred to Los Alamos. Morrison travelled to Los Alamos in November but returned east to Chicago in December to close out his affairs and move his household to New Mexico. Morrison's payroll entry date as a Los Alamos scientist was 13 January 1945. [15]
Like Robert Oppenheimer, Philip Morrison had been a member of the Communist Party at Berkeley. Morrison was one of the graduate students Soviet agent Steve Nelson had in mind when he wrote: “I was responsible for working with people from the university, getting them to conduct classes and discussions. A number of Oppenheimer’s graduate students in the field of physics were quite active.” In this regard, an important aspect of the account from the confidential source is that MLAD was “presented” to Cohen, i.e. there was an intermediary. In the case of Morrison, certainly one logical candidate for such intermediary is Steve Nelson. It is known that Nelson recruited Morrison's Berkeley comrade Joseph Weinberg to spy at the Radiation Lab, and that Nelson received secret information from Weinberg which he delivered to Soviet intelligence officer "Peter Ivanov" in San Francisco. Thus, the Weinberg-Nelson-Ivanov channel is a replica or model for a Morrison-Nelson-Cohen channel (or vice versa). Other compelling collateral is that Nelson and Cohen were both SCW vets; Nelson knew Cohen; and Nelson’s FBI file reflects that one of his pseudonyms was “stari”, the Russian root/word for old, oldster (starik) or oldtimer. [16]
In addition to the notion of an intermediary in the initial contact between Cohen and MLAD, there is also the detail that the meeting possibly occurred “six months before Cohen was called into the Army." As Cohen was drafted in June 1942, this would place the Cohen-MLAD contact circa December 1941. It is therefore intriguing that this timing is consistent with the occasion when Oppenheimer first recruited Robert Serber to work on the atomic bomb project. From Serber's memoir, Peace and War:
About Christmastime in 1941, just a few weeks after Pearl Harbor, I received a phone call from Oppie. He said he was in Chicago and wanted to come down [to Urbana, IL] and talk to me about something. He came, and we took a walk out to the cornfields, beyond the edge of town. There, alone in that rural setting, he told me that he was going to be appointed to head the weapons end of the atomic bomb project, to replace Gregory Breit in that position. He wanted me to come to Berkeley and be his assistant in the project. [17]"
Robert Serber and Philip Morrison were Oppenheimer’s two closest associates; he had placed both of them on the faculty at the Universtiy of Illinois, Urbana. Although it is not reported that Oppenheimer also met Morrison on his ad hoc excursion to Urbana, it is recorded that he recommended Morrison for employment at the Met Lab several months later in April 1942. This circumstance tallies precisely with the "Perseus" spy story, namely, a physcist who had the "prospect" of emplyomemt at the Met Lab "a few months before Cohen was called into the Army." It is not likely happenstance that Philip Morrison's particulars give effect and substance to the witness of Pavel Sudoplatov:
"Oppenheimer, together with Fermi and Szilard helped us place moles in Tennessee, Los Alamos and Chicago as assistants in those three labs. ... These unidentified young moles, along with the Los Alamos mole, were junior scientists or administrators who copied vital documents to which they were allowed access by Oppenheimer, Fermi, and Szilard, who were knowingly part of the scheme. ... Although they were unaware of it, Oppenheimer and Fermi were assigned codenames, Star and Editor, as souces of information." [18]
Notwithstanding the above, the identities of MLAD and STAR in the Volunteer Group are not yet conclusively established.
ANTA and ADEN
The principal reference for ANTA and ADEN is the book Stalin’s Atomic Spies. In July 1947, Lona and Morris Cohen were called to Paris, France, to meet with their two former control officers, Semyon Semyonov and Anatoly Yatskov. The residency in America had been in a period of conservation after the Gousenko defection, but the Center had now completed its regressive risk analysis and was ready to resume operations. In this regard, Lona had contact with PERSEUS in New York "shortly before" her Paris trip. The agent had returned to academia but advised he "could propose some other scientists who might be willing to work with the Soviets." They worked at the Hanford Engineering Works (purportedly) and had already given him materials for Soviet intelligence. About a year later, end of summer 1948, the American station reported to Moscow that PERSEUS had met again with ANTA and ADEN and they were willing to provide atomic information, but with two new conditions: they would only have contact with PERSEUS and their names were not to be given to Soviet intelligence officials. Additional details on ANTA and ADEN were supplied by Gary Kern in his Afterword: "At this time PERSEUS ceased to work for the Soviets but recommended in his stead a married couple working at the Hanford Engineer Works in Washington State. They were recruited. Their code names were ANTA and ADEN. Their contact was OLDTIMER [i.e. STAR]." [19]
Vladimir Chikov was candid that Stalin's Atomic Spies would not be a tell all book, and that measures would be taken to protect certain agent identities. Indeed, subsuming more than one spy's activitives into the figure of PERSEUS, was the principal disinformation technique used. In this regard, the attribute, married scientific couple at Hanford, is believed to be disinformation: ANTA and ADEN worked elsewhere. Consistent with this essay's central tenet, the dna of the Volunteer Group was the Spanish Civil War as embraced by Oppenheimer and Nelson, it cannot go unremarked that the legend on ANTA and ADEN is a match with the backgrounds of Robert and Charlotte Serber. Robert Serber, was an Oppenheimer physicist from Berkeley; Charlotte Leof Serber had a Bachelor of Science in Education from the University of Pennsylvania. Both Serbers were first generation Russian-Americans, had been underground Communists at Berkeley and were ardent supporters of the Spanish Civil War. Charlotte Serber’s father, Morris Leof, had been head of the Philadelphia chapter of the Medical Aid Committee for the Spanish loyalists. Charlotte had organized a Medical Aid Committee chapter in Berkeley and became its secretary. Reflecting her science background, Charlotte Serber had been the Chief Librarian at Los Alamos and was “one the finest technical librarians in the country, had great knowledge of atomic energy, access to all secret documents, had read them over for indexing and filing and knew a great deal of physics.” In 1947 both Robert and Charlotte worked at the Radiation Lab in Berkeley. However, a post-war security review in 1948 resulted in Charlotte's termination on security grounds. That same year Robert Serber was subjected to a Personnel Security Review Board—he passed due only to the intervention of E. O. Lawrence. The security problems of the Sebers coincide with the change of heart and new conditions imposed by ANTA and ADEN. Whether STAR is Oppenheimer or Nelson, the Sebers are connected. [20]
Conclusion
Robert Oppenheimer, in conspiracy with Steve Nelson, was the genesis of the Volunteer Group. It was the initiative of a passionate Communist who believed that, after Pearl Harbor, there were “more pressing crises in the world” that required his attention. As for all truly dedicated Communists, the number one crisis for Oppenheimer was the survival of Russia—the hearth, haven and spear of socialism. And as anyone familiar with Oppenheimer’s modus operandi knows, his crises were the crises of his cult, his Communist clique of Berkeley graduate students. Chikov’s source in writing Stalin’s Atomic Spies was the Cohen’s KGB file. In filing reports, intelligence agents are trained to give accounts that are precise and as verbatim as possible. This is especially true of recruitment interviews, which follow a pro forma structure. In a nod toward authenticity, Chikov rendered dialog from Cohen’s recruitment interview with MLAD. An excerpt:
“LUIS: I was interested in your motives for seeking out the Russians and offering them secret information?
“MLAD: I assume it will not be difficult for you to understand me in this matter. The reason is that I have never agreed with those people who consider it a mistake of history that a socialist state appeared on the map of the world. Even less do I agree with those who count on the possibility of correcting that mistake by means of German Fascism or an atomic bomb.” [21]
MLAD’s sentiments toward Russia are consistent, if not convertible, with those of a Communist Party pamphlet distributed in California in 1940. An extract:
Report to our Colleagues
February 20, 1940
“ … The total extermination of the Communist Party can only silence some of the clearest voices that oppose a war between the United States and Russia. … The campaign against the Soviet, the campaign against Communists, has tried to discredit, has meant to discredit, socialism; it has been aimed at the unity of progressive action, for the destruction of all confidence in the ability of men to run a Socialist society…
College Faculties Committee, Communist Party of California
Of this, of the possibilities for effective action, you will hear from us again.”
(J. Robert Oppenheimer, Author and Publisher) [22]
Caveat
Nothing in this essay should be construed to imply that Philip Morrison was the reputed Soviet agent PERSEUS. He was not. Certainly, however, the spy MLAD is spliced into Chikov's composite literary figure of PERSEUS. Nor should this essay convey or support the notion that PERSEUS was only a fictional pseudonym meant to hype the Cohen story. In reality, Chikov's PERSEUS was both a composite strawman and a real, single individual. Thus, in addition to MLAD there was another American physicist who was recruited in the first half of 1942. This recruitment was the brainchild of the illegal intelligence officer Semyon Semyonov (TVEN). Morris Cohen was also involved in this operation before going into the Army. [23]
Afterword: VEKSEL'
Venona message No. 799, 26 May 1945, has significance beyond the identity of MLAD. What can be said about VEKSEL', the covername for the Director of "The RESERVATION, the main practical research work on ENORMOZ"? The NSA Comment on VEKSEL' is, “‘Bill of Exchange’; possibly Julius Robert Oppenheimer." Whether MLAD was Ted Hall, Philip Morrison or somebody else, the qualifier “possibly” can be removed: the covername VEKSEL' represented Robert Oppenheimer. Hence the question, whence VEKSEL? Who substituted a covername for Oppenheimer, and why? [24]
In May 1945, Ted Hall had been at Los Alamos for over a year. As a white badger, he certainly knew that Oppenheimer was the Director of Los Alamos. However, there are no circumstances under which Soviet source Hall would be made privy to a KGB covername for Oppenheimer. The same cannot be said of Morrison. As an Oppenheimer-placed mole who fully understood "the scheme," MLAD would in fact have need of a covername for his espionage patron and co-conspirator. Thus, more probably than not, MLAD reported "VEKSEL" and the New York residency forwarded/repeated his report verbatim.
Notes, Sources, References
1. "The matter which most engaged ... more pressing crises in the world.": In the Matter of J. Robert Oppenheimer, Transcript of Hearing Before Personnel Security Board,Washington, DC. April 12, 1954, through May 6, 1954, Page 9.
"I was in New York City ... to do everything it could for the war.": Steve Nelson, American Radical, Steve Nelson, James R.Barrettt, Rob Ruck, 1981, Page 261.
2. "... collective codename, the VOLONTERY": Confidential Source.
"Feklisov ... The technical and scientific intelligence ... actually the only network—dedicated to atomic espionage": The Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Alexander Feklisov and Sergei Kostin, 2001, Page 64.
"The Volunteer group were able to guarantee ... development of the American atomic bomb": Veterany Vneshnei Razvedki Rossii, T. V. Samolis, Editor, SVR Press, 1995, pages 158-9.
3. "In 1953, as a rallying cry for ... memoir titled The Volunteers.": The Volunteers, Steve Nelson, Masses and Mainstream, 1953.
Note In January 1940 Nelson and a group of Party members went underground. They changed their names and moved away from San Francisco. Germany and Russia had concluded the Hitler-Stalin Pact, and the Party prepared itself to wage sabotage operations inside the U.S. if America joined a war against the Axis. It was during this underground period that Nelson wrote about the Spanish Civil War: "I called it, The Volunteers. I sent copies to a number of Party leaders, but they couldn't bring themselves to read it. Nobody wanted to hear anything about Spain at that time; people didn't want to be reminded of defeat. 'The Volunteers' lay around unread for a number of years and came out only in 1953, when I was in jail." (Steve Nelson, American Radical, pages 251-2)
4. "deep reality of Nelson": EOE (Stephan Mesarosh, aka "Steve Nelson)
"He also was a trusted confidant ... days before he left Berkeley for Los Alamos ... called Nelson and set up a lunch date ... to work on a war project": Steve Nelson, American Radical, Steve Nelson, James Barrett, Rob Ruck, 1981, Page 269; EOE, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Inconvenient Truth, Endnote 1)
Note Critical analysis of this event yields the judgment that Oppenheimer's sub rosa purpose in meeting Nelson was to inform Soviet intelligence in real time of his movement.
"Most compelling is the fact that Steve Nelson was acquainted with Morris Cohen, a SCW veteran and American Soviet agent in New York.": Bombshell Readers' Rendezvous, February 11, 1998, Post by Joe Albright: "From Spanish Civil War archives in Moscow, we know that Morrris Cohen served under Dallet for about two months in the Mac-Paps. Cohen was wounded on October 14, 1937, (not Oct. 13) and spent the next four months in Spanish hospitals. As a green recruit who arrived in Spain in mid-August 1937, it is very doubtful if he even met Steve Nelson before Nelson left Spain. But we do know that Cohen knew Nelson at least slightly back in the United States. We have never been able to establish that Morris Cohen knew Kitty Dalet."
5. "In all of these accounts ... episode began, “Our source 'Luis' ... a Spanish War acquaintance of his.” New Times (Novoye Vremya) , Vol. 16, 1991.
6. Stalin’s Atomic Spies. This was the work produced in 1994 by SVR Colonel Vladimir Chikov and Gary Kern. It did not find an English language publisher but instead was published in France in 1996 under the title, Comment Staline A Vole La Bombe Atomique Aux Americains: Dossier KGB No. 13676 (How Stalin Stole the Atomic Bomb from the Americans: KGB File No. 13676). The Cohen file, filling 6 large cardboard cartons, had a name "Delo Dachniki," or The Case of the Cottagers. ("the cottagers", i.e. the Cohens)
Note All citations and page numbers to Stalin's Atomic Spies pertain to the French book, Comment Staline A Vole La Bombe Atomique Aux Americains.
"these three references ... public sources on the Volunteer Group": (1) Re SERB, LESLI, MLAD, STAR, see Venona, Index of Covernames (Undated Documents); (2) Re LUIS, LESLI, MLAD, ADEN, SERB, SIL'VER, see The Sword and the Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, 1999, Pages 147-8; (3) Re KLIBI, LUIS, LESLI, ANTA, ADEN, MLAD, STAR, see Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Vladimir Chikov and Gary Kern, 1996.
Note Another, essentially corroborative, public source is found in Bombshell, p.198: "One retired KGB officer who has read the Cohen's dossier said that in addition to Morris and Lona Cohen, the Volunteer consisted of Mlad, Star, Anta, Aden, and two other American agents who have never been identified even by code name. One of the Cohens' best sources lived in California, or so Lona was to remember in later years."
"A fourth ... source materialized in 1997.": Private communication, confidential source, December 1997.
7. "two explicit points of identity ... residing in the Philadelphia area ... severe leg disability.": No. 943, NY to Moscow, 4 July 1944 (RELE)
"The VOLUNTEER network expanded to include, in addition to MLAD, three other agents: ADEN, SERB and SILVER.”: The Sword and the Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, 1999, Page 148.
"A second confidential source ... engineer in radio.": Private communication, reliable Confidential Source."
8. "According to ... codename LUIS ...circa summer 1939": Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Page 105.
"LUIS ... corroborated by a Mitrokhin archive file.": The Sword and the Shield, The Mitrokhin Archive, Pages 147, 602 Fn.62.
"Cohen had a second covername, VOLUNTEER, observed in Venona.": Venona, No.32, NY to Moscow, 11 January 1945.
"covername LESLI ... with attribution to “VOLUNTER’s wife.”: Ibid.
"Mitrokhin archive file ... LESLI was the covername of Lona Cohen.": The Sword and the Shield, Pages 147 and 602, Fn.62.
9. "The primary reference ... Mitrokhin archive file Vol. 6, ch. 5, part 2": The Sword and the Shield, Page 148, Footnote 67 (Page 602).
Note Espionage literature contains snippets of data to the effect that Harry Gold had contact with the Cohens. It is certainly true that Anatoli Yatskov, Gold's case officer for Fuchs, was also the Cohens' case officer. Further, since Rosenberg and Cohen (VOLUNTEER) were connected, Gold's courier mission to Greenglass can be associated with the Volunteer Group. In view of these considerations, and the KGB penchant for word association in codenaming, it is entirely possible that SILVER was a covername for Gold in a compartmented Volunteer line.
10. "Morris Cohen (VOLUNTER) was ... Julius Rosenberg ... a member of the Volunteer Group.": EOE (Rosenberg Case: Not Closed)
"His case officer ... to “the affectionate nickname “Libi.”: The Man Behind the Rosenbergs, Alexander Feklisov and Sergei Kostin, 2001, Page 107 ("When I remember him, I think of the affectionate nickname of 'Libi' that I gave him at the time.")
"In Stalin’s Atomic Spies ... KLIBI ... recruited by Morris Cohen.": Stalin’s Atomic Spies, Page 157.
"Ethel Rosenberg ... under the auspices of NKVD resident Gaik Ovakimian.": Special Tasks, Pavel Sudoplatov, Page 177.
11. "MLAD (Youngster) and STAR (Oldtimer) are Venona covernames known to stand for Ted Hall and Saville Sax": Bombshell, Pages 6, 98-99; Venona, MLAD (Pg 46), STAR (Page 67)
"It is rock solid ... was in October 1944.": Bombshell, Chapter 11, Advent of Mlad and Star, Page 91.
MLAD messages in Venona and Vassiliev's Notebooks
1. NY to M 1585 12 NOV 44 HALL & SAX (Ven)
2. C to NY 16114 16 November 1944 "MLAD" and "STAR" (Vas)
3. NY to M 1699 02 DEC 44 (MLAD,STAR) (Ven)
4. NY to M 1749 13 DEC 44 "MLAD" (Ven)
5. NY to M 1773 16 DEC 44 MLAD (Ven)
6. NY to M 94 23 JAN 45 MLAD (also STAR) (Ven)
7. M to NY 298 31 MAR 45 MLAD (Ven)
8. NY to M 799 26 MAY 45 MLAD (Ven)
9. M to NY 709 05 JUL 45 MLAD (Ven)
Message No. 1585 reported Ted Hall and Saville Sax by name to Moscow in connection with a walk-in approach to committ espionage. Hall provided a report on Los Alamos, including the names of key personnell, as well as a photograph of himself.
Message No. 16114, Vassiliev, Yellow Notebook #1, p.16. In this message (undated) the Center acknowledges New York's report on Hall & Sax, and assigns respective covernames MLAD and STAR: "The report – great interest. The measures regarding connection with Hall are appropriate. It is proposed to stop using Beck. Assign contact with Sax to Aleksey: train Sax in the spirit of Konspiratsia; gather detailed information on Hall and Sax, Hall’s role in work on En-s, and the reason he gave the report specifically to Beck. Hall – “Mlad,” Sax – “Star.” "
Message No. 1699 . NSA judged No.1699 to be a continuation of a message sent the previous day (1-December-1944, external serial No. 1691) which dealt with the problem of atomic energy. In this regard, No. 1699 lists 17 senior physicists working on atomic energy—individuals not just at Los Alamos, and not just on the United States atomic project. Covernames MLAD and STAR do not appear in the decrypted message per se, but only in analyst Comments. In what is possibly a 2nd, separate paragraph, No.1699 discusses an individual who "addressed himself to" (approached) NAPOLI, who in turn sent him to BECK. This scenario jived with the info in Venona No. 1585 that Hall had "named the key personnel employed on ERNOMOUS" and that Sax had met BECK. Thus, in Comments, NSA suggests that MLAD (Hall) was probably the source of the scientist names, and that STAR (Sax) was the unidentified person in contact with NAPOLI and BECK. Bombshell's authors found it somewhat problematic that Hall was the source of the list of scientists (Bombshell, page 108 refers). In this regard, since Hall had given his report (enumerating the scientists) to the Soviets at the end of October, it could be argued that "No. 1699" might have been forwarded to Moscow in a more timely fashion.
Message No. 1749 is a 2 part message. The first part discusses agents associated with atomic espionage, ARNO, PERS, OSA, KALIBER, LIBERAL and "MLAD"; the second part discusses other members of the Rosengerg ring. Only MLAD was enclosed in quotation marks, ostensibly by the drafter.
Message No. 1773 reports Ruth Greenglass' return to NY after visiting husband David in New Mexico. KALIBER reported that Oppenheimer and Kistiakowski worked at the Camp (Los Alamos). Message author, Leonid KVASNIKOV, notes in parentheses that MLAD's report had also mentioned KISTIAKOWSKI. This is only reference to MLAD in the message. Most curious is fact that KVASNIKOV asks Moscow if it has any information on Oppenheimer.
Message No. 94 is the first message that posits Hall and Sax as covernames MLAD and STAR, respectively (Procedurally, assignment of covernames was the Center's prerogative). If there was more than one agent with covername MLAD, the identities of the "MLADs" in previous messages are uncertain. There are two important items relating to Sax (STAR): As of this date, Yatskov has not passed final judgement on Sax's reliability/value, and Sax would be a student at Harvard at the end of February. Bombshell's authors corroborated that Sax was "back at Harvard in early 1945." (Bombshell, pages, 134, 332.)
Message No. 298 reports on CHARLES and MLAD. Contact with Fuchs (CHARLES) has just been re-estatblished since July 1944. The majority of the message deals with materials from Fuchs. MLAD only mentioned in last paragraph as follows: "MLAD's report about work [4 groups unrecovered]. [1 group unrecovered] great interest." In as much as Bombshell credibly reported that Sax made a courier run to Hall in New Mexico sometime before the end of February (when Sax went to Harvard), this reference to MLAD can possibly refer to Hall. But it cannot be imputed beyond a possibility.
Message No. 799 begins "MLAD's material contains." If, as reported by Bombshell, Lona Cohen couriered this material, then MLAD is not Ted Hall (whom she first couriered/met in August 1945). At the time of this message, Hall, only an undergrad in Physics, was assigned to the Ra-La Method Group (one of 11 groups in the Weapon Physics Division). The quality of the information provided by MLAD is problematic, if not prohibitive, for Hall: e.g., the very accurate data on atomic research centers, particularly the special project at Kellog/Kellex in New Jersey headed by Harold Urey; descriptions of the diffusion, thermal, electromagnetic and spectrographic methods of production of 25-uranium; etc.
Message No. 709 begins, "The incident involving GRAUBER should be regarded as compromise of MLAD." In as much as GRAUBER is undoubtedly Roy Glauber, a Harvard classmate of Hall also at Los Alamos, the MLAD of this message probably refers to Ted Hall. The nature of the Grauber incident has not been discovered/reported. The month following this message "operational worker" Lona Cohen would rendezvous with Hall in Albuquerque—her first contact with him.
12. "Hall’s first contact ... August 1945 ... after the war was over.": Bombshell, Pages 148-9; Red Files, Morris Cohen Interview ("Then there was a very dramatic episode, which is very important in our story -- of the utmost importance. This took place in 1945, August, about the time when the Americans dropped the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.")
"In interviews in Moscow years later ... a picture of Hall by her control officer to ensure positive identification.": Red Files, Ibid. ("According to the understanding with our people, she was to go to the university town, which was a few miles from where she was staying, to meet a young fellow. That is from whom she was to get the material. She went three weeks in a row; he didn't show up. She understood who, what he looked like according to the information given her. What he would carry, a journal, he looked like a student and so on.")
"Hall himself recalled ... after Trinity (16 July 1945).": Bombshell, Page 150.
"These facts and others underscore the great mystery presented by authors Albright and Kunstel ... Venona message, New York to Moscow, No. 799, 26 May 1945 ... MLAD’s material contains.": Bombshell, Pages 136-7.
13. "These identities are rooted in the information ... recruited by Morris Cohen in 1942.": Stalin's Atomic Spies, Page 156.
"Chikov used ... pseudonym PERSEUS ... Cohen’s atomic recruit ... with his initial courier, STAR.”: Ibid.
14. "The [material] states directly ... from that time to 1944.”: Private communication, confidential source.
15. "Official U.S Government documents show ... Philip Morrison.": Morrison FBI File, 100-345840 (main file); Philip Morrison testimony before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, May 7, 1953; U.S. National Archives, Philip Morrison record group, Universtiy of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory, Declassified NND921104, 5/12/97; EOE (Julius Robert Oppenheimer, As to Character)
"In April 1942 ... recommended by Oppenheimer ... DSM at the Met Lab.": U.S. National Archives, Declassified NND921104, 5/12/97, Philip Morrison record group, Universtiy of Chicago Metallurgical Laboratory.
Note Although Morrison's name is not on this document, it is catalogued/grouped with other Morrison archive records from the Metallurgical Laboratory. The personnel reference is signed by JR Oppenheimer. The year 1942 is not shown, but that year is the only de facto possibility: In April of 1941 Oppenheimer had no connection with the incipient U.S. atomic research program, let alone the Met Lab; his first association came at the so-called Schenectady Conference in October 1941. In April 1941, Morrison was recently employed at San Francisco State College. ~ In April of 1943, Oppenheimer was at Los Alamos. In April 1943 Morrison was already a full time employee of the Met Lab (since February 1943). (See Note 18)
(Click to enlarge)
Note This document is the last page of a 6-page Army Memorandum dated 28 September 1943, Subject: Philip Morrison, Re: Examination of Records of the Office of the President, University of Illinois, Urbana Illinois.
Although the memo was a summary of Morrison's Urbana file, it quoted in full a letter from Oppenheimer dated April 26, 1941, recommending Morrison for employment at Urbana. Thus, page 6 carries the last sentence of the Oppenheimer letter.
Below that, the Army C.I.C. Special Agent details that Morrison was hired at Urbana for the period beginning September 1, 1941, ending June 30, 1942. Further reflected is that Morrison submitted a letter of resignation on December 27, 1942, to take effect February 1, 1943, in favor of a permanent position at the Met Lab, University of Chicago.
Note Site Y was Los Alamos. Morrison's effective date of transfer to Los Alamos was 22 October 1944. However, he did not move to Los Alamos until January 1945.
"In early summer 1944 ... the ALSOS Project.": Morrison Senate Testimony, et al.
Note Morrison's assignment to ALSOS is noteworthy. Reference is made to Venona message #1699 of 2 December 1944 (above) which enumerated the world's stellar physicists and attributed the information to Ted Hall (MLAD). However, Bombshell's authors, as they had with Venona No. 799 of 26 May 1945 ("MLAD's material contains"), found Venona No. 1699 incongruous in relation to Hall: "The inclusion of Bridgman was interesting, since few knew that he was working in virtual seclusion on bomb-related research at Harvard, Hall's alma mater. Even stranger was the inclusion of two Germans who were pioneers in nuclear research. As written in the cable, they were identified as 'Werner Eisenberg' and 'Stassenman'. The reference probably was to Werner Heisenberg and Fritz Strassman, who were believed to be working on the bomb for the Nazis at the Kaiser Wilhhelm Insttiute for Physics." (Bombshell, page 108) Such information might not be expected of Hall; but would certainly be in keeping with Morrison's 2-year Met Lab and ALSOS background.
16. "Like Robert Oppenheimer, Philip Morrison was a member of the Communist Party at Berkeley.": Philip Morrison testimony before the Subcommittee to Investigate the Administration of the Internal Security Act and Other Internal Security Laws, May 7, 1953, page 899.
"I was responsible ... conduct classes and discussions ... were quite active.": Steve Nelson, American Radical, Steve Nelson, Page 268.
"Steve Nelson’s FBI file reflects that one of his many pseudonyms was “starik”, the Russian word for oldster or oldtimer.": EOE (Stephan Mesarosh, aka "Steve Nelson")
17. About Christmastime in 1941 ... be his assistant in the project.": Peace and War, Robert Serber with Robert P. Crease, 1998, Page 65.
18. "the witness of Pavel Sudoplatov is operative ... who were knowingly part of the scheme": Special Tasks, Page 192.
Note It cannot go un-remarked that it was April-May 1942 when Robert Oppenheimer's own official employment on DSM crystalized: Since the Schenectady Conference in October 1941, Oppenheimer had been hustling Arthur Compton, Director of the Met Lab, to get his foot in the door on atomic war work. In December 1941 Oppenheimer submitted pro-bono calculations on neutron fission efficiency to Compton. The Met Lab Director wrote back requesting further calculations on "the efficiency of the explosion", and reckoned that "no one in the country other than yourself has made" such calculations. In April 1942 Compton formally offered Oppenheimer a consultant position. In this regard, Oppenheimer completed a U.S. Government Personnel Security Questionnaire on April 28, 1942. Up to this point Gregory Breit had been leading the so-called Rapid Rupture, S-1, project to develop an atomic bomb. Breit resigned on May 18, 1942. In June 1942 Oppenheimer received a formal letter from Compton appointing him a research associate for the Metallurgical Research Project at the salary of $620 a month.
19. "shortly before Morris and Lona Cohen went to Paris in July 1947 ... Lona had a meeting in New York with PERSEUS.": Stalin's Atomic Spies, Page 199; Bombshell, Page 182 ("They got to France in time for the Bastille Day celebrations on July 14,").
"could propose some other scientists ... worked at the Hanford Engineering Works ... had already given him materials": Stalin's Atomic Spies, Page 200.
"About a year later ... PERSEUS had met again with the ANTA and ADEN ... Soviet intelligence officials.": Ibid., Pages 204-5.
"supplied by Gary Kern ... a married couple ... they were recruited ... Their contact was OLDTIMER [i.e. STAR].": Ibid., Page 360.
20. "the attribute, married scientific couple at Hanford ... disinformation ... ANTA and ADEN worked elsewhere": Note The attribute, married scientific couple at Hanford, is a specific and narrow identifier: As recalled by the Hanford historian, only one such couple existed at Hanford, John and Leona Marshall. In the context of Hall and Sax as MLAD and STAR, the notion of 23-year old Ted Hall, working on his PhD at Chicago University, recruiting two experienced Doctors of Physics such as the Marshalls is problematic. The proposition becomes more objectionable when quirky Saville Sax is factored as the the contact agent for the Marshalls. Moreover, the Marshalls were no longer at Hanford in the summer of 1947 when PERSEUS reportedly proffered ANTA and ADEN to the Soviets. (They had returned in 1946 to research positions at the University of Chicago. In that regard, Hall had physical proximity to the Marshalls.) In the absense of any information that the Marshalls were Communists, their consideration as ANTA and ADEN should be a non-starer.
"the dna of the Volunteer Group ... the legend on ANTA and ADEN ... Robert and Charlotte Serber": Shelter Island Physics Conference An important physics conference on the Foundations of Quantum Mechanics was convened June 2-4, 1947, in Long Island, New York. It was organized by Robert Oppenheimer and attended by 23 other physicists: Hans Bethe, David Bohm, Gregory Breit, Karl Darrow, Herman Feshbach, Richard Feynman, Hendrik Kramers, Willis Lamb, Robert Marshak, John von Neumann, Arnold Nordsieck, Abraham Pais, Linus Pauling, I. I. Rabi, Bruno Rossi, Julian Schwinger, Robert Serber, Edward Teller, George Uhlenbeck, John Van Vleck, Victor Weisskopf, and John Wheeler. All of the conferees rendezvoused in New York City where Oppenheimer had arranged for a bus with police escort to transport the group to and from the Ram's Head Inn, Shelter Island, NY. In Stalin's Atomic Spies, Chikov wrote that Lona Cohen met PERSEUS in New York shortly before going to Paris in July 1947. Purportedly, PERSEUS had come to NY to visit "relatives." An equally sensible possibility and hypothesis, however, is that PERSEUS also attended the Shelter Island Conference, and it was on this occasion that STAR, PERSEUS and ADEN agreed on an adjustment to an atomic espionage conspiracy begun in 1942.
"Charlotte Leof Serber had a Bachelor of Science ... and became its secretary.": Peace and War, Robert Serber with Robert P. Crease, 1998, Page 46.
"one the finest technical librarians in the country ... knew a great deal of physics.” Robert Serber, FBI FOIA file; Charlotte Serber, FBI FOIA file
"a post-war security review ... on security grounds": Charlotte Serber, FBI FOIA file.
"Robert [Serber] ... Personnel Security Review Board ... E. O. Lawrence.": Reappraising Oppenheimer, Something Resembling Justice, Stephanie Young, Pages 237-242.
21. Stalin's Atomic Spies, Pages 141-3.
More Fielding dialog attributions:
Fielding. "....If [the Russians] think I'm not who I say I am, then we might as well end this conversation right here and go home...."
Fielding. "....tell [the Russians] that I belong to a group of scientists who have access to all of the secret work [on the Atom Bomb]...."
Fielding. "....The first ones to think of [an atomic bomb] were the Germans, since they were preparing for war. Then the Hungarian scientist Leo Szilard, who fled from Fascist persecution in Europe, got the atomic scientists [in America] to stop publishing papers on nuclear physics. He also persuaded Albert Einstein to sign a letter to President Roosevelt, warning him that if the German scientists succeeded in making a super-bomb and turned it over to the Nazis, then it would be too late for the rest of the world -- it would be a catastrophe. For this reason many American physicists including prominent scientists who emigrated here from Europe asked the President to fund their research work on uranium. At the end of last year the White House agreed to the request and set aside a large sum of money for the purpose, so far as I know...."
Fielding. "....experiments in atomic energy for peaceful purposes came to an end and everyone turned to the problem of making an atomic bomb. The chief task for all laboratories now is to achieve a chain reaction in uranium-235...."
Fielding. "....For God's sake, don't even mention [money]. I'm ready to cooperate with them for humanitarian reasons, not for money...."
Cohen. "I must also note that Fielding is a steady, reliable and decisive man. As a scientist, he correctly appraises the political situation developing in the world and the situation in the higher echelons of governmental power in the USA."
22. Brotherhood of the Bomb, Report to Our Colleagues, February 20, 1940.
23. "Nothing in this essay ... Philip Morrison ... PERSEUS ... He was not.": PERSEUS is circumscribed by the following statement in Stalin's Atomic Spies, “Early in 1943, Fielding, together with others from the Met Lab, was asked by Robert Oppenheimer to come to Los Alamos …. Once he entered Los Alamos Arthur Fielding became the Soviet Union’s No.1 atomic spy. … Goodbye, Arthur Fielding. Henceforth we shall refer to you by your proper code name, Perseus.” Philip Morrison was indeed transfered to Los Alamos by Robert Oppenheimer, but he did not enter there until January 1945. Perseus, on the other hand, was a so-called Los Alamos first-teamer. Morrison was not.
24. Venona, No. 799, 26 May 1945, NY to Moscow.
Top