Historical Dictionary of Atomic Espionage

By (author) Glenmore S. Trenear-Harvey

Hardback - £91.00

Publication date:

16 June 2011

Length of book:

264 pages

Publisher

Scarecrow Press

ISBN-13: 9780810871809

Almost from the moment in 1940 that Otto Frisch and Rudofl Peierls suggested, from their small office in the University of Birmingham, that an atomic weapon could be miniaturized and delivered to its target by aircraft, the concept of atomic espionage can be said to have existed. No sooner had the famous Frisch-Peierls Memorandum been received by the British War Cabinet than a Soviet mole, John Cairncross, passed the details on to his Soviet contact. And 70 years later with the International Atomic Energy Authority (IAEA) estimating that up to 40 countries now have the capability of building nuclear weapons, the need to monitor this activity remains crucial.

The Historical Dictionary of Atomic Espionage relates the history of atomic espionage through a chronology, an introductory essay, and cross-referenced dictionary entries on the agencies, agents, and operations. This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about atomic espionage.
This is the fourteenth work in the Historical Dictionaries of Intelligence and Counterintelligence series. Author Trenear-Harvey, a former Royal Air Force jet fighter pilot and station intelligence officer, is recognized as an intelligence expert. The approximately 300 entries are arranged alphabetically and cover people, countries, espionage rings, various forms of surveillance, and code names. The work is arranged in the same fashion as other titles in the series: a list of acronyms and abbreviations, a chronology, an introduction, the dictionary, appendixes, and a bibliography. Entries range in length from one sentence to more than seven pages. Words in bold type within an entry indicate separate entries for those topics; see also references direct the reader to related topics, and see references direct the reader to the correct entry. Familiar names found in this work are Enrico Fermi, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Valerie Plame, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. There are entries on the major players—the U.S., Soviet Union, People’s Republic of China—as well as France, Germany, Great Britain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, and North Korea. Code names account for a great many of the entries.
The chronology begins with 1939 and ends with 2010. The introduction provides a brief summary and history of the concept of atomic espionage. Appendixes list “Soviet Intelligence Personnel Engaged in ENORMOZ” (an operation to penetrate the Manhattan Project) and “Manhattan Project Espionage Suspects in the VENONA Traffic” (the cryptanalytical program providing Anglo-American counterintelligence information on Soviet atomic espionage). The 10-page bibliography is broken down into categories such as “Atomic Espionage during World War II,” “Atomic Espionage during the Cold War,” and “Cuban Missile Crisis.” Scholars and lay readers alike will enjoy this work, which is an excellent source for academic libraries and large public libraries.