Albright,
Joseph, and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's
Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy. New York: Times Books/Random House, 1997.
Albright,
Joseph, and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's
Unknown Atomic Spy Conspiracy. New York: Times Books/Random House, 1997.
Clark comment: The speculation that Theodore Alvin Hall was the Soviet spy whose codename was "Mlad" seems to be at an end. Hall admits to the authors of Bombshell having contact with the Soviets, although he carefully (even at this late date) avoids admitting to specific acts of espionage. The self-serving justifications offered by Hall for his acts of treason (the Soviets were allies and a fear "of an American monopoly of atomic weapons if there should be a postwar depression") ring particularly hollow today. The question remains, however, why he was allowed to walk away from an FBI investigation in the 1950s and 1960s. Perhaps, the best guess may be that the FBI lacked the evidence to convict Hall of espionage without revealing the existence of the Venona decrypts. See report in New York Times, 16 Sep. 1997, A17 (N). See also, Hall's obituary: Bart Barnes, "Atomic Bomb Physicist Theodore Alvin Hall Dies at 74," Washington Post, 11 Nov. 1999, B7.
Herken, WPNWE, 10 Nov. 1997, says that Bombshell "is both a solid, well-researched work and a brilliant piece of reportage." The focus is the spy ring known to its Soviet handlers as the "Volunteers," comprised of Theodore Alvin Hall ("Mlad" in the Venona traffic), Saville Sax ("Star"), and the husband-and-wife team of Morris and Lona ("Helen") Cohen. The book "provides convincing evidence" that Klaus Fuchs' treachery "only confirmed information the Russians already had from Hall."
For Wettering, IJI&C 11.4, this is "an interesting biography of Ted Hall, with some fascinating looks at Morris and Lona Cohen." Although the book "contains very little real information on Hall's espionage activity," Bombshell is overall "a well-researched and very well-written biography of a heretofore little known spy."
Cohen, Sam. "Ted
Hall: A Soldier from Venona." International Journal of Intelligence
and Counterintelligence 11, no. 3 (Fall 1998): 351-365.
Cohen knew Hall from their days working on the Manhatten Project at Los Alamos, New Mexico.
Dobbs,
Michael.
1. "Code Name Mlad: The 'Crime of the Century' Is Not Yet Closed." Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 4-10 Mar. 1996, 9-10.
Based on "a review of dozens of recently declassified Soviet and U.S. documents," Dobbs develops the argument that Theodore Alvin Hall was the Soviet spy known previously only by the code name Mlad.
2. "Pointing the Finger at Mlad. Newly Declassified Intercepts of Soviet Spy Messages Also Renew Suspicions about Alger Hiss." Washington Post National Weekly Edition, 11-17 Mar. 1996, 34.
A new release of VENONA documents with NSA notes identifying U.S. officials and others as the Soviet agents mentioned by code name in the Soviet cables names Theodore Alvin Hall as the Atomic spy known previously only as Mlad ("Youngster").
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