INTRODUCTION
This research paper is about the Soviet spy, George Koval, codename DELMAR who penetrated the Manhattan Project. The purpose of this research paper is to identify lessons learned based on George Koval’s activities with the Manhattan Project and not repeat the same Counterintelligence failures in the future. George Koval managed to elude capture and operate virtually unsuspected for the entire length of his espionage career against the U.S. and so little is known about him. Analysis of his activities should prove to be extremely valuable to the intelligence community.
BACKGROUND
On Christmas day in December 1913, in Sioux City, Iowa, George Koval was born to a family of Jewish immigrants from Belarus, then part of the Soviet Union. George Koval’s father, Abraham was a carpenter and his mother, Ethel Koval was a convert to Socialism. George Koval’s parents maintained correspondence with members of their extended family in the Soviet Union. In the 1920s, they got involved with an American society to help with the resettlement of Jews in the Soviet Union, a Communist organization. This organization was called Idishe Kolonizatzie in Sovetn Farband (IKOR). Since 1928, IKOR’s main focus had been Jewish resettlement in Birobidzhan, a city near the border of Manchuria that Stalin promoted as a secular Jewish homeland. Abraham Koval was the secretary of the Sioux City IKOR branch in the 1920s. The Koval family held strong Communist beliefs that were instilled in George Koval from an early age.
While attending high school at Central High School, known locally as the castle on the hill in Sioux City, Iowa, George Koval joined the Young Communist League, and in August 1930 was its delegate to the Iowa co...
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...ded over to the GRU (military intelligence) Museum the Gold Star medal and Hero of Russia certificate and document bestowed on Soviet intelligence officer George Koval". Kremlin.ru. President of Russia. Retrieved 2009-06-20.
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Walsh, Michael (May 2009). "George Koval: Atomic Spy Unmasked". Smithsonian.
Nora Levin, 1988, vol. 1. “The Jews in the Soviet Union Since 1917”.
Cited from George Koval FBI investigative file, in Andrey Shitov, Op. Cit.
Vladimir Lota, Red Star, July 25, 2007 “His Name Was Delmar”.
https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/csi-publications/books-and-monographs/cias-analysis-of-the-soviet-union-1947-1991/
In the summer of 1939, Igor Gouzenko was invited to go as an instructor to a Pioneer Camp near Moscow. Shortly after returning to the Architectural Institute, Igor was admitted into The Kuibishev Military Engineering Academy of Moscow. Before even finishing a month at The Academy, Igor was appointed for training as a cipher clerk in the Intelligence Administration. Thus, Igor Gouzenko’s appointment as a cipher clerk would lead to his defection to Canada, the Gouzenko Affair, and the beginnings of the Cold War.
Taubman, Philip. “Death of a Spy Satellite Program.” Public Administration: Concepts and Cases. Stillman, Richard Joseph. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 361-369.
. The Venona project was a military investigation decoding Soviet cables going in and out the United States. These cables revealed hundreds of citizens and immigrants all on American soil that passed very confidential information to Soviet intelligence. (Citation here) This alarming discovery of spies and the success of them gathering information showed the Soviet Union and communisms ability to influence and control. It was espionage that led to the trails of Julius and Ethal Rosenburg. The Rosenburg were American citizens indited, convicted, and executed for passing confidential information to Soviet officials, which aided them in the duplication of nuclear weapons specifically the atomic bomb. Had the Soviet Union not gained access to such a vital piece of information, the pivoting point of psychological fear to actual physical fear spiraling a world wind of cause and effects around the world, then perhaps the fear its self would not have grown to such status. The Soviet Union’s espionage was a war on American soil, fought secretly to dismantle the super power of the United States.
In order to obtain religious, social, political, and equality 23 million Jews immigrated to America during the years between 1880 and 1920 (Chametzky, 5). Anzia Yezierska wrote about her experiences as a poor immigrant in her fictional work becoming a voice of the Jewish people in the1920s. She struggled to obtain an education that allowed her to rise above her family’s poverty and gain a measure of autonomy. Rachel and Sara, the female protagonists, mirror the author’s life going from struggling immigrant to college graduate. Yezierska uses her own experiences to portray the Jewish immigrant experience with a woman’s perspective. She successfully gained a commercial following that allowed her to mediate the cultural differences between the mainstream culture and the Jewish people that helped resolve differences between the established Americans and these new immigrants for a time (Ebes...
New York: William Morrow. Lipsett, S. M. & Co., P.A. and Ladd, E. C. (1971) The 'Secondary' of the 'Secondary' of the 'Secon "Jewish Academics in the United States: Their Achievements, Culture and Politics." American Jewish Yearbook -. Cited for Zuckerman, Harriet (1977).
Sulick, Michael J.. Spying in America espionage from the Revolutionary War to the dawn of the Cold War., Georgetown University Press, 2012
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During World War I Avrom Sutzkever spent most of his early childhood in Siberia where he and his parents took refuge from German armies. His father died in Siberia and his mother then moved the family back to Avrom’s birthtown in nineteen twenty-one, three years after World War I had ended. Following the war Avrom attended a local Polish Jewish high school, attended university classes in Polish literature, and was...
The Change in Status and Position of Jews in Russia, France and Germany in the Years 1880-1920
In the face of increasing anti-Semitism during the interwar periods Jewish identity often came into conflict with societal pressures to assimilate. Irving Howe’s, A Memoir of the Thirties, written in 1961, depicts his experiences as a Jew in New York City. In his memoir Howe describes the living and social conditions during this decade that pushed many New York Jews to become involved in some type of socialist movement. Although the memoir is primarily about political activities, his description of the social conditions and the Jewish community provides ...
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Lengel, Edward G. “Spymaster in Chief”. Military History, Jun/July 2009, Vol. 78. 26 Issue 2, p. 26-35. Langguth, A. J. & Co., Ltd. Patriots.
Among the spies of the 20th century, Kim Philby was a master of his craft. “To betray, you must first belong,” Kim Philby once said. Philby betrayed his colleagues, his friends, his wives, and most of all his country. He did all this in the secret service of the Soviet Union. The effects of this master spy’s operations set the stage for post-World War II in Europe.
Throughout the years most country's governments have established some sort of secret police. No matter what the government called it, whether it is the United States' Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) or her Majesty's secret service (MI6), whatever name the government used, the international term of "secret police" could always be applied. Many agencies of secret police have had their success and failures, some more than others. The KGB, which in English means "the Committee of Public Safety," has had their share of both successes and failures. Most secret police agencies have been used primarily to obtain information from other countries. This was also a primary goal for the KGB, but one of their other goals, which was just as important, was to keep unwanted outside information from the Russian people. This was only one out of many the KGB's objectives. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to prove that the actions of the KGB were, all in all, a success.