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.
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.
Taubman, Philip. “Death of a Spy Satellite Program.” Public Administration: Concepts and Cases. Stillman, Richard Joseph. Boston, MA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2010. 361-369.
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