John Burrow, Harry Jones, Sir Bernard Lovell, Sir Nevill Mott, Norman Thompson
Heinz Arndt, Sir Herman Bondi, Gerard Friedlander, Erich Koch, Anthony Michaelis, Paul Streeten
Luis Alvarez, Harold and Mary Argo, Hans Bethe, Norris Bradbury, Mrs Hannah Bretscher, Bernice Brode, David Brode, Martin and Suzanne Deutsch, John de Wire, Bernard Feld, Richard Feynman, A. P. French, Roy Glauber, Edwin and Elsie McMillan, John Manley, Carson and Kathleen Mark, Robert and Ruth Marshak, Nicholas Metropolis, Josef Rotblat, Cyril and Alice Smith, Rod Spence, Edward Teller, Victor and Ellen Weisskopf, Robert and Jane Wilson
Joy Alexander, Henry Arnold,[27] Oscar Buneman, Fred Fenning, Lord and Lady Flowers, Otto Frisch,[28] Mrs Ursula Frisch, James Hill, Alwyn McKay, A. G. Maddock, Sir Michael Perrin, Terence Price, Compton and Marjorie Rennie, Hugh and Jill Roskell, Mrs Eleanor Scott, Henry Seligman, William Skardon, Mrs Erna Skinner¹ John and Marjorie Storey, John Tait, Mrs Elaine Wheatley (formerly Elaine Skinner)
Margaret Gowing, Mrs Gaby Gross (formerly Gaby Peierls), Gordon Hawkins, David Holloway, Nicholas Kurti, Ted Milligan, Sir Rudolf and Lady Peierls.
Notes
Much of the information in this book comes from interviews with people who knew Klaus Fuchs at various stages of his career, in some cases several extensive interviews with the same person. These people are listed in the Acknowledgements section.
I first became interested in Fuchs some years ago when I was doing research on some aspects of nuclear weapons, and his name came up in conversations with some people who knew him, and I looked up the details of the case. Then I did a radio programme about him which was broadcast in 1976, in which five people who knew him took part: Henry Arnold, Nicholas Kurd, Sir Rudolf and Lady Peierls, and Mrs Erna Skinner. This was broadcast by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC. So I had material to draw on when I began doing researches for this book.
Much of the documentary source material comes from FBI files, although much of this originates in Britain. It was obtained under the Freedom of Information Act. British official papers are normally made available to the public after thirty years, but it was announced at the end of 1979 that the papers relating to the Fuchs case would not be released because of what were said to be security considerations. None the less, a small amount of material was available among official papers of the Foreign Office and the atomic energy programme.
The most important single documents from the FBI files are:
The full text of Fuchs’s formal confession, which is printed in the Appendix. The British authorities sent this to the FBI, and it is in the files because the then FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, sent it in a letter to Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, a Special Consultant to President Truman.
A lengthy account of Fuchs’s interviews with FBI agents in Wormwood Scrubs prison, in which he went over details of his espionage activities. Since he was very forthcoming to British intelligence officers, he presumably told these everything he told the FBI men, but no reports of these interviews are available.
Sir Michael Perrin’s report of Fuchs’s account to him of what he told the Russians.
Harry Gold’s confession. I have treated this with caution because of Gold’s record as a fantasist, but everything in it conforms with Fuchs’s own account, apart from one or two minor points that could easily be due to a slip of the memory on the part of one or the other with the lapse of years, and it adds some details.
I also drew on reports of FBI agents’ interviews and letters that were in the FBI files.
I wrote to Fuchs himself a number of times requesting an interview and information, and an intermediary made the same request on my behalf. His only response was to send me a copy of his address to the Moscow meeting of the All-Union Congress of Scientists on Preventing Nuclear War.
Most of the accounts of Fuchs’s behaviour come from more than one source. In most of the notes that follow, I have indicated the source or sources. Where none is indicated, it is either because it is obvious from the context, or because the sources were too many and diffuse to record, or else because it is a matter of public record (e.g. a trial in open court).
About the Author
Norman Moss is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. Other highly acclaimed titles by the author include Men Who Play God: the Story of the Hydrogen Bomb; A British/American Dictionary; The Pleasures of Deception; and The Politics of Uranium.
Praise for Norman Moss:
‘Admirable… It tells an extraordinary story clearly and well, and with just enough analysis to provoke thought’ NEW SCIENTIST
‘A compelling story’ INDEPENDENT
‘It probes deeply… well worth reading’ NEW YORK TIMES
‘An important book’ GUARDIAN
‘Full of illumination… fascinating’ NEW YORKER
‘Skilful and entertaining’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
Copyright
© Norman Moss 1987
First published in Great Britain by Grafton Books in 1987.
This edition published by Sharpe Books in 2018.
27
I interviewed Henry Arnold and Mrs Skinner for a radio programme about Fuchs that was broadcast in 1976 and 1977. Both died before I began my researches for this book.
28
Otto Frisch talked to me about Fuchs in a conversation some years ago, and I have drawn on this at one or two points. He died before I began this book.