Spies: Chapters 2–3

In 1941, for example, Finnish soldiers overran a Soviet consulate in Petsamo, Finland, and after a fierce gun battle managed to capture a partially burned codebook.

And yet...through painstaking work, day after day, the cryptographers at Arlington Hall began to pick up fragmented meanings in the Soviet cables.

And yet...through painstaking work, day after day, the cryptographers at Arlington Hall began to pick up fragmented meanings in the Soviet cables.

In 1941, Hitler's armies invaded Russia and advanced toward Moscow, wreaking havoc in the Soviets' communications networks.

Using an early IBM computer to pore through patterns in 10,000 Soviet cables, Arlington Hall cryptanalysts found seven duplicated ciphers—seven instances in which a Soviet code clerk must have used a one-time pad more than once.

By 1947, when Robert Lamphere first entered the gates of Arlington Hall, Gardner had been working doggedly to reconstruct the Russian codebook for nearly two years.

And that was precisely where Lamphere's FBI savvy came in.

Stalin's Red Army and his NKVD units had tightened their hold on Eastern Europe, clamping down on dissent and refusing free elections where they would challenge his control.

America and its Western allies, in contrast, saw Stalin's intransigence as the actions of a new Hitler, someone bent on undoing all they had fought and died for.

The allies dispatched more than 200,000 flights to Berlin over the next year, wearing down Stalin's resolve and sending a powerful message of hope, not only to the besieged residents of the city but to all of Europe.

The allies dispatched more than 200,000 flights to Berlin over the next year, wearing down Stalin's resolve and sending a powerful message of hope, not only to the besieged residents of the city but to all of Europe.

In May 1949, Stalin capitulated, and the Soviet Union suspended its blockade.

America's nuclear gambit had kept Stalin in check, but the crisis in Berlin underscored the need to anticipate the USSR's next move.

America's nuclear gambit had kept Stalin in check, but the crisis in Berlin underscored the need to anticipate the USSR's next move.

The newly formed Central Intelligence Agency, not yet two years old, was a fledgling organization with a motley staff.

The newly formed Central Intelligence Agency, not yet two years old, was a fledgling organization with a motley staff.

On that day, US reconnaissance aircraft flying from bases in Japan and outfitted with special detection equipment picked up signs of nuclear debris in the atmosphere.

Stuart Symington, the secretary of the Air Force, articulated Americans' fears in their starkest terms.

The Soviets' first nuclear test presented a vexing question for Agent Robert Lamphere.

"I stood in the vestibule of the enemy's house, having entered by stealth," Lamphere recalled.

Skilled interrogators from MI5 invited Fuchs to meetings over several weeks, gradually eliciting different details of his involvement in the Soviets' espionage ring.

The KGB agent in charge of the ring, Alexander Feklisov, later recalled his foreboding sense that his spy network was about to be "rolled up": "When dominoes are lined up," he said, "the first one to fall draws all the others with it."

The news media latched onto McCarthy's speech and catapulted him to national prominence as the most aggressive anticommunist leader in the United States.

Blake was not a particularly religious man, though going to church did make him nostalgic for his Protestant upbringing in Holland before World War II. Now, however, his interest in religion was mostly strategic.

As Great Britain's top agent in Korea, Blake made it his business to hobnob with the South Korean elite—its politicians, businessmen, and generals—many of whom were Korean Christians who had lived in the United States before and during the war.

"I felt certain," he said, "that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. If the Communists were permitted to force their way into the Republic of Korea without opposition from the free world, no small nation would have the courage to resist threat and aggression by stronger Communist neighbors."

George's stint in the Royal Navy didn't last long: His reputation for personal bravery in the Dutch underground and his cosmopolitan family tree attracted the attention of Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), also known as MI6.

"There we were put up in derelict army huts," he recalled, "but our living conditions were reasonable."

For most of those two years, Blake and a small group of prisoners languished in a makeshift North Korean prison camp, plagued with monotony and boredom.

For most of those two years, Blake and a small group of prisoners languished in a makeshift North Korean prison camp, plagued with monotony and boredom.

The experience of reading Das Kapital, Blake said, "turned me from a man of conventional political views, and in the real meaning of the word, a militant anticommunist, into a fervent supporter of the movement I hitherto had been fighting."

But it appears that his conversion was genuine, and its ingredients included the early influence of his cousin, Henri; his deep study of communism and Marx while a prisoner; and above all his disgust at the war and his anger at what he perceived to be America's indiscriminate violence against North Korea.

"George stood out from the motley crew in the camp," Loenko recalled. "He was intelligent, spellbinding. I knew in my bones that here was an opportunity to do some work. I needed only some kind of pretext to make contact with him."

In the crowd, dignitaries—including the archbishop of Canterbury—cheered as Blake descended.

Blake sat with Rodin on the bench and described his arrival in England and debriefing by MI6.

"There was much speculation [in Korovin's file] of what the purpose of the trip to Holland could have been," Blake recalled.

Both Blake and Kondrachev used careful tradecraft: changing their meeting spots constantly; following different, circuitous routes through London; and always signaling that the coast was clear, generally by holding a specific newspaper under the left arm.

Like many people who encountered Blake in the weeks and months after his return from Korea, Allan found herself smitten by the young war hero.

It was a move that had fateful consequences, not only for Blake but for the two superpowers who continued their battle of nerves in the war-ravaged city.

Boris, according to Blake, was the "feather in his cap," earning him accolades inside the British spy agency and deflecting any remote suspicion that Blake might be working for the enemy.