Theodore Hall's ID badge photo from Los Alamos.

Theodore Alvin Hall (October 20, 1925-November 1, 1999) was an American physicist and an atomic spy who, during his work on Allied effort to develop the first atomic bombs during World War II (the Manhattan Project), gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of processes for purifying plutonium, to the Soviet Union. Image File history File links Theodore_Hall_ID_badge. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... October 20 is the 293rd day of the year (294th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 72 days remaining. ... 1925 (MCMXXV) was a common year starting on Thursday (link will take you to calendar). ... November 1 is the 305th day of the year (306th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 60 days remaining. ... 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... The Rosenbergs Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (1915-1953) and Julius Rosenberg (1918-1953) were American Communists who were thrust into the world spotlight when they were tried, convicted, and executed for spying for the Soviet Union. ... In general, allies are people or groups that have joined an alliance and are working together to achieve some common purpose. ... The mushroom cloud of the atomic bombing of Nagasaki, Japan, 1945, rose some 18 km (11 mi) above the epicenter. ... Combatants Allies: Poland, British Commonwealth, France/Free France, Soviet Union, United States, China, and others Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, Japan, and others Casualties Military dead:17 million Civilian dead:33 million Total dead:50 million Military dead:8 million Civilian dead:4 million Total dead:12 million World War II... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... A post-war Fat Man model. ... General Name, Symbol, Number plutonium, Pu, 94 Chemical series actinides Group, Period, Block n/a, 7, f Appearance silvery white Atomic mass (244) g/mol Electron configuration [Rn] 5f6 7s2 Electrons per shell 2, 8, 18, 32, 24, 8, 2 Physical properties Phase solid Density (near r. ...

Biography

Theodore Alvin Holtzberg was born in Far Rockaway, New York City, but his family soon moved to Washington Heights in upper Manhattan. While his father struggled to find work during the Great Depression, he changed both his and Theodore's last name to Hall in an effort to avoid anti-Semitic hiring practices. Far Rockaway is one of the four neighborhoods on the Rockaway Peninsula in the New York City borough of Queens in the United States. ... Nickname: The Big Apple Official website: City of New York Government Counties (Boroughs) Bronx (The Bronx) New York (Manhattan) Queens (Queens) Kings (Brooklyn) Richmond (Staten Island) Mayor Michael Bloomberg (R) Geographical characteristics Area Total 468. ... Washington Heights is a New York City neighborhood in Upper Manhattan. ... The Borough of Manhattan, highlighted in yellow, lies between the East River and the Hudson River. ... Dorothea Langes Migrant Mother depicts destitute pea pickers in California, centering on Florence Owens Thompson, a mother of seven children, age 32, in Nipomo, California, March 1936. ... The Eternal Jew: 1937 German poster. ...

Hall attended Harvard University, graduated at the age of 18, and at the age of 19 was recruited to the Manhattan Project, where he was the youngest scientist at Los Alamos. While on a vacation back to his hometown, he entered a Soviet consulate in New York City and volunteered to pass information on the bomb project to the Soviet government. His wife Joan said after his death that he had begun to adopt strong feelings current at the time against the possibility of an emerging, militarized United States with a nuclear monopoly very early in his Los Alamos work. Harvard University (incorporated as The President and Fellows of Harvard College) is a private university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. ... The Manhattan Project resulted in the development of the first nuclear weapons, and the first-ever nuclear detonation at the Trinity test of July 16, 1945. ... Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ...

Unbeknownst to Hall, Klaus Fuchs, a Los Alamos colleague, and others still unidentified were also spying for the USSR; none seems to have known of the others. Lona Cohen acted as Hall's courier. Some of their information provided an independent and confirming source for the others. Klaus Fuchs ID badge photo from Los Alamos. ... Lona Cohen, was an American citizen and member of the Communist Party of the United States of America CPUSA. She was recruited into Soviet espionage by her husband Morris Cohen. ...

Hall, with the help of his Harvard friend Saville Sax, who had open Communist sympathies, together visited New York, where Hall, after some searching, arranged a meeting with a Russian diplomat. He presented a detailed sketch of the "Fat Man" nuclear device to the official, who transmitted the information to the NKVD from New York using a one-time pad cipher. His code-name was MLAD, a Slavic root meaning "young". Communism - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ... Official language(s) None, English de facto Capital Albany Largest city New York City Area  - Total  - Width  - Length  - % water  - Latitude  - Longitude Ranked 27th 141,205 km² 455 km 530 km 13. ... The NKVD (Narodnyi Komissariat Vnutrennikh Del (help· info))(Russian: НКВД, Народный комиссариат внутренних дел) or Peoples Commisariat for Internal Affairs was a government department which handled a number of the Soviet Unions affairs of state. ... Excerpt from a one time pad. ... This article is about algorithms for encryption and decryption. ...

Until recently, nearly all of the severely damaging espionage regarding the Los Alamos nuclear weapons program was attributed to Klaus Fuchs. Hall was questioned by the FBI in 1951 but wasn't charged. Alan H. Belmont, the number-three man in the FBI decided that the Venona project would be inadmissible hearsay and not worth compromising the program. Despite being more damaging to U.S. security than Soviet collaborators Harry Gold, David Greenglass, Julius and Ethel Rosenberg and other members of the Rosenberg ring (many of whom received severe sentences), Hall was never imprisoned. Los Alamos National Laboratory, aerial view from 1995. ... Klaus Fuchs ID badge photo from Los Alamos. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... 1951 (MCMLI) was a common year starting on Monday; see its calendar. ... The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is a Federal police force which is the principal investigative arm of the United States Department of Justice (DOJ). ... The VENONA project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between United States intelligence agencies and the United Kingdoms MI5 and GCHQ that involved the cryptanalysis of messages sent by several Soviet intelligence agencies. ... Hearsay in its most general and oldest meaning is a term used in the law of evidence to describe an out of court statement offered to establish the facts asserted in that statement. ... Harry Gold Harry Gold (b. ... David Greenglass (b. ... The Rosenbergs Julius Rosenberg (May 12, 1918 – June 19, 1953) and Ethel Greenglass Rosenberg (September 28, 1915 – June 19, 1953) were American citizens and Communist Party members who were thrust into the world spotlight when they were tried, convicted, and executed for spying for the Soviet Union. ... This is a list of notable spies or alleged spies by the country for which they worked. ...

Hall and his wife Joan came under scrutiny in the early 1950s, but as with many Cold War spies, they went unpunished. This seems to have been primarily to keep secret the fact that the U.S. had been partially successful in decrypting some messages carried in a Soviet one-time pad cipher (see VENONA). The US seems to have also been more interested in securing existing projects than in any way jeopardizing several years of counter-espionage efforts. After the end of WWII, American intelligence efforts turned to the Soviet Union. ... The VENONA project was a long-running and highly secret collaboration between the United States intelligence agencies and the United Kingdoms MI5 that involved the cryptanalysis of Soviet messages. ...

In a written statement published in 1997, he came close to admitting the charges, although obliquely, saying that in the immediate postwar years, he felt strongly that "an American monopoly" on nuclear weapons "was dangerous and should be avoided."

"To help prevent that monopoly I contemplated a brief encounter with a Soviet agent, just to inform them of the existence of the A-bomb project. I anticipated a very limited contact. With any luck it might easily have turned out that way, but it was not to be."

Hall left Los Alamos for the University of Chicago, where he switched to biology. There he pioneered important techniques in X-ray microanalysis. He went to work at Cambridge University in England in 1962. Hall later became active in obtaining signatures for the Stockholm Peace Pledge. The University of Chicago is a private university principally located in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, founded in 1890 and opened in 1892. ... The University of Cambridge (often called Cambridge University), located in Cambridge, England, is the second-oldest university in the English-speaking world. ... Royal motto (French): Dieu et mon droit (Translated: God and my [birth]right) Englands location (dark green) within the British Isles Languages English (de facto) Capital London de facto Largest city London Area – Total Ranked 1st UK 130,395 km² Population – Total (mid-2004) – Total (2001 Census) – Density Ranked...

In November of 1999, Theodore Hall died in Cambridge, England. He had suffered from Parkinson's disease, although it was to renal cancer that he fell victim at the age of 74. 1999 (MCMXCIX) was a common year starting on Friday, and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the United Nations. ... This article is about Cambridge, England; see also other places called Cambridge. ... When normal cells are damaged beyond repair, they are eliminated by apoptosis. ...

Further reading

• Joseph Albright and Marcia Kunstel. Bombshell: The Secret Story of America's Unknown American Spy Conspiracy (New York: Random House/Times Books, 1997). (An account of Soviet espionage against the US during WWII, including background on Hall and his activities, and on the VENONA project.)
• FBI Memo Prosecution: Disadvantages (1 Feb. 1956)
• Washington Post Weekly, March 11, 1996
• New York Times, November 10, 1999

External links

• "A Memoir of Ted Hall" by Joan Hall, his wife
• Los Alamos National Laboratory: History: Spies