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In the midst of World War Two,
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word circulates among the Allies
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that the Nazis are developing a new type of weapon, an atomic weapon,
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one that could change the very outcome of the war.
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This revelation threatens the fragile allied nations,
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as governments become tight-lipped about their own clandestine projects
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to develop this new weapon.
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Having control over this technology
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would push a country to the top of the world,
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basically make them a superpower.
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A world already out of control is thrust into a Cold War.
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This is a real military race to create a bomb.
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So all hands on deck.
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To gain an advantage in the atomic race,
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a new generation of spies is born,
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more cunning, dangerous, and far better equipped
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than ever before.
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It was a species of espionage that no-one had been aware of.
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As Soviet spies infiltrate
government laboratories,
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the risks are higher than ever.
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You don't know even who among your own people
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are working for the other side.
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People were governed by fear.
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How long can the Allies protect their most top-secret project?
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How can they begin to identify the spies living among them?
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Who will win the race to crack the atomic code?
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After World War Two,
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emerging superpowers stand on the brink of utter destruction
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while spies work to control entire nations in the shadows.
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As the Cold War deepens,
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paranoia persists in a world of double agents,
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sleeper cells, and covert networks.
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Trust is impossible, and threats are everywhere.
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It's often hard to exactly date when the Cold War begins
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because there is no declaration of war.
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It just becomes that.
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Soviet spies once embarked on covert missions
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to infiltrate every corner of the world.
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During the Second World War and the First World War,
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there are very clear battlefields.
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And in the Cold War, that becomes less defined.
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Even who the enemy is becomes less defined.
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In the years that follow,
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clandestine missions would be launched that could and would
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change the course of global politics and science.
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What begins to occur in the Cold War
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is we get a kind of espionage industry
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that already has been triggered by the Second World War.
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The cloak and dagger era has begun.
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Whether all parties are aware or not,
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dignitaries will work as double agents,
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scientists will smuggle deadly formulas to their enemies,
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and propaganda and paranoia will turn neighbours on neighbours
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and tear families apart.
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There has been this ally-ship formed
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for the sake of defeating Nazi Germany,
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but the question is how long is that going to last?
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News that German chemists Fritz Strassmann and Otto Hahn
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have unexpectedly discovered the secrets to nuclear fission
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reaches the US.
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There was enormous interest in atomic fission,
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but it was never quite certain whether this could really be realised
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into something real, something useful.
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As this piece of intel starts to spread,
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some of the world's most powerful nations
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begin to think of what such a weapon could mean.
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Although the bomb hadn't yet been created,
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there was a strong understanding of what nuclear fission meant
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and what type of weapon the science could create.
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After years of war in Europe,
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the prospect of the Germans having control of this weapon
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was terrifying to the Allies.
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This is about more than just technology.
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The outcome will undoubtedly tip the scales of power
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in one direction or another.
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It's a race. That's the key word.
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This isn't an academic enterprise.
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This is a physical, real military race to create a bomb.
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So all hands on deck.
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Having control over this technology and over this military device
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would push a country to the top of the world,
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basically make them a superpower.
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In 1941, scientists
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from the UK Military Application of Uranium Detonation,
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or MAUD Committee,
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determined that a nuclear bomb is feasible
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and could be created before the war is over.
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As a response, they begin work on their own super weapon -
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codename Tube Alloys.
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Across the pond, the US develops their own effort,
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dubbed the Manhattan Project.
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The clandestine project moves
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from Manhattan to Oak Ridge, Tennessee,
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Hanford, Washington,
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and Los Alamos, New Mexico.
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The scientists were gathered from allied countries,
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including Canada, the UK, and recent emigres from Europe.
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Of course, Oppenheimer became one of the main scientists
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who led the scientific team in the Manhattan Project,
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and they were concentrated in a place.
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Now, you had to have very tight security,
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so they chose Los Alamos in New Mexico
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to be able to get the scientists together,
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and they wouldn't have a lot of freedoms.
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At this point,
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the United States have the upper hand in terms of resources,
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in terms of space.
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They also weren't a nation that had battlefields
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in the same way that the United Kingdom did.
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And so they are moving forward with this project
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faster than the British are.
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Out of growing concern,
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Russian physicist Georgii Flyorov sends a letter to Stalin
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warning him that the allies are developing a super weapon,
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urging him to do the same.
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But this information wasn't willingly shared,
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it was discovered.
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This creates a lot of distrust between the Allied nations,
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pushing forward secretive and separate nuclear programs.
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The Soviets are growing concerned about what this could mean
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in the long run.
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At this point, they're working with the US and the UK
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in the fight against the Germans,
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but that doesn't mean
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they're willing to let the West get the upper hand.
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If some kind of world-altering super weapon is to be built,
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the Soviets want to be the ones to do it.
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At the very least, they won't be caught unprepared.
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Nations want to gain control of the bomb.
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It's that power.
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Associated with that power is also the fear that another country
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is going to get that power,
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and what that's going to mean for them.
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In September of 1945,
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a man from the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa
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pleads with Canadian authorities and the media for help,
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claiming to be a Soviet spy.
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His name was Igor Gouzenko.
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Who is this man and can he be trusted?
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There's a lot of debate as to when the Cold War began.
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But many people point to Igor Gouzenko's defection in Ottawa
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as the moment that Canada's Cold War really begins.
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In 1943, in the midst of World War Two,
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Igor Gouzenko is sent to Ottawa
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under the guise of the Soviet Embassy,
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while both countries are considered political allies.
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Igor Gouzenko was a cipher clerk,
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which means that he was in charge of encoding information
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and sending it back to the Soviet Union.
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He was working out of the Russian Embassy.
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His job as a cipher clerk literally was to take transmissions
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and send them back and forth,
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and he's also been accused
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of making a mistake in some of his work.
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And mistakes are not really tolerated very well
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by Stalin's government.
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Over time, Gouzenko begins to understand his true role,
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learning that the GRU,
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and another secret intelligence organisation,
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the NKVD, People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs,
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are using the embassy as a dark headquarters
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from which to spy on their allies.
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Gouzenko was an officer in the GRU,
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which is Russian military intelligence,
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Soviet military intelligence, based in the Defence Department.
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Most espionage is operated by professionals
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out of an embassy under diplomatic cover,
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and so if they're ever caught, they have diplomatic immunity.
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The big surprise after the Second World War
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is how much spying the Allies had been doing against each other
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during the war,
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and this is especially true of the Soviet Union.
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The Soviet Union had spies throughout its allied countries,
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many who had been there working for the Soviet Union
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even before the Second World War,
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and they continued to gather intelligence
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during the Second World War.
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His position makes him privy to intricate knowledge
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of Soviet agents active in numerous Canadian government offices,
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including the House of Commons,
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National Defence and External Affairs.
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He also became aware
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of Soviet infiltration of the Manhattan Project.
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Secrecy was paramount to keep full control over the nuclear secrets.
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With the US President Franklin D Roosevelt initially hesitant
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to share the Manhattan Project progress with British teams,
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the Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, turns to Canada,
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hoping Prime Minister Mackenzie King would be more receptive.
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Canada has uranium,
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and uranium is essential to building the atomic bomb,
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and uranium is also incredibly scarce.
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So that Canada has this resource makes it invaluable
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to both the United States and Britain at this time.
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And more important than just the uranium itself.
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Canada was in a relatively safe position to supply this uranium,
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either to the United Kingdom or especially to the United States.
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But on top of that, Canada's geography really mattered.
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It was far away from the war in Europe.
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It was a safe home for British scientists
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to work on an atomic project,
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as a number of British scientists and also French scientists
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came to Montreal
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and worked with scientists from the government of Canada
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to create the Montreal Laboratory
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to continue work into atomic science.
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Well, there weren't that many nuclear scientists in the world
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at the time,
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so any place that had people who were gathering
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to study nuclear chemistry was key.
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In the race to create one of the most powerful weapons
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the world has ever seen,
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the US and UK realised collaboration can push them ahead of the rest.
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In 1943, Winston Churchill and President Roosevelt
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arrived in Quebec to discuss a top-secret deal,
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merging projects to advance their nuclear efforts.
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While made on Canadian soil,
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Prime Minister Mackenzie King is not privy to the full deal.
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There's a very uneasy relationship between these states.
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They distrust each other.
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They disagree on major strategy during the war.
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This is a moment in a very tenuous relationship within the Allies
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of cohesion and agreement.
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The Quebec Agreement,
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even though it involved leaders of three different countries,
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it was very much an agreement between two countries,
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and that was the United States and Britain.
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The agreement was that together,
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these nations, with Canada's resources,
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would work together to create a nuclear bomb.
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Early September 1944,
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Gouzenko is informed that he's being recalled to Moscow.
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Stalin's rule over Russia was incredibly brutal.
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He disappeared thousands of people.
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He executed people who were considered opponents.
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You know, there's a tradition in Soviet intelligence
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that you get a promotion and you're called back.
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And as soon as you arrive home, you're shot.
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And so Gouzenko had a number of penalties entered into his record
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by the Soviet security officer at the Embassy
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for leaving documents out on his desk unlocked.
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And so as he's getting these penalties,
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he's now also being told he's being returned back to Moscow,
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and there's probably a promotion waiting for him there.
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Not a good sign.
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Armed with 109 stolen documents,
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Gouzenko lifts the veil on a 20-person spy ring in Ottawa.
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This is politically explosive.
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How could the government have been so naive
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to allow these Soviet intelligence officers into Canada
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to build these spy rings?
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Would it embarrass Canada with its allies,
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with the British and the Americans,
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sort of revealing that Canadian security had been weak?
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And what would the Canadian public think?
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It was a total shock
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that revealed problems in all of the allied countries.
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Weaknesses in all of those states.
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It seemed like everything was going wrong at once.
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And the government did not know how to deal with it.
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For a country that was supposed to be an ally,
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the Soviet Union was doing very nefarious things.
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It was a wake-up call to the West.
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Prime Minister Mackenzie King
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00:12:47,920 --> 00:12:50,760
is worried about the fallout of this information
265
00:12:50,800 --> 00:12:53,440
and keeps Gouzenko a secret, for now.
266
00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:55,000
If they're spying on Canada,
267
00:12:55,040 --> 00:12:57,280
it means that they're spying ten times more
268
00:12:57,320 --> 00:12:59,280
on the United States and Great Britain.
269
00:12:59,320 --> 00:13:01,560
So this isn't just a Canadian affair.
270
00:13:01,600 --> 00:13:04,600
It is exactly as Mackenzie King wrote,
271
00:13:04,640 --> 00:13:08,320
it was a "species of espionage" that no-one had been aware of.
272
00:13:08,360 --> 00:13:11,280
But it's something that the Soviet Union had been doing
273
00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:14,440
because of its internationalist ideology and agenda.
274
00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:18,000
It was recruiting people from all classes,
275
00:13:18,040 --> 00:13:21,240
from all countries, all nations,
276
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:26,200
in the way, certainly, Western operatives could not.
277
00:13:26,240 --> 00:13:29,720
The documents Gouzenko presents to the Canadian government reveal
278
00:13:29,760 --> 00:13:32,360
the Soviet Embassy was a home to several spies
279
00:13:32,400 --> 00:13:34,120
connected to agents in Montreal,
280
00:13:34,160 --> 00:13:36,400
the United States and the United Kingdom,
281
00:13:36,440 --> 00:13:39,440
that had been providing Moscow with classified information
282
00:13:39,480 --> 00:13:42,760
ranging from ciphers to atomic research.
283
00:13:42,800 --> 00:13:47,160
One of the most important names in these documents is Alan Nunn May,
284
00:13:47,200 --> 00:13:51,040
one of the first Soviet spies of the Cold War era.
285
00:13:51,080 --> 00:13:53,520
So what he's working on is going to be elemental
286
00:13:53,560 --> 00:13:55,640
to the building of the first atomic bomb,
287
00:13:55,680 --> 00:13:57,320
and he's the lead scientist on it.
288
00:13:57,360 --> 00:13:58,800
And so he's privy to
289
00:13:58,840 --> 00:14:02,600
a whole host of really detailed scientific information
290
00:14:02,640 --> 00:14:04,720
about the actual building of a bomb.
291
00:14:04,760 --> 00:14:06,880
So you're talking about high sciences now.
292
00:14:06,920 --> 00:14:10,840
And so the espionage itself now is getting technological.
293
00:14:10,880 --> 00:14:12,960
The information is being gathered.
294
00:14:13,000 --> 00:14:15,960
We're talking about highly educated scientists
295
00:14:16,000 --> 00:14:19,600
with top-secret clearance working on something
296
00:14:19,640 --> 00:14:24,680
that they are not even sure is going to be working as well.
297
00:14:24,720 --> 00:14:26,000
But who was May?
298
00:14:26,040 --> 00:14:28,960
And just how vital was he to the Soviets?
299
00:14:30,600 --> 00:14:32,280
Flashback to 1940.
300
00:14:32,320 --> 00:14:34,360
Alan Nunn May, a British physicist,
301
00:14:34,400 --> 00:14:37,280
is working at Cambridge University on Tube Alloys
302
00:14:37,320 --> 00:14:40,080
when he comes across a confidential US report
303
00:14:40,120 --> 00:14:43,280
that he discreetly passes on to the Soviet Union.
304
00:14:43,320 --> 00:14:45,360
Russian spies like Nunn
305
00:14:45,400 --> 00:14:50,840
are recruited from a generation of anti-Nazis from the 1930s.
306
00:14:50,880 --> 00:14:52,480
They never had a sense
307
00:14:52,520 --> 00:14:55,440
that they were betraying their own country.
308
00:14:55,480 --> 00:14:58,960
They thought they were fighting Nazism.
309
00:14:59,000 --> 00:15:02,520
You would call these types of individuals essentially co-optees.
310
00:15:02,560 --> 00:15:06,720
Someone who had been co-opted to work for an adversary
311
00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:12,120
rather than a traditional spy that's trained by another country.
312
00:15:12,160 --> 00:15:14,800
In a way, it's May who tips the first domino,
313
00:15:14,840 --> 00:15:16,520
causing a chain reaction.
314
00:15:16,560 --> 00:15:20,840
This report proves that the US knew something that the Soviets didn't.
315
00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,800
The fact that you could have a British scientist
316
00:15:23,840 --> 00:15:26,600
sharing British secrets with the Soviet Union
317
00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:29,640
raises doubt as to who else could be doing this.
318
00:15:29,680 --> 00:15:32,360
Who else could be spying for the Soviet Union?
319
00:15:32,400 --> 00:15:36,560
While working at the Montreal lab, May works under the code name Alec
320
00:15:36,600 --> 00:15:39,840
to gather vital technical information and uranium samples
321
00:15:39,880 --> 00:15:44,800
that he passes on to the GRU or the Soviet military intelligence.
322
00:15:44,840 --> 00:15:46,560
What he's capable of doing
323
00:15:46,600 --> 00:15:49,760
is to get very small samples of uranium isotopes,
324
00:15:49,800 --> 00:15:51,560
and then give it to a courier
325
00:15:51,600 --> 00:15:53,800
that is designated by a Soviet attache,
326
00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,400
somebody who's running the intelligence agency.
327
00:15:56,440 --> 00:15:58,280
It's a dangerous enterprise.
328
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:01,840
May smuggles isotopes of uranium 233 and 235,
329
00:16:01,880 --> 00:16:05,400
along with technical information on atomic reactors
330
00:16:05,440 --> 00:16:06,960
out of the Montreal lab.
331
00:16:07,000 --> 00:16:10,040
The information that would be gained at this point in the program
332
00:16:10,080 --> 00:16:12,600
would have been a very big deal for the Soviet Union,
333
00:16:12,640 --> 00:16:15,680
who was in a very early part of their development
334
00:16:15,720 --> 00:16:17,240
of a nuclear bomb.
335
00:16:17,280 --> 00:16:20,640
Thanks to the new collaboration between the US and the UK,
336
00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:24,080
May is also privy to information about the Manhattan Project,
337
00:16:24,120 --> 00:16:27,240
including information on the top secret Trinity test,
338
00:16:27,280 --> 00:16:31,480
and the nuclear materials being used at the Oak and Hartford sites.
339
00:16:31,520 --> 00:16:33,440
Through him, the Soviet scientists
340
00:16:33,480 --> 00:16:37,080
have a finger on the pulse of the West's nuclear progress.
341
00:16:37,120 --> 00:16:38,120
More importantly,
342
00:16:38,160 --> 00:16:41,080
they now have their hands on two potential elements
343
00:16:41,120 --> 00:16:45,320
that could unlock the formula for their own nuclear reactors.
344
00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,160
All this while the US and UK are operating under the assumption
345
00:16:49,200 --> 00:16:50,680
that the Quebec Agreement
346
00:16:50,720 --> 00:16:54,120
has created an airtight seal on their nuclear secrets.
347
00:16:54,160 --> 00:16:58,480
The revelation of the atomic spies is going to create a major rift
348
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:00,760
between the United States and the United Kingdom,
349
00:17:00,800 --> 00:17:04,520
and it's actually going to separate their atomic weapons programs.
350
00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:06,840
May becomes the first person to be convicted
351
00:17:06,880 --> 00:17:10,240
for supplying atomic research secrets to the Soviet Union.
352
00:17:10,280 --> 00:17:12,520
He maintains he never committed treason,
353
00:17:12,560 --> 00:17:15,920
and the Soviets were allies against Japan and Germany.
354
00:17:18,560 --> 00:17:22,760
In the 1960s, a masked Gouzenko appears on the CBC
355
00:17:22,800 --> 00:17:24,520
with lasting effects.
356
00:17:24,560 --> 00:17:27,280
Interestingly, Gouzenko becomes a household name,
357
00:17:27,320 --> 00:17:28,600
but his face does not.
358
00:17:28,640 --> 00:17:32,120
So he's trying to give the general public a sense, an awareness,
359
00:17:32,160 --> 00:17:34,120
of what the Soviets were doing.
360
00:17:34,160 --> 00:17:37,880
He's trying to give them a better understanding of spying,
361
00:17:37,920 --> 00:17:39,720
how this activity works,
362
00:17:39,760 --> 00:17:43,280
how people might be blackmailed into the activity.
363
00:17:43,320 --> 00:17:47,080
This is something that's really the stuff of novels.
364
00:17:47,120 --> 00:17:49,840
Suspicion and paranoia of communist spies
365
00:17:49,880 --> 00:17:52,640
and distrust between the Soviet Union and the West
366
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:56,320
help ignite the Cold War, politically and publicly.
367
00:17:56,360 --> 00:17:58,960
You don't know even who among your own people
368
00:17:59,000 --> 00:18:00,720
are working for the other side.
369
00:18:00,760 --> 00:18:05,080
With that kind of level of distrust, the Western powers realise
370
00:18:05,120 --> 00:18:07,720
that they can't even be sure of themselves.
371
00:18:07,760 --> 00:18:09,600
And that is actually something
372
00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,000
that Stalin also wanted to create too,
373
00:18:12,040 --> 00:18:15,440
because that would make the West less powerful.
374
00:18:16,720 --> 00:18:21,040
In 1945, the US prepares to detonate their first nuclear bomb
375
00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:22,120
in Los Alamos.
376
00:18:22,160 --> 00:18:27,240
If successful, it would trigger the start of the Atomic Age.
377
00:18:27,280 --> 00:18:28,280
Five.
378
00:18:28,320 --> 00:18:29,320
Four.
379
00:18:29,360 --> 00:18:30,360
Three.
380
00:18:30,400 --> 00:18:31,400
Two.
381
00:18:31,440 --> 00:18:32,440
One.
382
00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:33,560
And all.
383
00:18:36,800 --> 00:18:39,880
This was absolutely an unprecedented explosion.
384
00:18:39,920 --> 00:18:41,080
The light that was emitted
385
00:18:41,120 --> 00:18:43,200
was something that had never occurred on Earth before
386
00:18:43,240 --> 00:18:45,160
from a manufactured object.
387
00:18:45,200 --> 00:18:47,120
It is overpowering.
388
00:18:47,160 --> 00:18:50,280
Even people who knew what to expect were surprised,
389
00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:52,800
and even people who were really excited about it
390
00:18:52,840 --> 00:18:55,040
were terrified about what it could mean.
391
00:18:55,080 --> 00:19:02,280
Oppenheimer saw this awesome and awful destructive capability
392
00:19:02,320 --> 00:19:06,160
and used that opportunity to think about what this meant for humanity.
393
00:19:06,200 --> 00:19:09,960
And then he took a quote from the Bhagavad Gita which said,
394
00:19:10,000 --> 00:19:13,480
"Now I have become death, the destroyer of worlds."
395
00:19:20,560 --> 00:19:23,200
Right. The nuclear genie had gotten out of the bottle,
396
00:19:23,240 --> 00:19:26,400
and there was no way to put it back again.
397
00:19:26,440 --> 00:19:27,640
Tensions rise,
398
00:19:27,680 --> 00:19:31,600
the USSR feels the urgency to have their own nuclear weapons
399
00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,280
and the Soviet trust shifts.
400
00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:38,320
The Trinity test marks a major milestone not only for the US,
401
00:19:38,360 --> 00:19:39,920
but for humankind.
402
00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:41,520
In the Atomic Age,
403
00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:45,080
nuclear power becomes a source of energy for entire cities
404
00:19:45,120 --> 00:19:47,800
with the capacity to destroy them.
405
00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:48,920
In some senses,
406
00:19:48,960 --> 00:19:53,000
it was like they had reached the end point of science.
407
00:19:53,040 --> 00:19:56,240
Man had harnessed the power of the sun.
408
00:19:56,280 --> 00:19:58,720
There was no doubt in anyone's mind
409
00:19:58,760 --> 00:20:01,920
that they'd unleashed a new force in the world,
410
00:20:01,960 --> 00:20:04,720
and many of the scientists certainly wondered
411
00:20:04,760 --> 00:20:07,920
what that meant for the future of humanity
412
00:20:07,960 --> 00:20:12,000
now that this power was available to governments.
413
00:20:12,040 --> 00:20:14,320
NEWSREEL: No matter where we live,
414
00:20:14,360 --> 00:20:17,800
we must be ready all the time for the atomic bomb.
415
00:20:24,840 --> 00:20:27,200
Following the success of the Trinity test,
416
00:20:27,240 --> 00:20:29,720
President Harry S Truman makes the call.
417
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:33,880
The US will use its nuclear weapons on Japan.
418
00:20:33,920 --> 00:20:35,800
After the Trinity test,
419
00:20:35,840 --> 00:20:38,840
the Americans wanted to test this weapon
420
00:20:38,880 --> 00:20:40,920
on a population, on a city,
421
00:20:40,960 --> 00:20:42,520
to see how it worked.
422
00:20:42,560 --> 00:20:46,800
We shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war.
423
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:48,920
August 6th, 1945.
424
00:20:48,960 --> 00:20:50,400
The Americans dropped a bomb
425
00:20:50,440 --> 00:20:53,000
similar to the one used at the Trinity test site,
426
00:20:53,040 --> 00:20:55,520
nicknamed Little Boy, on Hiroshima,
427
00:20:55,560 --> 00:20:57,040
and three days later,
428
00:20:57,080 --> 00:21:02,000
they dropped another bomb nicknamed Fat Man on Nagasaki.
429
00:21:02,040 --> 00:21:03,480
The actual devastation,
430
00:21:03,520 --> 00:21:06,520
never mind from the initial wave of destruction
431
00:21:06,560 --> 00:21:08,800
that would essentially kill everybody instantly,
432
00:21:08,840 --> 00:21:10,160
who was near that shock wave.
433
00:21:10,200 --> 00:21:13,960
But even what things look like on the ground, just around you,
434
00:21:14,000 --> 00:21:16,200
you were in an instant apocalypse.
435
00:21:16,240 --> 00:21:17,520
The radiation fallout
436
00:21:17,560 --> 00:21:21,520
is what separates nuclear weapons from conventional weapons.
437
00:21:21,560 --> 00:21:23,960
So the immediate damage from these bombs
438
00:21:24,000 --> 00:21:27,320
was shocking for people around the world watching,
439
00:21:27,360 --> 00:21:30,960
and the utter devastation of both of these cities
440
00:21:31,000 --> 00:21:33,400
at the hands of the Americans
441
00:21:33,440 --> 00:21:39,120
changes the understanding of what is the battlefield in this new war.
442
00:21:39,160 --> 00:21:42,280
Even with World War Two officially coming to an end,
443
00:21:42,320 --> 00:21:43,960
tensions were rising.
444
00:21:44,000 --> 00:21:47,120
When the bomb goes off, Stalin's reaction changes.
445
00:21:47,160 --> 00:21:50,520
There was something about seeing the actual effects of the bomb
446
00:21:50,560 --> 00:21:54,280
that caused him to realise
just how powerful it was,
447
00:21:54,320 --> 00:21:56,960
and how powerful
the United States had become.
448
00:21:57,000 --> 00:22:00,960
That helped ignite a lot
of the Soviet efforts.
449
00:22:01,000 --> 00:22:03,040
The West appears
to have the advantage,
450
00:22:03,080 --> 00:22:06,000
but the East is armed
with a new motivation,
451
00:22:06,040 --> 00:22:07,680
and a new strategy.
452
00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,600
Spying wasn't new
in a military context,
453
00:22:10,640 --> 00:22:14,440
but in the Cold War,
spying became something new,
454
00:22:14,480 --> 00:22:18,280
and the fear of spying
took hold of citizens
455
00:22:18,320 --> 00:22:21,680
in both the Soviet Union
and the United States.
456
00:22:23,720 --> 00:22:26,200
A shift in the strategy
within the MGB
457
00:22:26,240 --> 00:22:28,440
ushers in a new era of espionage,
458
00:22:28,480 --> 00:22:31,920
one utilising illegals
to spy on other countries.
459
00:22:31,960 --> 00:22:34,440
The former technique
of using legal spies
460
00:22:34,480 --> 00:22:36,800
involved sending Soviet informants
abroad
461
00:22:36,840 --> 00:22:40,320
under some kind of diplomatic
or other official cover.
462
00:22:40,360 --> 00:22:44,680
This new generation of illegals
would not have the same luxury.
463
00:22:44,720 --> 00:22:48,160
Agents are now being specially
trained to talk, think and act
464
00:22:48,200 --> 00:22:51,680
like the citizens from the country
they're being sent to.
465
00:22:51,720 --> 00:22:55,040
The scariest kind of spy,
or the scariest kind of espionage,
466
00:22:55,080 --> 00:22:58,160
is the one that is sown
from within a particular country.
467
00:22:58,200 --> 00:23:03,120
Or you have someone who takes
on a completely different identity
468
00:23:03,160 --> 00:23:07,680
and is infiltrated into
the adversary's nation.
469
00:23:07,720 --> 00:23:11,760
They're posing as maybe
a businessman or a school teacher.
470
00:23:11,800 --> 00:23:15,280
They're learning the language
of their adversary.
471
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:20,640
They're adopting false identities
of the target country.
472
00:23:20,680 --> 00:23:25,640
And in American nomenclature,
they're known as NOCs and OC.
473
00:23:25,680 --> 00:23:27,280
Non-official cover.
474
00:23:27,320 --> 00:23:29,880
And so they're kind of
what we imagine
475
00:23:29,920 --> 00:23:32,440
the James Bond kind of operative.
476
00:23:32,480 --> 00:23:36,000
That requires significant training
and things like languages.
477
00:23:36,040 --> 00:23:39,120
Obviously, you don't want to show
up with a big, heavy accent
478
00:23:39,160 --> 00:23:40,200
in a foreign location.
479
00:23:40,240 --> 00:23:41,840
You'd have a resume that, you know,
480
00:23:41,880 --> 00:23:44,600
answers all the questions
of what you've done since birth,
481
00:23:44,640 --> 00:23:45,640
who your parents were.
482
00:23:45,680 --> 00:23:48,000
Those are really developed spies.
483
00:23:48,040 --> 00:23:52,200
So, you did have to essentially live
a fake life, with a fake family.
484
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:54,240
But fake, but also real.
485
00:23:54,280 --> 00:23:57,160
From the moment they touched
down on foreign soil,
486
00:23:57,200 --> 00:23:59,920
these illegals are to adopt
fake identities,
487
00:23:59,960 --> 00:24:03,720
taking on the name of real people
who had died.
488
00:24:03,760 --> 00:24:06,960
Tombstoning was a technique
that, until very recently,
489
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:12,240
was used where you would try to find
a tombstone of a child,
490
00:24:12,280 --> 00:24:17,440
that more or less is equivalent
to your birth date.
491
00:24:17,480 --> 00:24:20,640
You then get
that child's birth certificate,
492
00:24:20,680 --> 00:24:24,440
and on the birth certificate,
there's no entry of a death.
493
00:24:24,480 --> 00:24:27,280
With that birth certificate,
you get a driver's license.
494
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,080
With that driver's license, birth
certificate, you get a passport,
495
00:24:30,120 --> 00:24:32,080
and away you go.
496
00:24:32,120 --> 00:24:35,800
Detailed biographies are created,
complete with birth certificates,
497
00:24:35,840 --> 00:24:39,200
while the churches are paid
off to erase death records.
498
00:24:39,240 --> 00:24:42,560
Illegals take on normal jobs,
live in suburbs,
499
00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:47,000
and operate without the protection
of diplomatic immunity.
500
00:24:47,040 --> 00:24:48,760
The illegals are the ones
501
00:24:48,800 --> 00:24:51,480
who are doing
the most dangerous work,
502
00:24:51,520 --> 00:24:56,000
because if they're captured,
and they're exposed,
503
00:24:56,040 --> 00:24:59,760
they face perhaps even
the death penalty for spying.
504
00:24:59,800 --> 00:25:01,360
This added layer of danger
505
00:25:01,400 --> 00:25:04,960
forces them to perhaps become
better than any of the spies
506
00:25:05,000 --> 00:25:06,080
that came before.
507
00:25:06,120 --> 00:25:09,680
The greatest asset illegal spies
had in smuggling information
508
00:25:09,720 --> 00:25:12,480
out of top secret establishments
like Los Alamos
509
00:25:12,520 --> 00:25:14,680
are a group called
the Volunteers,
510
00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:17,640
a handful
of American-born men and women
511
00:25:17,680 --> 00:25:20,840
who voluntarily
supported and aided the Soviets,
512
00:25:20,880 --> 00:25:23,240
becoming spies in their own right.
513
00:25:23,280 --> 00:25:26,320
Some of these members are hand-picked
by Soviet spies
514
00:25:26,360 --> 00:25:30,440
after being identified for
their communist-leaning ideologies.
515
00:25:30,480 --> 00:25:31,720
It wasn't so much
516
00:25:31,760 --> 00:25:34,160
that they were working against
their own government,
517
00:25:34,200 --> 00:25:36,960
but they believed
the world would be a better place
518
00:25:37,000 --> 00:25:38,120
and a safer place
519
00:25:38,160 --> 00:25:41,680
if the Soviet Union had access
to the same information
520
00:25:41,720 --> 00:25:44,640
that the United States
and the United Kingdom did.
521
00:25:44,680 --> 00:25:48,000
So for many of these people,
there was a certain naivete,
522
00:25:48,040 --> 00:25:51,680
but a certain idealism,
that they could build a better world
523
00:25:51,720 --> 00:25:55,720
by sharing this information
with the Soviet Union.
524
00:25:55,760 --> 00:25:58,080
Volunteers operate with code names.
525
00:25:58,120 --> 00:26:02,680
Today, some have been identified
while others are still unknown.
526
00:26:04,360 --> 00:26:07,520
The volunteer network carries out
cloak and dagger operations
527
00:26:07,560 --> 00:26:09,880
to gather intel
straight from the source,
528
00:26:09,920 --> 00:26:12,480
smuggling them
out of high-security facilities
529
00:26:12,520 --> 00:26:16,080
or manipulating those with knowledge
to spill their secrets.
530
00:26:16,120 --> 00:26:17,920
It's believed all the information
531
00:26:17,960 --> 00:26:21,120
is being passed to illegals
operating out of New York.
532
00:26:21,160 --> 00:26:24,600
Some of the earliest pieces
of information about the atomic bomb
533
00:26:24,640 --> 00:26:28,200
to come out of the volunteer network
comes from brother in laws
534
00:26:28,240 --> 00:26:30,760
Julius Rosenberg
and David Greenglass.
535
00:26:30,800 --> 00:26:34,360
The Rosenbergs actually
were detected, you could say,
536
00:26:34,400 --> 00:26:35,840
really because of Alan Nunn May.
537
00:26:35,880 --> 00:26:38,240
Because once he starts
to reveal his network,
538
00:26:38,280 --> 00:26:40,200
and how that starts to unravel,
539
00:26:40,240 --> 00:26:43,720
people that are connected
to the Rosenbergs.
540
00:26:43,760 --> 00:26:48,160
In 1943, Rosenberg and Greenglass
worked on the Manhattan Project
541
00:26:48,200 --> 00:26:50,960
and compiled notes from
conversations with fellow workers
542
00:26:51,000 --> 00:26:53,160
about aspects of atomic research.
543
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,600
It's alleged David Greenglass' wife,
Ruth Greenglass,
544
00:26:56,640 --> 00:26:58,520
and his sister, Ethel Rosenberg,
545
00:26:58,560 --> 00:27:01,440
assisted the men
in the dictation of their notes.
546
00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:03,760
They delivered
the first public revelation
547
00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:05,360
of the implosion bomb design.
548
00:27:05,400 --> 00:27:06,800
But the sketch was rough
549
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,160
and missing important details
needed by the Soviets.
550
00:27:10,200 --> 00:27:12,680
American physicist
Theodore 'Ted' Hall
551
00:27:12,720 --> 00:27:16,520
would be the man to get it for them
in the 1940s.
552
00:27:16,560 --> 00:27:18,720
Hall is working on
the Manhattan Project
553
00:27:18,760 --> 00:27:19,960
when he grows concerned
554
00:27:20,000 --> 00:27:22,560
about the consequences
of an American monopoly
555
00:27:22,600 --> 00:27:24,760
of atomic weapons after the war.
556
00:27:24,800 --> 00:27:28,640
His fears led him
straight to the Soviet Union.
557
00:27:28,680 --> 00:27:30,600
Theodore Hall was a very young man.
558
00:27:30,640 --> 00:27:31,720
He was 19
559
00:27:31,760 --> 00:27:34,560
when he's brought in as a superstar
undergraduate student,
560
00:27:34,600 --> 00:27:37,080
an A plus recommended
by a prof at Harvard
561
00:27:37,120 --> 00:27:39,000
to go and to work on this project.
562
00:27:39,040 --> 00:27:42,480
It shows you, in part,
the desperation of the project,
563
00:27:42,520 --> 00:27:45,600
that he's not yet fully
a scientist, but they bring him in.
564
00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:47,720
And at Los Alamos,
he's privy, of course,
565
00:27:47,760 --> 00:27:51,160
to a lot of really important secrets
about the development of the bomb.
566
00:27:51,200 --> 00:27:54,800
For the Soviets,
having an American-born physicist
567
00:27:54,840 --> 00:27:57,640
that has access
to nuclear technology,
568
00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:58,920
it's a huge win.
569
00:27:58,960 --> 00:28:01,480
For the Americans,
it's a disaster.
570
00:28:02,800 --> 00:28:06,760
In October 1944, Hall shares
his first piece of information
571
00:28:06,800 --> 00:28:07,920
with the Soviets.
572
00:28:07,960 --> 00:28:11,520
He hands over a report on the work
being done at Los Alamos,
573
00:28:11,560 --> 00:28:14,760
along with the names of all
the scientists working there.
574
00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:16,240
With this information,
575
00:28:16,280 --> 00:28:19,880
Soviet spies know exactly
who to target for information
576
00:28:19,920 --> 00:28:21,560
and who to try and flip.
577
00:28:21,600 --> 00:28:26,120
This puts the information
they possess and their lives at risk.
578
00:28:26,160 --> 00:28:28,440
Hall enters an arrangement
with the Soviets
579
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,360
along with his friend
and college room-mate, Saville Sax,
580
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:33,000
who becomes his courier.
581
00:28:33,040 --> 00:28:36,600
The courier would be the one
who actually assumes a lot of risk
582
00:28:36,640 --> 00:28:38,560
in this particular arrangement,
583
00:28:38,600 --> 00:28:42,080
because they're trying to pass
secrets and intelligence
584
00:28:42,120 --> 00:28:45,520
from one individual, the source,
back to the handler.
585
00:28:45,560 --> 00:28:48,480
Hall and Sax worked together
to pass on handwritten notes
586
00:28:48,520 --> 00:28:51,760
that outline the basic science
behind the atomic bomb.
587
00:28:51,800 --> 00:28:55,200
These notes outline something
called the implosion principle,
588
00:28:55,240 --> 00:28:57,280
designed for nuclear explosions.
589
00:28:57,320 --> 00:28:59,440
Russian scientists
were lagging behind,
590
00:28:59,480 --> 00:29:02,840
but these notes gave them
the advantage they needed
591
00:29:02,880 --> 00:29:04,040
to catch up.
592
00:29:04,080 --> 00:29:07,400
Armed with top-secret intel,
and fuelled by animosity,
593
00:29:07,440 --> 00:29:10,440
the Soviet threat
was growing by the day.
594
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:13,360
Could this all have been stopped,
or at least delayed,
595
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:16,880
had Hall not been so convinced
that it was his responsibility
596
00:29:16,920 --> 00:29:20,200
to stop the US
from controlling nuclear power?
597
00:29:20,240 --> 00:29:22,000
By the spring of 1945?
598
00:29:22,040 --> 00:29:24,480
Sax returns to finish his schooling
at Harvard,
599
00:29:24,520 --> 00:29:27,640
and is replaced by the far
more professional Lona Cohen,
600
00:29:27,680 --> 00:29:29,280
who, along with her husband,
601
00:29:29,320 --> 00:29:31,720
are highly skilled
in the art of espionage,
602
00:29:31,760 --> 00:29:35,080
playing integral roles
to the Volunteer program.
603
00:29:35,120 --> 00:29:36,960
Lona enters the picture at a time
604
00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:39,680
when security at Los Alamos
is at its highest,
605
00:29:39,720 --> 00:29:42,600
yet she still manages
to evade suspicion.
606
00:29:42,640 --> 00:29:46,040
In 1945, Lona is carrying
smuggled documents
607
00:29:46,080 --> 00:29:49,080
containing secrets
to the Manhattan Project.
608
00:29:49,120 --> 00:29:52,200
How does Lona manage to evade
questioning and capture
609
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:55,120
when she comes face to face
with American agents?
610
00:29:55,160 --> 00:30:00,080
Smartly, as a police officer
is checking people and her included,
611
00:30:00,120 --> 00:30:03,480
she stuffs the information
in the bottom of a Kleenex box,
612
00:30:03,560 --> 00:30:04,680
which is smart
613
00:30:04,720 --> 00:30:07,200
because a lot of people
wouldn't necessarily look there.
614
00:30:07,240 --> 00:30:09,560
And then, of course,
has a cough or a sneeze
615
00:30:09,600 --> 00:30:12,840
to sort of catch
the police officer off guard.
616
00:30:12,880 --> 00:30:17,360
Lona holds in her hands a complete
diagram of the first atomic bomb.
617
00:30:17,400 --> 00:30:20,280
This gives the Soviets
the final piece of the puzzle.
618
00:30:20,320 --> 00:30:23,600
They now have the formula,
the ingredients and the blueprint
619
00:30:23,640 --> 00:30:26,080
to build their very own
super weapon.
620
00:30:26,120 --> 00:30:28,360
The stakes couldn't be higher.
621
00:30:28,400 --> 00:30:29,560
The worst part is,
622
00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:32,520
the world has no idea
what a major step forward
623
00:30:32,560 --> 00:30:35,600
the Soviets are about to take.
624
00:30:35,640 --> 00:30:39,560
In August 1949, much sooner
than anyone expected,
625
00:30:39,600 --> 00:30:41,720
Soviet physicist Igor Kurchatov
626
00:30:41,760 --> 00:30:44,400
led the Soviet bomb program
to success
627
00:30:44,440 --> 00:30:46,600
with the test of first lightning
628
00:30:46,640 --> 00:30:49,680
at the Semipalatinsk Test
Site in Kazakhstan.
629
00:30:51,360 --> 00:30:54,000
That must have been a very scary
moment for the Americans as well,
630
00:30:54,040 --> 00:30:57,360
to know that
now there is a competitor.
631
00:30:57,400 --> 00:30:58,680
It was a shocker
632
00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:03,160
when weather planes began
to detect those radiation traces,
633
00:31:03,200 --> 00:31:06,040
that there was an actual
detonation that took place.
634
00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:08,400
And the Russians have a bomb.
635
00:31:08,440 --> 00:31:10,920
Undoubtedly,
such an advancement was made
636
00:31:10,960 --> 00:31:12,960
thanks to stolen intelligence.
637
00:31:13,000 --> 00:31:17,720
The West needs to move quickly
and catch and cut off Soviet spies.
638
00:31:17,760 --> 00:31:19,360
Now you have a bipolar world.
639
00:31:19,400 --> 00:31:21,360
You have two nuclear arms.
640
00:31:21,400 --> 00:31:22,760
With the push of a button,
641
00:31:22,800 --> 00:31:25,480
hundreds of thousands of people
could be killed
642
00:31:25,520 --> 00:31:27,480
and entire cities obliterated.
643
00:31:27,520 --> 00:31:30,520
The West's worst fears
have been realised.
644
00:31:32,480 --> 00:31:37,120
In 1943, the US and UK joined forces
on a decoding project
645
00:31:37,160 --> 00:31:40,600
to decipher telegraph cables
being sent to Moscow.
646
00:31:40,640 --> 00:31:43,120
The Venona Project was a project
647
00:31:43,160 --> 00:31:48,720
where they intercepted Soviet
intelligence communications
648
00:31:48,760 --> 00:31:52,320
going through diplomatic channels
in the US,
649
00:31:52,360 --> 00:31:55,080
reporting on various agents.
650
00:31:55,120 --> 00:32:00,160
Venona was one of the most closely
guarded secrets of the United States
651
00:32:00,200 --> 00:32:01,760
in terms of espionage.
652
00:32:01,800 --> 00:32:03,360
And it was tasked with
653
00:32:03,400 --> 00:32:06,920
decrypting encrypted information
from the Soviets.
654
00:32:06,960 --> 00:32:09,880
If they can figure out the key
to these one-time codes,
655
00:32:09,920 --> 00:32:11,880
they can intercept and interrupt
656
00:32:11,920 --> 00:32:14,480
the Soviets' vital lines
of communication.
657
00:32:14,520 --> 00:32:17,160
These were incredibly
important messages,
658
00:32:17,200 --> 00:32:19,560
but they were theoretically
unbreakable.
659
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:22,200
No-one should be able to read them.
660
00:32:22,240 --> 00:32:24,200
In October 1943,
661
00:32:24,240 --> 00:32:27,840
a major mistake by the Soviets
leads to accidental repetitions
662
00:32:27,880 --> 00:32:30,440
within their supposed
one-time codes.
663
00:32:30,480 --> 00:32:32,760
It was a breakthrough
for cryptologists,
664
00:32:32,800 --> 00:32:35,920
giving them what they needed
to begin cracking the code.
665
00:32:35,960 --> 00:32:39,120
We only know about failures
in intelligence.
666
00:32:39,160 --> 00:32:41,760
The successes remain secret forever.
667
00:32:41,800 --> 00:32:45,880
The Venona Project slowly reveals
the code names of many spies,
668
00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:48,720
names that are eventually linked
to some of the key players
669
00:32:48,760 --> 00:32:49,800
in Soviet spy rings,
670
00:32:49,840 --> 00:32:52,800
including Theodore Hall
and Saville Sax.
671
00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:57,040
As bits of these messages
are deciphered and they're read,
672
00:32:58,360 --> 00:33:01,360
those reading the messages
start to notice
673
00:33:01,400 --> 00:33:05,680
that the names in these messages
aren't truly the names of people,
674
00:33:05,720 --> 00:33:07,080
but their code names.
675
00:33:07,120 --> 00:33:10,560
Names like 'Homer',
which stand for something,
676
00:33:10,600 --> 00:33:13,240
but it's not quite clear what.
677
00:33:13,280 --> 00:33:14,840
In the summer of 1950,
678
00:33:14,880 --> 00:33:19,440
a Soviet diplomat tips off Lona Cohen
that her cover may be blown.
679
00:33:19,480 --> 00:33:23,360
Lona, along with her husband
and fellow spy Maurice Cohen,
680
00:33:23,400 --> 00:33:24,400
flee to Moscow,
681
00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,360
only to resurface
in London years later,
682
00:33:27,400 --> 00:33:30,040
continuing their espionage abroad.
683
00:33:30,080 --> 00:33:31,920
While Venona works in the shadows
684
00:33:31,960 --> 00:33:34,400
to uncover Soviet spies
through coded cables,
685
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:36,600
the political climate
is heating up,
686
00:33:36,640 --> 00:33:40,440
and another far more public spy hunt
is underway.
687
00:33:40,480 --> 00:33:43,760
What we are here to do
is to gather information
688
00:33:43,800 --> 00:33:47,480
with respect to the general operation
of the Communist conspiracy,
689
00:33:47,520 --> 00:33:49,480
wherever it may lead.
690
00:33:49,520 --> 00:33:52,000
The House of Un-American
Activities Committee
691
00:33:52,040 --> 00:33:54,080
begins a push to catch Soviet spies
692
00:33:54,120 --> 00:33:56,880
by casting a wide net
in the American public.
693
00:33:56,920 --> 00:34:00,840
Anyone seen as being contrarian
could be a threat.
694
00:34:00,880 --> 00:34:02,720
In this very dirty war,
695
00:34:02,760 --> 00:34:04,520
you have to get yourself
a little bit dirty.
696
00:34:04,560 --> 00:34:09,000
So at times, they had to arrest
people without due process.
697
00:34:09,040 --> 00:34:14,760
Interrogate American citizens
in order to expose any spy rings,
698
00:34:14,800 --> 00:34:18,160
even when the people
were completely innocent.
699
00:34:18,200 --> 00:34:20,560
If you think
I'll cooperate with you in any way,
700
00:34:20,600 --> 00:34:21,920
you are insane.
701
00:34:26,480 --> 00:34:29,520
The growing fear that anyone
could be a Soviet spy,
702
00:34:29,560 --> 00:34:34,360
masking as a neighbour or co-worker,
seeds doubt and paranoia.
703
00:34:34,400 --> 00:34:37,440
There is a lot of power
in that chaos that's created
704
00:34:37,480 --> 00:34:41,480
when it's uncertain as to who is
an ally and who is an enemy,
705
00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,000
who is a spy, who is not a spy.
706
00:34:44,040 --> 00:34:47,640
And in many ways, that works
for the Soviet Union.
707
00:34:47,680 --> 00:34:50,480
Even if secrets
are not being passed,
708
00:34:50,520 --> 00:34:53,600
there is that paranoia
and a lack of trust,
709
00:34:53,640 --> 00:34:57,680
a lack of cohesion
that exists within a nation.
710
00:34:57,720 --> 00:34:59,600
The paranoia and confusion
during the time
711
00:34:59,640 --> 00:35:04,400
that may have been formerly
directed at the enemy
712
00:35:04,440 --> 00:35:05,800
are now turned
713
00:35:05,840 --> 00:35:10,280
towards our own home country
and our own home state.
714
00:35:10,320 --> 00:35:13,920
Venona confirms Julius Rosenberg
is a Soviet spy.
715
00:35:13,960 --> 00:35:16,520
However, it also reveals
his wife Ethel
716
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:19,200
may not be as involved
as once thought.
717
00:35:20,240 --> 00:35:24,480
At the height of the HUAC's power,
the Rosenbergs are arrested.
718
00:35:24,520 --> 00:35:27,560
However, this works against
the American government.
719
00:35:27,600 --> 00:35:30,360
Many are growing frustrated
by the Red Fear
720
00:35:30,400 --> 00:35:33,840
and how it has started to impact
regular citizens.
721
00:35:33,880 --> 00:35:36,360
The execution of Ethel,
in particular,
722
00:35:36,400 --> 00:35:38,640
is not well received by the public.
723
00:35:38,680 --> 00:35:43,400
It represents yet another
innocent person prosecuted unfairly.
724
00:35:43,440 --> 00:35:45,480
What did she do exactly?
725
00:35:45,520 --> 00:35:47,600
At worst, she typed up notes.
726
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,560
Did that warrant a death penalty?
727
00:35:49,600 --> 00:35:52,480
Did that warrant
orphaning two children?
728
00:35:53,840 --> 00:35:59,600
For the House of Un-American
Activities to not even communicate
729
00:35:59,640 --> 00:36:02,080
or produce the evidence
against this family,
730
00:36:02,120 --> 00:36:05,200
I'm shocked that the execution
even happened.
731
00:36:05,240 --> 00:36:08,120
The days following the execution
of the Rosenbergs
732
00:36:08,160 --> 00:36:11,400
sent waves of both
fear and anger across the nation.
733
00:36:11,440 --> 00:36:14,200
A series of strange events
reveals a loose thread
734
00:36:14,240 --> 00:36:16,640
in the once tightly-woven
New York spy ring
735
00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:19,200
that threatens to unravel it
even further.
736
00:36:19,240 --> 00:36:24,120
On June 22nd, 1953, during a routine
paper delivery in Brooklyn,
737
00:36:24,160 --> 00:36:27,640
an odd discovery is made
that tips off the FBI.
738
00:36:27,680 --> 00:36:29,880
The newspaper boy brings
the nickel home.
739
00:36:29,920 --> 00:36:34,800
It pops open by accident
and "Oh, my God, what is this?"
740
00:36:34,840 --> 00:36:37,840
There's a little piece of film
inside.
741
00:36:37,880 --> 00:36:39,800
A hollow nickel splits open,
742
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:43,000
revealing a photograph
with a coded message.
743
00:36:43,040 --> 00:36:44,520
They take it to the cops.
744
00:36:44,560 --> 00:36:46,680
The cops take it to the FBI.
745
00:36:46,720 --> 00:36:50,080
For years, the FBI are left
wondering what it all means
746
00:36:50,120 --> 00:36:52,480
and for whom it was intended.
747
00:36:52,520 --> 00:36:55,280
They never figured out what it was,
who it was for,
748
00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:58,440
until you had an actual defection.
749
00:36:58,480 --> 00:37:02,720
In 1957, the United States Embassy
in Paris received a phone call
750
00:37:02,760 --> 00:37:05,720
by a KGB agent named Reino Hayhanen.
751
00:37:05,760 --> 00:37:09,600
His desire to defect motivates him
to cooperate with the authorities
752
00:37:09,640 --> 00:37:11,280
to expose his connections
753
00:37:11,320 --> 00:37:16,720
though KGB identities are not easily
revealed, even for allies.
754
00:37:16,760 --> 00:37:21,320
To defect as a spy, it's important
not to show up empty handed
755
00:37:21,360 --> 00:37:26,160
in return for safe and fair
treatment as a defector.
756
00:37:26,200 --> 00:37:27,560
Hayhanen willingly describes
757
00:37:27,600 --> 00:37:30,160
the work he had been doing
for the US for years,
758
00:37:30,200 --> 00:37:32,720
explaining
that he and other Soviet spies
759
00:37:32,760 --> 00:37:34,600
would pass information to each other
760
00:37:34,640 --> 00:37:37,880
through special objects given
to them by their colleagues.
761
00:37:37,920 --> 00:37:42,440
These are everyday items like pens,
batteries, and coins, like nickels,
762
00:37:42,480 --> 00:37:43,840
that would be hollowed out
763
00:37:43,880 --> 00:37:47,800
and filled with tiny pieces of paper
that contain coded messages.
764
00:37:47,840 --> 00:37:50,680
The FBI link his testimony
to the hollow nickel
765
00:37:50,720 --> 00:37:52,040
found back in 1953.
766
00:37:53,040 --> 00:37:56,520
Hayhanen reveals that this was
an early message from the KGB,
767
00:37:56,560 --> 00:37:58,120
welcoming him to the US,
768
00:37:58,160 --> 00:38:00,800
and instructing him
on getting set up.
769
00:38:00,840 --> 00:38:03,440
The FBI look into codename Mark,
770
00:38:03,480 --> 00:38:06,560
Hayhanen's last courier
before defecting.
771
00:38:06,600 --> 00:38:09,400
They purse his alias,
Emil R Goldfus,
772
00:38:09,440 --> 00:38:12,400
tracking him
to an artist's studio in Brooklyn.
773
00:38:12,440 --> 00:38:15,080
But again, it's this old idea
of hide in plain sight.
774
00:38:15,120 --> 00:38:18,560
You hide undercover as a
pretty well-known local artist
775
00:38:18,600 --> 00:38:22,280
in an artist's lair,
amongst multiple identities.
776
00:38:22,320 --> 00:38:26,160
Upon his arrest, Goldfus
gives the name Rudolf Abel.
777
00:38:26,200 --> 00:38:28,800
It's a name that he doesn't even use.
778
00:38:28,840 --> 00:38:36,760
Rudolf Abel is the name of a friend
of his back in the Soviet Union,
779
00:38:36,800 --> 00:38:39,120
who had recently died.
780
00:38:39,160 --> 00:38:43,600
When he's arrested, he identifies
himself as Rudolf Abel,
781
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:47,200
so that it's announced
in the newspapers
782
00:38:47,240 --> 00:38:49,320
that Rudolf Abel was arrested,
783
00:38:49,360 --> 00:38:52,440
and that signals his people back home
784
00:38:52,480 --> 00:38:54,680
that he had been compromised
and arrested
785
00:38:54,720 --> 00:38:57,200
because they know that
Rudolf Abel is dead.
786
00:38:57,240 --> 00:38:58,560
Abel is revealed to be
787
00:38:58,600 --> 00:39:02,000
one of the many aliases
used by William Fisher.
788
00:39:02,040 --> 00:39:04,680
Did you ever wonder about him,
what his occupation was or anything?
789
00:39:04,720 --> 00:39:06,600
Well, I thought he wasn't honest.
790
00:39:06,640 --> 00:39:08,200
He wasn't too talkative,
the man,
791
00:39:08,240 --> 00:39:12,040
only, if he walked into my shop,
he'd sit down and talk to me.
792
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:15,160
The FBI search his hotel room
and artist studio,
793
00:39:15,200 --> 00:39:18,200
uncovering a treasure trove
of spy equipment,
794
00:39:18,240 --> 00:39:20,240
short-wave radios, cipher pads,
795
00:39:20,280 --> 00:39:22,840
cameras and film
for producing microdots.
796
00:39:22,880 --> 00:39:26,800
A hollow shaving brush and cuff links
and other espionage equipment
797
00:39:26,840 --> 00:39:28,880
prove, without a shadow of a doubt,
798
00:39:28,920 --> 00:39:32,000
that Goldfus Abel Fisher
was a Soviet spy.
799
00:39:33,960 --> 00:39:36,440
For spies whose identities
have been revealed,
800
00:39:36,480 --> 00:39:38,720
some like Hayhanen
become turncoats,
801
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:41,280
working to give up
their former allies.
802
00:39:41,320 --> 00:39:44,680
Others, like the Rosenbergs,
are executed.
803
00:39:44,720 --> 00:39:49,280
But some, like Abel, proved to
be more valuable alive than dead,
804
00:39:49,320 --> 00:39:52,280
used as pawns
in a bigger political game.
805
00:39:52,320 --> 00:39:55,600
Abel is ultimately returned
to the Soviet Union
806
00:39:55,640 --> 00:39:57,560
in a strategic spy exchange.
807
00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:01,160
Upon his arrival, he is publicly
recognised for his achievements
808
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:04,000
in helping the volunteer
network obtain information
809
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:05,920
on the US atomic bomb.
810
00:40:05,960 --> 00:40:08,880
He is supposed to be there
coordinating other spies
811
00:40:08,920 --> 00:40:10,240
in the New York area,
812
00:40:10,280 --> 00:40:12,800
which we to this day
don't know exactly
813
00:40:12,840 --> 00:40:16,000
what Rudolf Abel
was doing actually, in New York.
814
00:40:16,040 --> 00:40:17,240
he never spoke a word.
815
00:40:17,280 --> 00:40:21,440
He remained a tight-lipped
professional intelligence officer
816
00:40:21,480 --> 00:40:24,760
and the hero in the Soviet Union.
817
00:40:24,800 --> 00:40:29,000
In 1966, Fisher receives
the acclaimed Order of Lenin,
818
00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:33,320
the highest civilian decoration
bestowed by the Soviet Union.
819
00:40:33,360 --> 00:40:35,960
Rudolf Abel died in Moscow in 1971
820
00:40:36,000 --> 00:40:40,120
and was laid to rest
at the city's Donskoye Monastery.
821
00:40:40,160 --> 00:40:43,840
His tombstone bears his birth name,
William Fisher,
822
00:40:43,880 --> 00:40:47,440
the identity that was never exposed
during his captivity
823
00:40:47,480 --> 00:40:50,960
as one of the most notorious spies
of the Cold War.
824
00:40:51,000 --> 00:40:55,280
People right to the very end, and
including his funeral, were duped.
825
00:40:55,320 --> 00:40:57,640
I mean, they knew him by
different names, you know,
826
00:40:57,680 --> 00:40:58,800
throughout his life.
827
00:40:58,840 --> 00:41:00,040
And that does speak to
828
00:41:00,080 --> 00:41:03,280
the methodical nature
of Russian intelligence.
829
00:41:03,320 --> 00:41:06,080
Not all spies were caught
during the Cold War.
830
00:41:06,120 --> 00:41:08,520
Some still operate under the radar.
831
00:41:08,560 --> 00:41:11,960
After the Soviet Union
collapses in 1992,
832
00:41:12,000 --> 00:41:13,600
a man named Vasili Mitrokhin
833
00:41:13,640 --> 00:41:16,680
knocks on the door
of the UK Embassy in Latvia.
834
00:41:16,720 --> 00:41:18,160
The documents he carries
835
00:41:18,200 --> 00:41:20,880
are just a taste
of what he's accumulated
836
00:41:20,920 --> 00:41:21,960
over the years.
837
00:41:22,000 --> 00:41:23,120
He's a goldmine.
838
00:41:23,160 --> 00:41:26,120
He has all the knowledge of spies.
839
00:41:26,160 --> 00:41:28,640
He knows who they were,
what they were, what they did,
840
00:41:28,680 --> 00:41:29,760
where they went.
841
00:41:29,800 --> 00:41:31,400
And that's amassed in the archives.
842
00:41:31,440 --> 00:41:36,080
From 1972 to 1984, Mitrokhin
works as a senior archivist
843
00:41:36,120 --> 00:41:38,760
in the KGB's Foreign Intelligence
Archive,
844
00:41:38,800 --> 00:41:42,640
giving him unlimited access
to hundreds of thousands of files
845
00:41:42,680 --> 00:41:44,640
from a global network of spies.
846
00:41:44,680 --> 00:41:47,960
His growing disillusion
with the oppressive Soviet regime
847
00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:52,760
leads to the largest leak
of classified KGB files in history.
848
00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:56,840
How did he smuggle these documents
and what could they expose?
849
00:41:56,880 --> 00:42:00,000
Mitrokhin's archives reveal
all sorts of things,
850
00:42:00,040 --> 00:42:03,680
including disinformation operations
that are so important,
851
00:42:03,720 --> 00:42:09,440
elected politicians who might
have support from the Soviet Union,
852
00:42:09,480 --> 00:42:11,480
all kinds of scary stuff
853
00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:15,800
that sometimes you can't identify
the actual individual
854
00:42:15,840 --> 00:42:17,240
being referred to.
855
00:42:18,360 --> 00:42:21,000
While most of these plans
have already expired,
856
00:42:21,040 --> 00:42:24,320
these documents offer an
unprecedented and invaluable look
857
00:42:24,360 --> 00:42:27,560
at the scale of Soviet espionage
around the world.
858
00:42:27,600 --> 00:42:30,080
It's hard to believe
that after all this,
859
00:42:30,120 --> 00:42:33,280
these deeply ingrained spy rings
could have been shut down
860
00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,920
even after the collapse
of the Soviet Union.
861
00:42:37,200 --> 00:42:39,160
The Mitrokhin Archives reveals
862
00:42:39,200 --> 00:42:42,480
a decade-long plan to disrupt
the US power supply,
863
00:42:42,520 --> 00:42:44,280
known as Operation Cedar,
864
00:42:44,320 --> 00:42:47,200
that thankfully never
comes to fruition.
865
00:42:47,240 --> 00:42:50,520
Cedar includes a lot
of places of vulnerability.
866
00:42:50,560 --> 00:42:53,800
The Soviets thought, "Well,
if we could stash weapons there,
867
00:42:53,840 --> 00:42:57,920
"or we could stash dirty bombs,
chemical biological agents,
868
00:42:57,960 --> 00:42:59,560
"and then utilise them",
869
00:42:59,600 --> 00:43:02,160
that's an asset behind enemy
lines, right?
870
00:43:02,200 --> 00:43:04,600
Ugly business, of course.
Right?
871
00:43:05,720 --> 00:43:07,680
Operation Cedar is a detailed plan
872
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:11,000
that involves the sabotage
and destruction of a major port
873
00:43:11,040 --> 00:43:14,320
and disruption of the power supply
across New York.
874
00:43:14,360 --> 00:43:17,320
It could also destroy oil
refineries across Canada
875
00:43:17,360 --> 00:43:19,560
from British Columbia to Montreal.
876
00:43:19,600 --> 00:43:24,280
Imagining the repercussions of such
a mission is utterly mind blowing.
877
00:43:24,320 --> 00:43:28,520
It's easy to see how quickly
the loss of power for a few days
878
00:43:28,560 --> 00:43:33,320
in a major city can start
to contribute to instability.
879
00:43:33,360 --> 00:43:36,840
Many of these plans rely on the use
of sleeper agents,
880
00:43:36,880 --> 00:43:38,720
spies placed in a country
881
00:43:38,760 --> 00:43:42,320
who can be activated
at any given moment.
882
00:43:42,360 --> 00:43:44,880
A sleeper agent is somebody
883
00:43:44,920 --> 00:43:49,080
who is used to infiltrate
a adversary nation
884
00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:51,600
and essentially just exists there,
885
00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,520
staying in touch
with the Home Office.
886
00:43:54,560 --> 00:43:56,840
But they're not used regularly.
887
00:43:58,240 --> 00:44:03,040
There is this reduced ability
to identify your enemy.
888
00:44:04,360 --> 00:44:08,400
The threat of such agents assuming
regular lives has not passed.
889
00:44:08,440 --> 00:44:10,720
In fact, it is very much alive.
890
00:44:12,120 --> 00:44:14,000
Sleeper agents absolutely
still exist today.
891
00:44:14,040 --> 00:44:16,920
I mean, they're still used
by foreign states
892
00:44:16,960 --> 00:44:19,000
to carry out some type of activity
893
00:44:19,040 --> 00:44:21,400
that the state
may want them to engage in.
894
00:44:21,440 --> 00:44:27,240
From about 2000 to 2010, the FBI
carries out Operation Ghost Stories
895
00:44:27,280 --> 00:44:29,600
after learning multiple sets
of Russian spies
896
00:44:29,640 --> 00:44:32,880
were living in the United States
under false identities.
897
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:36,720
This becomes one of the largest
counter-intelligence investigations
898
00:44:36,760 --> 00:44:38,600
in American history.
899
00:44:38,640 --> 00:44:42,040
Hostile intelligence officers
are carefully evaluating
900
00:44:42,080 --> 00:44:46,200
the strengths and weaknesses
of their American contacts.
901
00:44:46,240 --> 00:44:48,400
They may then try
to exploit weaknesses
902
00:44:48,440 --> 00:44:52,000
like taking advantage
of a certain character flaw.
903
00:44:52,040 --> 00:44:55,920
FBI agents bugged the spies' homes
and followed their travels.
904
00:44:55,960 --> 00:44:58,000
They managed to record
several exchanges
905
00:44:58,040 --> 00:45:00,440
where spies passed
on large amounts of cash
906
00:45:00,480 --> 00:45:02,200
to finance their operations.
907
00:45:02,240 --> 00:45:05,880
Ultimately, ten individuals
were arrested and convicted.
908
00:45:05,920 --> 00:45:09,840
Some had been in place
for nearly 20 years.
909
00:45:09,880 --> 00:45:12,960
So it brought back all of these
sentiments that, you know,
910
00:45:13,000 --> 00:45:14,960
the Cold War ain't over, frankly.
911
00:45:15,000 --> 00:45:19,680
In 2022, a couple living in Hawaii
is arrested and put on trial
912
00:45:19,720 --> 00:45:23,960
and accused of being Russian spies
after years of FBI surveillance.
913
00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:26,080
If you understand
a nation's culture,
914
00:45:26,120 --> 00:45:28,320
like thoroughly understand
their culture,
915
00:45:28,360 --> 00:45:30,480
you understand a lot
of its weaknesses.
916
00:45:30,520 --> 00:45:33,200
You understand how to manipulate
public opinion.
917
00:45:33,240 --> 00:45:35,320
That's what all authoritarian
regimes do.
918
00:45:35,360 --> 00:45:38,440
They look for a little nerve
in the public psyche,
919
00:45:38,480 --> 00:45:40,320
and they... they expose it.
920
00:45:40,360 --> 00:45:43,200
While the Mitrokhin Archive
may have exposed plans
921
00:45:43,240 --> 00:45:45,800
from beyond the collapse
of the Soviet Union,
922
00:45:45,840 --> 00:45:49,440
it's clear that the era
of cloak and dagger espionage
923
00:45:49,480 --> 00:45:50,800
has not yet passed.
924
00:45:50,840 --> 00:45:54,520
In the modern day, these individuals
may use various tactics
925
00:45:54,560 --> 00:45:57,520
such as cyber espionage,
political manipulation,
926
00:45:57,560 --> 00:46:01,120
and other covert activities
to achieve their objectives.
927
00:46:01,160 --> 00:46:04,360
You begin to see
the use of technology
928
00:46:04,400 --> 00:46:07,200
to gather information to spy with.
929
00:46:07,240 --> 00:46:11,080
From satellites to microphone
devices,
930
00:46:11,120 --> 00:46:14,280
everything is beginning to accelerate
931
00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:16,960
into the world
we're now so familiar with.
932
00:46:17,000 --> 00:46:18,680
It's much more difficult to identify
933
00:46:18,720 --> 00:46:21,960
who is actually spying for
a foreign state than it used to be.
934
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,960
The number of threats
have gone exponentially up.
935
00:46:25,000 --> 00:46:26,760
These countries spend
vast sums of money
936
00:46:26,800 --> 00:46:29,280
on advanced broadcast
and digital media capabilities,
937
00:46:29,320 --> 00:46:32,000
targeted campaigns, funding
of foreign political movements,
938
00:46:32,040 --> 00:46:35,360
and other efforts to influence
key audiences and populations.
939
00:46:36,400 --> 00:46:39,600
Access to information
is so liberal now, more than ever,
940
00:46:39,640 --> 00:46:43,760
it is both freeing and terrifying
to take into consideration
941
00:46:43,800 --> 00:46:46,800
what modern spies could accomplish
today.
942
00:46:46,840 --> 00:46:50,120
We're able to destroy our world
many times over today,
943
00:46:50,160 --> 00:46:51,640
and that's all a legacy
944
00:46:51,680 --> 00:46:54,640
of the weapons
built up as part of the Cold War.
79138
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