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August 29, 2003
McCarthy wasn't so wrong, after all
NOVA is one of my favorite shows. I get to watch it pretty regularly, now that I have TiVo.
I watched "Secrets, Lies and Atomic Spies" (buy) last night. This show details evidence found in both Russia and the U.S. after the Cold War ended, showing (irrefutably) that there were more than 300 Soviet spies in every federal government agency, defense contractor, and defense laboratory. Most importantly, these spies, most of them Americans recruited by the KGB, made all of the nuclear bomb details available to the Soviet Union as they were developed in secret at Los Alamos and other labs, leading to the Soviet Union developing identical nuclear capabilities within months after the U.S. did.
There is a technology spin to this. America found out about this in the late 1940's by breaking an unbreakable encryption code, through some of the most tenuous manual and semi-computerized work I can imagine. Breaking the Soviet code to decrypt the telegraphs that contained the evidence of this massive spy network, is still one of the most incredible cryptographic feats to date.
The most disturbing part of what has been uncovered, is that the KGB knew that America had broken the code from the first message that was decrypted (and immediately changed their communications methods, preventing any future message from being exposed). The American government knew since at least 1948, but details were never revealed to the American public until they were unearthed after the Cold War, first in Russia, and a few years later, when some of the documents were de-classified.
It's interesting to think how different the McCarthy era would have been, had McCarthy found out about this secret information--and the 300 active KGB spies. The McCarthy era ended up being (somewhat deservedly) as a real-life episode of "The Boy Who Cried Wolf," and as a result, Americans probably have an unwarranted sense of security (or naivetee), even disbelief, regarding the possibility of foreign infiltration of our government.
It's interesting to think how differently American's would think today about foreign spies, had this information been made available 50 years ago (instead of just now). And how differently Senator McCarthy would have affected the future of American foreign politics and perspectives. Also interesting to think about how this would have affected the Cold War (maybe for the worse), or if there even would have been a Cold War.
But maybe it's better we're not so paranoid. Maybe naivetee is good sometimes. Whether it is or not, I don't think it excuses the government for not making this information available to the public a long time ago.
Posted by pete at August 29, 2003 1:55 PM