THE FBI-KGB WAR: A Special Agent's Story

by Robert J. & Tom Shachtman Lamphere ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 26, 1986

One FBI agent's account of the postwar fight against Soviet espionage in the US. An agent from 1941 to 1955, Lamphere's most notable (and heretofore unreported) casework centered on the deciphering of cables sent between Moscow and Soviet representatives in the US in 1944 and 1945. After several years of painstaking work by government cryptanalyst Meredith Gardner, the ""mostly blank"" pages of numbers began to make sense. These cables led Lamphere and the FBI to such spies as, among others, Judith Coplon, a Justice Department employee; Klaus Fuchs, the British atomic scientist who passed secrets about the Manhattan Project to Moscow; Harry Gold, Fuchs' ""courier""; David Greenglass, from whom Gold had once picked up Los Alamos secrets; and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg. Lamphere presents solid evidence that not only were both Rosenbergs spies, but that they ran an extensive network of spies whom they had recruited. However, according to Lamphere, only a small number of these spies were convicted, in part because the Soviets quickly learned about the deciphering breakthrough via the notorious British spy network of Kim Philby, Guy Burgess, and Donald Maclean. Indeed, Lamphere notes that the cable deciphering revealed that a highly placed person--code-named ""Homer""--in the British Embassy in Washington had been sending secrets to Moscow in 1944-1945. Tips about Homer sent by Lamphere to MI-5 were regularly deflected by Philby, who in those years lived in Washington and acted as liaison with the FBI and CIA. Lamphere's bitter description of the man he recalls ""often, with disgust"": ""Philby was seedy and spoke with a stutter. His clothes were loose-fitting and shabby, and his face and figure had few notable features."" With sections as good as le CarrÉ, a fascinating look at the world of espionage and counterespionage.

Pub Date: June 26, 1986

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Random House

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 15, 1986

Categories: NONFICTION