
Klaus Fuchs: a spy for the atomic age - pepys
https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2019/08/klaus-fusch-spy-atomic-age
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macintux
I was unaware of his story growing up, but he plays an extremely small role in
one of Feynman’s autobiographies, IIRC supplying the car Dick used to visit
his wife in the hospital. Feynman wondered later whether the trunk held
classified materials.

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i_am_nomad
However you may feel about his treachery, history seems to have proven him
correct; deterrence is what prevents nuclear attacks. The article rightly
points out that he shared America’s nuclear secrets with not only the
Russians, but the British, and most likely for this reason.

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InTheArena
There was no risk of retaliation when McArthur demanded the use nuclear
weapons in Korea. Truman turned him down and sacked him anyways.

Fuchs was like almost every other soviet spy in WW2 and post-war / pre-cold
war action - a useful idiot who refused to believe the reports at the end of
the war of the mass wave or rape and pillage that the Soviets unleashed on
Germany, or the political terror that Stalin unleashed. This was
understandable, given that spreading such information (until Khrushchev
legendary denunciation of Stalin after his death) was a great way to kill your
career, and/or your life.

There was a unbelievable amount of naivete among the atomic scientsts, that
worked across all different parts of the political spectrum. Many were openly
talking about a government that would replace democratically elected
institutions with a technocracy where only the informed civil servents would
make centrally planned decisions for the good of all mankind. Many bought the
idea that the USSR’s actions in Europe were justified because it was the only
path to true communism. Many became the monsters that they fought - willing to
justify anything to roll back fascism and later communism.

Regardless, the idea that Fuchs was only moved by a rational actor theory is
very hard to support.

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pvg
Truman and MacArthur's key policy disagreement was that MacArthur believed
taking the war into China would not involve the Soviet Union.

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somberi
A related read:

Are Spies More Trouble Than They’re Worth? (The history of espionage is a
lesson in paradox: the better your intelligence, the dumber your conduct; the
more you know, the less you anticipate.)

[https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/are-spies-
more...](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/09/02/are-spies-more-trouble-
than-theyre-worth)

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doggydogs94
The information Fuchs gave the Russians turned a research problem into an
engineering problem. The Russians learned what the US scientists did to create
a working device. From that point, the Russian scientists had a greatly
simplified task. They just had to re-engineer something they knew could work
if they did it right.

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root
That should be “Fuchs”.

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tlb
Title changed from Fusch, thanks.

