Vinoona Plan:

Author: Hayes
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2004-04-01
Features: In 1943, the United States suspected that the Soviet Union had secretly concluded a treaty with Germany, so it implemented a plan codenamed "Venona" aimed at intercepting and decrypting telegrams between the Soviet Embassy in the U.S. and the Soviet Union. To the surprise of the U.S., over the years of the plan's implementation, the U.S. discovered a large amount of intelligence on Soviet spies in the U.S., totaling 349 people, including Americans. These spies infiltrated various departments of American society, with the highest-ranking among them being the Assistant Secretary of the Treasury and a presidential advisor, as well as those who infiltrated the "Manhattan Project" (the atomic bomb research program). Even within the "Venona" plan itself, Soviet spies were discovered. The U.S. decrypted over 3,000 messages from 25,000 telegrams, and among the 349 people, some had their real names identified, while others remain unknown to this day. Due to its extreme secrecy, the nature and work of the plan were only made public in 1995, after the end of the Cold War. The two authors used not only the materials from the "plan" but also most of the archives from the Soviet Union, making many of the behind-the-scenes stories previously unknown before the Cold War. The book covers the origins of the "plan," the process of decrypting codes, descriptions of spy activities, and the networks and activities of Soviet and American spies in military, government, science, industry, and atomic industries. Detailed descriptions are provided for the activities of major spies. The book includes five appendices: a list of U.S. citizens with underground connections to the Soviet Union (both identified and unidentified); a list of Soviet contacts temporarily residing in the U.S.; a list of Americans considered potential targets by Soviet intelligence agencies; and short biographies of key Soviet spies who came to the U.S.