Spy For No Country: The Story of Ted Hall, the Teenage Atomic Spy Who May Have Saved the World

by Dave Lindorff

At 18 years of age, Theodore Hall was the youngest physicist on the Manhattan Project, hired as a junior at Harvard and put to work at Los Alamos in 1944. Assigned the job of testing and refining the complex implosion system for the plutonium bomb, Hall was described as “amazingly brilliant” by his superiors on the project, many of whom were Nobel Prize winners. But what Hall’s colleagues didn’t know was that the teenaged Hall was also the youngest spy taken on by the Soviet Union in search of secrets to the atomic bomb. Spy For No Country tells the gripping story of a brilliant scientist whose information about the plutonium bomb, including detailed drawings and measurements, proved to be integral to the Soviet’s development of nuclear capabilities.

In the dying days of World War II, defeat of the Third Reich became a matter of when, not if. Tensions between wartime allies America and the Soviet Union began to rise, and things only got hotter when the United States refused to share information on its nuclear program. This groundbreaking book paints a nuanced picture of a young man acting on what he thought was best for the world. Neither a Communist nor a Soviet sympathizer, Hall worked to ensure that America did not monopolize the science behind the atomic bomb, which he felt may have apocalyptic consequences. Instead, by providing the Soviets with the secrets of the bomb, and thereby initiating “mutual assured destruction,” Hall may have actually saved the world as we know it. But his contributions to the Soviets certainly did not go unnoticed. FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover opened an investigation into Hall, which was escalated when it was discovered that Hall’s brother Edward was a rising star of the Air Force, leading the development of intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Featuring in-depth research from recently declassified FBI documents, first-hand journals, and personal interviews, investigative journalist Dave Lindorff uncovers the story of the atomic spy who gave secrets away, and got away with it, too.

Genres: History

272 pages, Hardcover

First published December 1, 2023

Reviews

[Sherrie74 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Due to a short theatrical production at our Fringe Festival it got me to order this book from the library. I found it very interesting ... and boring at times ... but all in all it was very informative that Ted Hall really was not fully outed for his deeds until very close to the end of his life.

Story goes into way too much detail that is way over our heads but guess it shows how smart the "kid" was.

In many ways I can see how he was thinking .... at the time Russia was alined with Britian and US and Russia being closer to Germany at the time it would have seemed warranted that they also should have the knowledge the US had for bomb making. He did admit before he died that by "today's history with Russia" .... it really would have been a disasterous idea.

If you liked the movie Oppenheimer you should enjoy this book if you want a bit more history as to what happened at Los Alamos. It also gives major history as to how many officials did not want the second bomb to be dropped on Nagasaki.

[ANN DIPIETRO · Rating 5 out of 5]

An amazing story of an amazing man !

[Wayne Richardson · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars