[Foreign Book] The Spy Who Passed U.S. Atomic Bomb Blueprints to the Soviet Union

Nancy Sondike Greenspan 'Atomic Spy'

[Asia Economy Reporter Byunghee Park] Klaus Fuchs was the person who stole the design plans of the atomic bomb from the United States and handed them over to the Soviet Union. In August 1949, the Soviet Union successfully completed its atomic bomb test. The United States, which had expected it would take several more years for the Soviet Union to possess an atomic bomb, was shocked. The American daily The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) explained that thanks to Fuchs, the Soviet Union was able to develop the atomic bomb more than two years earlier.

Atomic Spy covers the life story of Fuchs. The author, Nancy Sondike Greenspan, meticulously traces Fuchs's transformation from an anti-Nazi activist in the 1930s to a traitor in the 1940s, as well as his subsequent actions.

Since Fuchs was a figure who delivered a great shock to the United States during the Cold War era, many books about his life have been published in the U.S. However, WSJ praised Greenspan's book for offering a new perspective by focusing on the formative period of Fuchs's personality.

Fuchs was born in 1911 near Frankfurt, Germany. His father was a strict Anglican pastor. His mother committed suicide by drinking hydrochloric acid when Fuchs was 19 years old. Fuchs's younger sister also committed suicide. Perhaps for this reason, the subtitle of the book is "The Dark Life of the Klaus Fuchs Family."

After Adolf Hitler came to power in 1933, Fuchs left Germany and settled in the United Kingdom. There, he met Dr. Rudolf Peierls, a German physicist researching nuclear physics at the University of Birmingham. Fuchs later participated in the United States' atomic bomb development project, the Manhattan Project, together with Dr. Peierls.

Fuchs was arrested in 1950, admitted his guilt, and served nine years in prison. After his release, he returned to East Germany and passed away in 1988.