How The Soviets Got the Bomb

As a biographer of physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer, I urge strong caution in accepting without serious scrutiny Pavel Sudoplatov's account of Oppenheimer's "contributions" to Soviet nuclear weapons development ((BOOK EXCERPT, April 25)). It is a matter of historical record that Oppenheimer was interested in a variety of left-wing causes during the 1930s and early '40s and that friends and family belonged to the American Communist Party for brief periods. It is also true that the Soviets were able to penetrate the wartime Manhattan Project -- and particularly Los Alamos. Klaus Fuchs is without doubt their greatest success in that regard. But...

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