Tom Farrelly
April 7, 2014
Espionage In World War II, Research Report Since the first World War, espionage has been one of the most important elements of global warfare. Spying on our enemies to gain information has saved many American lives through preventing attempts on our nation. New technology developed methods of espionage that were pivotal to the outcome of World War II. Americas enemies also used espionage throughout the entirety of the war. Tom Farrelly
April 7, 2014
Espionage In World War II, Research Report Since the first World War, espionage has been one of the most important elements of global warfare. Spying on our enemies to gain information has saved many American lives through preventing attempts on our nation. New technology developed methods of espionage that were pivotal to the outcome of World War II. Americas enemies also used espionage throughout the entirety of the war.
During the race to create the atomic bomb, it was the soviet army's priority to gain any information on America's progress. The American communist party had linked forces with Soviet Intelligence agencies to steal any information possible about the Manhattan project and the atomic bomb project in Los Alamos(2). In 1944, the FBI had been informed about a man selling communist songs. Agents broke into the man's house and found notebooks with Russian writings about the atomic bomb projects that were highly confidential(2). When the F.B.I wire tapped American communist leader Steve Nelson, they discovered he had sold information about the atomic bomb to the soviets(2).
19 months after pearl harbor, sixteen thousand suspected communist subversives were arrested. 10 thousand were found not guilty and released(2). Head agent Hoover was discovered to have a secret list of all suspected communists living in the United States. The list had the names of anybody voicing, writing, or implying any signs of communism or communist sympathizing. Members of the Klu Klux Klan were also placed on the list along with any other racial groups because of the similarity to the Nazi party(2). This list of suspected communists was considered illegal in the 30s and 40s but President Roosevelt Pardoned the list by classifying it as a "security index".
The FBI played the largest role in preventing espionage in America. Shortly after pearl harbor, many Asian people were held in camps until they were proven not to be Japanese spies. The FBI did what they thought was necessary to make sure America was safe. One of the key elements in the investigations was being able to wiretap suspected Nazis. Wire tapping was intercepting phone calls and conversations between two people using telephone lines. The FBI could "bug" a houses phone line to intercept calls(2).
New technology was very important to the success of world war II espionage. One of the most influential things for Germany was the enigma machine. In the 1930s the Germans started using the enigma machine to cypher messages to prevent enemy decoding. The machine changes a normal message into a cyphered message that is not understandable without the key(3).
The machine was built with the 26 letter Germanic alphabet. Behind was a light board connected to the cyphering system(3).Messages typed using the enigma machine were scrambled