15 Items

U.S. Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla, speaks during roundtable discussion

AP/Marta Lavandier

Analysis & Opinions - The Conversation

A US Ambassador Working for Cuba? Charges Against Former Diplomat Victor Manuel Rocha Spotlight Havana's Importance in the World of Spying

| Dec. 15, 2023

Calder Walton writes that if proved, Victor Manuel Rocha's espionage would place him among the longest-serving spies in modern times. Allowing him to operate as a spy in the senior echelons of the U.S. government for so long would represent a staggering U.S. security failure.

A black and white image from the film Oppenheimer showing Cillian Murray as Oppenheimer with his hat puled down over his face shielding himself from press photographers.

Universal Studios

Analysis & Opinions - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

The Real-Life Events of "Oppenheimer"

| July 26, 2023

Christopher Nolan’s film Oppenheimer is outstanding. It’s an immersive biopic, the likes of which you will be hard to find elsewhere. The acting, cinematography, and seat-thundering sound, all combine to take audiences into the mind and moral decisions of J. Robert Oppenheimer, the man who led the team of brilliant scientists at Los Alamos, who built the world’s first atomic bomb.

Dr. J. Robert Oppenheimer, creator of the atom bomb, is shown at his study at the Institute for Advanced Study, in Princeton, N.J., Dec. 15, 1957.

AP Photo/John Rooney, File

Analysis & Opinions - Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School

Nuclear Insights from "Oppenheimer"

After viewing the movie OppenheimerMatthew Bunn, John P. Holdren, Mariana BudjerynMatthew J. Parent, Calder Walton, Sylvia Mishra, and Julie George offer their thoughts on its relevance to the world today. 

"Fat Man" nuclear bomb

AP, File

Analysis & Opinions - The Conversation

How the Soviets Stole Nuclear Secrets and Targeted Oppenheimer, the 'Father of the Atomic Bomb'

| July 24, 2023

Calder Walton writes that Soviet espionage inside the Manhattan Project would change history. By the end of World War II, Stalin's spies had delivered the secrets of the atomic bomb to the Kremlin. This accelerated Moscow's bomb project. When the Soviets detonated their first atomic weapon in August 1949, it was a replica of the weapon built at Los Alamos and dropped by the Americans on Nagasaki.

United Nations Secretariat Building, with Members States' flags flying in the foreground

Flickr CC/Rick Bajornas

Analysis & Opinions - The Cipher Brief

Soviet Espionage Under the Cover of Diplomacy

| Mar. 16, 2022

Immediately after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month, the U.S. government expelled 13 Russian diplomats working at the United Nations (UN). It did so on the grounds they were Russian intelligence officers or operatives working under diplomatic cover. We do not know details about their alleged activities, but we do know something for certain: the Kremlin has a long history of using the UN for espionage.

Larry Bittman in scuba gear at Black Lake in May 1964.

Archiv bezpečnostních složek (Security Services Archive)

Analysis & Opinions - Sources and Methods

Cold War Disinformation: New Revelations about Operation NEPTUNE from Czech Archives

| Sep. 21, 2021

Calder Walton unravels the details of Operation NEPTUNE, a disinformation campaign by the former Czechoslovak intelligence service intended to smear public figures in West Germany through forged Nazi documents.