(Youth). Hall maintained contact with Soviet intelligence for several
years. Although under suspicion, he was never formally charged with
espionage, because the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) refused
to reveal that their evidence against Hall came from deciphering So-
viet intelligence telegrams. Hall was able to immigrate to England,
where he taught until his death. After his death, his wife admitted that
Hall had been a Soviet agent.
Soviet accounts of nuclear espionage usually rank Hall as the
second most important—after Klaus Fuchs—of their agents within
the Manhattan Project. While Hall and his wife tried to portray their
intelligence activity to historians as simply a wartime flirtation with
Soviet intelligence, they did continue to help Moscow develop in-
telligence nets for at least three years after the war ended. Their de-
cision to cease working for Moscow was not an act of conscience;
it came out of fear of arrest by the FBI. See also ENORMOZ;
VENONA.HAMBLETON, HUGH (1922– ).The KGB’s most important Cana-
dian agent was Hugh Hambleton, who spent parts of four decades
working for the service in Canada and Europe. A committed commu-
nist, Hambleton was recruited in 1945 with the help of members of
the Canadian Communist Party. For over three decades, he provided
information about NATO, British, and Canadian defense planning. In
1979 the Canadian security services discovered Hambleton’s role as
a Soviet spy but were unable to bring the case to court. In 1981 Ham-
bleton traveled to London, where he was arrested under provisions of
the Official Secrets Act and sentenced to 10 years imprisonment.HANSSEN, ROBERT (1944– ).Along with Aldrich Ames, Hanssen
was one of the greatest KGB counterintelligencesuccesses in the
Cold War. A special agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation
(FBI), Hanssen worked in counterintelligence against the KGB for
years. Like Ames, Hanssen volunteered to the KGB in 1985. Unlike
Ames, who made an approach in person, Hanssen never had a face-
to-face meeting with his KGB handlers. All contact was carried out
by notes, letters, and dead drops. His initial message was addressed
to the chief of counterintelligence at the rezidenturain Washington,
Viktor Cherkashin, and read in part: “Dear Colonel Cherkashin: I112 •HAMBLETON, HUGH (1922– )06-313 G-P.qxd 7/27/06 7:56 AM Page 112