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Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies
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Program Overview
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NOVA explores the story of the VENONA project, a 37-year American
codebreaking effort challenged with deciphering theoretically
impenetrable codes used by an extensive Soviet spy network
throughout the United States, Canada, and Great Britain.
The program:
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reviews the history of codebreaking in the United States, from
the time of Pearl Harbor through the Cold War.
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reveals that from the 1930s to early 1950s, the Soviets had
nearly 300 spies in the United States infiltrating every branch
of the government, including the White House and the Manhattan
Project.
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explains that knowledge gained by these spies allowed Joseph
Stalin's Soviet Union to build nuclear weapons years earlier
than expected.
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profiles the skills and methods used by VENONA project personnel
who eventually broke the Soviet cipher.
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examines the effect of the government's decision to keep the
VENONA project secret—even among some government
agencies—until 1995 and how that decision reshaped
thinking about the origins of the Cold War.
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