The life of George Koval, with all its strategic and historic implications, tumbles out from only three U.S. information venues: “The New York Times,” of Nov. 12, 2007, and a Wikipedia posting the same date. Otherwise, there was very little else to mark this important story. CNN’s Wolf Blitzer commented briefly with correspondent Brian Todd on the unfolding story, more like astonishment on their parts. From Blitzer, “What a spy thriller that story is.”

A few comments appeared on conservative blogs complaining about “The New York Times,” as left-leaning, that such an article can only harm our country. Actually the opposite is true - clean or dirty, history is history and must be visited.

Suppose "The Times” reported the Koval story at the behest of the U.S. government - something called “bulking up,” as a form of managed news with “The Times” as the designated print provider. The article is long on quoting individuals who knew Koval, but short on spy grit. In opposition, Wikipedia was chatty - more of a biography.

Puffed proud, Vladimir Putin presented the Hero of the Russian Federation award, on Nov. 2, 2007, hailing Dr. Koval as “the only Soviet intelligence officer” to infiltrate the Manhattan Project, this made public in “Rossiiskaia Gazeta.” Many Russian news sources reach us, but no word directly from the R. Gazeta - no translated article made public. George Koval died at the age of 93, on Jan. 13, 2006. The Russians waited almost 2 years after his passing to make the award , but most amazing that Russia had been able to keep a secret from the world for 60 years.

George Koval - codename Delmar - “…penetrated America's most secret atomic facilities in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and Dayton, Ohio – where the plutonium, enriched uranium and polonium used to create the atomic bomb were developed (making the fuel is considered the most difficult part of bomb development). Such was the embarrassment of US intelligence at its total failure to protect the country's secrets that it has maintained a blanket of secrecy over the Koval affair, which it had known all about for 60 years.” From “The London Independent.”

“The Times” mentions a database search from the New York Public Library, showing reports in various Russian media venues discussing detailed aspects of Koval’s espionage activities - but not quoted in our press. Both “The Times” and CNN mention John Earl Haynes, a Library of Congress historian and authority on atomic spying. Haynes says this brings to light more details on the (dreaded and clandestine) GRU (Russian Military Intelligence).

(Update, Jan. 18, 2009 - "The Times" reports John Earl Hayes has a book coming out this spring of this year, "Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America.") 

George Koval was a GRU officer. Mr. Haynes alludes to the Koval disclosure as filling in the banks of knowledge of GRU operations in America, but when will that trickle down to become public knowledge.

“The GRU and the Atomic Bomb,” published in Russia in 2002 mentioned biographical data of Koval, using his codename, Delmar. What about publishing this book in the U.S. I’m sure Mr. Haynes of the Library of Congress has a copy. “The New York Times" is a wonderful paper, but it should not be the only one to cover this story - curiosity will lead us to knowledge. We need a crowd of knowledgeable voices.

Now we know George Koval comes from the first generation of America’s atomic weapons program. Born in Iowa, his family moved back to Russia (Siberia) when he was 18. In two years, he got a degree in Chemistry from the Mendeleev Institute in Moscow, and was recruited by the GRU for training and repatriation to his country of birth, under a different identity. Back in America, he was surprised to be drafted into the Army under his real name - it was World War II and “the Russians were our friends then.” He showed an aptitude for chemistry and physics and was sent to City College in Manhattan to study chemical weapons research. One can only wonder when background checks were invented.

Next for Koval, positions easily opened up in the Manhattan Project; in wartime, there was a shortage of technically adept recruits. Koval was given sensitive positions in top secret projects at Oak Ridge, TN, and then in Dayton, OH. With his stellar rise, Koval must have made friends and impressed people with his abilities - did he have help from within the Army? He had to have handlers and various support people to transfer his information back to Russia.

All went along sprightly until a mole was captured and mentioned Koval’s name. By 1948, Koval quickly left for Moscow, there to remain. From “The Times,” “In the early 1950s, Dr. Arnold Kramish (a physicist who knew Koval) said the F.B.I. interviewed him and anyone else who had known Koval, asking that the matter be kept confidential,” …all this time, secrets kept on both sides.

Let us not lose track of the key feature of this story. George Koval was a son of Iowa. When he left with his parents back to Russia, he was 18 - old enough to make intelligent decisions, for an intelligent man. Iowa had to be a better place than Siberia, so the answer wasn’t climate and décor. What would make a young man make that decision?

In two years, he is in Moscow at the science institute. GRU agents are talking to him. They have read his profile; he is a perfect candidate for their plans…but what could be so enticing for him to decide to do such a monumental thing? To steal what was most valued to his birth country - the secrets of life and of death. What did the GRU say to build his convictions, to potentially bring down the country of his birth. Think about it - the gravity of that conversation.

“The London Independent” spoke of U.S. embarrassment in this espionage disclosure; we have been embarrassed before, so have they - was it enough to manage the news? Vladimir Putin was rather gentle with us, perhaps an agreement between two countries…both the United States and Russia down deep want to keep it calm and friendly for future relations…and too, we may have secrets they don’t want to hear.