Changes

The Moynihan Commissions of Government Secrecy wrote in its final report, "The first fact is that a significant Communist conspiracy was in place in Washington, New York, and Hollywood" <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa6.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Appendix A 6. The Experience of The Bomb]</ref>  The Commission's final report also included, "the United States Government possessed information which the American public desperately needed to know: proof that there had been a serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union, with considerable assistance from what was, indeed, an “enemy within.” ... Only the American public was denied this information." <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa7.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Appendix A 7. The Cold War]</ref>

The Moynihan Commissions of Government Secrecy wrote in its final report, "The first fact is that a significant Communist conspiracy was in place in Washington, New York, and Hollywood" <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa6.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Appendix A 6. The Experience of The Bomb]</ref>  The Commission's final report also included, "the United States Government possessed information which the American public desperately needed to know: proof that there had been a serious attack on American security by the Soviet Union, with considerable assistance from what was, indeed, an “enemy within.” ... Only the American public was denied this information." <ref>[http://www.fas.org/sgp/library/moynihan/appa7.html Moynihan Commission on Government Secrecy, Appendix A 7. The Cold War]</ref>

During World War II, the Soviet Union ran espionage operations against the War Department and the State Department, the [[War Production Board]], the [[Office of Economic Warfare]], and even the Office of the President of the United States. It successfully penetrated each institution, and stole the secrets of many other organizations concerned with national security.  No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated. <ref>Peake, Hayden B., [http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3.  "Venona makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Manhattan Project, and the White House, as well as wartime agencies."</ref>

During World War II, the Soviet Union ran espionage operations against the War Department and the State Department, the [[War Production Board]], the [[Office of Economic Warfare]], the Office of Strategic Services (OSS)—the forerunner of the CIA— and even the Office of the President of the United States. The names included Harry Dexter White, Assistant Secretary of the Treasury, cover name "Lawyer;" Larry Duggan, Chief of the Division of American Republics at the State Department, cover name "Prince;" Lauchlin Currie, Senior Administrative Assistant to President Roosevelt, cover name "Page." There was not a single agency of the American government that Soviet espionage had not infiltrated, and it stole the secrets of many other organizations concerned with national security.  No modern government was more thoroughly penetrated. <ref>Peake, Hayden B., [http://www.nwc.navy.mil/press/review/2000/summer/re2-su0.htm ''The Venona Progeny''], Naval War College Review, Summer 2000, Vol. LIII, No. 3.  "Venona makes absolutely clear that they had active agents in the U.S. State Department, Treasury Department, Justice Department, Senate committee staffs, the military services, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the Manhattan Project, and the White House, as well as wartime agencies."</ref>  

Between 1942 and 1945 thousands of encrypted cables were sent between KGB stations in the U.S. and Moscow but only a fraction were ever decrypted. The decryption rate was as follows:

Between 1942 and 1945 thousands of encrypted cables were sent between KGB stations in the U.S. and Moscow.  However, less than one percent of the total of the messages could be read,  these being those which that reused sheets of one-time pad. No messages sent after 1948 could be broken because the code breakers had been betrayed by  Russian linguist William Weisband, who  worked with American code breakers at Arlington Hall outside Washington, D.C.

 

Approximately 2,200 of the messages were decrypted and ultimately American counterintelligence found cover names for more than 300 Americans who spied for the Soviet KBG in World War Two, but only 100  were identified.<ref>PBS, ''Secrets, Lies, and Atomic Spies'',  transcript, NOVA special, Airdate February 5, 2002</ref>

 

The decryption rate was as follows:

*1942 1.8%

*1942 1.8%

*1943 15.0%

*1943 15.0%

*1944 49.0%

*1944 49.0%

*1945 1.5%

*1945 1.5%

With the first break into the code, Venona revealed the existence of Soviet espionage<ref>

With the first break into the code, Venona revealed the existence of Soviet espionage<ref>