logo
episode-header-image
Mar 2025
49m 36s

28. The Spy Who Betrayed Oppenheimer: Th...

Goalhanger
About this episode

What makes a man betray his closest friends? How did a German refugee help Stalin build the bomb? And why did British intelligence fail to spot the most dangerous spy in the Manhattan Project?


Klaus Fuchs was brilliant, quiet, and unassuming. A physicist at the cutting edge of nuclear science, he worked at the heart of Britain’s secret atomic weapons program before being sent to the United States to join the Manhattan Project. But, all the while, Fuchs was passing the most closely guarded secrets of the West straight to the Soviet Union.


Listen as David and Gordon uncover how Fuchs’ communist beliefs and wartime alliances led him to become one of the most infamous spies of the 20th century.


-------------------


Order a signed edition of David's latest book, The Seventh Floor, via this link.


-------------------


Get our exclusive NordVPN deal here ➼ www.nordvpn.com/restisclassified


It’s risk-free with Nord’s 30-day money-back guarantee!


Email: classified@goalhanger.com


Twitter: @triclassified


Assistant Producer: Becki Hills


Producer: Callum Hill


Senior Producer: Dom Johnson


Exec Producer: Tony Pastor

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Yesterday
63. Terror Strikes London: What did MI5 know? (Ep 2)
Fifteen months before the London bombings, MI5 had seen them. They had names, photographs, and addresses. Two of the men who would carry out the 7/7 attacks had already appeared in surveillance. And then… they vanished back into the noise. In this second episode of our 7/7 series ... Show More
36m 4s
Jul 6
62. Terror Strikes London: 7/7 (Ep 1)
London woke up to joy and celebration on 7 July 2005. The city had just won the 2012 Olympics. It was a glorious summer. There were parties in the streets. But, by 9am, everything had changed. Three explosions tore through the London Underground. Minutes later, a double-decker bu ... Show More
41m 6s
Jul 1
61. The Truth About UFOs: Whistleblowers, Warplanes, and Worlds Unknown (Ep 4)
For years, the term UFO conjured images of tin foil hats and elaborate cover-ups. But with recent official reports from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence detailing hundreds of UAP sightings, including objects that remain stationary in high winds or manoeuvre in ... Show More
42m 12s
Recommended Episodes
Sep 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | Enemy Alien | 1
It’s the 1940s. Robert Oppenheimer is creating plans for the first atomic bomb. And his colleague is stealing them. Klaus Fuchs is a traitor in Oppenheimer's ranks. A German-born physicist secretly working for the Soviet Union. Oppenheimer will change the world with science; Fuch ... Show More
41m 41s
Jun 15
The Manhattan Project
The Manhattan Project was the codename for the US government’s top secret programme to develop the first atomic bomb. At the height of World War Two, America’s top scientists - such as Dr Robert Oppenheimer - raced against Nazi Germany to harness the power of nuclear fission, and ... Show More
1h 4m
Jul 2024
The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | The Stranger In Red Square | 1
It’s 1960. The world hangs on the brink of nuclear war. But in Moscow, a man’s about to emerge from the shadows with an offer for the CIA. His name is Oleg Penkovsky and he wants to supply the US with the Soviet Union’s greatest nuclear secrets. But is he for real or part of an e ... Show More
42m 11s
Oct 2024
The Spy Who Started the Cold War | The Most Dangerous In History? | 5
Why did Fuchs take such a huge gamble by sharing US nuclear secrets with the Soviets? Was Oppenheimer's fellow physicist seeking peace - or war? Charlie Higson talks to Frank Close, an author and physicist, about Fuchs' decision and its impact on the course of history.Listen to T ... Show More
32m 2s
May 19
256. Stalin & 8 Days That Changed The World (Ep 1)
How did one peace conference in Yalta in 1945 completely transform the world in just eight days? What was Joseph Stalin's backstory before becoming the Soviet leader? What is the relevance of the Yalta conference to global politics today? In a brand new series, Anita and William ... Show More
40m 25s
Aug 2024
The Spy Who Defused the Missile Crisis | Unpacking the mind of a spy legend | 5
Few spies have motives as hard to decipher as those of Oleg Penkovsky. Was he a hero, an egotist or a madman? The Spy Who's Tristan Donovan sits down with Jack Basu-Mellish, host of the LSE Cold War Podcast, to discuss Penkovsky’s actions, plus the lessons to learn from the event ... Show More
38m 37s
Jan 2024
Uncommon Knowledge Archive: Oppenheimer’s Edward Teller and Sid Drell on ICBM Defense Systems | Uncommon Knowledge | Peter Robinson | Hoover Institution
With the recent announcement that Oppenheimer, the film directed by Christopher Nolan, had garnered 11 Academy Award nominations, it seemed timely to pull from the archives this rarely seen episode of Uncommon Knowledge with Peter Robinson from 1996 (the third episode ever shot), ... Show More
28m 8s
Feb 2025
The Spy Who Infiltrated Auschwitz | Pilecki’s Great-Grandson on the Man Behind the Mission | 4
Krzysztof Kosior was thirty when he first felt ready to visit Auschwitz. But since childhood, he had heard stories of his great-grandfather’s time there, and of his journey from unknown soldier to one of Poland’s greatest heroes. Talking to actor and spy novelist Charlie Higson, ... Show More
33m 28s
Jul 2024
472. The Road to The Great War: Britain's Fateful Choice (Part 4)
On the 24th of July 1914, in London, the Liberal British Cabinet met to hear the Foreign Secretary, Sir Edward Grey, read them the Ultimatum handed to Serbia by the Austro-Hungarian Empire the day before. The world held its breath, awaiting Serbia’s response. With Germany determi ... Show More
55m 45s
Nov 2024
How Stalin won WW2
In June 1944 Allied armies landed in force in northern France, and the liberation of western Europe began. But, the battle that really sealed Hitler's fate was taking place in the east, as the Red Army prepared an almighty assault against the war-weary Wehrmacht. Speaking to Rob ... Show More
40m 7s