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In reply to the discussion: David Frum's tweetstorm today regarding Sessions is chilling and shouldn't be ignored. [View all]Ken Burch
(50,254 posts)Last edited Fri Mar 3, 2017, 11:58 PM - Edit history (1)
probably on the level of spy busywork, but there's no real evidence Julius played any real role in the Soviets gaining the ability to built atomic OR hydrogen bombs-and in any case, the USSR was certain to develop nuclear and hydrogen weapon capability sooner rather than later. According to Hans Bethe, the secrets Fuchs gave the USSR meant that they were able to develop the bomb in five years rather than four. How much difference could one year possibly have made? It's not as though the USSR would have fallen in that time, or that the East European satellite states would have collapsed.
If Julius had played a significant role in nuclear OR hydrogen espionage, they government would not have been offering, right up to the hour before the executions, to spare them both if only the couple agreed to give them names.
No country would offer to cut that kind of a deal with people they knew to be guilty of giving their most-feared enemy that kind of a secret.