Gold, Harry

(1910–1974)

   Born in Switzerland to Russian Jewish parents, Gold was brought to the United States as a small child. He was recruited by the Soviets in 1935 to provide information on American industrial and scientific technology. Gold’s service to Moscow was paid for, though he later claimed that he was an ideological recruit. The NKVD gave Gold funds to finish his postgraduate education in chemistry. During World War II, Gold was assigned by the NKVD’s New York rezidentura to maintain contact with Klaus Fuchs, serving as a courier for documents on the Anglo-American nuclear weapons program. Gold traveled to New Mexico, New York, and Boston a total of nine times to meet with the German émigré, who was the Soviet Union’s most important source within the Manhattan Project.

   Five years later, in an interview with agents of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in London, Fuchs identified Gold as the man he knew as “Raymond.” Gold further ensured his own arrest by sloppy tradecraft: the FBI found copies of New Mexico maps in Gold’s apartment after the accused spy assured them he had never been west of Chicago. After his arrest, Gold provided critical information to the FBI about the Rosenberg ring by identifying David Greenglass, Julius Rosenberg’s brother-in-law, as another key agent. Gold was tried with the Rosenbergs and received a 30-year sentence. He was released in 1966, having served half his sentence.

   See also Enormoz; Venona.