30. The Spy Who Betrayed Oppenheimer: Showdown with MI5 (Ep 4)

The Rest Is Classified

Goalhanger

History

4.6 • 732 Ratings

🗓️ 19 March 2025

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens when the world’s most valuable spy is finally caught? How did British and American intelligence hunt him down? And, was Klaus Fuchs a hero, a villain, or something in between? Klaus Fuchs' final days as a free man were marked by growing suspicions, clandestine exchanges, and a relentless pursuit by MI5. The secrets he passed had already set the stage for a nuclear-armed Cold War, irreversibly altering the balance of global power. As the truth emerged, so too did the cost of his betrayal - a world reshaped by espionage, ideological conviction, and the stolen intelligence that fuelled an arms race. Listen as David and Gordon take you inside the mind of the man who stole the bomb - and the world he left in his wake. ------------------- 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: [email protected] 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

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Ready to launch your business? Get started with the commerce platform made for entrepreneurs. Shopify is specially designed to help you start, run and grow your business with easy customizable themes that let you build your brand, marketing tools that get your products out there. Integrated shipping solutions that actually save you time from startups to scale ups, online, in person and on the go. Shopify is made for
0:22.9	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup.
0:37.3	I think about it, getting married from time to time.
0:40.5	But you know, I'm walking through a minefield.
0:42.7	One false move and it will all blow up.
0:45.3	I can accept the worst case scenario, but I can't involve a wife and children.
0:49.7	Furthermore, to have a family in England is not part of my plans for the future.
0:53.4	I'd like to help the
0:54.4	Soviet Union until it's able to test its atomic bomb. Then I want to go home to East Germany
1:00.1	where I have friends. There I can get married and work in peace and quiet. That's my dream.
1:06.1	Welcome to the rest is classified. I'm Gordon Carrera. And I'm David McCloskey. And that was Atomic Spy Klaus
1:12.6	Fuchs speaking to his Soviet handler Eugene on a park bench in Putney Bridge Park, South London,
1:20.7	near the spotted horse pub, just months before his world is going to come crashing down.
1:25.8	It's one of your haunts, right, Gordon? The spotted horse. I don't actually know. It's one of your haunts, right, Gordon? I don't actually know.
1:28.5	That's one of the few pubs in South London.
1:30.1	I don't know.
1:31.1	But it is one of the ones that Klaus Fuchs visited
1:33.5	and that we might do on our Klaus Fuchs walking tour.
1:36.0	Gordon will be there this Friday night from 7 to 9 p.m.
1:39.1	Representing the rest is classified for research.
1:41.6	That's right. We're here with Klaus Fuchs now in 1949.
1:46.0	He's been at the heart of the British atomic bomb project at Harwell,
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -9 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Goalhanger, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Goalhanger and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.