On August 29, 1949, at 0100 Greenwich Mean Time, the Soviet Union tested its first nuclear bomb, named First Lightening. Five days later, a U.S. weather reconnaissance plane, equipped with special filters that could pick up radiological particles in the air, made a routine flight from an airbase in Japan to an air base in Alaska. Upon landing, technicians detected radioactive traces in the filters. After more flights, analysis, and consultations, the U.S. determined that the USSR had indeed carried out a nuclear test. This news was revealed to the American public on September 23, when President Truman declared that “we have evidence that within recent weeks an atomic explosion occurred in the USSR.” The public was shocked. Newspapers filled
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He had three siblings: one older brother Gerhard, one older sister Elizabeth, and one younger sister Kristel. Mental illnesses plagued his family — his grandmother, mother, and older sister had all committed suicide, and his younger sister was committed as a mental patient to Westboro State Hospital. Similar mental problems may have affected Klaus Fuchs as well. Physically, Klaus Fuchs was pale and thin, of medium height, and wore glasses. Bernard Lovell, a collaborator of a young Fuchs on a quantum mechanics project, described him as someone “who’s never breathed any fresh air.” Later descriptions of him were more positive. Laura Fermi, the wife of a nuclear physicist, described him as “an attractive young man, slim, with a small, round face and dark hair, with a quiet look through round eyeglasses.” Harry Gold, a Soviet spy central to Fuchs’s success, described Fuchs as “very thin, had enormous horn shell glasses,” having a “very thin, pale face,” and “a very aesthetic, intellectual appearance.” He appeared just like what one would expect of a scientist, shy, bookish, and somewhat
He had three siblings: one older brother Gerhard, one older sister Elizabeth, and one younger sister Kristel. Mental illnesses plagued his family — his grandmother, mother, and older sister had all committed suicide, and his younger sister was committed as a mental patient to Westboro State Hospital. Similar mental problems may have affected Klaus Fuchs as well. Physically, Klaus Fuchs was pale and thin, of medium height, and wore glasses. Bernard Lovell, a collaborator of a young Fuchs on a quantum mechanics project, described him as someone “who’s never breathed any fresh air.” Later descriptions of him were more positive. Laura Fermi, the wife of a nuclear physicist, described him as “an attractive young man, slim, with a small, round face and dark hair, with a quiet look through round eyeglasses.” Harry Gold, a Soviet spy central to Fuchs’s success, described Fuchs as “very thin, had enormous horn shell glasses,” having a “very thin, pale face,” and “a very aesthetic, intellectual appearance.” He appeared just like what one would expect of a scientist, shy, bookish, and somewhat