18 Facts About Theodore Hall

Theodore Alvin Hall was an American physicist and an atomic spy for the Soviet Union, who, during his work on United States efforts to develop the first and second atomic bombs during World War II, gave a detailed description of the "Fat Man" plutonium bomb, and of several processes for purifying plutonium, to Soviet intelligence.

Theodore Hall's brother, Edward N Hall, was a rocket scientist who led the US Air Force's program to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile, personally designing the Minuteman missile and convincing the Pentagon and President Eisenhower to adopt it as a key part of the nation's strategic nuclear triad.

Theodore Hall's father was a furrier who had emigrated to America to escape antisemitic pogroms in the Russian Empire.

Theodore Hall's mother was a second-generation Russian Jew who died while Theodore was a teenager and a student at Harvard University.

John Van Vleck, Theodore Hall was hired as the youngest physicist to be recruited to work on the Manhattan Project at Los Alamos.

Theodore Hall was eventually, while still a teen, put in charge of a team working on that difficult task.

Theodore Hall later claimed that as it became clear in the summer of 1944 that Germany was losing the war and would not ever manage to develop an atomic bomb, he became concerned about the consequences of an American monopoly on atomic weapons once the war ended.

Theodore Hall was especially worried about the possibility of the emergence of a fascist government in the United States, should it have such a nuclear monopoly and want to keep it that way.

Unaware initially that Kurnakov was an NKVD agent, Theodore Hall handed him a report on the scientists who worked at Los Alamos, the conditions at Los Alamos, and the basic science behind the bomb.

Theodore Hall's hair is parted and often falls on his forehead.

Theodore Hall comes from a Jewish family, though doesn't look like a Jew.

Theodore Hall is not in the army because, until now, young physicists in government jobs at a military installation were not being drafted.

Theodore Hall then moved to Vernon Ellis Cosslett's electron microscopy research laboratory at Cambridge University in England.

Theodore Hall remained working at Cambridge until he retired at the age of 59 in 1984.

Theodore Hall later became active in obtaining signatures for the Stockholm Peace Pledge.

On November 1,1999, Theodore Hall died at the age of 74, in Cambridge, England.

Theodore Hall was questioned by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March 1951 but was not charged.

Ed Theodore Hall went on to complete the development of the Minuteman missile program, and then, retiring from the Air Force, but at the urging of the Pentagon, went on as a civilian to lead the development of France's own independent IRBM nuclear missile, the Diamant.