Joel Skousen, in his WAB of 25 Feb 2005, gave us the website where one can read the book “From Major Jordan’s Diaries”. To whet some appetites for reading the book, I'm posting a few excerpts from the book together with some comments by a few others, that contribute to a study of the issue of transfer of atomic bomb technology and materials from the USA to Russia during WW2.
http://www.sweetliberty.org/issues/wars/jordan/01.html
“From Major Jordan’s Diaries” was written by George Racey Jordan, one of the WW2 Lend-Lease expediters, then a U.S. Army Air force Major who became aware of the transfer of, and actually saw and handled, among other things, materials and technical information that, as it turned out, were used by the Russians to build their first atomic bomb. After reading the book carefully, I extracted the following excerpts which elements of the U.S. government, especially Harry Hopkins, the man in charge of Lend-Lease, in this activity. I share them here to whet people’s interest in reading the whole book.
“But the tremendous volume of Lend-Lease material going through under “diplomatic immunity”, the infiltration of Soviet agents through the Pipeline, the shipments of non-military supplies and even military secrets, were more than I could stomach. I finally protested through proper channels in Great Falls, and then in Washington; nothing happened.” Pg. 5
“It is true that we never knew the exact use to which anything sent under Russian Lend-Lease was put, and the failure to set up a system of accountability is now seen as an appalling mistake. But could anything be more foolish than to suppose that the atomic materials we sent were not used for an atomic bomb which materialized in Russia long before we expected it?...Our government was intent on supplying whatever the Russians asked for, as fast as we could get it to them - and I was one of the expediters. And when I say “our government”, I mean of course Harry Hopkins, the man in charge of Lend-Lease, and his aids. We in the Army knew where the orders were coming from, and so did the Russians.” Pg. 35 & 36
“Not until the latter part of 1949 was it definitely proved, from responsible records, that during the war Federal agencies delivered to Russia at least three consignments of uranium chemicals, totaling 1,465 pounds, or nearly three quarters of a ton. Confirmed also was the shipment of one kilogram, or 2.2 pounds of uranium metal at a time when the total American stock was 4.5 pounds.” Pg. 95
“There seemed to be no lengths to which some American officials would not go in aiding Russia to master the secret of nuclear fission.” Pg.96
“When American supplies were cut off , the device of outmaneuvering General Groves was to procure the materials clandestinely from Canada...My share in the revelation was testimony under oath leading to one conclusion only - that the Canadian by-pass was aided by Mr. Hopkins. At his direction, Lend-Lease issued a certificate of release without which the consignment could not have moved.” Pg. 98
“...”Mr. Hopkins personally directed me to expedite the Canadian shipment.”...I insisted that Harry Hopkins himself gave the order by telephone.” Pg. 237
“General Groves...declared there was no way for the Russians to get uranium products in this country “without the support of U.S. authorities in one way or another.”“. Pg. 106
“Another effort to clear Hopkins was based on the supposition that he acted in ignorance of what it was all about. Even it he helped the Russians to get A-bomb materials, the implication ran, it was as the unsuspecting tool of Soviet cunning...Harry Hopkins had not “the faintest understanding of the Manhattan Project”, and “didn’t know the difference between unarium and a geranium.”...On the contrary, Harry Hopkins was one of the first men anywhere to know about the atom bomb. Dr. Vannevar Bush chose Hopkins as his intermediary for presenting to Mr. Roosevelt the idea of the atom bomb. It was in consultation with Hopkins that Dr. Bush drafted the letter, for Mr. Roosevelt’s signature, which launched the A-bomb operation on June 14, 1941.” Pg. 122
“Under Lend-Lease law the President had full power to decide what defense articles, defense assistance the Russians were to get. He delegated that power to Harry Hopkins, with the result that in addition to defense supplies, the Russians got whatever they asked for, if someone lower in the hierarchy tried to prevent it.” Pg. 130
“In his ardor for the Soviets, Hopkins never hesitated to seize upon supplies urgently demanded by other agencies, even when the issue was military success on the Western Front...The general feeling, Colonel Rounds said, was that in a given supply problem the Russians repeatedly came first.” Pg. 140
I think a few comments about Harry Hopkins would help clarify his position in all this, and where he was coming from.
Harry Hopkins rose from a social worker to prominence during the great Depression as one of President Roosevelt’s closest advisors. He acted in many capacities, including as director of the Civil Works Administration from 1933-1934, the Federal Surplus Relief Administration and the Works Progress Administration from 1935-1938. During the WW2 years Hopkins lived in the White House.
Hopkins’ grand daughter June Hopkins, a college professor of history, wrote in her book “Harry Hopkins, Sudden Hero, Brash Reformer” a great number of statements made by her grandfather which in my opinion show Hopkins’ determination to turn the U.S. from a constitutional republic into a socialist welfare state. Here are just a few:
“In a democracy, the government has a responsibility to ensure the welfare of its citizens.”
Pg. 205 (That may or may not be true, but the U.S.A. was established as a constitutional republic, not a democracy.)
“John Steinbeck wrote that Hopkins...left an idea...that “human welfare is the first and final task
of government. It has no other.”“ Pg. 2
“If industry cannot employ workers, it must be prepared to pay ist share of the cost of
unemployment insurance and the cost of employing these same men on public projects.”
Pg. 242, Note 39
In response to my Spring of 2000 request to Professor Hopkins to review and comment on my above excerpts from Major Jordan’s book, she wrote: “I do not deal with World War II at all. I have done considerable research into Harry Hopkins’ life and career. I can tell with certainty that he did not supply the Russians with technology to build the atomic bomb....”.
Harry Hopkins died shortly after WW2 and the matter of his treason was never pursued. However, a KGB defector, Colonel Oleg Gordievski, in his book “KGB: The Inside Story”, identified Harry Hopkins as “an agent of influence”. And the book “Venona: Soviet Espionage and American Response, 1939-1957" reports that Harry Hopkins was working for the Soviets along with Alger Hiss and Harry Dexter White. And Joel Skousen wrote once that “Hopkins has been listed by several ex-communists such as Elizabeth Bentley as a communist spy. He may have been, like Alger Hiss, a globalist conspirator who joined the Communist underground to facilitate Communist infiltration and control some of what the Communists did. Hard to tell ultimately, except that both Hiss and Hopkins were key players in building Russia into a future enemy.”