Venona


The U.S. Army's Signal Intelligence Service, the precursor to the National Security Agency, began a secret program in February 1943 later codenamed VENONA

The mission of this small program was to examine and exploit Soviet diplomatic communications but after the program began, the message traffic included espionage efforts as well.

Although it took almost two years before American cryptologists were able to break the KGB encryption, the information gained through these transactions provided U.S. leadership insight into Soviet intentions and treasonous activities of government employees until the program was canceled in 1980.

The VENONA files are most famous for exposing Julius (code named LIBERAL) and Ethel Rosenberg and help give indisputable evidence of their involvement with the Soviet spy ring.

The first of six public releases of translated VENONA messages was made in July 1995 and included 49 messages about the Soviets' efforts to gain information on the U.S. atomic bomb research and the Manhattan Project. Over the course of five more releases, all of the approximately 3,000 VENONA translations were made public.

ImageTitle
 23MAY_STATE_DEPT_MSG.PDFA State Department message is quoted 23 May (Release 3)
 24JUN_CRIPPS.PDFA Statement by CRIPPS and Plans For A Flight To Moscow
 27MAR_GUARD.PDFA stronger guard to be placed over a deserter
 26MAR_DESERTER.PDFA stronger guard to be placed over a deserter
 30SEP_AIRCRAFT_CARRIER.PDFA UK-US aircraft carrier 30 September 1943 (Release 4)
 3JAN_BRITISH_WARSHIPS.PDFA United Press dispatch about British warships 3 January 1943 (Release 4)
 9OCT_AAGUNS.PDFA.A. guns being sited on raiway lines; Journey to Liverpool; Visit to Northolt, Hendon, Heston, and Ferry Aerodromes; Accuracy of German bombing; and POULTRY-DEALE
 18JUN_KHABALOV.PDFAccusation of theft against KhABALOV 18 June 1943 (Release 5)
 27DEC_ACKNOWLEDGEMENT.PDFAcknowledgement requested
 25MAY_ROBERT_SOBLE.PDFActions to Complete the transfer of KGB assets to Robert Soble 25 May (Release 3)
 13JUN_COVERNAME_OLIVER.PDFActivities of covername OLIVER (Antonio Gomez Deans) 13 June (Release 4)
 23MAR_ADD_TITLE_ZORIN.PDFAdd title Identification of Moscow signatory "ZORIN" 23 March (Release 5)
 21JUN_ADDITIONAL_COMMENT_MSG.PDFAdditional analytic (footnote) comment on this message
 17SEP_ADDITIONAL_COVERNAMES.PDFAdditional covernames and related information in diplomatic traffic 17 September (Release 6)
 24OCT_FUNDS.PDFAdditional funds needed 24 October 1943 (Release 4)
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