Robert Lamphere

FBI AgentWashington, DC

Manhattan, NY

Government Official

Listen to Robert Lamphere’s Oral History on Voices of the Manhattan Project

Robert Lamphere (1918-2002) supervised many investigations of Soviet spies during the Cold War. He served as the FBI’s liaison to the top-secret Venona Project, which worked to break Soviet codes and revealed the extent of Soviet espionage in the United States.

His early espionage cases focused on those who attempted to infiltrate the Manhattan Project. In 1950, his interrogation of Klaus Fuchs in London led to the identification and arrest of Harry Gold, David Greenglass, and Julius and Ethel Rosenberg.

Robert Lamphere’s Timeline

1918 Feb 14th Born in Wardner, Idaho.

1941 Sep Joined the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

1947 Transferred to FBI headquarters as a Supervisory Special Agent and placed in charge of counterintelligence on satellite countries of the USSR.

1948 Began work on top-secret Venona project to decode Soviet intelligence cables.

1950 May Interrogated Klaus Fuchs in London.

1955 Left the FBI.

2002 Jan 7th Died of prostate cancer in Tucson, Arizona.

Related Profiles

Robert Furman

Alsos Mission

Robert Furman (1915 – 2008) was a civil engineer and Chief of Foreign intelligence during the Manhattan Project.

Lewis Strauss

Washington, DC

Lewis Strauss (1896-1974) was an American financier and government official who served as Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission.

Matthew Sands

Los Alamos, NM

Matthew Sands (1919-2014) was an American physicist. In 1943, Matthew Sands began working for the Naval Ordnance Laboratory and developed two types of influence mines before being disillusioned by the bureaucracy of the navy.

John Lansdale

Washington, DC

John Lansdale (1912 – 2003) was a colonel in the US Army. Lansdale first learned of the Manhattan project from National Defense Research Committee Chairman James B.