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

James C. Stowers

Washington, DC

Lt. Col. James C. Stowers was an engineer in the Army Corps of Engineers and became the unit chief for the K-25 Gaseous Diffusion Plant.

Niels Bohr

Los Alamos, NM

Niels Bohr (1885-1962) was a Danish physicist and winner of the 1922 Nobel Prize in Physics. Bohr began his work on the Manhattan Project after fleeing to Sweden from Denmark because of German occupation in 1943.

Henry “Hap” Arnold

Washington, DC

Henry “Hap” Arnold was a United States general. Arnold was born in Gladwyne, PA, in 1886. He attended the United States Military Academy, and was personally instructed by the Wright Brothers, becoming one of the first military pilots in United States history.

David E. Lilienthal

Washington, DC

David E. Lilienthal was the first Chairman of the Atomic Energy Commission (AEC). Prior to becoming the Chairman of the AEC, he served as the leader of a consultancy group for the State Department that was responsible for developing the Acheson-Lilienthal Report.