Whistleblowers, government secrets exposed, officials handing secrets to our enemies- a new book says it is time to “rediscover America’s truth tellers,” and it starts with a story from Great Falls, Montana.
I spoke with the author of a new book, “American Betrayal,” who joined us on our statewide radio talk show “Voices of Montana.” Was the modern-day Malmstrom Air Force Base a critical hub for shipping uranium to the Soviets? Did the US government help provide the Soviets with the atomic bomb?
That and more was covered in today’s show with author Diana West (full audio should be available soon). Plus, I spoke with Malmstrom Air Force Base Museum Director Curt Shannon in the 2nd half of the show.
Here’s an excerpt from an op-ed by Diana West at Townhall.com:
I will begin with Maj. George Racey Jordan, who in 1949 and 1950 came forward to testify under oath before Congress that one big reason the Soviet Union had recently surprised the world by exploding an atomic bomb was that he, Jordan, the top “expediter” shipping thousands of tons of U.S. war supplies and aircraft through an airfield in Great Falls, Mont., to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease during World War II, had personally overseen the shipment of uranium to Moscow.
Really? Sure enough, as a congressional investigator would testify, two specific shipments of uranium oxide and nitrate were “completely documented to include even the number of the plane that the flew the uranium … out of Great Falls.” This postwar revelation before Congress would shock and anger Gen. Leslie Groves, head of the Manhattan Project, because he had slapped an embargo on the wartime export of uranium from the U.S. Of course, the shipments in question came from Canadian stocks. How did that happen? Therein lies a tale — a tale of betrayal.
Findings in Soviet archives would later confirm that possession of the atomic bomb was what emboldened Stalin to trigger the Korean War in 1950. The implications of the theft of U.S. atomic secrets, then, becomes staggering.
Interested in learning more? “From Major Jordan’s Diaries ~ The inside story of Soviet lend-lease — from Washington to Great Falls to Moscow” was available on Amazon the last time I checked.
Here’s what the History Channel had on the Lend Lease Program.
Below is a YouTube video clip featuring audio from a speech, apparently delivered by Major Jordan himself, back in the 1960’s: (after the initial audio clip from Major Jordan, you will hear a brief introductory monologue which will then be followed with the full speech from Jordan)