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Espionage on Trial: Artifacts Related to Rudolf Abel in the James B. Donovan Collection

Espionage on Trial: Artifacts Related to Rudolf Abel in the James B. Donovan Collection

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President John F. Kennedy thanks James B. Donovan for Donovan's help in negotiating the Abel-Powers exchange on the famed Bridge of Spies (James B. Donovan Collection, Envelope H)

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David Kahn, a specialist in cryptology, sent James B. Donovan his work on the codes and messages used by Rudolf Abel and the Soviet spy ring operating in the US in the 1950s. (James B. Donovan Collection, Box 7, Folder 53-15)

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In his "Defense of a Spy," an early version of <i>Strangers on a Bridge</i>, Donovan explains that he was considered for the defense of Rudolf Abel largely because of his work at the Nuremberg Trials. (James B. Donovan Collection, Box 14, Folder 9)

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Between 1943 and 1945, James B. Donovan served as General Counsel to the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor to the Central Intelligence Agency. In 1945, he worked as Assistant to the U.S. Chief Prosecutor of the International Military Tribunal at the Nuremberg Trials (James B. Donovan Collection, Envelope E)

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In this handwritten anecdote from the manuscript of his memoir, Donovan relates discussing the Abel trial with his golf instructor, who asks, "Why would anyone want to defend that son of a ____?" (James B. Donovan Collection, Box 14, Folder 9)

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Subsequent to negotiating the exchange of Russian spy Rudolf Abel for U2 spy plane pilot Francis Gary Powers on February 10, 1962, Donovan was personally thanked by President John F. Kennedy. (James B. Donovan Collection, Box 25, Folder 6-9)

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The James B. Donovan collection houses the extensive notes kept by Donovan’s assistant, Thomas Debevoise (later the Attorney General of Vermont), who made exhaustive lists of Abel’s aliases, code names, dead drop sites, associates (including Julius and Ethel Rosenberg), and the items confiscated from hotel rooms and apartments where Abel had stayed. Among the items mentioned are “buried money” and a variety of radio and wiretapping apparatuses (Abel had worked as a telecommunications operator for the KGB subsequent to WWII). (James B. Donovan Collection, Box 27, Folder 28)

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