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by Erin E. Thompson, USAICoE Staff Historian
WHALEN BEGINS SELLING SECRETS TO THE SOVIETS
In March 1959, Lt. Col. William H. Whalen began selling information to the Soviet Union. Over the next few years, he used his career as a military intelligence officer within the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) to access sensitive and classified intelligence materials for the USSR.
Born on Jul. 5, 1915, in New York, Whalen was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army in 1940. He spent the entirety of World War II stateside. After the war in Europe came to a close in May 1945, Whalen was promoted to major and deployed to Europe, where he remained until 1948. After returning to the U.S., Whalen was assigned as an executive officer within the Office of the Assistant Chief of Staff, Intelligence (ACSI), in Washington, D.C., until December 1951. He was then detailed to the Army Security Agency (ASA) as a plans and policy officer during the Korean War. In February 1952, he transferred to Japan, where he headed a detachment responsible for the security of the ASA’s signal intelligence operations for the Far East Command. He was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1952.
Returning to Washington in 1955, Whalen was assigned to the U.S. Army Foreign Liaison Office, ACSI, where he first encountered the acting Soviet military attaché in Washington, Col. Sergei Edemski. The two became close friends over the next few years. In 1957, Whalen became the deputy chief of the Joint Intelligence Objectives Agency (JIOA), G-2, JCS. He held Top Secret and Cryptologic security clearances, though several background investigations in the 1950s found he suffered from an alcohol addiction and recurrent financial difficulties.
In March 1959, Whalen agreed to sell classified materials to Colonel Edemski, who was later promoted to major general, allegedly due to his expert handling of Whalen. When Edemski left the U.S. in early 1960, Whalen continued supplying materials to Mikhail A. Shumaev, second secretary of the Soviet embassy. A 1975 report of the case prepared by the 116th MI Group noted: "According to the [1966] indictment, between 1959 and early 1963, Whalen plotted to turn over classified material relating to atomic weaponry, missiles, plans for the defense of Europe, estimates of comparative military capabilities, military intelligence reports and analyses, information concerning the retaliation plans of the US Strategic Air Command and information pertaining to troop movements."
Whalen suffered a severe heart attack in July 1960 and spent the next few months recovering in the hospital before retiring from military service in February 1961. At the time, he was serving as chief of the JIOA and had access to some of the JCS’s most sensitive information. Upon Whalen’s retirement, Shumaev urged him to gain civilian employment and maintain his acquaintances within the Pentagon, but Whalen never returned to defense service. He discontinued working with the Soviets in 1963, having received approximately $5,500 and various gifts for him and his family.
Whalen’s spying was betrayed by Dmitriy Polyakov, a Soviet major general working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Polyakov’s testimony launched an investigation into Whalen’s relationship with Edemski and ultimately led to the 51-year-old’s arrest on Jul. 12, 1966. Whalen proclaimed: “I wouldn’t sell myself or my country for fifty-five million, let alone fifty-five hundred dollars!” Nevertheless, he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiring to obtain national defense secrets for the Soviet Union. The higher charge of espionage was dropped, possibly due to Whalen’s compliance with the FBI and a full confession. He was sentenced to fifteen years in federal prison in 1967. He remained the highest-ranking Army officer ever convicted of espionage-related crimes until the conviction of Col. George Trofimoff in 2001.
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| Date Taken: | 03.21.2025 |
| Date Posted: | 03.21.2025 15:31 |
| Story ID: | 493481 |
| Location: | US |
| Web Views: | 34 |
| Downloads: | 0 |
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