Military Myths and Legends: The American NCO That Started the Korean War

Since the drawdown of American forces in South Korea began at the end of World War II, North Korean leader Kim Il-Sung wanted to invade the South and make Korea one country under communist rule. There was just one problem: Uncle Joe Stalin wasn't having any of it. 

Stalin knew the Red Army was unable to take the fight to the Americans and that the United States, still the lone superpower, was ready and willing to bring war to all the communist countries if the need arose. With the Soviet Union still working on its nuclear weapons arsenal, Stalin refused to let any satellite state risk war with the United States. 

So what led to North Korean troops crossing the 38th parallel on June 25, 1950? One former KGB spy says a U.S. Army NCO in the code room at the U.S. embassy in Moscow was to blame. 

In the very early days of the Cold War, the KGB knew very little about American intelligence activity in Moscow, even though the CIA was very closely watched by their Russian counterparts. The KGB had no information about American ciphers, the code room in the U.S. embassy, or even who worked there. 

That all changed when Soviet spy Sergei Kondrashev discovered a Russian citizen in Moscow who was in love with an American serviceman. After the fall of the USSR, Kondrashev met with former CIA operative Tennant Bagley and began to tell the American things the CIA never knew about previously. 

One of the stories he relayed was that of "Jack," an American NCO working in the embassy code room in Moscow. Kondrashev had managed to turn one American into a KGB asset. Sgt. James "Mac" MacMillan gave the Soviets all the information he could in exchange for a large sum of money and a Moscow apartment for him and his Russian girlfriend. All Kondrashev learned from McMillan was that the KGB knew even less than they thought.  

Then they uncovered another American and his Russian lover. This time, the KGB hit the jackpot. Jack was overweight, greedy, balding, and an alcoholic. His Russian lover, code-named "Nadya," just wanted to live away from Russia. Kondrashev offered Jack and Nadya $100,000 and a ticket home if they betrayed the U.S. codes. Jack gave them everything.

By the end of 1949, the Soviet Union was able to read American ciphers all over the world. For 60 years, only six people in the USSR would know this fact, and Kondrashev was one of them. As for the Korean War, the intelligence gleaned from the newly-cracked American codes led Stalin to believe the United States would abandon South Korea, and he gave his blessing to the North to invade. 

As for Jack and Nadya, the KGB reneged on the deal to let Nadya leave the USSR. They thought she would be turned by American counterintelligence and tell the United States the Soviet Union was reading their mail. Jack returned to the United States and was never discovered, as Kondrashev was the only person that knew his true identity. He protected his asset's identity until the very end, even after collaborating with Bagley on a book.