Harry Gold

Character Analysis

Just Your Run-Of-The-Mill International Man of Mystery

Harry Gold was a pretty normal dude. He was average height (maybe a little on the short side), smart (he was a chemist, after all), kind, and willing to do just about anything for those he cared about. And yet he was embroiled in what J. Edgar Hoover would call "the crime of the century."

Friends described him as shy, smart, and always ready to help anyone who asked. He was the kind of guy who seemed to blend in with the background, who could come and go from a room without being noticed. "You'd never in a million years believe this guy was a spy," one neighbor later said. (Tradecraft.(4).6)

Um…Actually, his ability to come and go unnoticed is exactly what made him an excellent spy. Real-life spies can't go around announcing their names and demanding signature cocktails (like some spies we know…). No, real spies need to stay below the radar so they can carry out their missions without anyone noticing.

So what was Gold's driving force? Why go to all the trouble of becoming a courier for the KGB? Well, it all comes down to the fact that Harry Gold was, essentially, a golden retriever. (See what we did there? So clever.)

Some spies do it for the money; others are trying to change the world. Gold's reasons were a lot less dramatic. He was thankful to Black for getting him a job and wanted to repay the debt. Also, Gold had what he described as "an almost puppy-like eagerness to please." Here was a chance to do something nice for Black and help the Soviet people. The chemical processes Black wanted didn't seem so secret, and if the information could really help the Soviets build a better society, why not share it? Who would it hurt?

"And that," said Gold, "is how I began." (Tradecraft.(4).24-25)

Doesn't that sound incredibly naïve? Gold spent years betraying his country's trust and it was all because he was thankful to his friend and it was going to "help build a better society"? While he's at it, we know a Nigerian prince that needs money wired to him, too…

Gold quickly became aware of what his naiveté had led him to do, but it was too late to back out. At one point, when he realized he was batting for the other team, he asked what would happen if he didn't want to do it anymore. He was told he'd be exposed to the authorities and life as he knew it would be over. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we call blackmail. So he buckled down and decided to do the job he'd been hired for.

Gold was taught never to use his real name when doing secret work, and never to share his address. He learned to sit at booths in restaurants because they kept him more hidden than tables, and on the subway, he sat right next to the doors. If he was being tailed, he could wait for a stop, let the doors begin to close, then leap up and jump out as the doors shut behind him.

Gold was never to attend Communist Party meetings, never to read communist papers, never to express even the slightest interest in the Soviet Union. The main rule was this:

"Present the appearance of a normal American." (Tradecraft.(4).32)

For the duration of his espionage, Gold did his darnedest to follow all the rules. He never waited too long for his contact to show up, and he protested when a superior asked him to commit the cardinal sin of meeting two different contacts on one trip. Unfortunately, even after going to all the trouble of eating at booths and sitting by the doors in the subway, Gold committed one simple blunder that would help lead to his downfall.

What he did, and how simple a mistake it was, is almost comical: He drew an "x-marks-the-spot" on a map of Santa Fe when he traveled there to meet Fuchs. Later, when FBI agents searched his house, this hand-drawn X on a map entitled "New Mexico, Land of Enchantment" was what finally caused Gold to throw his hands in the air and plead mercy.

The X was the straw that broke the camel's back. When added to the FBI's mounting evidence against him, exhaustion from living a double life, and his innate desire not to supremely disappoint his friends and family, Gold crumbled:

[H]e thought about what would happen if he continued claiming innocence: "My family, people with whom I worked, and my friends whom I knew, my lifetime friends—they would all rally around me. And how horrible would be their disappointment, and the letdown, when finally it was shown who I really was." (Prologue.23)

Thus, Harry Gold became a spy because he wanted to please others, and he confessed to being a spy because he couldn't stand letting them down. Sounds a bit like Harry Gold's heart of gold is what finally brought around his downfall.