John Anthony Walker

For other people with the same name, see John Walker.

John Anthony Walker
John Anthony Walker circa 1985
Born
John Anthony Walker Jr.

(1937-07-28)July 28, 1937
Washington, D.C., U.S.[1]
DiedAugust 28, 2014(2014-08-28) (aged 77)
Federal Correctional Institution, Butner Low, Butner, North Carolina, U.S.
Occupation(s)United States Navy Chief Warrant Officer and communications specialist[2]
Private investigator
Spouse
Barbara Crowley
​
​
(m. 1957; div. 1976)​
Children4, including Michael Walker (accomplice)
Laura Walker (attempted accomplice)
MotiveFinancial gain
Criminal chargeEspionage

John Anthony Walker Jr. (July 28, 1937 – August 28, 2014) was a United States Navy chief warrant officer and communications specialist convicted of spying for the Soviet Union from 1967 to 1985 and sentenced to life in prison.[2]

In late 1985, Walker made a plea bargain with federal prosecutors, which required him to provide full details of his espionage activities and testify against his co-conspirator, former senior chief petty officer Jerry Whitworth. In exchange, prosecutors agreed to a lesser sentence for Walker's son, former Seaman Michael Walker, who was also involved in the spy ring.[2] During his time as a Soviet spy, Walker helped the Soviets decipher more than one million encrypted naval messages,[3] organizing a spy operation that The New York Times reported in 1987 "is sometimes described as the most damaging Soviet spy ring in history."[4]

After Walker's arrest, Caspar Weinberger, President Ronald Reagan's Secretary of Defense, concluded that the Soviet Union made significant gains in naval warfare attributable to Walker's spying. Weinberger stated that the information Walker gave Moscow allowed the Soviets "access to weapons and sensor data and naval tactics, terrorist threats, and surface, submarine, and airborne training, readiness and tactics."[5]

In the June 2010 issue of Naval History Magazine, John Prados, a senior fellow with the National Security Archive in Washington, D.C., pointed out that after Walker introduced himself to Soviet officials, North Korean forces seized USS Pueblo in order to make better use of Walker's spying. Prados added that North Korea subsequently shared information gleaned from the spy ship with the Soviets, enabling them to build replicas and gain access to the U.S. naval communications system, which continued until the system was completely revamped in the late 1980s.[6] It has emerged in recent years that North Korea acted alone and the incident actually harmed North Korea's relations with most of the Eastern Bloc.[7]

  1. ^ Earley, Pete. "Family of Spies: The John Walker Jr. Spy Case". CourtTV. Archived from the original on February 9, 2015. Retrieved February 25, 2017.
  2. ^ a b c "Recent U.S. Spy Cases | CNN". CNN. Archived from the original on December 10, 2008. Retrieved February 25, 2017. 1985 -- Walker family
  3. ^ "米海軍スパイ事件の教訓" [Lessons from the US Navy Spy Case] (PDF). 防衛取得研究 [Defense Acquisition Research] (in Japanese) (1 ed.). June 19, 1999. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 22, 2011.
  4. ^ Shenon, Philip (January 4, 1987). "In short: nonfiction". New York Times. Retrieved November 16, 2007.
  5. ^ "The Navy's Biggest Betrayal - U.S. Naval Institute". www.usni.org. June 2010. Retrieved April 10, 2018.
  6. ^ Prados, John. The Navy's Biggest Betrayal. Naval History 24, no. 3 (June 2010): 36.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference wilsoncenter was invoked but never defined (see the help page).