The 11 Worst Traitors in American History

From Revolutionary War Turncoats to Modern Spies

America has been betrayed from the inside since before it even became a country. Some sold secrets for money, others for ideology, and a few just wanted power.

The damage they caused ranges from lost battles to executed agents to enemies getting nuclear weapons decades early.

These 11 people committed the worst betrayals in American history, and their names became synonymous with treason.

Benedict Arnold Sells West Point for Gold

Benedict Arnold was a genuine war hero before he became America’s most famous traitor.

He fought at Ticonderoga, led troops through Quebec, and saved the day at Saratoga in 1777, where a bullet shattered his leg. George Washington valued him despite his constant fights with other officers and Congress.

But by 1780, Arnold was broke, bitter, and married to a woman who hated the Revolution. In September, he offered to hand over West Point to the British for 20,000 pounds and a commission.

The plot failed when his contact, British Major John Andre, was captured with incriminating papers in his boot. Arnold escaped to a British ship and spent the rest of the war leading raids against his former countrymen.

He died in London in 1801, despised on both sides of the Atlantic.

Julius and Ethel Rosenberg Die for Atomic Espionage

Julius Rosenberg ran a spy ring that fed atomic secrets to the Soviet Union during World War 2. He recruited his brother-in-law David Greenglass, who worked as a machinist at Los Alamos and sketched bomb components.

Julius passed everything to Soviet handlers through courier Harry Gold. The FBI arrested Julius in 1950, then grabbed his wife Ethel two months later.

At trial, Greenglass testified that Ethel typed his handwritten notes, which became the key evidence against her. The jury convicted both, and Judge Irving Kaufman sentenced them to death.

President Eisenhower refused clemency, writing that their crime could result in the deaths of millions. On June 19, 1953, Julius died in the electric chair at Sing Sing at 8:05 PM.

Ethel followed at 8:15.

They were the only spies executed during the Cold War, and controversy about Ethel’s actual involvement continues today.

Aldrich Ames Betrays the CIA From Inside

Aldrich Ames needed money in 1985. His divorce was costing him $46,000, and his new Colombian girlfriend spent cash like water.

So in April, the 31-year CIA veteran walked into the Soviet embassy in Washington and sold the names of three KGB agents working for America. He got $50,000.

Then he kept going. For nine years, Ames handed over everything he could access from his job in Soviet counterintelligence.

He compromised about 100 CIA operations and caused the execution of at least 10 US sources. The money poured in: $1.8 million in cash, plus another $900,000 waiting in Moscow. He bought a $540,000 house with cash and drove a Jaguar, but nobody at CIA noticed.

The FBI finally arrested him in February 1994 after catching him at a dead drop. He pleaded guilty and got life in prison.

His wife Rosario got 63 months.

Robert Hanssen Spies for 22 Years Inside the FBI

Robert Hanssen hated that nobody at the FBI recognized his brilliance. He introduced colleagues to advanced tactical concepts, but the Bureau ignored him.

So in 1979, three years after joining the FBI, he walked into the Soviet embassy in New York and volunteered. For the next 22 years, with a break in the middle, Hanssen sold some of America’s deepest secrets to Moscow.

He revealed the existence of a tunnel the FBI built under the Soviet embassy. He gave away US nuclear war plans.

He compromised the identities of Russians spying for America, and at least three were executed. He used the alias Ramon Garcia and collected $1.4 million in cash, bank funds, and diamonds. The FBI finally caught him in February 2001 when he made a dead drop at a Virginia park.

He pleaded guilty to avoid the death penalty and got life without parole. He died in prison in June 2023 at age 79.

John Walker Runs a Family Spy Ring

John Walker was drowning in debt in 1967 when he walked into the Soviet embassy in Washington and sold a top-secret radio cipher card. The KGB paid several thousand dollars and put him on salary at $500 to $1,000 a week.

For 18 years, Walker fed Moscow the Navy’s most sensitive codes and submarine secrets. He worked at the submarine force communications center in Norfolk, so he had access to everything.

After he retired from the Navy in 1976, he kept the operation going by recruiting others. His best friend Jerry Whitworth provided submarine information.

His brother Arthur worked as a Navy instructor. His son Michael served on the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz.

Together they compromised more than a million encrypted naval messages. Walker’s ex-wife finally tipped off the FBI in 1985.

He got life in prison and died in 2014. His son got 25 years and was released in 2000.

Ana Montes Memorizes Pentagon Secrets for Cuba

Ana Montes became the Defense Intelligence Agency’s top Cuba analyst while secretly working for Havana the entire time.

Cuban intelligence recruited her in 1984 when she was a graduate student angry about US policy in Nicaragua. She joined the DIA in 1985 and spent the next 16 years climbing the ranks.

Her colleagues called her the Queen of Cuba for her expertise, and she received awards from CIA Director George Tenet.

But three times a week, she pulled a shortwave radio from her closet and received encrypted instructions from Havana. She never stole documents or removed files.

Instead, she memorized classified information during the day, went home, and typed it up on her laptop. She transferred everything to encrypted disks for her Cuban handler.

She revealed the identities of four American undercover officers working in Cuba and compromised a top-secret satellite program.

The FBI arrested her on September 21, 2001, days after 9/11, when she was about to get access to Afghanistan war plans. She got 25 years and was released in January 2023.

Jonathan Pollard Hands 800 Documents to Israel

Jonathan Pollard was a Navy intelligence analyst with serious problems. The CIA rejected him in 1977 for drug use and lying.

An Air Force psychologist called him grandiose and manipulative. But he kept getting promoted because he was good at his job.

In 1984, he met Israeli Air Force Colonel Aviem Sella and offered to spy.

Pollard believed the US was withholding intelligence from Israel, so he started filling suitcases with classified documents.

Over 17 months, he delivered about 800 documents and 1,500 intelligence summaries to Israeli handlers. Israel paid him well: $2,500 a month plus tens of thousands for hotels, meals, and jewelry.

The Navy caught him in October 1985 trying to leave documents in his wife’s car. He and his wife drove to the Israeli embassy seeking asylum, but Israel refused to let them in.

The FBI arrested him outside. He pleaded guilty in 1987 and got life.

He served 30 years before his 2015 release and moved to Israel in 2020.

Aaron Burr Plots His Own Western Empire

Aaron Burr killed Alexander Hamilton in a duel in 1804 and destroyed his own political career in the process. Shut out of power and facing murder charges, he headed west with a plan.

Exactly what that plan was remains unclear, but it involved raising an army, possibly seizing New Orleans, maybe invading Mexico, and perhaps separating western territories from the United States.

Burr recruited followers and bought supplies while traveling down the Mississippi. General James Wilkinson, who was supposed to help him, instead betrayed him to President Thomas Jefferson.

Jefferson ordered Burr’s arrest and personally pushed for a treason conviction. Burr was captured in February 1807 and brought to Richmond for trial.

Chief Justice John Marshall presided, and the case became a test of the Constitution’s treason clause.

Marshall ruled that treason required two witnesses to an overt act of war, and Burr wasn’t even present when his followers gathered at the one location the government claimed as evidence.

The jury acquitted him in September 1807, but his reputation was ruined forever.

Tokyo Rose Broadcasts Land Iva Toguri in Prison

Iva Toguri was visiting her sick aunt in Japan in 1941 when Pearl Harbor was attacked. The 25-year-old American from Los Angeles couldn’t get home.

She refused to become a Japanese citizen, so the government denied her a ration card. She survived on black market food and eventually took a job at Radio Tokyo.

She became a disc jockey on a propaganda show called Zero Hour, playing records and telling jokes under the name Orphan Ann. American POWs wrote her scripts, and she helped smuggle food to them.

Her broadcasts were harmless. But after the war, two reporters offered her $2,000 for an exclusive interview as Tokyo Rose, the mythical propaganda siren. She needed money and agreed.

The reporters reneged on payment and got her arrested. The military found no evidence of treason and released her after a year.

But radio commentator Walter Winchell lobbied for a trial, and political pressure forced prosecutors to reopen the case. Her 1949 trial relied on coached witnesses.

The jury convicted her on one count: speaking into a microphone about ship losses. She got 10 years and lost her citizenship.

President Gerald Ford pardoned her in 1977, one of his last acts in office.

Klaus Fuchs Gives Away the Atomic Bomb

Klaus Fuchs was a brilliant German physicist who fled the Nazis in 1933 and ended up working on Britain’s atomic bomb project.

He was also a communist who believed nuclear secrets should belong to everyone, not just one country. In 1942, he started passing information to Soviet intelligence through courier Ursula Kuczynski.

When Britain sent him to the Manhattan Project in 1943, he went to Columbia University and then to Los Alamos, where he worked under Hans Bethe on the plutonium bomb. He was present at the Trinity test in July 1945.

The whole time, he met his courier Harry Gold in New York and Santa Fe, handing over detailed technical information. His intelligence let the Soviets build their bomb at least a year or two earlier than expected.

American codebreakers caught him through the Venona project in 1949, and British intelligence arrested him in February 1950. He confessed and got 14 years.

He served nine, then moved to East Germany, where he lived until his death in 1988.

America Still Hunts for Moles Today

These 11 cases show how much damage one person can do from the inside. Ames and Hanssen together compromised dozens of sources and caused multiple executions.

Walker’s ring gave the Soviets the ability to read Navy communications for nearly two decades. Fuchs and the Rosenbergs helped Stalin get the bomb.

But intelligence officials warn that the threat hasn’t gone away. After Hanssen’s arrest, the FBI admitted that finding him took luck more than skill.

Security improvements followed each case, but so did new methods of espionage. Cyber capabilities have created new vulnerabilities.

Ideological motivation has shifted from communism to other causes. Money still works.

And somewhere in the vast US intelligence community, officials believe, another mole might be operating right now, waiting to join this list.

This article was created with AI assistance and human editing.

Read more from this brand:

• The Freed Slave Who Became One of America’s First Black Slave Owners
• US will let FIFA Ticket Holders Skip the US Visa Line
• Texas Judge Orders Ten Commandments Removed From Public School Classrooms