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1980s and 1990s -- Aldrich Ames, Robert Hanssen and John Walker -- caused immense intelligence damage that led to the loss of vital secrets and the deaths of American informants.
• The Russian spying operation to steal America's atomic bomb secrets near the end of World War II gave the Soviet government information that sped up their nuclear weapons research and kicked off an arms race that put the world at risk. The theft's political and cultural ripples deepened the Cold War, aggravated U.S.-Russian enmity and polarized American politics for more than a decade, said Richard Rhodes, author of a three-volume history on the development of the atomic bomb and its repercussions.
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• WASHINGTON (AP) -- A worrisome culture of fear that made launch officers believe they had to get perfect test scores to be promoted fueled a widening cheating scandal within the military's nuclear missile corps, according to Air Force officials.
• Half of the 183 launch officers at Malmstrom Air Force Base in Montana have been implicated in the cheating investigation and suspended, signaling deeper morale and personnel problems in a force critical to America's nuclear security.
• Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James said the scandal hasn't affected the safety or reliability of the military's nuclear mission. Speaking to Pentagon reporters Thursday, James and Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson, who heads the Global Strike Command, said that so far it appears the cheating was confined to the Montana base, even while a climate of frustration, low morale and other failures permeates the nuclear force, which numbers about 550.
• The cheating scandal is the latest in an array of troubles that now have the attention of senior defense officials, including Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel. The Associated Press began reporting on the issue nine months ago and revealed serious security lapses, low morale, burnout and other problems in the nuclear force. The Air Force recently announced the cheating scandal, which grew out of a drug investigation.
• "These tests have taken on, in their eyes, such high importance, that they feel that anything less than 100 could well put their entire career in jeopardy" even though they only need a score of 90 to pass, said James, who recently took over as secretary. "They have come to believe that these tests are make-it-or-break-it."

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