Klaus Fuchs Motivation For Espionage

Espionage has been around since the beginning of time. Knowledge or intelligence is a driving force in warfare. Motivation for espionage is person specific: money, vengeance, the thrill of the act, but what about doing what you perceive to be the right thing? Klaus Fuchs volunteered himself as a spy during World War II (WWII) on one of the most pivotal projects of modern warfare. His story is not full of mystery or even adventure, he was a scientist, conducting research and sharing knowledge, but his actions would have a long term effect on the world for decades after his offenses.
Background
Emil Klaus Fuchs was born December 29, 1911, in Rüsselsheim, Germany to a Emil Fuchs, and Lutheran minister (Britannica) and Else Wagner, and

The two would meet regularly over the next year for Fuchs to pass information on the atomic bomb project. The TUBE ALLOYS project was ahead of the American Manhattan Project in terms of research and development at the onset of the projects, however by 1943 the United States (US) had made progress and there was growing concern of the US surpassing British research and not needing to share information in the future. British senior officials, while not eager to collaborate with the US project due to security concerns and not realizing the TUBE ALLOYS project had already been compromised, sent Fuchs and a team of British scientists to join the Manhattan project and further research on the project (MI5). The Quebec Agreement, signed in August 1943 would solidify the joint effort between the US and Britain to develop the first atomic bomb. The agreement would last two years when President Roosevelt died. President Truman would classify US nuclear research in 1946, officially ending the collaboration

There was no exchange of money; Fuchs provided information to the soviets because he felt they had a right, as an ally against Germany, to know about the technology being developed. He did not live outside of his means, and according to all research gave no indication of his activities outside of work on the project. It was not until the US cracked soviet code during project Venona that a breach in security was detected and Fuchs indicated as the spy. In regards to Fuchs becoming a spy, former director of MI5 Dick White said his motives "were relatively speaking pure. A scientist who got cross at the Anglo-American ploy in withholding vital information from an ally fighting a common enemy.