PHILBY AND MACLEAN: THE YEARS OF DAMAGE
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330048-1
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
5
Document Creation Date:
December 9, 2016
Document Release Date:
August 21, 2000
Sequence Number:
48
Case Number:
Publication Date:
October 15, 1967
Content Type:
NSPR
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CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330048-1.pdf | 1.66 MB |
Body:
CPYRGHT
13 th?TtiltEl1 19(17
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ACLEAN:
HE YEARS
? OF DAMAGE
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Kim Philby, recruited into
Soviet intelligence in 1933,
was ready by 1944 to exploit
his 11 years of deception. The
West was about to enter the
crucial years of the cold war
?
and Philby the Soviet spy was
the head of the Soviet section
of the British Secret Intelli-
gence Service. And Donald
Maclean, three years after
Philby's breakthrough, had
penetrated to the heart of "
America's, secret atomic pro-
gramm. .
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ome men in es
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lip 1pg across the Iron Curtai
Irmo Greeeelhaq Alban
111 WI! a' tichemel deigned
---test the feasibility] of breg
ommunist control of
Ortipe' by n: the st
its in' a # a that
I-
Was available to him. Thi
ould explain the fact?confirm
to us independently by ex-C I
an Robert Amory and ve
a State Department offici
at 14956 the CIA and SI
ere k on plans to snatch
achaileahli r, befroz. itteosleow. As
441
the We* even even s eh q ions
tenticin of Brftaiora other main
et department M I 5, it was
ken as virtually Concludiv
idence that /Inlay was working
r the lbissisrlg.
August 14 an iinex-
ed visitor with a heavy Rus-
ac nt,calleditoe the kntish
lis speaking to, and not typed
ere was a Russian agen
ting in the British
Turkey, he said, so he coul
not risk anyone typing copies of
his material. Secondly, there
rnust be a decision within twenty
?ane days. If he had not heard byi
the e ening of the twenty-firs
watild, asasute 111
damaging.
Mays' hninediate
as from Landon *
isa nn"blatiun.:SoPCIvItt?iIiertaillt position,4
111 s,
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Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330048-1
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Intel t.V1,1' SU :'JI pre-
serve a degree of all e.cte, n, and
runissils upon the moplaced
idealist.! whit h led him to work
Br 'di, his
arc, Sq-gely s ?asho (a.
:He sk as an agent wh realiy
-lived hi.. coerS they say
I re tuipas-
4110ned .4, lEkt the man who
said to Pholy
htittomed bastard, and he k,h led a
lot of peos;o -
Esplonaka, ,p101-1-
cW! seem so mu as. She
lised office-garnes t I sit the
can get forgotten. But in
?Ails account of (?meer
_Item 1945 to 1951 thei'c are two
dal episodes 1k hi, h luridly
mate the realities of the
e,
? The first case is a mar. alone: a
'et intelligence officer caught
the act of trying to defect to
West That story ends with
ndaged figure being hustled
rd a Russian plane in
nbul
the second case, there are
CPYRGHT
as Vlallaily CIJIWILISIVU? -Opf rating Ill -Toe Erin s n Embassy- rise from London directorship 'of
This was a scheme designed to man Rcbert Amory and verified, evidence that Philby was working in Turkey. he said, so he could anti-Soviet operations, through
test Inn feasibility of breaking by a State Department official- for the Russians not risk anyone typing copies of an important field command to
Communist control of Eastern that in 1956 the C I A and SI S Early in August 1945 an unex. his material, Secondly, there the position of C IA liaison in
Europe by subversion the storylts were working on plans to snatch-,s, pected visitor with a heavy Rus- must be a decision within twenty- Washington.
ends , , .1 crackle of small-arms Masks], back from Moscow. AS, sian accent called at the British ane days. If he had not heard by
fire on bleak hillsides, and the he has never been interrogated Consulate in the Beyoglu district the evening of the twenty-first
total discrediting of a policy in the West, evert such questions of Istanbul in Turkey The man, day, he would assume the deal
which might have caused thea- as the nature tti his contacts must.- obviously very nervous, demanded was - off. He departed after
Soviet Go? ernment a lot of _ still be mysterious. - an interview with a certain high- making complex arrangements
trouble What can be closely mapped. ranking British diplomat. He for getting in touch.
paieed east, sass, ie she shadow in this article is the ...cope If his wanted no one else present but The British diplomat spent a
of Kan Philby-the Smaet pene. information-most vividly illuss himself and this diplomat-not long night preparing a hand- ?
tration-agent at the heart of the trated by the amazing " non- `.even an interpreter.
Philby
survives an
Secret-Intelligence Service, the escort " pass which allowed him The officer was found and the S S in London, and it went away
m_sslnspec on
an wose loyalty went un free access to the greatest store- " man was ushered into a quiets., :wih t the courier next cla. After,?
written brief addressed to the
tioned for so long. Indeed, it'S''. house of American weapons room. There, he spelt out the -s a week, there had een no
might never have been ques- _ . secrets, the Atomic Energy Com- reason for his visit. He gave his response, and a cable was sent
tioned, but for the fact that Philby, mission H Q in Washington. (That , name as Volkov. Ostensibly, he, from the Embassy in Turkey ask-
'.'.as caught up in the complex, pass was used often, and late at was a newly-appointed Russian, ing for a reply. After another
aftermath of Donald Maclean's. night.) Philby, of cousse, knew consul in Istanbul. Actually, hes week, there was still no reply;
espionage for the Russians. . L. that it was worth some risk to get !. said. he had been appointed: and on the twentieth day the
Maclean's own espionage w - Maclean away before he could be s head of Soviet Intelligence for
that the accident of Burgess's Turkey.He had arrived only two,,..
flight with Maclean in 195r--
months earlier from the Moscow
was essentially different i
character and its precise effect
can only be presumed. Th<
Western intelligence community_ - would begin the destruction
probably still does not rot. Philby's own unique position,
. eir
exactly how much inform tip
Maclean actually got throu,
? 4
t ' ?
?
the Russians out of the material - Volkov
;tioned, H
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diplomat who had interviewed .
Volkov had still heard nothing,
and was almost frantic
Then, at last, on the morning .
of the twenty-first day, an agent
headquarters of the NK V Elk, arrived from L on do n and,-
.? (then initials of the Russians.. 'announced he had come to take,
secret service), and he had ass- peno.na c
'.,-... 1 charge h of the Volkorm-
-- ' proposition to make. In return .: affair. He was a calm, unhurriect-
" " ' for ?27,500 (an odd amount, but figure wearing a cutaway collar
probably converted from a round ,_ with a flowing Byronesque cravat.
sum in roubles), plus a laissez- It was Kim Philby.
, passer to Cyprus, Volkov was pre- The diplomat who had inter-
es- pared to offer certain valuable viewed Volkov, with nerves,
las counter - espionage information, understandably taut, pointed out,
'
Were the British interested? ' that the delay had probably'
_?,,, ? The British diplomat was notr. ruined the whole deal--anil
THE LAST days of the ,seconir'''' one of the resident S IS men_
asked why the hell couldn't some-
7 world war, and the first days on' operating under diplomatic cover one have come out sooner. Philby
a the peace, were marked by urgent "--1-although the Russian, it seeffis, produced, casually, an almost
discussions among young English-- assumed that he was. Neverthe-
' men who had been caught up in less, the diplomat expressed incredible excuse. "Sorry, old
, man," he said. -' It would have
the military machine on how to cautious interest. What was the
interfered with leave arrange-
re-assemble their broken careers.. information for sale? Naturally; meets:,
. Most had one urgent impulse: to said Volkov, he was not prepared
_ They tried to contact Volkov,
.,do something which had h ad nothing - , to give details until there was ass .
and waited for word to come.
to do with their war work. It was 'deal. But-and here he handed's back. Nothing happened. In the, - Act now on this generous offer - a three
book set, regularly priced at 57t-, for
an impulse from which Kinn- - over a batch of handwritten notes-.
s.? Philby seemed to be immune. end they sent men out to only le', 'Blueprint for Executives
ss He showed no desire to revive - of what he had to sell.
,..and sketches-this was an outline . look for "Consul Volkov "-- ...`,,,. i .- success' i hfting thousands of
- . but he could not be found.: - '-' 'nen to tnagigagaglang business gligigger/
. an age whcnothers are still struillling in
-..si his excellent Pre-war PrnaPerta in ..: The British official read rapidly, -7 'Throughout the afternoon, the _ -.Z.__ low-paid obscurity. These three remark-
,- 1..1! jOUTIThliSM. To friends who did...se and with mounting excitement,- interviewing officer could get no - able volumes are indispensable to the!
- not know what his wartime "civil; - ? -_
' service " job had been, he said:- and descriptions of N K V la from Philby "I finally made up ttirisee ghti master the. sunge techniques
.61.041..ra inr. enclosure teat nun
:'hilby became a Soviet penetra-
tion agent - in 1933, several
-ttempts have been made to pre-
tend that Philby was some kind
of wartime undesirable, who was
ccifientally left behind In the
-0eaeetime SI S. This argument
s badly weakened by the fact that
here was a vigorous shakeout of
he SIS in 1946, which was
ntended precisely to remove any
=liftable people who had slipped
sit diming the confused days of
the war.
CPYRGHT
is a result of this. It is nqf
tune clear whether the operation
was a part of the general inspee?
ion of the Foreign Office carried
iut that year under the preselt
sord Caccia-that inspection did
ouch on SIS and M I 5.-ogs
whether It was really a separate
tfair. What is quite cleans that'
Thilby survived it. ?
The year 1945 began on a good
Kite for him, because lie received
in 0 BE in the New Year's
ionours (the list gave no specific
vason for the award and merely.
ant he was employed "in, a
department of the Famish
)ffic.e "). Philby's colleagues and
ubordinates thought it was Well
leserved: he was an immensely
'Iard-working officer-more ? ten
han not the last man in the
it night, and the one who
in the chore of locking-up. .
The only thing which seemed
ven slightly likely to impede
its rise to the top of the Service
was a slight neglect of the sectid .
ibligations of' departmental life.
Continued on swat liege
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I've decided to join the bureau- buildings in Moscow with details _-mind," he told friends later, _ or Exec:nee success' you'll be surprises!
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ssepw.them." To war-weary colleagues,- "impressions and guard schedules: incompetent, or he was a Soviet lti'm
. in the Secret Intelligence Service,..- numbers of all NKVD cars; a 'agent himself."
_ wi can you retognition
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evinced a willingeess to work onsletytogether with their means ornwas not coming, Philby returned!
against Russian instead of German, ',..iseommunication; and Mially-t.;:to London. And then a few days
antagonists antagonists which - they founcylahnost as a throwaway-" names%k-Dater, something occurred which
simply baffling. .. 4..icif Russian agents operating in irevived the whole unhappy affair
Muggeridge recalls a arunkerr "Government departments int am n the mind of the interviewing
evening in Paris in 1945, when at s London." It all looked as though- officer. A Russian military air- ???
Philby's insistence, the two of ',.Comrade Volkov, before taking ' 'craft made an unscheduled, and -'10
them lurched round to take ak*..-up his post in Istanbul, had. quite irregular 1 a n d in g ari, '
look at the Russian Embassy. .'.spent some time in Moscow ' Istanbul airport.
Philby marched up and downs: ,acquiring material which could /e, While the control tower wag ,
shaking his fist at the silent build- -take him into the Western world* still trying to think of something
Mg. and demanding: "How are with a golden one-way ticket. . 'to do. a car raced out across the
we going to penetrate them? "? The British official went straight- tarmac to the aircraft. A heavily..
Philby's zeal, of course, igpulsto his Ambassador, Sir Maurices7 bandaged figure on a stretche
ighly explicable in retrospect: atiMPeterson. But the reaction from, was lifted from the car and put"'
long-term Soviet agent who had- 'the Ambassador was one of, into the aircraft-which immedi-
succeeded in early 1944 in becom- straight horror: he had for some ately took off.
ing head of the British counter- time been trying to prevent what It seemed to be an urgent'
Soviet espionage operation would he regarded as an "invasion " of Russian removal in the bravura
hardly be ready to get out of the ? the Embassy by S I S men under style which was more common
business. His war was just begin-- 'cover, and he saw the Volkov then, although still to be seen on
-)iing, and the cavorting outside _ ;business as a step in the same- occasion. And it seemed a fair
the Russian Emtiassy was no more direction. "No one. is going tol assumption that the man being 1:
f an indiscretion than the action- -. turn my Embassy into a nest of?." removed was the unfortunate
of a reeing-driver who cuts one,'-spies," he said. l'' If you must go.. 'Volkov: on which the interviewing" '
orner extra-close to revel in his - ahead laith this, business, do its officer decided to pass on his
.ontrol. 1 through London." i doubts about Kim Philby to some-
Around this time, however, The official returned to the one else.
-Philby was involved in a serious waiting Bussian. London would He contacted a British S IS
and peculiar incident. The way have ,fo,''have time to janake a officer, and reported his version" it was, handled raises strange Aeciskin,,h11 the propositlo#, he of the Volkov incident. But
questions about the i philos ,said.nothing seems to have happened. , on which the. .Secret! Weil ' Voikoirlagreed to wai 6 - "If there was an inquiry, it was '
Se ie as , working - in t Made ? V loons. ,kept stri ,!inshie die 'S I S _
da ,y bet'ause lablett ' h -docuilla ' And clearly the'.
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CPYRGHT
22
INSICIHT
CPYRGHT Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330048-1
THE SUNDAY TIMES, 15 OCTOBER 1967
riin TWO OF THE PHILBY CONSPIRACY, A SPECIAL INVESTIGATION
.o BE, 1946, PhIlby's
reward for war work
Mount Ararat, the double-humped mountain on the Turkish.
Soviet border: above from the Turkish side, below from the
Soviet side. Philby enigmatically kept a copy of the Soviet-
side picture as a souvenir. Which side was he on?
Aileen, Philby's second wife
TOM
At that time, the S IS was
devoted enough to the idea
of togetherness to maintain
a country house, with swim-
ming pool, for the week-end'
entertainment of the gaff.
(The philosophy, perhaps
_more typical of the CIA
-.these days, was to keep
the secret world as self-
esufildent as possible, even at
the risk of inbreeding.)
Philby, though, did not spend
Much time with his colleagues
after hours: seemingly, he
preferred to spend the time
with his second wife Aileen
and his growing family.
A good reason for Philby to
MOM the thne spent with his
would have been
- the feet that it would lessen
drib of priwtually dis-
lbg his political feelings.
od of t.M people in the SIS
at this time seem to have held
Bight-wing views, sometimes
extremely pronounced.
One woman who worked in
Philby's department recalls
an Mmudon when she was
the fortheentlite
,..;41.1:45cVeral Mediae with
??timotber woman colleague. "1
Jwas just saying: 'Wouldn't- It
be awful if the dreadful
Socialists got in,' when I got
'that feeling one does at
there was someone standing
- behind me. I looked round?
and there was Mr Philby
-101 _deg me a look 01 each
idroleisce."
But no harsh words accom-
this baleful look. And
fact Min seems to have
get through his career as an
SIS executive with scarcely
a harsh word to anyone,
whethee about politics or
simple office imfficiency. It
was one of the major reasons,
naturally, for his success: he
was noted for he heavy
gaminer and his even, con-
trolled temperament
Malcolm Meaeridge, how-
ever, claims to have detected
in Pleilby at thiathne It quality
"
suppressed violence "?
Ifor the Soviet authorities
'before 1946" (our emphasis).
But when Philby arrived,
lwith a eVe and four child-
' he lacked exactly like a
ordinary diplomat.
1r Michael Cressweri, a pre-
war acquaintance of Philby's
(recently Ambassador in
Argentina) called in on
hilby and found it hard to
lime he was in intelligence
work. "It didn't seem like his
line."
Istanbul had been an im-
portant neutral centre in the
war East-West
Germany. Now,
,gavethe it even greater Import-
cc. It was at the centre
a cold war which seemed
ely to go hot at the drop
? an ultimatum. Turkey has
? long border with the Soviet
-"Union, and another border
with Communist Bulgaria.- In
?Jhe 'forties, Stalin was loudly
Vt41 a big slice of
t to PlizilkeluenWi bases
, plus the
on the Bosphorus and the
Dardanelles. The Turks, in
- seply, ware clamouring for
*stern military aid. A civil
war was raging in nearby
w-Oreece, which looked as
though it could easily go
ist also?
? The city of Istanbul has
dipterous advantages for
espionage. Much Communist
shipping passes through the
rtsphorus. The city hat
" **wishing communities of
Armenians, Georgians, Bul-
garians and Albanians with
direct links to their home-
communities behind the Cur-
tain. And in the dark, wind-
ing alleys of old Stamboul,
there are innumerable bars
and coffee-houses where
clandestine meetings are
easy.
Philby worked from the
British Consulate-General, a
vast barracks-iike building
standing in; a. waited cony
in Be the 'flew"
hart of the . He esta-
Washington Embassy: detail from the stair group picture, October,' 1945. First
Secretary, Donald Maclean, 6 foot 4 lathes tall, towers in the back row Melinda Madden and mu
role ave hm t e
fie d job, even in such at he was a British agent icture of the rising young tang* the Russians would at ackan "was a freq o ave severe
'crucial area as Turkey? ling to work for them: lomat was on the . social . - aye valued anythieg Macleak viaor in the evenin
. nt hoine for in
, ,
hich, unknown to London, i e. Melinda was an: -could tell them ablht where f usual work neer* ffainftwith Egyptians., .
In this context ft is worth ...was exactly what he Was? nenthusiestic hostess, and !''Alie West was laving Iter "Tlerite, then a tar tatty aclean wag sadmsanct
mentioning the only refer- . - -
ence to Philby which seems It would explain several aclean had a strong distastVIIIIIAUM, in what quantithei er in thicejeotildhm, re- ad ten - oil im
to occur in Turkish irdelli-
gence files: a reference to-2tantLY; it Wbulfil
tuzling. Points: most impor- or the after hours oblige- ?' Pars
at . lir goes on
to ilit.s, . *5 srassthat M50 oft"' wasanudsinatg , riteondioster years, wud,,-i,- 7005, r
explain the t.ions of Embassy life. On
atsionate defence of Philby eathe cocktail circuit, the couple. irate how little the MacMation -nigh " *hat he eventually 'circulated about M ean's '
meetings with a group of Bul-
?,,,Awhen the security ofileers in
y his colleagues in the S I S ,Iliwere noted principally for the
xtraordkiary solecism of took until January 1948 to -was withdrawn. No inquiry, diplomat was even asked by -
Act had in practice cut off. It ,reported him, and' the pass Cairo peccadilloes. A senior
arMn and other East Euro- .
t
an ? gudents " whom the
.: c ine
actions of o ng
IdlistetihandegY *tending apart, negobate a modus meendi for 'however, was held. Iff I 5 whether he
j res were to is d to think ,.* I 5 were convinced that he
I./operating the Act, and in that .i When security access to a ?ja t t e n d e d a (temple
a a man to Philby's job can be As a common First Secre- ,,period - Maclean in his official -?,building is tightly controlled, :Mythical) party in 9
leliwas a traitor. The
were spies. Such contacts
?seem humble work for a man ..,?,_,....__?_, ary, it is doubtful how much " ?capacity had access to inform- , 'Security inside tends to be -.Where Maclean Was su
nvho had just been a depart- '`-win'unig indtairlelliehable
Zrom treachetz. Unless his ormation of real value ation relating to the estimates -limited. It is clear, from' -,lo haveente
_ The more one investigates y. But the truth
no defence when something een in a position to supply supply available to the three employees, that Maclea
the nature of Philby's work in goes wrong. Very shortly -__ o Moscow. But half way gooravoerniummentsft,,rrecituhiree maetnotmoiof : ?coirtulodall)haavney hrooadmaacacnedssfuesto nBouygsleprwingithlout90:08elbwo
energy programmes of the ! he chose. It is clear from the
three governments for the 4etegularity of his late-night sm had reached
roportions. One
nod from 1948 to 1952, and- visits that his intentions were avilefienritnpoeollos.dhionfowsrttMaaiaic
bell he liked
er the garden-Milt
like a dog outside
he window to at
on,
the
mental head. friends stand y him, he has aclean would eyer have ; inade at that nine of ore --.?the evidence of former publicly sed
Turkey, the more curious it
xjooks. In the middle of the after the Turkish tour, things; through his tour in Washing,
began to go wrong for Philby, ,??'"' 'ton, he got a job of far
nod, hejhas brought back and when they did the S I S ""Oreater significance. The new
England for a " James ?,
'rid " mune at aootag h I
Yoc- 0? ordinary, apparently inexplic-
stood by him with an extra- mbassador, Sir Archibald
r ? Gospdrt: sh un- 'able determination.
. combat, sabotage. A .-
ellow-student says 'that '"
He spent a good deal. of - Maclean
Philby topped the course.
time in Turkey travelling 1
ark-Kerr (Lord Inver- he definition of scientific 'fully satisfied.
hapel), himself a political ei;Oreas in which the three gov-',..1 In particular, this meant
ntric by F 0 standards, asernments deemed technical 11: whatever restrictive
ound hi hi a c 1 e an an co-operation could be acco.vm-
specially: eethffect the Maeltfahon A dig
appealing sub- plished with mutual benefit.' 7-have on Maclean's access to
rdinate. When the post of , Apart from this final txurrent information was null-
'
ritish Secrete to the Com- reference to what amounts to"""fied by the revious records'
around the Lake Van district, ined Policy ommittee on the entire early blueprint forAiept in greardinail, which he
earns ato
close to the Soviet border. He M atomic affairs fell vacant, the peacetime atomic energy 'could freely plunder.
wrkept a curious souvenir of llaclean was the man programme, General Leslie This work constitutes sound
secret,s "eiesignated to fill it. :Groves, father of the .
riod, which in later years
? Early M March the;
hired a Wide-sailed
net off Op the Nile
diluter with friends
44elowne 15 miles from
Maclean as m stonue P' of
; This committee was the h-lArnerican atomic programme4
sult of the secret Quebec
ment bet w een the refeluetvrtopytirecIlipsiyin uch =to. jejanee- "Harriet,
e displayed in his Beirut ;
of Melia Ararat, which . ,
'tliEANWHILE, Donald
partment: a large photo-
glean s diplomatic ? an
on hari has swam. -with
espionage?careers had been nited States,. Britain and In 1946, the nitecr isat
Even so, r idea
s. r. Most People wh()'* develoi in Washington ;;Canada : its main function was 6 t a t e s perfected a newt' he first of his t 11
wo
Ar e cog IA is ad the double- espionage on the greed of es tie
'where bestayed as a Firsi? ,to control the exchange of meatdheod ore
eor icaotnovehrtiginhg_grlaodw
humped shape of Ararat Secretary until September, uranium by processing the
atomic information between er
?jisked whether
the negative would pudic over that pic-
ture, and when some of them s .
..?..theprifno_ree1944, a golden boy of Maclean became secretary waste from South African',-1 ?
1948 He had arrived there in, the three Governments.
ign serelee, and g 31rt February, 1947, six months,- ;gold mines. This increased the
MCairo?the
?3-twall reversed, It used to ' Mill unustially young for hisando the passage of thaelmatuPPlY and reduced the cost--
-,NacMahon Act which severely in equal measure. The mere ?, 4.
,,,f8 rain is
' Presenting people with this Behind him were four suc--_elfeetricted U S participation in knowledge that it could be 4 ? .
amuse Philby enormously. k.
tangible evidence of his own cessful wartime years ineid exchange At first sight done would have been of
duplicity gave him a perverse London, where he had die: ;*
as . critical.--
appears to indicate that ' value to Moscow s --4,00
* -
?
thrill. He would usually
- .to played his talent for swift, idaclean can have had access Physicists, just as the mere II,
p rneostaihoi nodu
g
significant?thesedulously o0n Knowledge of the practical 'nue
imply that he had taken the meticulous disposal of paper z
h
picture himself though an- work. His efficiency was made
veyed in all British Govern-
? other version of the story only- more palatable by his, .
inent statements from the
Govern-
suggests it was really the casual doziness of manner.
moment Maclean defected.
work of a brilliant Armenian The war years, in fact, were startling new evidence
'reputed to have been one of the best of his diplomat life.-
, named " Bill " Ekserdjian,
'' has now come to light :which
Philby's most effective agents- A ? t II a e the
*
The picture seems to have
'been a ironic symbol of
? Mratilf3r0aUc ? status.
,throu&itit his
? party
But the wind drop
Ade voyage took no
am. ItIle# 'eve
very dni ; 110*as
Irked at being wakened at
2 a.m. he refusedIta let them
Melinda was the
workings of the MacMahon BY NOW, however, there `au- the be4 le" IT
Act would have been a rare, were signs of Maclean's ire. throttle ,. her. ,,____' The
rational guide to, her late- ..,,cipient crack-up. He never was an - sew will.? i
ligence planners. ,found treason an easy natter; over as soonthey Ian
But Maclean's " ofeicial his successes seem to have and crack odi. An
capacity " stretched beyond borne heavily on him. He /KYfitalt
,_ .
these committees into the had begun to drink more _ DY Soule, d
time Says that they wit* the. -entirely contradicts this view.
peak of the momentunfttdch It consists of the only known ' A E C building itself. This freely: lite with ._iql.inda wat0,---p.artly,w4barrnhi-rant
has been disclosed by becoming more dMacult. asa.4...eltelta .' WM aimu
quent: Wens, e
guarapt Maclean's " _ documentary assessment of
,
came vividly into the open round his head A f ow
ig,
These dormant traumas 51.24 wu t? swing fhe eir?1
face -ct an obviousle d Hritiali or American Govern- felleier'A&CA.chaisman.
the Mattermade ley either the Achnirg Lewis Strauss, the
'casua ty. In drunken
wiittati-JIL--..44111tiallitli-Jia&-ALSo....14i..41iihaleli....A111. member of the Eml-3.t5sy.
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330048-1
?sn, ,,T1119. 'Tnirrn-ri CC'
'A as one of toe male.; reasotie
naturally, for rus success he
was noted for hie heavy
stammer and his, even, con-
te.e. temperemelit
Malcolm Muggeridge. how
ever, clams to have detected
in Phitv at this ttme a quality
'Of ? miPpressed violence
and this is an intrieuing in.
Light in the Lehi ,? reed
psychiatric t -ught about
stammering etarnmering is
thought to arise from
iiihtleseed rage in early child-
hood: later, it is often found as
part of an enormously power-
ful Inhibition against express-
ing aggression towards other
989Pio?
The strange
e in
IN , SABIN Minter 1946,
by relinquished his Lon-
department, and took up
ant new post "in
" He went to Turkey
diplomatic cover
be was a " tentport
"stationed
An I r passport- con-
trol work. In fact, of count,
his work was espionage
The year ,lat this a ?int-
.4 merit was to be Mint
highligliggd 17 years later in
,the. Brills% Government's rue-
11iiikaltintiaition that they at last
Ito.* ibiantmth about Piniby's
loealt. The Government,
sakLdWrd Heath, was now
nrc..e .e nes,
an d est, lie nu e arc
easy
Philby worked from the
Fri. 1,h Con, c;ai,
v a st barrai es-like building
standine in a is ailed com-
pound in li(?yegt te the
part ei the cit) He esta.
blishEd the family in a
heaeieeee
Asiatic shore ef the Bos-
phorus Life was far from
auetere, but Peal be clearly
found the euieete tiorinee hit
wrote to a friend in London:
"I wonder why they don't
hire the same bus to take the
same people to all the same
parties. ?
Things were enlivened by
visits from Guy Burgess on
holiday from the Foreign
Office in London. Guy's most
spectacular exploit was a dive
into the Bosphorus from the
upper &tog Of the Philby
residence: Otesuinably; onlY
theinspira of rein zinged
his body between the rocks.
But the intricacies of his
job should have saved Philby
from any threat of boredom.
The first curiosity abbut It
was that he should be doing
it: why would the head of a
_
other \ ersion of the sters
.-1-1gee5,ts it was really the
stork of a brilliant Armenian
named " Bill " Ekserdjian,
reputed to have been one of
Nifty s most effective agents
The picture seems to have
been d ironic symbol of
Philby', enigmatic status.
Clearly, throughout his
Turkish period he was closely
in touch with the Soviet in-
telligence network; and
ceearly his superiors
ir London 'pew tlth. But like
a detective, a counter-
espionage agent in the field
can get results by mix-
ing with the " criminals " he
is trying to catch.
The technique had been
elaborated by men under
Phliby's own command in the
war: gaining contact through
intermediaries %Ali German
agents. and feeding them a
skilful blend of true and. false
informetisen aboot Bt-tish
operations.
The vital question is how
far Philley's superiors had
given him permission to ven-
ture into this moral twilight?
Had they actually given him
Permission to play a " double-
agent " game with the
Corrections
DUE TO an inaccurate identi-
fication from last week's picture
of the Anglo-German Fellow-
ship, it was implied that one
of the guests was Margaret.
Duchess of Argyll (then Mrs
Charles Sweeney), She was not
there. Nor, indeed, was any
other Duchess of Argyll. peat or
present
The statement that the code
and cypher operation was "run
by naval captain Edward
Hastings' needs clarification.
Although Hastings was in
charge of much of the work re-
ferred to, the head of the
General Cede and Cypher School
itself up to 1943 was Com-
mander Alastair Denniston.
()rev more palatable by his
casual doziness of manner,
. The war years, in fact, were
the best of his diplomatic life.
An eminent colleague of the
time says that they were the
peak Of the momentum which
guaranteed Maclean's subse-
quent promotions, even in the
face of an obviously declining
performance
It is not hard to see why
he declined. Unlike Kim
Philby, Maclean shows every
sign of having been deeply
troubled by his duplicity and fits
subject to traumatic
doubt. Genuine ambivalence
was always a feature of his
brand of Communism.
For any Marxist of this
particular disposition the
alliances of the war were a
blessed relief from anguish.
In Maclean's case, those years
provided no foretaste of the
lurid personality break-up
to come; they were years
when he could serve both his
country and his ideology with-
out betraying either.
Marriage, as the bombs
were falling on Paris, had
tempered the gregarious, im-
pressionable youth of the
Left Bank cafe*. He and
Melinda, despite bad patches,
were close. Their life in
Washington was unexcep-
tional, and he was widely
regarded as worthy rather
than brilliant. His main
recreation was tennis, which
he often played with George
Middleton, later head of the
F 0 Personnel Department.
The two also developed a
mixture of water and
cigarette butts to keep the
insects off their roses in the
humid summers.
v-eYed irill BritishLOverii-
ment statements from the
moment Maclean defected.
But startling new evidence
has now ,come to light which
entirely contradicts this view.
It consists of the only known
doctunentary assessment of
the matterenade by either the
British or; American Govern-
ments: a letter written In
1936 by the State Department
to ;Senator. ,James Eastland,
chairman of the Senate Inter-
nal Security sub-committee,
which was then proposing to
hold its own investigation
into the damage done to the
S by Burgess and Maclean.
Dated February 21, 1956,
and written after discussion
with the intelligence agencies,
the letter makes clear exactly
what were the sensitive cate-
gories of information Maclean
had access to. In paragraph
10, it states:
"He had an opportunity to
have access to lnformatiou
shared by the three partici-
pating countries in the fields
of patents, declassification
matters and research and
development relating to the
programme of procurement
of raw material from foreign
sources by the Combined
Development Agency, includ-
ing estimates of supplies and
requirements."
The CD A was the creature
of Maclean's C PC. Its essen-
tial task was the pre-emptive
purchase (mostly from the
Belgian Congo) of uranium,
which was still thought to be
in exceedingly short supply,
ahead of the Russians. As
well as being able to foment
political trouble in Belgium
over the C D A's secret deals
Act Would have been a rare,
rational guide to her intel-
ligence planners.
But Maclean's "official
capacity" stretched beyond
these committees into the
A E C building itself, This
has been disclosed by
Admiral Lewis Strauss, the
former AE C chairman.
Admiral Strauss has des-
cribed how he "learned that
an alien was the holder of a
permanent pass to the Com-
mission's headquarters, a
,pass, moreover, which was of
a character that did not
require him to be accom-
panied within the building."
The holder of this pass was
Donald Maclean
Maclean was able to get his
pass because the A E C was
split over the exchange of
atomic information into pro.
and anti-British groups. The
general manager of the AE C
at that time, Prof. Carroll L.
Wilson, now of the Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology,
was in the pro-British group
(Strauss was anti). When
Maclean's boss, the British
representative on CD A, Sir
Gordon Munro, approached
Wilson for a pass for Maclean
Wilson was quite ready to
grant it. Wilson recently ad-
mitted to the Sunday Times:
" Yes. I gave the order for a
non-escort pass to be issued
. . . I saw no reason why I
shouldn't. If I had had any
suspicions I would not have
done so. But I thought Mac-
lean to be safe"
The pass was in fact a
badge, to be picked up at the
desk of the A E C lobby. When
Strauss discovered it had been
issued, he also discovered that
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%ere signs of NfaCie-'an-
cipient crack-up. He never
found treason an easy matter;
his successes seem to have
borne heavily on him. He
had begun to drink more
freely; life with Melinda was
becoming more difficult.
These dormant traumas
came vividly into the open
at hes next post, Cairo, to
which he was sent from
Washington to be Head of
Chancery, after e hat in F 0
jargon is called "an acceler-
ated promotion."
Melinda, with four servants
adored the British Raj ele-
ment still left in Cairo society
(many officials had been
transferred from India and
had brought their preten-
sions with them). She even
found a new interest in the
social round. Her apogee as
a hostess was a party for the
Duke of Edinburgh. Deciding
fiirolimHprwo touoclodl , olikeargaitbirei4t
noisy, adolescent games itka??
"Murder." Tbe royal guest
was enchanted.
In ? Donald the change,
b t out all his latent ag-
ns. His occasionally
overt anti-Americanism had.
aroused little concern
Washington; it was shared
anyway by many of his em-
busy colleagues. But in
Cairo he soon reside himself
unpopular for " Salable "
views. He found the corrupt
Farouk regime nauseous and
the time-hallowed British
policy of ostentatiously. doing
nothing abOlit It even more
so. ?
Instead of getting drunk
like a gentleman, -he now
embarked on a series of epic,
Dylanesque binges. He was
arrested by the Egyptian
police, dead-drunk and with-
out shoes. His hangovers
reached such proportions that
he was often absent from the
office. Eventually the Embassy
Security Officer, Major
"Sammy" Sansom, took
notice.
"He was a brilliant chap
but highly unreliable,'
Sansom recalls. I reported
his drinking to Carey Foster
(Head of Security in the F 0)
direct via the diplomatic
bag." Normally such reports
would have passed through
the Ambassador, but as
Maclean was Head of
Chancery he would have had
to see them first.
Sansom, a regular ranker
unendowed with diplomatic
gifts?" I was the most hated
man in the Embassy "?had
already clashed with Maclean.
To his fury he had been
refused permission to initiate
spot searches on Embassy
staff Sansom also blamed
Maclean for losing the fifth
copy of a top secret telegram
from London.
As Cairo was a "Grade A"
Embassy' they received copies
of important cables from
all over the world. Mac-
...lean, as Head of Chancery,
had access to even mare than
the Ambassador. Sailiones
throttle her The second
was an American who fell
over as soon as they landed
and (racked his skull. An
Egyptian vratchmau, attracted
by the noise, challenged the
party with his ancient rifle.
Maclean disarmed him and
started to swing the gun
round his head. A fellow
member of the Embassy tried
to take it away and slipped
down the bank* with six feet
four of Maclean on top of him,
He finished up with a broken
leg.
By this time the reluctant
host was prevailed on to un-
lock his door. The injured
American was carried in to a
bedroom, and out again when
they found their hostess was
there, unconscious from drink
and wearing only a pair of
slacks. Maclean had by now
terrified the Egyptian servant
into unlocking the drinks
cabinet and he took his col-
league with the broken leg a
bottle of gin as an anaes-
thetic.
- For a while he was maudlin
and coatrite. Then a taxi
- arrived and. he refused to ride
in it on the eccentric grounds
that the driver was an abor-
tionist. The battle-stained
party got back to Cairo the
following afternoon.
Miraculously the escapade
was hushed up but a second,
two months later, got into the
Egyptian Press. A writer
friend of Maclean's arrived in
town and got off to a bad start
by meeting an Ambassador's
wife without his trousers
on (they were being dried
after a mishap with a whisky
decanter). Later he embarked.
on a two-day blind with
Maclean and they finished by
forcing their way into a flat
belonging 1.0 the U S ambassa-
dor's secretary. They smashed
the furniture, dumped a lot
of her clothes in the lavatory,
and smashed the bath with a
marble shelf,
"It was marvellous to see
It go up in smithereens," the
writer enthused. Maclean's
orgy was less a matter for
aesthetic pleasure. He dis-
liked the girl because she was
American.
But even during Maclean's
Cairo crack-up, the occasions
for treason seem not to have
eluded him. For in Juke 1948,
two months before Maclean
left Washington, a new field
of ? maximum interest to
Soviet intelligence had been
opened to him. This was
the top secret negotiation of
the North Atlantic Pact, the
seminal Western initiative in
the developing Cold War.
Again Maclean's continuing
proximity to this is more
than a hypothesis. The State
Department letter, in one of
its most . pointed passages,
states Categorically that
" Maclean is known to have
had knowledge " of the
exchanges. But, more than
this, the letter suggests that
he was familiar with every-
thing which "led up to"
signature of the Pact in
April, 1949:
CO
'Cr
CD
'Cr
9
Cr)
C?1
C?1
171)
5-
- 0
LI-
0
5-
THE SUNDAY TIMES, 13 OCTOBER 1967
INSIGHT
PART Two Or THE PHILP CONSPIRACY
PrClIt INV; IP,A ON
MEN AND DOGS: Philby (above) at home with
mongrel Tessa. Guy Burgess (right), boiler-
suited, in Moscow after his defection
This gives a fresh perspec-
tive to the British Govern-.
anent's consistent insinuations
that Maclean's postings after
Washington provided him
with no opportunity for
Important espionage. Being
a "Grade A' embassy, Cairo
was kept informed on British
diplomacy across the board.
Maclean, as head of Chancery
was excellently placed to
monitor the continuing Wash-
ington talks.
The death
of a
secret army
WHILE MACLEAN was still
In Cairo, Philby had moved
into a new job in Washington.
He arrived there in October,
1949, and promptly began the
most savagely destructive
phase of his career.
Washington must have
seemed to Philby to be his
redemption after the purga-
tory of Istanbul. He went to
America as liaison man be-
tween Britain's SI S and the
American C I A. Now he was
at the heart of western in-
telligence?at a time when,
as a top C IA man of the
_period said, "relations
were closer than they have
been between any two services
at any time." "You must
remember," he said, "that at
this time the CIA regarded
themselves almost as
novices." And Philby was
acknowledged as perhaps
Britain's most brilliant opera-
,
Philby had particular value
to the CIA at this time.
Being the westetti expert on
the subject, he virtually set
up the CIA's anti-Soviet
espionage operation.
The damage Philby did
during his two years in Wash-
ington is almost impossible to
assess without considerably
greater access to secret infor-
mation than any newspaper
could hope to obtain. But we
have pieced together an
account of the worst disaster
that was ultimately charged
to Philby's acouirt, the Alban-
ian debacle.
The Volkov incident in
1945 had been a piece of
surgery, swift and casually
brutal. The Albanian debacle
five years later was altogether
a more considered and a
bloodier affair. What Philby
betrayed was an attempt by
Britain and America, at the
height of the Cold War, to
overthrow Russian influence
in Albania by means of
guerrilla-fomented uprisings.
For 17 years this has
remained one of the most
extraordinary secrets of the
Cold War. It has suited both
sides to leave it that way.
For the West, the Albanian
affair was a disaster costing
150 lives. For Russia it was
a nasty preview of what could
happen in other parts of her
uneasy empire.
In 1949, the weakest sector
of the Russian empire was the
Balkans. The Communist
rebels in Greece were on the
point of collapse. Jugoslavia
was Communist but had
broken with Russia. Even
Albania was unsteady. The
Jugoslav Communists had No
Albania since the war: notv
Tito's cooling had forced
Russia to move her own
"technicians" and
,,,":advisers 7 into
At this point the Foreign
Office and the American State
Department had the same
idea: could Albanian
nationalism be harnessed to
overthrow Russian influence?
Perhaps the process of dis-
affection might even be.
helped along a bit?
Ernest Sevin, the Foreign
Secretary, was adamantly
opposed to the idea. But
the Foreign Office contained
a vocal faction in favour
of establishing " resistance .
movements" in virtually
every country of occupied
eastern Europe. This was
enthusiastically supported by
the hairier denizens of S I S,
particularly the old S 0 E
operators who firmly believed
the dictum that " politics is
war carried on by other
means "?or as it might be,
the same means.
But, over Albania, Bevin
seems to have reckoned
without American pressure.
So far as the story can be
pieced together the factions
in the Foreign Office and the
S IS appear to have joined
forces with the hawks of the
State Department.
Bevin was persuaded to
sanction a " pilot experi-
ment" in subversion: a clan-
destine operation, to be
organised jointly by the S I S
and the C I A. to infiltrate
guerilla bands into Albania to
foment anti-Russian uprisings
The man responsible for
co-ordinating the British and
American halves of the joint
operation was, naturally, the
British liaison man in Wash-
ington, Kim Philby. His ex-
perience as ex-controller of
the Turkish station?the
biggest and most active in
that part of the world?made
his advice on clandestine
operations particularly valu-
.
rtainlY, 'tile- vocation
was well planned. One of the
first steps was the formation
around the summer of 1949
of a - Committee of Free
Albanians ", based in Italy,
and apparently a front organ-
isation for recruiting gueril-
las.
In the spring of 1950, the
guerrillas were ready to go.
First in small groups, then in
larger bands, they slipped up
into the mountains and over
the border into Albania. The
plan is said to have been that
the groups were to make for
their old homes and try to
stir up trouble there?taking
to the mountains if things got
too hot.
It was a disaster. The
Russians just seemed to know,
they were coming.
The reception was brisk'
and bloody. Within a month,
150 or so guerrillas?about
half the total force?were
either killed or captured,
along with a number of
Albanians at home who had
been unwise enough to wel-i
come the warriors. ,
The 150 survivors struggleiV,
back into Greece?to the em7.
barrassment of the Greek!
Government. The S IS in,
London had hastily to bully,
the bewildered Home Office!.
into allowing 150 mysterious
Albanians into Britain (where
a weird "welcome back ",.
party was thrown for them
at the Caxton Hall in Lon-
don). It is unclear whether
the Home Office was told the.
truth about these refugees_
.J
to one source thel'
Albanians were improbablyi
described as "good friends of
ours in Greece
,
The Ministry of Labour
then had the task of finding,
work for the crew. In the
end, the Forestry Commission,,
turned numbers of them inti
lumberjacks, and jobs wet
invented for most of th;
others at an ordnance fac-
tory. 1
The post-mortem on th ,
debacle was prolonged. Afte ;
a year opinion was still split. '
The Americans were uneasily
convinced of treachery. An
what few indications ttier
were pointed to Philby, the
thought. But in Britain th
S I S appear not to have ac-11
cepted even the evidence of
treachery. Without the ad-i
vantage of hindsight, the evi-{
dence at the time must,
certainly have seemed far,
from conclusive.
But knowing what is now
known of Philby, it is clear
that the Albanian expedition
?and, indeed, many other,
aspects of the information
flow between British and
American intelligence?must,
have been leaked t
Russians ,. The eft.
totally' 'EV diScretlit itt
eyes the-policy of " t
interventiim ' in Co nist
Europe, and to weaken it for
some years in America.
Philby would, no doubt,
have gone on holding this
crucial liaison job for some
more years, if it had not been
for developments in Maclean's
crumbling career at the
Foreign Office.
Maclean
cracks?and
is promoted
ON MAY 11, 1950, Maclean
boarded a London-bound
plane from Farouk field.
Melinda, now totally unable
to cope with him, had gone
to the ambassador, Sir Ronald
Campbell, pleading for him
to be sent home from Egypt.
The official verdict, probably
accurate enough, was that he
,iwas suffering from a nervous
breakdown.
After a medical board, the
Foreign Office gave him six
months leave in London on
condition that he underwent
a psychiatric course. They
had treated him generously
largely because senior F 0
officials felt he was arche-
typically one of their own. He
Looked so right, unlike Bur-
:gess, of whom one senior
1, official said after an inter-
view: "His qualifications are
adequate but what about his
'fingernails'"
The six-month break was of
i.very dubious benefit. He was
, helped through it mainly by
an experienced, aristocratic
woman friend, one of the few
women who ever seems to
have understood him. His
appointed analyst, a forbid-
ding Viennese lady he called
"Dr Rosie," was less helpful.
Following her advice to accept
his homosexuality without
guilt. he fell in love with a
Negro porter at a Soho club
?he repaid Maclean's dogged
devotion by beating him up.
Melinda returned from
Cairo only reluctantly, after
an extended affair with a
relative of King Farouk. noted
for his virility. Soon she was
talking of leaving again.
1 His intelligent woman
friend was Maclean's only
prop. She met him "recover-
ing from D Ts" in the coun-
try garden ef Lady Hender-
son, mother of " Nikko "
,Henderson, now British
Minister in Madrid. He con-
fided to her his sexual prob-
lems with Melinda and his
absurd, unrequited passion
ci for the porter.
And at her house he
hristeried his rater'
i" Gordon "?a reference to
the tusky boar illustrated on
an export gin bottle. He
had borrowed the idea from
a rumbustious writer friend
who had acquired the habit
of referring to his own
alter ego as "Charlie Pars-
ley."
He himself was drunk,
often and combatively. He
looked a wreck. Cyril
Connolly was appalled at the
decline, which he described
with his usual precision: " His
face was usually a livid yellow,
his hands would tremble. . . .
In conversation a kind of
shutter would fall as if he had
returned to some basic and
incommunicable anxiety."
At this period Maclean sent
a desperate letter from a
temporary address in Oxford
where he said his diet con-
sisted of "sedatives and pints
of bitter." His normally in-
hibited handwriting lurched
down the page as he wrote:
"There are two men in a car
waiting outside. They've been
there for four hours."
Are they after me? he
asked. And then with the
obsessional self-questioning
of a man undergoing analysis
he writ on to wonder whether
he had invented the strangers
in the car as a projection of
his own guilt.
His friends told him it was
all paranoiac nonsense. They
did not, of course, realise that
the remorse went deeper than
mere anxiety about the bouts
of drunkenness and homo-
sexuality.
Maclean's real worry was
that the security men were
on him. The Eumenides with
blood on their paws, as he
once called them, were out to
avenge his treachery in Wash-
ington. The other guilt was
an invention so he could tell
his friends how be felt,
though not why.
On the Soho circuit, there
were few people who did not
see him fighting (usually un-
successfully). And on one
farcical occasion at a club in
Carnaby Street he had dived
at the painter Rodrigo Moyni-
han and bitten him painfully
in the knee. The doppelginger
Gordon was thoroughly in
command.
He was also behaving with
mounting indiscretion. Mark
Culme-Seymour, a friend from
pre-war Paris days, remem-
bers an evening at the Gar-
goyle Club in Dean Street
when Maclean lurched about,
red-faced accosting other
patrons. "Buy me a drink,"
he said. "I am the English
Hiss."
But neither these well-
known escapades, nor the
Cairn debacle. were enough
for the Foreign Office to
jettison him. By the end of his
six months, he was passed tit
not merely for employment,
but for promotion, as if his
career had never been inter-
rupted. On Ncnember S. 1951,
he became 'Head of the F
American Department.
Since then. various
attempts have been made to
downgrade the importance of
this post, notably by Harold
Macmillan, in the 1955 de,?
bate, vs ho said that it dealt'
mainly with Latin-American
affairs: "The I: S questions
which are dealt with . are
largely routine, welfare ot
forces, visitors and the like."
As a description of the de-
partment's executive powers,
this was true enough. But
the best comment on it is
nevertheless Senator East-
land's scrawled in the margb
of the State Dertrnent
letter which quoted ,
"Nuts."
Power of action is one.
thing, access to informatioN,
another. In the Foreign
Office what matters as much.
as writing policy advice la
being on the top " distribution
lists" for other departmental
material. This was the
strength of the Head of the,
American Department.
For a period after starting?
his new job, Maclean seemed
am* improved. Every even-,
lng he caught the 5.19 from,
Charing Cross to Tatsfield int
Kent where be and Melindai
had bought an ugly house '
called Beaconshaw.
But in the new year, 1951,
he started drinking heavily
once mann. One, night in
Mask 'C a flat
he said, kpropos of nothing:
"What would you do HI said
I was working for Uncle
Joe?"
Later he added that every-
thing he did in the American
Department was designed to
assist Communism. Culme-
Seymour wondered Whether
he should report this conver-
sation, but decided that;
Maclean was probably just'
drunk. Anyway, he thought,
if there was anything in it,
MI5 would surely know
already.
? The particular help which
Uncle Joe was getting is
clearly indicated from the
State Department's account.
It was in two areas: the
Japanese Peace Treaty nego-
tiations and?what American
officials regarded as the most
specific item of destructive
activity ? the Korean War
strategy
Te S t ate Department
account says that Maclean
had full litio% ledge of the cri-
tical Ainerion decision to
"localise" the Korean conflict.
In November, 1950;?just after
Maclean had started his new
job, President Truman in-
structed General MacArthur .
not to carry the war across the
Manchurian border or to
blockade the Chinese coast,
even in the event of a Chinese
invasion of Korea.
MacArthur, backed by hili
intelligence chief General
C har les Willoughby, wad
always convinced that this -
?,priceless information hid
reached the Chinese via the ,
Russians. He went to his
graft certain not only of this,
which meant that the Chinese
could invade with impunity. ..4?
but of the enemy's fore- "
Anowiedge "of all our-..
strategic troop movements."... -
His belief was that the
leaky security of the British'
was the main culprit, some-,
kthing which the State Departti
ment document, with specific'
reference to Maclean, does
nothing to refute and much ??""
to confirm It establishes just
how badly Washington judged
Itself to have been burned by T-
Saina:leany's ure of the
cant Amerl-
''??
can
The
now
'
to clOse
BUT TT WAS not only
Maclean's personal crick-up' -
which made hil appointment
_remarkable. Even as he took" ir
his seat at ttie Amerlcais
desk, his 'wally had begun to
be dotiMet Tor two years,
British security men had been
on the trail of alayming
atomic leakages, and for at ?
least six months Maclean
self had been a pritielpid9I'
suspect.
The net was now be
to close. It was
known only to the ti t
circle in London and W
ton. But among those ke
informed of every move we
the resident SI S man
America, Kim Philby.
Now, for the first time, ttpir,
careers of Maclean and Pobillay
became critically intertwined.
men it was the fatal
For
h obuontter.
??
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