JAMES BOND WASN'T TYPICAL

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01350R000200270012-2
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: September 27, 2004
• Sequence Number: 12
• Publication Date: May 27, 1968
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2004/1(;blip,/,,&l P88-0135 1ROOO2OO27OO12-2
James
2 ? t? Y 1,
Su m V'asn , ypica
r".J''HE late Ian Fleming created a super-
ficial aura of invincibility about the qual-
ity of British secret service. Not that any-
one believed that James Bond was based on
reality; it just seemed in character to believe
that the home of Sherlock Holmes must possess
one of the best intelligence services in the
world.
Not so-and the year 1968 is likely to be the
year of our total disillusionment.
A series of spy books is in the process of
coming to market. Several of them center
around Harold A. R. (Kim) Philby, 56, today
living hi Russia and the greatest spy of
them all.
The trouble is that Britisher Philby, a Cam-
bridge man, was a spy for the Russians. He
fooled the British spy agencies so thoroughly
that he was able to do such things as:
4 Pretend to be a pro-Franco newspaperman
while covering the Spanish Civil War for a
London newspaper. He even was decorated
personally by General Franco, all the while
sending the Soviets information on Franco's
activities.
O Worm his way to become head of the
British counter-intelligence department created
to oppose Russia's postwar drive to control
Europe. As such, Philby once took "personal
charge" of an important Russian defector in
1945 (the defector knew about Philby) and
had the man quietly shipped back to Russia
and sudden death.
a Went to Washington where he got clear-
ance to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
secrets not even known to members of Con-
gress. If the late Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-
Wis., had known about. Philby the McCarthy
hearings might have ended differently.
O Worked with the CIA in setting up an
insurgency in Albania before the:Communist
regime had consolidated its power. Philby
made sure that the Allied infiltrators were met
at the beach by Albanian police.
T ,IE sad story of British secret service could
go on. Commander Crabbe, the. mysterious
frogman sent to explore the hull of a visiting
Russian warship, was an odd choice. He drank
heavily, was short of breath and couldn't swim
well without his flippers. Maybe the Russians
caught him-or maybe he just sank.
All of these things are included in a well- *i
researched book, "The Philby Conspiracy," by {/
three London newspapermen. It is Book of the
Month Club selection for July. It should bring
back painful memories among our British
cousins.
The authors come up with some conclusions
that are meatier than most spy-thriller endings.
They discuss the reasons for British vulner-
ability during the World War II days. One of
the chief reasons-relating to the fact that
Britain had never been invaded ideologically
since Elizabethan times-was that the British
governing mentality of .1940 was ideologically
naive.
The reasons why a man like Kim Philby
might turn against his own people just hadn't
been thought of in Britain-or weren't widely
known. Surprising, considering that Karl Marx
wrote :'Das Kapital" while living In London.
Approved For Release 2004/10/13 : CIA-RDP88-0135OR000200270012-2