ESPIONAGE LESSON

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330018-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 18
• Publication Date: November 27, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

Approved For Release 2001/07/27: CIA IDP O'f2r9R000600330018-4
CPY espionage Lesson
T'i nr the
from Lebanon to Russia four years ago, ment, the FBI and the CIA developed
Br
'
itain
s Harold Philby has emerged grave doubts about him, and they were-
had to say becomes him. Boastful. Burgess and Maelean In timeto enable
self-satisfies, unrepentant, arrogant and them to escape from Britain to Russia.
Y V .{,JtJV..4 t..{Y.
spying for the Kremlin did incai -- - -_.O.? .
cula- Not until 1962 were the I3r1 i.;h ready
try.
_ _._ . . . .
hie harm to his own co
un
to the
large. And he is glad of it. Certain questions nag the mind. How
.The Philby career began at Cam- did this living lie manage to get away
bridge in - 1933 when he became a Corn- with his crime for so long? Why did the
munist and a Soviet espionage agent. His British and American espionage people ;14
rise in the British Secret Service was fail to make swift and thorough tests of
spectacular, as was the role he played the validity of the suspicions they felt
here in Washington, from 1949 to 1951, every now and then, from 1945 on? A,.
as Britain's representative with ready fearful degree of official laxity and slip- ? '?
access to American intelligence agencies shod security seems to have been
-and to an appalling amount of the Philby's salvation.
most highly classified information. We must hope the lesson has been
There were times when Philby almost? learned. Memories of the excesses of
got caught. Almost but not quite. In 1945, McCarthyism should not inhibit in any
for instance, some of his colleagues had way quiet, complete, systematic, con-
fleeting suspicions about his conduct in " tinuous vigilance against treason such ' l
a
l
k
d
c
oa
-an
-dagger incident involving as Philby's. The threat is not imagi-
the death of.a defecting Russian. Later,nary. It. can.-happen here.,
N. 3
United States and to the free world at ' vent his flight to safe Soviet haven
Approved For Release 2001/07/27: CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330018-4.