JAMES BOND COULD HAVE LEARNED FROM PHILBY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 5
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 2000
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: November 12, 1967
• Content Type: NSPR

C
THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE
CPYRGPIi~proved For Release 2001/07/271tnUW DPZ8,00-' OR00060033
`or 30 years aelore the strip c 2 to
fussia in 1963, Britain's urope. -cy usf
agent A. Philby laver one of the most
successful-and trearc.-wrous-lies in all
spydom, and Lone 2 hasn't recovered yet.
LONDON.
N January, 1963,OHarold Adrian
Philby, known to all as "Kim,"
dis:;ppeared from Beirut, where
h" was working as a correspondent
of two British weeklies, The Observer
ono The Economist. Soon afterward,
iidward Heath, then the Government
spokesman, announced in answer to
s _luestion in the House of Commons
tnat Kim had skipped to the Soviet
Union. He added that, contrary to
w,-at his fellow spokesman Harold
iacmillan had said in 1955, Kim was
indeed the "third man" who had
dipped off rn,s fellow traitors Donald
Maclean and Guy Burgess in 1951,
enabling them, too, to defect to
Russia.
It was only about a year ago that
bits -nd pieces of evidence began to
add up. ' The clean escape of still
another traitor, George Blake, . from
Wormwood Scrubs Prison in London
in 1966 had been a pointer. Eleanor
Philby, Kim's last wife in the West,
was now separated from him and
ready to talk. It looked as if we
had underrated his importance as a
double agent. The Sunday Times of
:.ondon started a worldwide investi-
gation and hired me as consultant,
Our report has appeared over the last
month and has startled many people
in the United States as well as Britain.
To judge from Foreign Secretary
George Brown's antics at the Savoy
Hot,'', on Nov. 1, it has startled him.
So it's worth saying-contrary to
v.:. Brown's assertion then to The
Sunday Times' publisher and other
Tiers that the report "helped the
Russians"-that it contained nothing
which the Communists did not know
a,ready, though it probably had the
alutary effect of showing them that
we knew more about their subversion
than they suspected. On the other
hand, it told the p ;biic in the West,
who are not babies, some serf is
facts of life which they have ev y
right to know and to judge the n-
selves. Of course, the authorities
would have preferred to continue to
live a quiet life with those facts un er
the carpet, where they had lain r
so long.
My Foreign Office duties in the
nineteen-fifties and early sixties h d
placed me fairly and squarely in he
middle of the Anglo-American int li-
gence community. For some ye rs
I chaired the Joint Intelligence C
mittee, which included representati es
of our intelligence departments. it
Patrick Dean, now British Ambassa or
in Washington, was my immedi to
boss. Representatives of the C.! A.
sat in on our meetings, and in ret rn
the representative of the Brit sh
Secret Intelligence Service, otherw se
called MI6, was right in on e
American intelligence setup in Wa h-
ington. Philby had been that n
from 1949 to 1951. In 1956, 1 became
Foreign Office adviser to the chief of
the S.I.S., Sir Dick White. This, as
we shall see, was another cru al
year for Philby.
As a result of my position I was
less bewildered than some by th se
chilling developments. I knew fr m
experience that deception was one of
the cardinal principles of espionage.
Many of my best friends were sp s
-but spies in their own countri s'
interest.
While the public at large was
stunned by the news, the authorit s
were clamming up. But portent as
questions remained. Could this hig 1y
respected member of M16 really ha e
been a Communist agent at the sa e
time? If so, for how long?, W t
about security? How did he get aw y
with it in 1951, when the C.I.A. a d
the F.B.I. as well as his own serv' e
were hot on his trail? Finally, what
inspired a cultivated member oft e
n is upper classes to do this bru-
tally disruptive thing? It all made
James Bond look like a milksop and
his exploits like small beer.
As with all of us, Kim's parents
and upbringing provide- some clues.
His father, St. John Philby, a scholar
of a top British school, Westminster,
and of Cambridge University, as Kim
was also, began life as a conventional
member of the Indian Civil Service.
Kim was born in India in 1912. But
St. John became decidedly eccentric:
as time went .on. When I first met.
him in Cairo in 1946 he had become
the personal adviser of King Ibn Saud
and a Moslem. He had been briefly
interned in Britain during the war on
grounds of doubtful loyalty, and lived
by preference in Saudi Arabia. His
normal-looking English wife told me
that she was quite happy to put on
the veil and live in the harem. I
heard old St. John tell his son that
he must always carry through to the'
bitter end whatever he thought right.
Kim has certainly done that, and sur
passed his father in outrageousness
into the bargain.
I WAS at Cambridge in the early
thirties with- Philby, Maclean and
Burgess-what a mob!-though I met
them only when I was a diplomat in
later years and then only casually.
Looking pack, I can see, with an
effort, how the atmosphere at the
university could lead to pro-Commu-
nism among some intellectuals. Brit-
ish society then was stuffy and con-
servative. The ruling Tory party was
both pompous and ineffectual; the
Labor party just plain ineffectual.
Hitler had appeared and no one was
doing anything about him. War was
on the way and only the Communists
seemed 'really interested in averting
it. Consequently, a good few-intel-
lectuals turned to the extreme left,
tiEOFFREXp lilt RM3g1e~[ a 2001/07/27: CIA-RDP75-00149R1 )0600330028-3
years in t1P i!'is0liV~liploma C emce. I
He now writes on foreign affairs.
Continued
 -Approved -FctpWLee*e,1/07/27CIA-RDP7 -00149R000600330028-3
GUY BURGESS-Right, as a ca-
reer British diplomat; far right, in
Russia after his and co-conspirator
Maclean's flight from England in'
1951. Philby first came under sus-
picion as the "third man" in .that
widely 'publicized episode.
HAROLD ADRIAN PHILBY -
Right, the man who once headed the
counterespionage section of British
Intelligence, in London in the early
fifties; far right, a photo of Philby
made by his son John this September
2 NOV 1967 . e /27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3
im rtan post m ovie me igence. Continued
 h (w fAppbwdir1wFtI*asFePS1W g ROIL?69b ~-b~ setting up
U pion justified their idealistic hopes. ` Va ? Ai a u arf u'f-~ RL the American Office of Stra-
F w turned toward the United States edges of the B.B.C. (where tegic Services under the well-
b cause, again out of ignorance, they he was able to influence the named Gen. "Wild Bill" Dono-
content of a series of news van. This developed after the
E t ropean to affairs, consider it brash and remote over-rich. from commentaries) and the F.O. _. war into the mighty Central-
(Foreign Office). What better Intelligence Agency. Thus he
Most of these men, having "gone than to plant their ablest man
Communist" in greater or lesser of all, Philby, at the very cen- was in on the ground floor of
d gree, had the good sense to turn ter-in the British Secret In- not only the British but also
a ay again, but not Philby. He be- telligence Service itself. the American espionage organ-
c me not merely a Communist but That service had existed for ization. a carefully controlled Communist in- some time, but in a highl When the United States
y came into the war, all was
w thout, of course, troubling to see .1 the shape o Maclean. He was sistance movements in Europe.:
like many British enthusiasts,
rushed off to cover the Civil
War in Spain, but with a dif-
ference from most of his
friends-for he went to the
H
t
h
ld
ber of White s, one of the most .?;,I success, and he was de
??P ilby lived a lie every moment of Old-World clubs in London's ;htsu to be told by Moscow:
the day and night. He mar- Old-World St. James's. He and step up his spying on them.
ried four wives; he produced one or two other close cronies ; ien, by a combination -of
five children; he had plenty of would discuss possible re-
mistresses; he drank like a cruits over the claret, port and _,ck inside the S.I.S. and judg-
fish. He was handsome, soci- cigars. They all agreed that, ,cent by Philby, the, perfect.:
ally easy. The,only outward provided a man came from a opportunity for his double
sign of strain was a stam- good family, school and uni- game was afforded him. The
mer, which varied in intensity versity like themselves, he was British on their side realized.
and which some girls found' to be trusted. Not so the lesser that they were in for a long
attractive. In all this career breeds. And you couldn't be tussle with the Soviet Gov-
of duplicity, he slipped only' quite sure of the clever ones. ernment. In 1944 they set up
three times, and in different Consequently, not all the re-' a powerful counterespionage
he of away with it each section to keep a sharp eye on
ways
g Y cruits in those days were as
Their Communist Allies. You
time. bright as they might have can guess who, was appointed
been. Philby was of the right head of it.
11-0 J HILBY'S first assignment social background, presenta-
ble, highly intelligent but not
to appear to be a pro-Nazi. ha isodrinki andcknew how to in de. As head of this- depart-
trore pleasure. jor general who was a mem- Plulby had a particular dislike
In other words for 30 long years . of American power and mate-
ited States, and deceiving his w
the "old boy most dangerous enemies in the
in
recruited
were r
f ends and colleagues in doing 'so. net." The head of the service long run would be its Allies
_1 is difficult to say which gave him at the time was a retired ma- of the moment, the Americans.
a possible about Britain and the been discontinued over the to judge, correctly, that its
)
1 members
t
10 e r
It s
t ligence agent in 1933, while still amateurish way. Its heads apparently sweetness and light
a Cambridge. Thus, from the age of were by tradition retired mem- between the Western and East-
27, his life was wholly dedicated to bers of the fighting forces, of ern Allies in the anti-Hitler
two things: passing on to his Moscow; less than the highest caliber. coalition. But it did not take
sters as much valuable information' (This tradition has, thank God,,. ;he Soviet Government long
he ment it was ? his duty to see
e admitted to
o
it.
youthful follies of having been all the vital intelligence he
both a Nazi and a Communist could, whether from British,
sympathizer. Of course, he American or other sources.
said, those days were over. So Any interceptions of Soviet in-
outhful excesses were. telli
the
n
in
were
hi
b
y
ge
ce
.
s
us
ess
Franco side for The London
Times and earned a Fascist laughed off and it was reek- too, and he was responsible
decoration for his devotion to : oned to. his credit that he had for countering all. clandestine
duty. This was no mean be- come clean about them. Secu- 1 operations or subversion at
ginning for a young double rity was considered a "bit of a, tempts by the Communists.
agent. bind anyway while there were Since he was, unknown to his
Like Maclean and Burgess, urgent clandestine matters to ; British employers and Amer-,
Philby found no difficulty in be done. Kim was welcomed' lean friends, involved in some
avoiding the call-up. A lot with open arms. of these- in his dual role, the
could be done through influ- central power for evil which
ential friends in those days. ICE flourished. As soon as he wielded was enormous.
He had a spell with the Briti?h Added to this, he of course
the Soviet Union became our ! the Expeditionary Force in France ally in June, 1941, matters' knew organization of. both
h B
t
h
1940 with the remnants of
that force. Now the big stuff
really began.
The Soviet - Secret Service
already had their agent in the
British Diplomatic Service in
as The Times war correspond-
ent, and returned to Britain in
e nos
and American
were even easier for him than'
before. He took a hand in secret services in detail } and
organizing the Special Oper-' could betray it 'to the Russians .
ations Executive (s.O.E.)I as it developed from day to
branch of the S.LS., a lot of
swashbuckling amateurs who
went around blowing things
up and helping to organize re-
CPYRGHTI
2 NOV 1967 Continued
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3 '
 'CPYRGHT
K)
wolu
4
Q~v F RF2el s 2001/Q7/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3
day. It all "s~Stlid~ a~I> osto obi efor ~fhe top job in the field- ity, and so on. MI5 began to' Perhaps he was in a relaxe
bad to be true. It was - by both Western and Commu- keep an eye on him though, mood on these particular occat
almost. - nist estimation-the Washing- astonishingly, he had been sions. Like many others whq
Philby's first slip occurred ton station. Here he was in given an important post in' knew him far better than
in August, 1945, over what is. the most intimate daily con-: the F.O. did, I noticed absolutely noth
known as the Volkov case. A tact with the C.I.A. and the l The time came, in May,', ing suspicious about him.
Russian using that name got F.B.I. The Volkov case was 1951, when these two realized, '
in touch with the British Em- forgotten. He was regarded that Britain was no longer a' L-I-;iLBY had to be removed
bassy in Turkey and offered by the Americans as just about healthy place for them. They; from the S.I.S., but no more
to defect. He undertook to the ablest British operator, were tipped off by the ~"third' stringent measures were taken
bring with him a lot of invalu- and relations between ' the i ~.
I man and left at a moment's agu;nst him, because the case
able information on the or. clandestine organizations were notice for the Soviet Union. was "not proved." This point
ganization of the Soviet Secret perhaps closer than they had That third man was Philb
Services and in particular on - ever been. Y was made in statements in the
Or was he? ,.f T
-of a time limit which the Rus- """ ",."'?b ierenuy. uammit, rne. rener?si isn was resumed.
Sian had set. Clearly after what was consid-, a gentleman, one of us, wasj In the twilight years that
y Volkov ered due preparation, we in- the attitude (it overlooked the; followed 1951, Philby lived,
was a threat to him and his filtrated well-armed bands into fact that Maclean and Burgess poorly, on odd bits l
'networkat He therefore took Albania -which, according to came into the same category).. ism or anything elsethat came
behind the scenes, By the our intelligence, was about Then there was no love lost his way. Most of his British'
ready to throw off the Soviet between 5 and 6, rather as. is ! friends remained faithful to
time wasarrived
longer, in Turkey, yoke. Success there might e case sometimes between him and helped him as and
a polite word, available, in have had far-reaching conse- he C.I.A. and the F.B.I. More, when they could. He con
unnces in sti 1 t' t
mu a
was referred to Philby as head a ~ ' -- --J--- "` , LW uuuU`s U'uuuL ii. Vila wash nappuy, close couaooratlon in
joint C.I.A.-S.I.S. operation practically certain. But his; the intelligence sphere be-
of the counterespionage de- in AIhania Aid not Clint,. hi.
q
mg unres
i it , he had been removed throughout Eastern : Europe.
reef first in a Soviet military But there was no question of
aircraft. It struck a colleague success. It was a fiasco. The
of Philby's at the time that infiltrators were methodically
either he had been highly in- met and slaughtered. About
competent, which was not his 50 per cent of the force of
habit, or that he had been up 300 struggled back into Greece.
to a double game. IeThe C.I.A. man who organized
But his colleague assumed the operation with Philby has.,
point.. They were, but not
with much force. No conclu-
sive evidence came to light.
the F.B.I., would be onto that
organization. But before go-I' pointed to a good post in the nun right up to his defection, der.ce that Philby had indeed
ing to Washington to com-'; British Embassy in Washing- said that until Philby's own been the "third man" and he
had -helped to advise on its, who, amazingly, was ap-.. riend, who kept in touch with mons that he had firm evi-
grubby homosexual f"""`C snence. in's same.. stated in the House of Com-
garded as elder brothers who,, was a
there was strong anti-Amer-:_ tinued to drink and wench as
lean feeling in MI6, based much as he could afford to
..
mainly on envy of the tre- The charm remained. MI5
mendously increasing `power watched shim, and he watched
4f the C.I.A. Some M16 men them watching him. Clearly.
pointed out irrelevantly 'that'??his Moscow masters were ini,
the United States was not] touch with him and instructed
blameless in the matter of him to play it quietly. He has!
spawning traitors.. Finally, since said that, chafing at the
Philby's defenders asserted. inaction after the days of
that he was a victim of Mc- i splendor, he longed to finish
Carth
ism
y
. it and go to Moscow.. But his
treachery was Philby's. But Philby was recalled from
once again it could not be orders were to stay.
Washington and interro
at
d
g
e
. In 1955 he got another lucky
pinned on him. by his service and M15. His; break. These happened so
Philby's next slip - up fin-
ichnil l of d tactics were to sit tight and . often in his life that we may
--.,
ubt. double agent in the West- He Keep MUM A friend of mine J, well suppose there was some,
The C.I.A. was set up in was, in a sense, forced into it who knew him well said that Communist-inspired manipula-
1947, and Philby along with; by his traitor colleagues Mac- he almost drove his interro- tion behind -the scenes. A
pound his treacheries, Philby'' ton when Philby, was there. confession at the end of 1962 asked then Foreign Secretary
land of his masters. He took' attention to himself by his, proved to be the truth. He it;' Macmillan, atter consult
over the highly important; stupid behavior. Philby re-.. commented that,. while he, fug his F.O. and S.I.S. advisers,
Istanbul station, from' where . mained friendly with him, in liked-_ Philby and admired his' replied that it was nonsense.
it. was his duty to operate not spite of this and of the fact professional skill, he was never Lipton claimed that he had
only into the Soviet Union but. that he was not even an effi- sure what made him tick. My his information from "a secu-
into the Communist Balkans. cieht Communist spy. He was friend was not alone in this. rity source," which suggests
He operated there all right, , soon sent back to London by From my few meetings with I MI5. The question here would
but not quite in the way his the Embassy. ~ him in the Middle East in the seem to be: Who was fooling
head office in London in- Maclean was another kettle forties and fifties I remember . whom?
TheF.O. evidently thought
tended. All this time his col- of fish. He had procured in- I an apparently normal member
league Maclean- was spying valuable atomic information ! of the British upper class- that the poor fellow had been,
away most effectively on the for his Moscow masters, but amusing, intelligent, ; good-
Urr.'*ed States atomic secrets he cracked under the strain of' looking. He always drank
frc.., his post in the British ' his double life. In Cairo and, more than he should; so did
Embassy in Washington. ' later in London his days and a good many other people in
By October, 1949, Philby, nights were a whirl of drunk-' diplomatic circles. I ' never
though still on y 37, was ready epness,,violence, homosexual-. found' his, stammer obtrusive. . COnt rolled
12 NOV 1967 Approved For Release. 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3
 0
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3
hardly done by. So they now At last-it was by now 1962
gave him semiofficial backing -he slipped w,) and revealed'
in getting the Middle East a piece of in:',,rination (con-
correspondent's job on The cerning one the complex
Observer - and The Economist. operations in ,Lich they were
Cantered in Beirut, he could both involved) that pointed
travel widely and make useful, indubitably?at'the 011th about
~,; aim, Communist contacts Philby.
aii over that part of the world. A personal friend Philby's
Shortly after this, Sir Dick
White became 'head of S.I.S.
is head of M15 he had had
-cave suspicions of Philby's
toyal?ty. He decided to make
the most of a bad job and
gave him some small assign-
ments in the hope that he
would betray himself through
his conduct of these oper-
ations. I became 'Foreign
Office adviser to White later
in 1956. 1 can confirm that
Philby never tripped up.
in his spare time he seduced
and married the American
wife of an American journal-
ist who was a close friend.
His father, St. John, robust as
ever in his 70's, visited Beirut
and father and son had some
lively parties together.- How-
ever, the nightclubs finally
proved too much for the old
chap, and he died, uttering the,
memorable words: "I'm bored."
.`s son was shattered by his
' f ET another traitor enters
'the Philby story at this point.
George Blake, who had doubt-
less been under_ Philby's con-
trol in the good old days when
he was riding high, had done
his diabolical work as S.T.S.
man and double agent. in
Berlin from 1954 till 1959, and
he felt he deserved a rest. So'.
did his grateful but unwitting.
head office in London and
they sent him to M.E.C.A.S.
(the Middle East- Center for
Arab Studies) just outside
Beirut. Naturally, his equally
grateful but by no means un-
witting other head office, in
Moscow, had no objection at
ail to getting together with
his fellow traitor once. more.
it was not for long. That
same year, a contact of Blake's
came clean to our side and
incriminated him. He was
brought to London, where he
confessed his guilt. He was
sent to prison for.42 years, a
record sentence.
' Inside prison, he was treated
very well, and further interro,
gated in .a gentlemanly way.
was sent to Beirut ir, Decem-
ber, 1962, to have it out. Now
Philby saw the garn;?' was up;
perhaps even he 'rat he had
played it long enough. Be-
sides, he was sure he could
go where he most wanted to
be.
Philby confessed. to his still
incredulous friend. Among
a long list of treacherous acts
he confessed to being the
"third man" in 1951, Allen
Dulles. had no doubt of this
when he wrote about the mat-
ter in 1963. And this is gen-
erally accepted. If a lurking
doubt still remains it is be-
cause Philby's whole life was,
devoted to deception and parts
of his confession could well
have been bogus -too. He
might have been protecting
the real "third man" so that
he could continue his activ-
ities among us.
HAD I been in his interro-
gator's place I would have felt
strongly inclined to slip Philby
a Mickey Finn and whip him
off to London. But the letter
of the- law was strictly ob-
served. Philby was still inno-
cent until proved guilty by
due judicial process. And it
was thought that the Lebanese
authorities might have re-
sented firm action of this kind
-which I very much doubt.
It would, of course, 'have been
useless for his newspapers to
summon him. back; he would
not have obeyed.
And so, taking his time to
the last, and deceiving his new
wife just as he had deceived
the rest of them, Philby made
his arrangements to depart. A
few weeks later, in January,
1963, he did so, by night on a
Soviet ship.
His son John Philby visited
him in Moscow last September.
He reported that Kim was
looking younger and more re-
laxed. His stammer has gone.
True to form, he has removed
Maclean's American wife, Me-
linda, from him, without both-
ering to inform his legal wife,
Eleanor. This spy has come in
from the cold. Or, in Kim's
own words, "I have come
home."
He has been joined by his
colleague in treachery, George
Blake, who was easily re-
moved from his London prison
by his Communist friends.
Kim holds an important posi-
tion in the K.G.B., the Soviet
Security and Intelligence De-
partment. Between them, they
should have many more years
of activity in the cause to
which they have devoted their
lives.
One theory is that Philby is
now a treble agent, busily,
penetrating the K.G.B. in the
Western cause. ' It is true that
with Philby almost anything is
possible.. But this, I fear, is
wishful thinking. 'Had it Over
been a remote possibility, it
.would by now have been
blown to pieces as a result of
speculation about it in the'
West. I believe what Kur
said straight to Eleanor when
she went to see,him in Mos=
cow in October, 1963: That he
had dedicated himself wholly
to the Communist cause since.
h.is student days and would
stick to it rather than to his
family. I believe the judgment
of a close friend of his who
told me Philby did it from
"idealism," however grotesqut,.
that may seem. .
There are all too many signs
of disagreement and disrup-
tion in -the non-Communist
world today. Men like Philby
and their agents everywhere
will be quick to recognize any
weakness - human, political,
economic - and to exploit it
to the full.
The supply of traitors un-
happily always seems ample
to meet the- demand, Since
the very future of humanity is
involved, it is up to us all to
ponder the lessons of the
macabre Philby story. ^
t967
Approved For Release 2001/07/27 : CIA-RDP75-00149R000600330028-3