Maclean began his spying in the pre-war years when Foreign Office security was non-existence. In the 1930s, a time of worldwide depression, with Hitler rising in power, student communism raised no security concerns.īut in later years, when the Soviet Union emerged as a threat to the West, Maclean’s early background somehow did not draw any serious scrutiny, He decided to “brazen it out,” replying that “I haven’t entirely shaken them off.” When interviewed for the Foreign Office, Maclean was asked about his “strong communist views” while at Cambridge. Maclean possessed four desirable qualities of a secret agent: “an inherent class resentfulness, a predilection for secretiveness, a yearning to belong, and an infantile appetite for praise and reassurance.” He was given the code name “Waise” in German, meaning “Orphan.” “Kim” Philby who culminated his career as counterintelligence chief for British intelligence, Maclean was the most effective agent.Ĭampus communists inevitably drew the attention of Soviet recruiters. He also gained access to Maclean family papers.Īside from H.R. Roland Phillips, who had a long career in London publishing, uses newly-released British archives to add fresh details on the oft-told story of the five Cambridge students recruited as Soviet agents the 1930s.
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