A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal

Mr. Ben Macintyre has written a book ostensibly about Kim Philby, the English traitor before, during and after WW2. The most interesting and affected persons in this horrid saga: George Clutton, Edgar Hoover, Nick Elliott, Peter Lunn, Meredith Gardner, Guy Liddell, Bill Harvey, Philby’s own family and several others have their entrails left almost untouched. That is a shame and bad history.Spies do not, as the author asserts in this case, ooze from the home team on to the other side. Quite the contrary there is an Ah Ha moment in their relationship, occasionally dramatic, when the case officer knows he has hoked the pigeon. Thus, it was with the brilliant Arnold Deutsch, Philby’s recruiter, guide, philosopher, trainer and friend. Until he was executed. Philby was a Soviet asset while executions during the Great Purge thinned his superiors’ ranks.The author advances a barely cogent and certainly incomplete argument argument that Elliott and Lunn left Philby, shriven, alone, and unguarded in Beirut while Elliott returned to London to negotiate the terms of Philby’s retirement to the East. The British government of the day could not afford the barrage of inculpatory fact that would bring it down and smudge the Security Services perhaps forever. Not a few including this writer believe that Moscow was asked or perhaps begged to welcome their boy home. An overly skeptical few opined later that the Brits had payed Moscow to receive Philby and put him in an attic room reserved for a dotty aunt. Philby’s exfiltration was not hurriedly planned or executed. The purported nephew of the Dolmatova’s skipper accosted this writer in a foreign land and asserted that Philby was taken aboard that bucket of rust and sailed from Beirut thru international waters to Odessa with Philby settled drowsily in a locked cabin. Why was the ship in port just when needed?This book is salted with errors and omissions. Who in London decided Philby’s tasks? One does not just sit for hours in Arab coffee joints and listen to the day’s gossip. One recruits and meets agents and sends good dope to where it should be sent. The author does not disclose Philby’s specific requirements. Who and where were his agents and sub agents? Philby did not cause the Albanian debacle. The Albanians discussed the matter among themselves well before the event. Who had skin in this game? Was the Beirut station chief unaware of events in his parish? How closely did MI-6’s Director measure Philby’s accomplishments and failures? Did Philby work for a British boss in London or in Beirut? How did Philby’s work influence his government’s policies? Philby was fired…justly. And without any admission that he had influenced his government on his own in any way. Intelligence services serve policy makers who work for the electorate. The author sets up Philby and colleagues on both sides as pseudo governments of their own who worked on their own as they pleased. Why? Who was the driving force behind his re-employment? Detour on the road to a Marxist Damascus? Did Philby have a sponsor in the CFO or in parliament? It wasn’t Marcus Lipton. Why would any service keep employed an extravagant alcoholic with a tangled domestic life and uncertain loyalties? The author fails to note that many members of the US Intelligence community stayed away from Philby because of his personal life and unusual behavior. Not all saw him as a glamorous all- knowing figure from across the pond mostly because to at least a few he was obnoxious and condescending. A small minority, Hoover among them, despised him as they did Angleton. Why keep Elliott as the negotiator/caretaker/confident and Ambassador to London? His position in the narrative emerges just as important as Philby’s even though they had not worked together for years. Their time lines and Elliott’s ubiquity in this story trouble. Elliott’s family is given as principal sources for the book. Fair enough. Anything else? Elliott and Lunn’s subordinates must have been mute and deaf. Why?Sir George Clutton’s post as HM Amb. did not please him. We attended Mass together at the Irish Columbans in Manila and never spoke. I was exceedingly junior. I knelt at the appropriate times. He remained upright leaning against a stone column every damn Sunday. I never knew why. He was wifeless, childless and solaced himself with a solitary life. Few knew him. Fewer still believed he existed. Many saw Christopher Biggs RIP a gallant and dear friend as the real ambassador, not Clutton. He was nearly blind and an art critic of repute. He knew Blunt and his circle. Upon his return to London he was assigned as the “Advisor”, an intimate of the Cabinet who must sign off on unofficially covered agents before dispatching them abroad. Overnight Clutton became a very important gent in Whitehall’s pantheon. Who asked Clutton to sign? He was iron stubborn. He refused to sign the document that permitted Philby to take up his post in Beirut for the ultimate benefit of his masters in Moscow giving no reason except his elegant if dilatory attendance upon such matters. He left Philby’s permit for his successor to sign. Does not the refusal of some-one as important as the “Advisor” suggest something may be out of joint? The author gives short shrift to this fascinating non-incident. So did Clutton’s colleagues. Clearly a pro Philby faction existed in the FCO as well as a group that considered Philby a bummer. Clutton later was HM Amb. To Poland.The author mentions that his Russian hosts did not trust Philby as much as was wanted. Of course no member of any Intelligence Service trusts members of another service. Did Philby trust Elliott to make a deal with the Vashni – the important ones in London - to let him live or did Elliott trust Philby sufficiently to wait while he, Elliott, negotiated with their joint superiors? Philby must have known that his chance of living a full life in Russia were fifty-fifty at best Philby’s work as a committee man in Washington was superb. He got himself appointed to different groups where he could embargo critical sections of the Venona messages and thwart the superb work of Meredith Gardner. He protected himself and other Soviet assets for several years. That accomplishment alone was worth a Hero Of The Soviet Union Grade 5 decoration.. The author does not credit Philby sufficiently for this subsidiary but priceless ploy. Further, exasperated readers cannot discover from this book who Philby’s agents were and who voted with him in the day to day work of running two intelligence services while advancing the cause of a third. We read much about lengthy lunches, but littleShortly after WW2’s end Jimmy Angleton, Richard Helms plus Mrs. X RIP foregathered bibulously in Rome and concluded that Italy had at most 90 days before it toppled. Thus, began the war of posters well described elsewhere. This prescient group also assembled and distributed guns to a band of tough Milanese and former anti-communist resistants who nightly bashed targeted Reds. Good guys won 10 to 3. The Reds in Livorno held out (to this day). They hated Americans and their navy for having shelled their city into purgatory and almost the other place. It was this act of helping Italy survive Communist efforts to control the country that gratified Angleton most. Philby was never to be seen or heard during these parlous days, Why not? Possibly, only possibly, Philby had concerns for his post WW2 career path. To have converted Italy would have ensured a retirement dacha with three bedrooms on the Black Sea. Philby’s betrayal blotted his and others’ careers almost fatally, but Jimmy had other arrows in his quiver. Without doubt he had enemies within. This writer was forbidden, like swathes of others all over the U. S. Government from working with Angleton-tout court. Later, Philby’s relationships with his American friends were examined for wrong doing time out of mind. On the Philby side MI-6’s tawdry and blundering effort to exfiltrate Philby from Beirut still raised unanswered questions. In a small way this lacuna exonerates the American Intelligence community. Philby was forced to leave the game sedated and confined aboard a tired antique bottom ready for the breaker’s yard. Philby’s overt efforts to destroy both American and British Intelligence services failed. about agent’s meetings and the difficulties of handling awkward assets.The incoming British Head of Station calls on his mates in the diplomatic Pantheon and anyone else who can do him harm or good. Sycophants and supplicants are legion. During these sometimes extended conversations deals are made, agreements are broken and new scams put into play. Records of these contrivances hostile and friendly are carefully recorded by their participants, but absent from Philby’s story. Jimmy made his personal telephone calls after work outside his office. Philby’s ghost stayed with Angleton till his end of days. Many if not most of Washington’s senior Intelligence Community attended his Unitarian funeral most out of curiosity. Years ago, on a rainy afternoon at the Army Navy club in Washington DC Angleton sat at a small table two feet from the author and telephoned: “They’re after me. I need help.” Angleton was Philby’s friend. He had enemies. Jimmy feared prosecution from somebody and needed money for a legal team. He had little family money. Exotic Orchids cost. Breaking the habit of a life time I rose from our joint table and walked away. I never did know the result of this conversation.The author has written a slick narrative that is a cover story aimed at covering another story that covers a porous narrative that will never be fully explicated. Philby was the wooden doll. Andrew Lownie in his Burgess book wrote about the world of espionage in the context of a declining society served by a malignant intelligence service itself founded and funded to serve and protect the Realm. It is a singular contribution to the field in method and substance. Is it not time for others to stop telling spy stories advanced by those who know little of their sometimes-horrible truths? I think so. Philby’s career was Kabuki Theater. Nobody caught the movements until after the curtain fell.Please! The proper phrase is “Trade Craft” not “Spy Craft.Mr. Ben Macintyre has written a book ostensibly about Kim Philby, the English traitor before, during and after WW2. The most interesting and affected persons in this horrid saga: George Clutton, Edgar Hoover, Nick Elliott, Peter Lunn, Meredith Gardner, Guy Liddell, Bill Harvey, Philby’s own family and several others have their entrails left almost untouched. That is a shame and bad history.Spies do not, as the author asserts in this case, ooze from the home team on to the other side. Quite the contrary there is an Ah Ha moment in their relationship, occasionally dramatic, when the case officer knows he has hoked the pigeon. Thus, it was with the brilliant Arnold Deutsch, Philby’s recruiter, guide, philosopher, trainer and friend. Until he was executed. Philby was a Soviet asset while executions during the Great Purge thinned his superiors’ ranks.The author advances a barely cogent and certainly incomplete argument argument that Elliott and Lunn left Philby, shriven, alone, and unguarded in Beirut while Elliott returned to London to negotiate the terms of Philby’s retirement to the East. The British government of the day could not afford the barrage of inculpatory fact that would bring it down and smudge the Security Services perhaps forever. Not a few including this writer believe that Moscow was asked or perhaps begged to welcome their boy home. An overly skeptical few opined later that the Brits had payed Moscow to receive Philby and put him in an attic room reserved for a dotty aunt. Philby’s exfiltration was not hurriedly planned or executed. The purported nephew of the Dolmatova’s skipper accosted this writer in a foreign land and asserted that Philby was taken aboard that bucket of rust and sailed from Beirut thru international waters to Odessa with Philby settled drowsily in a locked cabin. Why was the ship in port just when needed?This book is salted with errors and omissions. Who in London decided Philby’s tasks? One does not just sit for hours in Arab coffee joints and listen to the day’s gossip. One recruits and meets agents and sends good dope to where it should be sent. The author does not disclose Philby’s specific requirements. Who and where were his agents and sub agents? Philby did not cause the Albanian debacle. The Albanians discussed the matter among themselves well before the event. Who had skin in this game? Was the Beirut station chief unaware of events in his parish? How closely did MI-6’s Director measure Philby’s accomplishments and failures? Did Philby work for a British boss in London or in Beirut? How did Philby’s work influence his government’s policies? Philby was fired…justly. And without any admission that he had influenced his government on his own in any way. Intelligence services serve policy makers who work for the electorate. The author sets up Philby and colleagues on both sides as pseudo governments of their own who worked on their own as they pleased. Why? Who was the driving force behind his re-employment? Detour on the road to a Marxist Damascus? Did Philby have a sponsor in the CFO or in parliament? It wasn’t Marcus Lipton. Why would any service keep employed an extravagant alcoholic with a tangled domestic life and uncertain loyalties? The author fails to note that many members of the US Intelligence community stayed away from Philby because of his personal life and unusual behavior. Not all saw him as a glamorous all- knowing figure from across the pond mostly because to at least a few he was obnoxious and condescending. A small minority, Hoover among them, despised him as they did Angleton. Why keep Elliott as the negotiator/caretaker/confident and Ambassador to London? His position in the narrative emerges just as important as Philby’s even though they had not worked together for years. Their time lines and Elliott’s ubiquity in this story trouble. Elliott’s family is given as principal sources for the book. Fair enough. Anything else? Elliott and Lunn’s subordinates must have been mute and deaf. Why?Sir George Clutton’s post as HM Amb. did not please him. We attended Mass together at the Irish Columbans in Manila and never spoke. I was exceedingly junior. I knelt at the appropriate times. He remained upright leaning against a stone column every damn Sunday. I never knew why. He was wifeless, childless and solaced himself with a solitary life. Few knew him. Fewer still believed he existed. Many saw Christopher Biggs RIP a gallant and dear friend as the real ambassador, not Clutton. He was nearly blind and an art critic of repute. He knew Blunt and his circle. Upon his return to London he was assigned as the “Advisor”, an intimate of the Cabinet who must sign off on unofficially covered agents before dispatching them abroad. Overnight Clutton became a very important gent in Whitehall’s pantheon. Who asked Clutton to sign? He was iron stubborn. He refused to sign the document that permitted Philby to take up his post in Beirut for the ultimate benefit of his masters in Moscow giving no reason except his elegant if dilatory attendance upon such matters. He left Philby’s permit for his successor to sign. Does not the refusal of some-one as important as the “Advisor” suggest something may be out of joint? The author gives short shrift to this fascinating non-incident. So did Clutton’s colleagues. Clearly a pro Philby faction existed in the FCO as well as a group that considered Philby a bummer. Clutton later was HM Amb. To Poland.The author mentions that his Russian hosts did not trust Philby as much as was wanted. Of course no member of any Intelligence Service trusts members of another service. Did Philby trust Elliott to make a deal with the Vashni – the important ones in London - to let him live or did Elliott trust Philby sufficiently to wait while he, Elliott, negotiated with their joint superiors? Philby must have known that his chance of living a full life in Russia were fifty-fifty at best. Philby’s work as a committee man in Washington was superb. He got himself appointed to different groups where he could embargo critical sections of the Venona messages and thwart the superb work of Meredith Gardner. He protected himself and other Soviet assets for several years. That accomplishment alone was worth a Hero Of The Soviet Union Grade 5 decoration.. The author does not credit Philby sufficiently for this subsidiary but priceless ploy. Further, exasperated readers cannot discover from this book who Philby’s agents were and who voted with him in the day to day work of running two intelligence services while advancing the cause of a third. We read much about lengthy lunches, but littleShortly after WW2’s end Jimmy Angleton, Richard Helms plus Mrs. X RIP foregathered bibulously in Rome and concluded that Italy had at most 90 days before it toppled. Thus, began the war of posters well described elsewhere. This prescient group also assembled and distributed guns to a band of tough Milanese and former anti-communist resistants who nightly bashed targeted Reds. Good guys won 10 to 3. The Reds in Livorno held out (to this day). They hated Americans and their navy for having shelled their city into purgatory and almost the other place. It was this act of helping Italy survive Communist efforts to control the country that gratified Angleton most. Philby was never to be seen or heard during these parlous days, Why not? Possibly, only possibly, Philby had concerns for his post WW2 career path. To have converted Italy would have ensured a retirement dacha with three bedrooms on the Black Sea. Philby’s betrayal blotted his and others’ careers almost fatally, but Jimmy had other arrows in his quiver. Without doubt he had enemies within. This writer was forbidden, like swathes of others all over the U. S. Government from working with Angleton-tout court. Later, Philby’s relationships with his American friends were examined for wrong doing time out of mind. On the Philby side MI-6’s tawdry and blundering effort to exfiltrate Philby from Beirut still raised unanswered questions. In a small way this lacuna exonerates the American Intelligence community. Philby was forced to leave the game sedated and confined aboard a tired antique bottom ready for the breaker’s yard. Philby’s overt efforts to destroy both American and British Intelligence services failed. about agent’s meetings and the difficulties of handling awkward assets.The incoming British Head of Station calls on his mates in the diplomatic Pantheon and anyone else who can do him harm or good. Sycophants and supplicants are legion. During these sometimes extended conversations deals are made, agreements are broken and new scams put into play. Records of these contrivances hostile and friendly are carefully recorded by their participants, but absent from Philby’s story. Jimmy made his personal telephone calls after work outside his office. Philby’s ghost stayed with Angleton till his end of days. Years ago, on a rainy afternoon at the Army Navy club in Washington DC Angleton sat at a small table two feet from the author and telephoned: “They’re after me. I need help.” Angleton was Philby’s friend. He had enemies. Jimmy feared prosecution from somebody and needed money for a legal team. He had little family money. Exotic Orchids cost. Breaking the habit of a life time I rose from our joint table and walked away. I never did know the result of this conversation.The author has written a slick narrative that is a cover story aimed at covering another story that covers a porous narrative that will never be fully explicated. Philby was the wooden doll. Andrew Lownie in his Burgess book wrote about the world of espionage in the context of a declining society served by a malignant intelligence service itself founded and funded to serve and protect the Realm. It is a singular contribution to the field in method and substance. Is it not time for others to stop telling spy stories advanced by those who know little of their sometimes-horrible truths? I think so. Philby’s career was Kabuki Theater. Nobody caught the movements until after the curtain fell.Please! The proper phrase is “Trade Craft” not “Spy Craft.Davis J KenneyEaster SundayUppervilleThe incoming British Head of Station calls on his mates and anyone else who can do him harm or good. Sycophants and supplicants are legion. During these sometimes extended conversations deals are made, agreements are broken and new scams put into play. Records of these contrivances hostile and friendly are carefully recorded by their participants, but absent from Philby’s story.

Trust no one except me. This is a great book. It makes you wonder how we have survived for so long with so many liars running things. Reads more like fiction than fact. Fast read and lots of photos. Enjoy!

This excellent book by the London journalist, Ben Macintyre, is suspenseful and indeed reads almost like a novel. One has to keep reminding oneself that Kim Philby’s spying for the Soviet Union resulted in hundreds of deaths. Surprisingly, despite the opening of Soviet–era archives in recent years, the book contains no startling new revelations. It does, however, contain much new interesting information about such incidents as “Operation Valuable” (an attempted infiltration of Communist Albania) and Commander Crabb’s attempt to photograph the underside of a warship that brought Comrades Krushschev and Bulganin on a “goodwill” visit to the United Kingdom. Both projects ended in failure due to Kim Philby‘s passing on of information about them to his Soviet handlers.I don’t think I have ever read such a damning indictment of the English upper class as emerges from this book. Even Gilbert and Sullivan could not have invented more eccentric characters. Their names alone are risible. We have, for example, Hester Harriet Marsden-Smedley, a journalist who first casually suggested to Philby that he might want to become involved with the Secret Services. Then there is Sarah Algeria Marjorie Maxse, a Conservative Party panjandrum and a member of MI6, who recruited Philby on the basis of a report from Valentine Vivian (also known as Vee-Vee), the deputy head of MI6, who knew Philby’s father. Vee-Vee gave the quintessential definition of England’s old boys’ network: “I was asked about him, and said I knew his people.”We also encounter the grossly eccentric Hillary St. John Bridger Philby, Kim Philby’s father, who converted to Islam and became an advisor to King Ibn Saud of Saudi Arabia. One can add Helenus Patrick Joseph Milmo a barrister who interrogated Philby and who looks from his photograph like a character out of Gilbert and Sullivan’s “Trial by Jury.” Then there is Sir Hughe Montgomery Knatchbull-Hugesson, His Majesty’s Ambassador to Ankara, who developed the habit of bringing home official papers to the ambassadorial residence where his valet, an Albanian petty criminal by the name of Bazna, was able to copy the documents and pass them on to the Nazis.This book differs from other books about Philby in that it tells the tale through Philby’s relationship with Nicholas Elliott, a Cambridge-educated British spy, who was Philby’s closest friend and strongest defender even after Philby came under suspicion following the flight to Moscow of Donald Maclean and Guy Burgess after Maclean's exposure as a Soviet agent. Mr. Macintyre tries to make a kind of heroic figure out of Elliott. Elliott became Philby’s friend and began to worship him “with a powerful male adoration that was unrequited, unsexual and unstated.” However, it is clear that Elliott was a total dupe and just another eccentric member of the British old boys’ club who overindulged in alcohol and whose main pleasure was the telling of risqué jokes. I do not share Mr. Macintyre’s admiration of Elliott. He did not hesitate during bibulous lunches to relate confidential information to Philby who promptly passed it on to his Soviet handlers.Mr. Macintyre drops only hints here and there as to why he thinks Philby did what he did. He indicates that Philby was not really an idealist who was committed to the Communist cause. For Philby spying was a kind of game and became in the long run a form of addiction. Mr. Macintyre suggests, correctly I think, that Philby’s famous escape to the Soviet Union from Beirut was no accident. He could easily have been prevented from escaping. However, the old boys were not all that anxious for one of their own to be tried publicly at the Old Bailey where their ineptitude would be displayed before the British public. They preferred the matter to remain concealed by the provisions of the Official Secrets Act. They therefore almost pushed Philby into making his escape.It is somewhat galling that Philby went unpunished for his treachery. However, in some respects, his exile to the Soviet Union may have been the best punishment of all. Here was this bon vivant who loved champagne, haute cuisine and every other kind of luxury forced to live in the dull, gray and cheerless atmosphere of Moscow. Sadly for him, there were no posh watering spots such as he was accustomed to frequenting in London. Additionally, Philby was an unwelcome guest and was assigned a minder who was there nominally to protect him, but whose actual job was to monitor his every movement. Guy Burgess suffered a similar fate as amusingly depicted in the short BBC Television film “An Englishman Abroad” by Allan Bennett and starring Coral Browne and Alan Bates.Ben Macintyre relates a story in which there were no good players. Only J. Edgar Hoover, who has a cameo role in the book, emerges as a person with any common sense and that says it all!

Very well written. The story is riveting. A sobering lesson in reality for those who cling to naive, romantic notions about socialism and the risks of using governmental power to impose the dream utopian "equity" on inherently imperfect human beings.

Nascido na Índia quando essa ainda atendia por Índia britânica, Kim Philby foi um espião dos mais altos rankings da inteligência britânica. Não à toa, ele se tornou cavaleiro ao receber um OBE na década de 1940, com apenas 34 anos. Servindo ao MI6 por décadas, Philby chegou perto de se tornar o diretor da instituição. Problemas internos o fizeram se demitir do serviço de informações em 1951, quando este passava por forte investigação por parte de seus colegas. Somente nos anos 1960, foi confirmada a temerosa suspeita de que Philby havia sido, por todo esse tempo, um agente duplo que servia tanto à KGB quanto ao NKVD.Por décadas, ele comprometeu colegas, missões e supostos amigos, tornando-se um dos traidores mais famosos da história. "Para trair, você primeiro precisa pertencer. Eu nunca pertenci", afirmou ele próximo de sua morte, em 1988. Sua trajetória inclui tragédias familiares e várias esposas. Sempre fiel à União Soviética, Philby passou seus últimos anos em Moscou, supostamente melancólico e desiludido — e embriagado. Repleto de medalhas (e sem arrependimentos), teve um funeral de herói. Ele fazia parte do círculo hoje conhecido como Cambridge Five, cujos agentes duplos haviam sido recrutados ainda antes da Segunda Guerra Mundial.Para quem se interessa por espionagem, Guerra Fria ou pelos romances de John le Carré (que chegou a conhecer Philby), este livro de Ben Macintyre é riquíssimo. Nele, pode-se verificar a maior contradição da vida de Kim Philby: como um sujeito tão ridiculamente inglês se comprometeu com uma causa e uma cultura conhecidas por ele de maneira idealizada, abstrata. Recomendo.

英語は読みやすいです読みおわってfriendsたちがどう思ったのかがイマイチわかりませんでした

The book is well laid out and is very informative at all levels regarding this disgusting individual and his treachery to the United Kingdom and the USA. Information he passed to the Soviets were responsible for the torture and deaths of so verymany The comments from his contemporaries are very useful in seeing deeper into the difficulties of the time and the stupidity of its class based conflict of interests. Even comments from some of the Russians involved are included, revealing further how successful a traitor he was.

Importante relato sobre um dos episódios mais marcantes da espionagem internacional. Apresenta as relações interpessoais da elite inglesa como um dos principais veículos para a grave falha na identificação de um espião que trabalhava para o inimigo. Livro de agradável leitura e fruto de rica fonte bibliográfica.

Es una detallada biografía de Philby, escrita a partir del testimonio de sus personas más cercanas. Lo más llamativo para mí es la psicología de un personaje que pudo estar engañando a todo el mundo durante cerca de 30 años sin casi levantar sospechas. Por esto mismo tal vez no se logra penetrar en el pensamiento del propio personaje y esa carencia hace que el relato se asiente sobre los hechos registrados, con cierta repetición, lo que lo hace un poco pesado. Indispensable para los que estén interesados en la Guerra Fría y en el mundo del espionaje.