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May. 20th, 2015 04:59 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsThere are certain persons probably reading this (gramarye1971, I'm looking at you) whom I suspect already know everything about Kim Philby and probably have no need for another version of the same Cambridge Spies story. For everyone else, there's A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal.
I was vaguely familiar with the basic facts about Philby before picking up the book, but only vaguely, so Macintyre's version still had plenty that was new for me. For example: though I knew Philby was a double agent working with MI6 and reporting back to the Soviets, I did not know that MI6, in a move that was both ill-advised and horrifically hilarious, actually made him head of Soviet counterintelligence.
PHILBY: Wow, I ... literally am in charge of everything MI6 is ever going to do in re: the Soviet Union. I am the best Soviet double agent ... ever? Ever. Pretty much ever.
(THE SOVIET UNION: This guy is just passing us TOO MUCH information to even be believable. Triple agent, anyone?)
Macintyre's focus is specifically on Philby's long-term and extremely close friendships with other members of MI6, especially Nicholas Elliott, who loved Philby SO MUCH that the first time he was accused of being a Soviet spy, back in the early 1950s, Elliott actually managed to get him rehired -- much to the chagrin of MI5, who were absolutely convinced that he was a spy and MI6 were being complete idiots in letting him near anything. (Which, in 20/20 hindsight, they pretty much were.)
MI5: So, uh, these two spies who just fled to Russia right as MI-6 were closing in on them? One of them was literally living in Kim Philby's basement, so --
ELLIOTT: I have been drunk with Philby SO MANY times that I feel it's pretty much impossible that he could be a spy without me knowing about it.
MI5: And, like, half the operations he's led have ended in TOTAL MYSTERIOUS DISASTER, like the Russians knew EXACTLY what was going to happen and then MURDERED EVERYONE INVOLVED, which you have to admit is a bit suspicious --
ELLIOTT: Look, spying on Russia is hard, right? It's hard! Can't blame him for that!
MI5: Also he has a secret Communist ex-wife --
ELLIOTT: Well if she was THAT secret he wouldn't ever have ADMITTED to having a secret Communist ex-wife, would he? WOULD HE? Anyway, how do I know, frankly, that you're not a Communist spy? Maybe you are. Maybe you're trying to throw us off. Hmm? CHECK AND MATE.
MI5: God, we hate MI6.
It's not just the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, of course (damn you, POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!) that let Philby pass undetected for so long. Macintyre's point is basically that Philby's great advantage was the good-old-boy system -- MI6 was largely populated with upper-class men of a certain 'set', and if you belonged to that set, if you were of the right 'people,' nobody could really believe that you would betray your country and your class and your friends by spying for Russia. So even if you are publicly accused of being a spy, and all your BFFs are proven spies, you can still have your old, top-secret job back! It's fine! It's probably fine.
...and then when it turns out that it's not fine, is it, MI6 might just be too embarrassed to bring you back to England and let you escape to Moscow anyway. (Well, the question of whether he was allowed to escape, or cunningly managed it himself in the teeth of all of MI6's best efforts is open for debate, but Macintyre clearly has an opinion on the matter.)
I think my personal favorite part in the whole tragicomedy of errors is when Elliott turns up to confront Philby after his spying is at long last discovered and proven -- a conversation that exists, in its entirety by the way, on a poor-quality audio recording, so this is historical record. So every part of it is fascinating, but then there's this:
ELLIOTT: Philby, old boy, we know you've been spying up until 1949. Right? RIGHT UP UNTIL 1949, you were betraying your country! BUT THEN YOU STOPPED.
PHILBY: I -- well, that is certainly ... not a true statement ... ????
Because after 1949, Philby was posted to America, and if he spilled secrets from American spy stuff he could be extradited to America and that would just be DOUBLY embarrassing for everyone!
At the end of the book, there's an afterward with John Le Carre, where he relates conversations he had with Elliott about the whole affair after the fact. At one point, Le Carre asks if they would have had Philby killed. Elliott is scandalized. "My dear boy! One of us, you know." Espionage is a gentleman's game! And murder is for people without upper-class accents. Or so Macintyre's thesis goes, and I think he's probably not wrong.
gramarye1971, I'm looking at you) whom I suspect already know everything about Kim Philby and probably have no need for another version of the same Cambridge Spies story. For everyone else, there's A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal. I was vaguely familiar with the basic facts about Philby before picking up the book, but only vaguely, so Macintyre's version still had plenty that was new for me. For example: though I knew Philby was a double agent working with MI6 and reporting back to the Soviets, I did not know that MI6, in a move that was both ill-advised and horrifically hilarious, actually made him head of Soviet counterintelligence.
PHILBY: Wow, I ... literally am in charge of everything MI6 is ever going to do in re: the Soviet Union. I am the best Soviet double agent ... ever? Ever. Pretty much ever.
(THE SOVIET UNION: This guy is just passing us TOO MUCH information to even be believable. Triple agent, anyone?)
Macintyre's focus is specifically on Philby's long-term and extremely close friendships with other members of MI6, especially Nicholas Elliott, who loved Philby SO MUCH that the first time he was accused of being a Soviet spy, back in the early 1950s, Elliott actually managed to get him rehired -- much to the chagrin of MI5, who were absolutely convinced that he was a spy and MI6 were being complete idiots in letting him near anything. (Which, in 20/20 hindsight, they pretty much were.)
MI5: So, uh, these two spies who just fled to Russia right as MI-6 were closing in on them? One of them was literally living in Kim Philby's basement, so --
ELLIOTT: I have been drunk with Philby SO MANY times that I feel it's pretty much impossible that he could be a spy without me knowing about it.
MI5: And, like, half the operations he's led have ended in TOTAL MYSTERIOUS DISASTER, like the Russians knew EXACTLY what was going to happen and then MURDERED EVERYONE INVOLVED, which you have to admit is a bit suspicious --
ELLIOTT: Look, spying on Russia is hard, right? It's hard! Can't blame him for that!
MI5: Also he has a secret Communist ex-wife --
ELLIOTT: Well if she was THAT secret he wouldn't ever have ADMITTED to having a secret Communist ex-wife, would he? WOULD HE? Anyway, how do I know, frankly, that you're not a Communist spy? Maybe you are. Maybe you're trying to throw us off. Hmm? CHECK AND MATE.
MI5: God, we hate MI6.
It's not just the POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, of course (damn you, POWER OF FRIENDSHIP!) that let Philby pass undetected for so long. Macintyre's point is basically that Philby's great advantage was the good-old-boy system -- MI6 was largely populated with upper-class men of a certain 'set', and if you belonged to that set, if you were of the right 'people,' nobody could really believe that you would betray your country and your class and your friends by spying for Russia. So even if you are publicly accused of being a spy, and all your BFFs are proven spies, you can still have your old, top-secret job back! It's fine! It's probably fine.
...and then when it turns out that it's not fine, is it, MI6 might just be too embarrassed to bring you back to England and let you escape to Moscow anyway. (Well, the question of whether he was allowed to escape, or cunningly managed it himself in the teeth of all of MI6's best efforts is open for debate, but Macintyre clearly has an opinion on the matter.)
I think my personal favorite part in the whole tragicomedy of errors is when Elliott turns up to confront Philby after his spying is at long last discovered and proven -- a conversation that exists, in its entirety by the way, on a poor-quality audio recording, so this is historical record. So every part of it is fascinating, but then there's this:
ELLIOTT: Philby, old boy, we know you've been spying up until 1949. Right? RIGHT UP UNTIL 1949, you were betraying your country! BUT THEN YOU STOPPED.
PHILBY: I -- well, that is certainly ... not a true statement ... ????
Because after 1949, Philby was posted to America, and if he spilled secrets from American spy stuff he could be extradited to America and that would just be DOUBLY embarrassing for everyone!
At the end of the book, there's an afterward with John Le Carre, where he relates conversations he had with Elliott about the whole affair after the fact. At one point, Le Carre asks if they would have had Philby killed. Elliott is scandalized. "My dear boy! One of us, you know." Espionage is a gentleman's game! And murder is for people without upper-class accents. Or so Macintyre's thesis goes, and I think he's probably not wrong.
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Date: 2015-05-22 12:26 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-05-22 12:29 pm (UTC)