The Secrets of the Service: a Story of Soviet Subversion of Western Intelligence

Book by Glees, Anthony

Against the background of British foreign policy from 1939 to 1951, Glees examines the evidence of Soviet infiltration into British Intelligence and concludes that the extent of damage has been "grossly exaggerated." Focusing on the cases of Guy Burgess, Donald Maclean, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt and Klaus Fuchs, the study is nevertheless critical of the British secret service's failure to alert policy-makers to the dangers of wartime cooperation with Stalin. In a final section, Glees reviews the evidence against Sir Roger Hollis, director of MI5 (roughly equivalent to the FBI) during the '50s and early '60s, whom many believe to have been a Soviet "super-mole." Refuting point by point the accusations made in Chapman Pincher's Too Secret, Too Long, Glees calls the case against Hollis "a sham." Photos.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.

British journalist Glees has written a valuable and substantive history of Soviet infiltration of British intelligence. Drawing on a wealth of documents and interviews, Glees explores the pre-war growth of intelligence agencies, studies activities during World War II and afterward, and provides a useful political overview. He offers good coverage of familiar cases (e.g., Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt) and less known ones, and refutes Peter Wright's charges (in Spycatcher , Viking, 1987) against Roger Hollis, director general of MI-5 in the late 1950s and early 1960s. For most academic and large public libraries.Thomas A. Karel, Franklin & Marshall Coll. Lib., Lancaster, Pa.
Copyright 1987 Reed Business Information, Inc.