Why Spy? by Michael Wardern”A wise man in time of peace prepares for war.”n— HoracenSpy Catcher. The CandidnAutobiography of a SeniornIntelligence Officer by PeternWright, New York: Viking Press;n$19.95.nConspiracy of Silence: The SecretnLife of Anthony Blunt by BarrienPenrose and Simon Freeman, NewnYork: Farrar, Straus & Giroux;n$22.95.nWhy did some of the best and thenbrightest of Great Britain forsakenking and country in the 1930’s andnbecome spies for the Soviet Union?nHow was it possible that some of thenring leaders went undetected for 30nyears or more, with the circle perhapsnstill not closed?nBritish journalists Barrie Penrose andnSimon Freeman first encountered thenshadows and mirrors of Soviet espionagenin Britain as reporters for thenSunday Times in 1979. Their investigativenstories fed on breaking newsnafter the public disclosure that AnthonynBlunt, Keeper of the Queen’s Pictures,ndirector of the Courtauld Institutenof Art, and, previously, an officernfor British counterintelligence (MI5),nwas a spy for the Soviet Union. As theirncontacts and knowledge of the Cambridgenspy ring increased, a book becameninevitable—while perhaps a bitnweak on analysis and insight, it providesna large collection of quotes from anbroad cross section of players in thengame.nThere were really three aspects tonthe conspiracy of silence to which thentide refers. The first might be called ankind of class conspiracy. It derivednfrom the Cambridge of Blunt in then1930’s — a world of social status, almostnof caste, where young gentlemennnaturally believed they were destinednto rule in absolute loyalty to their class.nNonetheless, the Depression was innfull bloom, the civil war in SpainnMichael Warder is executive vicenpresident of The Rockford Institute.ncaptured the imagination of youngnalienated intellectuals, respected Britishnofficials and journalists were givingnglowing accounts of Stalin’s five-yearnplans, and the Nazis were beginning tonexercise increasing power in Europe.nIn 1937 a former student activist estimatednthat 600 students joined thenMarxist Socialist Society with perhapsn150 of them members of the CommunistnParty. The Apostles, a semisecretnelite intellectual and predominatelynhomosexual fraternity at Cambridge,nbecame a party recruiting ground.nWhile the leadership ethos of Cambridgenwas strong, some students sawnthemselves as leading a vastly differentnpolitical order. Around Apostles AnthonynBlunt and Guy Burgess—bothnhomosexual and Communist—therenemerged a network of spies and agents,nwitting and unwitting, that has dramaticallynaffected Britain for over 50 years.nOne reason this network operated soneffectively was that the elite of Britainnseemed unwilling to question its ownnmembers and, later on, bring evidencenagainst them. Better to assume the bestnof one’s peers and avoid the unseemlinessnof betraying friends, especiallynthose who have shared the pervertednsexual practice.nThe second aspect of the conspiracynof silence was more political. With thenflight to the Soviet Union of the CambridgenCommunist spies Guy Burgessnand Donald Maclean in 1951, therenwas a political scandal of major consequencenin Great Britain. While thennnnewspapers were busy trying to findnthe two traitors and tell the story,nWhitehall said little and admitted nothing.nApparently British counterintelligencendid not immediately grasp thenfull dimensions of the penetration, nor,nclearly, did it want to pass on bad newsnor information to its would-be politicalnmasters in the Labor Party. Clearly,nalso, the Laborites saw no politicalnadvantage in holding public investigationsnabout the problem of spies inntheir government.nThere is a third aspect to the conspiracynwhich is of a more contractualnnature, but to understand it we mustnreview some history regarding KimnPhilby and Anthony Blunt. Philby, anmajor figure in both British counterintelligencenand foreign intelligencen(MI6) and an old friend of Burgess andnMaclean from their Cambridge days,nwas questioned in the summer ofn1951. Shortly after, he was fired andnwent on to portray himself as a victimnof British McCarthyism because of hisnfriendships with Burgess and Maclean.nHe eventually became a correspondentnin Beirut for the Observer and thenEconomist, keeping in close contactnwith the MI6 station chief and othernkey intelligence contacts in Lebanonnuntil his flight to the Soviet Union innJanuary of 1963. He continued tonserve the Soviet Union despite interrogationnby MI 5 and despite his oldnCambridge friends’ knowledge of hisntrue loyalties. Unfortunately, MI5 lackednhard evidence on Philby.nThe case of Blunt is even morenbizarre. Blunt joined the party in 1935nand served as a spotter for more recruitsnin the Cambridge milieu. Inn1940 he too joined MI5 and playednimportant roles for British counterintelligencenuntil 1945 when art becamenAUGUST 1988 / 33n