A Divided Life: A Biography of Donald Maclean by Robert Cecil (.PDF)
File Size: 9.2 MB
A Divided Life: A Biography of Donald Maclean (1988) by Robert Cecil
Requirements: .PDF reader, 9.2mb
Overview: Donald Maclean entered the Diplomatic Service from Cambridge in 1935, and from the outset established a brilliant career, with postings to Paris, Washington, Cairo, and as the head of the American Department of the Foreign Office. After fifteen years, however, he vanished, to reappear subsequently in Russia – he had from the start been working for the Soviet Secret Services, passing back to them the classified information to which he had access. Why should such a man set Soviet interests above those of his own country?
In “A Divided Life”, the first full-length biography of Maclean, Robert Cecil draws on his own close acquaintance with the man, first at Cambridge and then as his colleague in the Diplomatic Service, to shed fascinating new light both on Maclean himself and on his circle of ideological spies, Burgess, Philby and Blunt – the so-called ‘Cambridge Comintern’. He breaks new ground in probing, among other things, the circumstances of his initial recruitment and ultimate flight, his breakdown in Cairo, the nature of his marriage and, most importantly, the extent of his access to American atomic secrets. His is able to assess in practical terms the damage he did to Anglo-American interests during and after the War – at the outset of the Cold War from 1944 to 1948 Maclean was undoubtedly Stalin’s best source in Washington, where crucial decisions about the post-war world were being made. The mutual suspicions that Maclean’s and Burgess’ flight in 1951 instilled into Anglo-American relations are also well illustrated;
Robert Cecil’s own familiarity with Maclean and his circle, together with the insights gained from his wide knowledge of contemporary history, which enable him to place the spies’ activities in their historical context, make this new biography a major breakthrough in the understanding of the strange career of Donald Maclean.
Genre: Non-Fiction > History > Espionage & Intelligence
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