philby, kim

Kim Philby, the so-called Third Man in the Cambridge spy ring, was the Cold War's most infamous traitor. He headed up the section that was supposed to catch Russian spies within MI6. As a Soviet spy at the heart of British intelligence, he betrayed hundreds of British and U.S. agents to the Russians and compromised numerous covert operations inside the Soviet Union. Philby's lifelong treachery was a huge shock to his close friend and co-worker at MI6, Tim Milne, and after Milne retired, he wrote a highly revealing description of Philby's time at MI6. But publication of Milne's memoirs was banned at the time, due to sensitivity. Milne died in 2010 and his family remained determined to publish his memoirs, hence this book.

Kim Philby was the greatest spy in history---a brilliant and charming man who rose to head Britain's counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the height of the Cold War, while also secretly working for the enemy. Nicholas Elliott, Philby's best friend and fellow officer in MI6, had no trouble trading confidences with Philby as the two had gone to the same schools and belonged to the same exclusive clubs. But Philby was betraying his British friend as well as an American one--James Jesus Angleton, the head of the CIA's counterintelligence. Every word of Elliott's and Angleton's unwitting disclosures helped Philby sink almost every great Anglo-American spy operation for twenty years, leading countless operatives to their doom.

Describes Philby's upbringing, his decision to join the Soviets, the complexities of a double life, and the man before and after defection to the Soviet Union.