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i ‘ t i = | | | E | I “Books of The Tiniés We ' ByTHOMA: THE PHILBY | CONSPIRACY. By Bruce Page, y': David Leith and Philip Knightly. 300 pages. - Hlustratedy Doubleday. $5.95. ae Eff Bh, 8929 nawae MY SILENT | Sa By BUR FHUY. eve PUugte. Grove §5. ROM the late twenties through the | E forties, one of the more popular genres in book publishing was the confessions | of those who had become Communists, saw the light and defected, and quickly hastened to tell the world how they had been duped. | From Benjamin Gitlow to Howard Fast, they poured out their souls, telling how there god had failed them, and asking why others were still so obtuse as to continue ; hile Fee crn \ | in their blind ways. | Perhaps the best of these books was | Whittaker Chambers’s “Witness” —best in | the grace end limpidity of its writing, in its; ' j 1 ! conveying of the atmosphere of Communist activity from the inside, and in the search ‘of Chambers's lumbering spirit for a trans- cendental experience in the dross of con- ispiracy, hack politics and menial jobs. ‘The two books at the head of the column are striking in that they deal with three | who stayed. As is well known by now ; they were three upper-class, Cambridge ; ‘University bred, English clubmen, who worked in high and sensitive places in the ; British Government and transmitted infor- ; mation back to the Russians. Guy Burgess | and Donald Maclean did it from some time , ‘in the thirties until their escape to the | Soviet Union in 1951. Kim Philby was a. Soyiet agent for 30 years, until he showed in thé ‘Soviet Union—he called it ‘Shome"— —in 1963. It comes as a slight jolt to read Philby'’s contemptuous reference in. his book, “My Silent War" to those de- fectors from Communism who chose “the political position of querulous outcast” or to hear Burgess in “The Philby Conspiracy” defend Stalin’s paranoid ruthlessness as necessary and in the Jong yun beneficial. { + "* -Ableand Astute = °.. I t These men were able, astute, iron-willed fand lucky—until they broke down under j :the strain, It must take great nervous and , eniritual dicninlina ta maintam twa canefetea H (SPITIUAL GiSCipaine 16 MSaM wwe Separnis | “personalities, to be always on guard, to | ‘possess only a public face, never to know Entrances and Exits seteaien wonder ‘is hit ther t their careers could ge a go on for so long. Roppiness with which the Secret Service ae opr were . run in Britain’ is unbelievable. Class bias and snobbish blindness are documented in every chapter of “The Philby Conspiracy.” One of the things that protected the con- spirators was the unwillingness of the Briti eleve that the three men wear- ings the_ old school tie and havisg—sach deeantcannections could possibly be work- ing for the Russians. Wms | As a result, Philby, easily the most im- portant figure, rosé very high in British inteliigence, at one point serving as head af ai section dealing with Communist af- fairs. In Washington, he worked as liaison man between his organization and the C.1A. and had access to material even high rank- ing Americans could not get at. There still seems to be some resentment in Washington over how Philby’s case was handied, How much they helped the Russians and how much they inhibited British policy is sure to be debated in the future. But don’t fool yourself into believing that theirs was merely a cloak-and-dageger operation. Far example, there was a time during the last war when the army and other units in Germany became disillusioned with Hitler and tried to find out what terms the Allies would accept short of unconditional sur- render. But all such feelers that came through Philby’s sector were stopped by him from going further, because the great Soviet nightmare was that the Ales would make peace with their adversary and let the Nazis fight on on the Eastern Front. And there were other incidents when the Russians seem to have been alerted to-po- tential defectors in their own ranks and to. Jemteyee ee into Sovjet-deminated rritory. . when the action of a second man wil! throw ‘DELETED COPY SENT A reHabe you into the greatest danger. Eventually the persistence of such pressures shawed. | “Maclean - and Rurgéss bécame increasingly i jwonder is t their wildness and obvious ' ‘irresponsibilify didn't get them cashiered | “earlier, And Philby exhibited sure signs of “ihe Gat of the and anxiety when he knew he knew the end’ of the trail ‘had ‘come. ee ae i, ee Me D5 HAY , aa “on IBY LETIER “unstable ne before their escape. The '5 a|indae. ER FOIA REQUEST Mo By Casset Callahan Conrad Felt Gale Rosen Sullfy Tavel Trotter Tele. Room Holmes Gandy t The Washington. Post Times Herald 7 The Washington Bey News The Evening Star (Washington) The Sunday Star (Washington) —__ Daily News (New York) Sunday News (New York} New York Post ~_____ The New York Times fs The Sun (Baltimore) _ The Worker ~The Neu T andar ane NOW ocean The Wall Street Journal The National Observer People’s World ate WAY % Reg Date ——— 6S -¢ F045 ly X- OL . . 199 MAY 13 1968 NO™ RECOPNED