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University of Warwick institutional repository: http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap A Thesis Submitted for the Degree of PhD at the University of Warwick http://go.warwick.ac.uk/wrap/67105 This thesis is made available online and is protected by original copyright. Please scroll down to view the document itself. Please refer to the repository record for this item for information to help you to cite it. Our policy information is available from the repository home page. Never To Be Disclosed: Government Secrecy in Britain 1945 - 1975 by Christopher R. Moran BA, MA A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History University of Warwick, Department of History September 2008 CONTENTS Acknowledgements iv Docwadoo v Abbrenaaons vii Introduction INever to Be Disclosed 1 Chapter 11The Official Secrets Act: Genesis and Evolution 21 1.1 1850- 1889 22 1.21890-1920 35 Conclusions 43 Chapter 21A Silent Service: The Culture of Civil Service Secrecy 45 2.1Anonymity and Neutrality 50 2.2Security Routines 55 2.3"The Official Secrets Act Affects You!" 71 2.4 Raising the Curtain? 75 Conclusions 91 Chapter 31 Harry 'Chapman' Pincher: Sleuthing the Secret State 93 3.11945-1964 97 3.2The D-Notice Affair 107 3.31967-1975 124 Conclusions 132 Chapter 41The Riddle of the Frogman: The Crabb Affair, Secrecy and Cold War Culture 135 4.1 Disappearance 138 4.2 Conspiracy and Popular Culture 144 4.3Operation Claret 149 4.4 Backwash 156 Conclusions 159 Chapter 51Light in Dark Comers: Intelligence Memoirs and Official History 161 5.1Signals Intelligence: The Secret of All Secrets 163 5.2Cloak Without Dagger 175 5.3 Ultra Exposed 181 5.4 SOE in France 190 11 5.5 Official History of Intelligence inW odd War Two 206 Conclusions 213 Chapter 61 On the Cabinet: Secrecy and the 'Industry' of Ministerial Memoir Writing 216 6.1 'Telling Tales Out of School': The Birth of the Memoir Industry 221 6.2 Anatomy of a Tragedy:SirAnthony Eden, Collusion and Suez Memoirs 238 6.3 The Crossman Diaries and the Era of 'Instant History' 267 Conclusions 279 Conclusion 282 Bibliography 293 iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS While writing this thesis, I have necessarily accumulated a good many debts to colleagues and friends. At Warwick, Dr. Roger Magraw, Dr. James Brown, Dr. Tim Reinke-Williams, and, above all, Dr. lain Smith, shared their knowledge and expertise. I have benefited immeasurably from the wisdom of Harry 'Chapman' Pincher; his perceptive advice and colourful vignettes have been of vital assistance throughout the period of researching and writing this thesis. I must also express my gratitude to other individuals (in and beyond the academy) who have escorted this work with tact and keen-eyed skill: Dr. Glen O'Hara, Dr. Declan O'Reilly, Rear-Admiral Nick Wilkinson, Anne Crossman, Michael Herman and Ken Furber. Thanks must go to the bodies and institutions that have given financial support for this project over its four year gestation: The Modem Records Centre, The Humanities Research Centre and the Warwick American Studies Association. For their help in uncovering primary source material, I also wish to thank the staffs at the Modem Records Centre, especially Christine Woodland; the Chichester Record Office; The Liddell Hart Centre for Military Archives; the University of Birmingham Library; and the National Archives. I have nothing but the greatest admiration for my supervisor, Professor Patrick Major, to whom Iam most indebted. This thesis would not exist without his support, encouragement and occasional stylistic veto. Finally, Ishould like to thank to my family. It is a shame that my grandmother, a career civil servant, did not live to see completion of a thesis she was eager to read. Warwick CR.M. September 2008 iv DECLARATION This thesis is entirely my own work and has not been submitted for a degree at another university. None of the material in this thesis has been published prior to the date of submission. v ABSTRACT This thesis explores the practice of government secrecy in Britain from 1945-1975. Drawing on oral testimony, unpublished correspondence, and newly released archival material, it addresses the question of how and why governments kept information secret in the context of the Cold War and profound domestic social change. Topics incorporated within the ambit of this study include the origins and troubled history of the Official Secrets Act; the customs and cerebral landscapes of the civil service; the investigative journalism of Chapman Pincher; the disappearance of naval frogman 'Buster' Crabb; and the censorship of political and intelligence biographies. In a departure from traditional histories of secrecy, often written by detractors in the spirit of shrill political partisanship, it will be shown that many secrets were entirely defensible, concealed legitimately in the interests of national security and good government. The argument emphasises that the most effective antibodies to state secrecy were memoirists - who, possessing deep reservoirs of secret knowledge, exploited their status and old boy contacts to circumvent regulations they had themselves parented, and abided by, during their official careers. By 1975, it will be offered that Whitehall had begun to volunteer more information, especially under the aegis of official histories and other selectively discharged 'insider' accounts, in order to ameliorate public relations and deflect calls for more wide-ranging open government initiatives. While primarily political history, this thesis also incorporates socio-cultural analysis of the secret bearers themselves. ABBREVIATIONS BAC British Aircraft Corporation BSC British Security Co-ordination CPGB Communist Party of Great Britain CSCA Civil Service Clerical Association CIA Central Intelligence Agency [US] DG Director-General [MI5] DPA Defence Procurement Agency DNI Director of Naval Intelligence D-Notice Defence Notice EDES National Republican Greek League FBI Federal Bureau of Investigation [US] FOIFCO Foreign OfficelForeign and Commonwealth Office GC&CS Government Code and Cypher School GCHQ Government Communications Headquarters GRU Soviet Military Intelligence HMG HislHer Majesty's Government HMSO HislHer Majesty's Stationary Office HO Home Office Humint Human Intelligence JIC Joint Intelligence Committee JSM Joint Services Mission KGB Soviet Secret Service/Security Police MI5 The Security Service MI6 The Secret Intelligence Service MI9 Wartime Evasion and Escape Service MOD Ministry of Defence NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NSA National Security Agency [US] OIA Official Information Act OSA Official Secrets Act OSS Office of Strategic Services [US] PRO The Public Record Office PWE Political Warfare Executive RAF Royal Air Force Sigint Signals Intelligence SIS Secret Intelligence Service [MI6] SOE Special Operations Executive rnA The National Archives TSR2 Tactical Strike!Reconnaissance 2 Aircraft UKAEA UK Atomic Energy Authority Ultra Signals Intelligence Security Classification vii INTRODUCTION INEVER TO BE DISCLOSED In the summer of 1945, as the Labour Party settled into office, and as world war evolved into a precarious peace, secrecy was an implacable part of British government - from Downing Street to the out-stations of Whitehall. Long accepted by leaders of every political persuasion, the business of government was done, as a rule, in secret. 'No government can be successful which cannot keep its secrets', wrote the new Prime Minister, Clement Attlee, on 9 November 1945.1 Since the polity pioneered 'double secrecy', in other words being secretive about the existence of secrecy itself, the public knew very little about why secrets were kept or the systems artfully crafted to regulate and monitor the dissemination of official information. Without a thirty or fifty-year rule, the state was the chief arbitrator of what reached the public domain, and lawfully could keep records of whatever vintage under permanent lock and key. Beyond the political core executive, Britain's intelligence agencies were as secret as the day they were created, neither seen nor talked about, if only to uphold the polite fiction that they did not 'officially' exist. At a wider societal level, reflecting both paternalistic Conservatism and Fabian-influenced liberal democracy, there subsisted an unparalleled deference for the integrity of secrets.' Officials were trusted to act in the public interest and with this touching good faith came a mandate to operate in silence. As the American sociologist and commentator Edward Shils would later claim, 'The acceptance of hierarchy in British society permit] ted] the government to retain its secrets, with little challenge or resentment'P Enfeebled by the D-Notice system and fearful of the Official Secrets Act (OSA), which criminalised the unauthorised disclosure of official information, newspapers, both popular and broadsheet, seldom 1 The National Archives (TNA) PREM 8/436, 'Secrecy of Cabinet Proceedings', Note by the Prime Minister, CP (45) 282, 9 November 1945. 2 D. Marsh, D. Richards and M.J. Smith, Changing Patterns of Governance in the United Kingdom (Basingstoke, 2001), p. 30. 3 E.A. Shils, The Torment of Secrecy: The Background and Consequences of American Security Policies (London, 1956), p. 49. 1 pried into the most secret affairs of state. In 1945, therefore, the realms of public authority and public awareness were almost totally sundered. Britain - to borrow Richard Aldrich's telling formulation - possessed an 'Empire of Secrecy" where, by common consent, certain