Who Were the Cambridge Five?

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Who Were the Cambridge Five? Donald Maclean AKA STUART, WISE, Kelsey Bacon LYRIC, HOMER Majors: History and International Affairs Honors JR/SR Project: The Cambridge Ring - A Biographical Account of Five King’s Men Who Spied for Stalin The Man in the Faculty Advisor: Jeffrey Burds, Ph.D. Foreign Office • Recruited by the Cambridge Five’s Who were The Cambridge Five? founding member, Kim Philby, in 1934 The KGB’s Crown Jewels: five graduates from Cambridge University at the heart of Her Majesty’s • 1944 First Secretary to British Ambassador in Washington, D.C. Government and intelligence services. Recruited by the KGB in the 1930s, Kim Philby, Anthony Blunt, John • 1945 coordinated legendary Manhattan Cairncross, Guy Burgess and Donald Maclean passed thousands of top secret documents to the Soviets Project and British Tube Alloys Project • 4,593 documents 1941-45 throughout WWII and until the collapse of the network in 1951. • Defected to USSR May 25, 1951 My first foray into the world of archival research… • Died in Moscow 1983 MACLEAN + U.S. State Department Records on Atomic Energy Why State Department Records? In 1943, President Roosevelt (U.S.), Prime Minister Atlee (UK) and Prime Minister King (Canada) signed The Quebec Agreement, a war-time agreement so secret that Congress did not discover its existence until 1947. The agreement initiated a tripartite exchange of atomic energy information. A committee was created to orchestrate the exchange of information and acquisition of raw materials: The Combined Policy Committee (CPC) In 1945, control over Atomic Energy policy in Washington was transferred from the Department of War to the Department of State. The Chair of the CPC was none other than the U.S. Secretary of State. And who was the British Secretary to the CPC…? Donald Maclean. Textual Records Research Room, National Archives, College Park, MD I used materials from 14 boxes and Just how small was the world DONALD DUART MACLEAN over 1200 photographs of documents of atomic energy in Washington? STALIN’S MAN IN WASHINGTON, 1944-1948 The CPC also supervised CPC estimates of uranium This documents the creation of the UN the Combined Development production around the world – Atomic Energy Commission – Maclean Agency, which was responsible Maclean was present at the was in a perfect position to understand for the acquisition and allocation meeting and responsible for taking Anglo-American attitudes toward atomic of all raw materials shared and gathering notes. energy cooperation with the Soviets. between the U.S., UK and Canada. CPC The Aftermath: In 1946 Congress passed the Atomic Maclean’s defection came only a Energy Act restricting the exchange of year after British atomic scientist, atomic energy information. Future Secretary Klaus Fuchs, had been convicted of of State, Dean Acheson, comforted British spying for the Soviets. Anglo- and Canadian CPC members assuring Gullion was Maclean’s American relations were extremely strained and a tripartite security collaboration would not be hindered. CPC counterpart and, Kennan, architect of the famous U.S. policy of conference was held in London in President Truman kept the CPC active and according to State Containment, worked with Gullion on a proposal to 1951 to revise British and Canadian Congress did not even discover the Department records, his solve America’s depleting uranium supplies, which committee’s existence until 1947. most frequent contact. involved reinvigorated cooperation through the CPC. personnel clearance procedures. .
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