The heat was definitely starting to intensify under the feet of the Cambridge spies. By
1948 British counterintelligence-espionage units were convinced that moles were present.
It was revealed that highly-classified information had been leaked from the Foreign Office.
Yet surprising as it may seem, it was three years before any action was taken. Was this
once more the action of a deus ex machina?
In spring 1951, an American cryptographer finally made a breakthrough and managed to decipher the Venona telegrams.7 The name of a mole was revealed; Homer, and the details of his diplomatic activities helped to identify who it was. It was a pseudonym for Donald Maclean, the head of the American section at the Foreign Office, who had achieved his position despite the numerous scandals that had marred his career. Like the other Cambridge moles and spies, Maclean took to heavy drinking as a result of the stress he was subjected to. One of the first to be informed of Maclean's identification was Kim Philby. After nearly being appointed as head of MI6, he now had the very important role of being responsible for liaising intelligence between the British and the CIA. Maclean was not arrested immediately as the Americans wanted at all costs to preserve the knowledge that they had decoded the Venona messages, so that they could unmask other moles. In particular, they were looking for what were called the ‘atomic spies'; those who had given the A-bomb to the Soviets. Philby warned Maclean, via his friend Burgess, that he needed to prepare to flee to the USSR.
He was accompanied by Burgess, who was also feeling threatened. However, and this is the key element in this story, Blunt performed a great favour for his two friends. After their departure, it was he who checked that they had not left anything incriminating behind and their perfectly organised flight could not fail to cause a scandal in Britain. The secret services were put on the spot and in response to their humiliation, tried to take their revenge by unmasking moles at any price. Anthony Blunt was naturally among the first suspects due to the special relationship he had with Burgess. His past as a crypto-communist was criticised, even though no one had cared about that when he was working for the secret services.
Blunt was questioned many times throughout the 1950s and early 1960s. Apparently, he never cracked, especially as the investigators were forced to tread carefully with him. Blunt was now an art historian whose reputation was growing not just in Britain, but all over the world. He had even just received a knighthood for services to the Crown.
However, it is true that the noose was tightening. Philby, who had been denounced by J. Edgar Hoover, the Head of the FBI, was about to be unmasked. He was publically cleared by Prime Minister Harold MacMillan and eventually disappeared to the USSR in 1963. Blunt's worst enemy was the Welsh writer and journalist, Goronwy Rees, who posed a permanent threat. An intimate friend of Burgess, Rees had long been jealous of Blunt and after Burgess had drunkenly confided in him, he now knew that Blunt had worked for the Soviets. Rees had already published an article on the subject in 1956, which although it didn't name Blunt directly, made it clear enough of whom he was speaking.
It was not until 1964 that Blunt was finally unmasked. Counterintelligence teams interrogated an American called Michael Straight, who denounced Blunt after revealing that he had been recruited by him while studying at Cambridge. Yet the gentleman spy refused to confess and as a result was offered a very curious deal: if he talked and told them all he knew, he would be offered full judicial immunity. Blunt accepted and revealed the truth about his past activities and club of Cambridge spies. The same deal was offered to the ‘fifth man', John Cairncross, who also accepted and would end his days living peacefully in the south of France.
But what of Blunt's deal? He had had no contact with the Soviets for nearly fifteen years. What role would his confession serve if he had severed all ties with the world of intelligence? In this instance, everything was hushed up.
The explanation that immediately comes to mind is that the secret services, already stung by a series of scandals, wanted to avoid being stigmatised again. Another explanation is that they wanted to preserve the identity of other spies who were still operating. Yet Blunt, who they now knew had been a Soviet spy, continued to live as before and even regularly visited the queen. Had she been told that the man in charge of the Royal Collection was a former Soviet spy? It would appear that nothing had changed. She continued to place her confidence in her advisor, who after all was a pre-eminent art historian. It is not even clear if the prime minister was kept in the loop.
Unfortunately, the wheel turned again for Blunt fifteen years later. In 1979 Goronwy Rees was suffering from incurable cancer and suddenly decided to reveal all about Blunt. He told his story to a journalist who wrote an investigative book about the Cambridge spies. Blunt was publically denounced. Even though the author had used a pseudonym for his name, the picture was clear and there was nothing to prevent the scandal. Margaret Thatcher had just come to power as prime minister and as well as facing many social and economic difficulties, the Blunt case was to prove opportune and
