First of the Formers

Whittaker Chambers and MI5

The key figure in the early chapters of my book is Jay Lovestone, the one-time head of the American Communist Party, who went on to become a CIA ally in the labour movement. I was asked recently if I had shed any light on Lovestone's relationship with Whittaker Chambers, the ex-Communist who exposed the extent of Soviet infiltration of the US Government at the outset of the Cold War.

I had to admit I hadn't advanced matters beyond the account by Lovestone's biographer, Ted Morgan. However, the question did inspire me to take a look at the three MI5 files on Chambers in the National Archives, one of which is available online (free with registration).

The files got some attention when they were released in 2014. The London Review of Books noted that they included an interview with the writer Rebecca West conducted by the future Director General of MI5, Michael Hanley. His report concluded that 'She is rather pompous and clearly regards herself as the high priestess of Anti-Communism.'

Such insights into the relationship between security officials and private counter-subversion activists are of interest because of the significance of similar relationships today. the role of former extremists in countering their old cause is one area where the War on Terror emulated the Cold War.