17. The British government attempted to suppress the news of the Cambridge 5
With Philby, Burgess, and Maclean all in Soviet hands, the British government faced embarrassment and international criticism. While in Moscow Philby worked on his memoirs, an autobiography he titled My Silent War. As publication neared in 1967, the British strove to prevent its appearance. Threatened were the arrangements made with Anthony Blunt, embarrassing to British intelligence as well as the Royal Family. The extent of the Soviet penetration into British intelligence and the Foreign Service, as well as their American counterparts, was humiliating. Numerous public careers were threatened by what Philby may put on paper. In 1967 Philby granted an interview with The Times, in which many of these concerns were addressed. In the interview, Philby summed up his motives for spying.
Philby described his motives as being “to destroy imperialism”. In answer to speculation in British periodicals that he had served as a double agent, feeding false information to the Soviets he said he had been “working in the Soviet interest”. British officials warned magazine and newspaper editors against publishing interviews given by Philby, citing the Official Secrets Act and hinting at possible prosecution. During interviews and in his memoirs, which were decidedly self-serving, Philby revealed the location of listening devices, dead drops, and other elements of spycraft, to the dismay of MI5 and other British agencies. Across the Atlantic, where so much of his damage had been done, he drew little attention outside of the intelligence community.