741.13/6–1551: Telegram
The Secretary of State to the Embassy in the United Kingdom 1
priority niact
5929. For Holmes. Department info media would prefer to be in agreement with British on attitude to take in case it develops Maclean and Burgess have defected.2 Following suggested as safe interim treatment until full facts known:
Mystery surrounds the disappearance of the two individuals. Did they defect? Were they kidnapped? Were they or were they not fellow travelers or Communists? Did they sacrifice themselves to try to awaken the Politburo to the true peaceful goals of the free nations? Are they mentally and morally only weak characters or depraved? These questions are relatively unimportant. What we do know with assurance, based on irrefutable and familiar pattern of Communist conduct, is that these poor wretches, if they are behind the Curtain, will be used hereafter as controlled human voices for exploiting the interminable Big Lie.
British here have suggested Maclean may be motivated by desire to disabuse Soviets of American warlike intentions. Urgent need to get this across to Soviet leadership is said to have been a personal obsession. At first sight it seems to strain credulity too much even if true unless substantiated by statements or actions. Another suggested explanation is kidnapping but would need convincing evidence.
On Tuesday, June 12, we asked liaison with British Embassy to contact Christopher Warner in effort to get agreed line. Lack of reply prompts request your intervention to secure soonest necessary [Page 945] info on agreed treatment in view possible break affecting French elections.3
- Drafted by Jesse MacKnight, Special Assistant to the Secretary of State for Public Affairs, and cleared by the Bureau of European Affairs, the Office of British Commonwealth and Northern European Affairs, and the Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs.↩
- On June 7, the Foreign Office had issued a press release stating that Donald D, Maclean, Head of the American Department, and Guy Francis de Money Burgess, former Second Secretary of the British Embassy in Washington, had disappeared on May 25 and had been suspended from the diplomatic service as of June 1. Burgess and Maclean subsequently appeared in Moscow.↩
- The French national elections were held on June 17 without any “break” occurring, but no agreed treatment was decided on since Warner was unable to obtain agreement on a statement within the Foreign Office. (Telegram 6698 from London, 741.13/6–2051)↩