The Defence of the Realm Read Online Free
Author: Christopher Andrew
headlines which had greeted Rimingtonâs appointment in 1992 (among them âMOTHER OF TWO GETS TOUGH WITH TERRORISTSâ) were no longer imaginable by the time she retired in 1996. A year later the Service began advertising publicly for new recruits.
There remain strict limits to âthe demystification of the Serviceâ. Itscommitment to preserving the secrecy of current operations, as well as to concealing the identities of staff and agents, has changed little over the past century. By contrast, the Service has become much less secretive about its past record. Since 1997 it has released to the National Archives over 4,000 files on its first half-century, which have given rise to a growing volume of innovative historical research.
In 2002 the Service advertised for a part-time official historian to write its Centenary History and interviewed a series of applicants. I was fortunate to be selected and began work at its Thames House headquarters in 2003. Since then I have been given virtually unrestricted access to the Serviceâs twentieth-century files as well as to the more limited number of twentyfirst-century records I have asked to see. No other of the worldâs leading intelligence agencies has given similar access to a historian appointed from outside. A significant minority of the files I have seen contain material on intelligence sources and methods which it was clear from the outset could not be published. I thought it important, however, to read these files in order to try to ensure that conclusions in The Defence of the Realm based on documents which can be quoted are not contradicted by files whose contents remain classified. Like previous official historians in Britain, I was given an assurance at the outset (which has been fully honoured) that no attempt would be made to change any of the judgements I arrived at.
Clearance of this volume has, unsurprisingly, been a protracted process. There is an inevitable tension between the needs of national security and the wishes of historians. My advocacy of the case for clearance on matters which I judge important has, as colleagues in the Security Service can confirm, not lacked vigour. The issues involved are sometimes difficult. There is much, mostly classified, evidence to support the view of the Security Service that retaining the confidence of current agents makes it necessary to conceal the identities of most of their predecessors as well as their own. The Service has, however, broken important new ground by making it possible for me to bring this history up to the present.
The most difficult part of the clearance process has concerned the requirements of other government departments. One significant excision as a result of these requirements in Chapter E4 is, I believe, hard to justify. This and other issues relating to the level of secrecy about past intelligence operations required by the current needs of national security would, in my view, merit consideration by the Intelligence and Security Committee (though that, of course, is a matter for the Committee to decide).
Acknowledgements
The sheer size of the Security Service Archive is both thrilling and intimidating. Almost 400,000 paper files survive, many of them multi-volume. Finding a path through this immense archive would have been impossible without two wonderful part-time research teams: the first, at MI5 headquarters, composed of one current and two retired members of the Security Service (who cannot, alas, be named); the second at Cambridge University, where I have been assisted by two academic colleagues, Dr Peter Martland and Dr Calder Walton. It has been a joy to work with them all.
Three successive DGs have provided indispensable support for the Centenary History: Sir Stephen Lander, whose idea it was, Baroness Manningham-Buller and Jonathan Evans. The History Team are very grateful also to the members of the Service who have made helpful comments on draft chapters and my
There remain strict limits to âthe demystification of the Serviceâ. Itscommitment to preserving the secrecy of current operations, as well as to concealing the identities of staff and agents, has changed little over the past century. By contrast, the Service has become much less secretive about its past record. Since 1997 it has released to the National Archives over 4,000 files on its first half-century, which have given rise to a growing volume of innovative historical research.
In 2002 the Service advertised for a part-time official historian to write its Centenary History and interviewed a series of applicants. I was fortunate to be selected and began work at its Thames House headquarters in 2003. Since then I have been given virtually unrestricted access to the Serviceâs twentieth-century files as well as to the more limited number of twentyfirst-century records I have asked to see. No other of the worldâs leading intelligence agencies has given similar access to a historian appointed from outside. A significant minority of the files I have seen contain material on intelligence sources and methods which it was clear from the outset could not be published. I thought it important, however, to read these files in order to try to ensure that conclusions in The Defence of the Realm based on documents which can be quoted are not contradicted by files whose contents remain classified. Like previous official historians in Britain, I was given an assurance at the outset (which has been fully honoured) that no attempt would be made to change any of the judgements I arrived at.
Clearance of this volume has, unsurprisingly, been a protracted process. There is an inevitable tension between the needs of national security and the wishes of historians. My advocacy of the case for clearance on matters which I judge important has, as colleagues in the Security Service can confirm, not lacked vigour. The issues involved are sometimes difficult. There is much, mostly classified, evidence to support the view of the Security Service that retaining the confidence of current agents makes it necessary to conceal the identities of most of their predecessors as well as their own. The Service has, however, broken important new ground by making it possible for me to bring this history up to the present.
The most difficult part of the clearance process has concerned the requirements of other government departments. One significant excision as a result of these requirements in Chapter E4 is, I believe, hard to justify. This and other issues relating to the level of secrecy about past intelligence operations required by the current needs of national security would, in my view, merit consideration by the Intelligence and Security Committee (though that, of course, is a matter for the Committee to decide).
Acknowledgements
The sheer size of the Security Service Archive is both thrilling and intimidating. Almost 400,000 paper files survive, many of them multi-volume. Finding a path through this immense archive would have been impossible without two wonderful part-time research teams: the first, at MI5 headquarters, composed of one current and two retired members of the Security Service (who cannot, alas, be named); the second at Cambridge University, where I have been assisted by two academic colleagues, Dr Peter Martland and Dr Calder Walton. It has been a joy to work with them all.
Three successive DGs have provided indispensable support for the Centenary History: Sir Stephen Lander, whose idea it was, Baroness Manningham-Buller and Jonathan Evans. The History Team are very grateful also to the members of the Service who have made helpful comments on draft chapters and my
Readers choose
Camille Anthony
Edward Lee
Sebastian Junger
Joe Hart
Kay Kenyon
Davida Lynn
Jan Irving