Donald Duart Maclean

Donald Duart Maclean (1913- 6 March 1983) was one of the Cambridge Five, members of MI5 and MI6 who acted as spies for Russia in the Second World War. He was the son of the Scottish Liberal politician Sir Donald Maclean.

Washington

His most fruitful period was during his tenure with the British Embassy in Washington D.C. (1944-1948), when he was Stalin's main source of information about communications and policy development between Churchill and Roosevelt, and then Churchill and Harry S. Truman. Although he did not transmit technical data on the atom bomb, he reported on its development and progress, particularly the amount of uranium available to the United States. He was the British representative on the American-British-Canadian council on the sharing of atomic secrets and was able to provide to the Soviet Union minutes of Cabinet meetings. This knowledge alone gave the Soviet scientists the ability to predict the number of bombs that could be built by the Americans. Coupled with the efforts of Alan Nunn May and Klaus Fuchs, who provided scientific information, MacLean's reports to his KGB controller helped the Soviets not only to build the atom bomb, but how to estimate their nuclear arsenal's relative strength against that of the United States.

Related Topics:
1944 - 1948 - Stalin - Churchill - Roosevelt - Harry S. Truman - Atom bomb - Alan Nunn May - Klaus Fuchs - KGB

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1941 he was possibly identified by Walter Krivitsky, a Soviet defector, who was later assassinated by Soviet agents in the Bellevue Hotel in Washington D.C.. It was said that Krivitsky had claimed there was a mole in British intelligence who was a "a Scotsman of good family, educated at Eton and Oxford (sic), and an idealist who worked for the Russians without payment."

Related Topics:
1941 - Washington D.C. - Scotsman

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

His continual monitoring of secret messages between Truman and Churchill allowed Stalin to know how the Americans and the British proposed to occupy Germany and carve up the borders of Eastern European countries. Stalin was forearmed with this information not only at the Yalta Conference, but at the Potsdam and Tehran Conferences as well.

Related Topics:
Germany - Yalta Conference - Potsdam - Tehran

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

MacLean reported to Moscow that the goal of the Marshall Plan was to ensure American economic domination in Europe. The new international economic organization to restore European productivity would be under the control of American financial capital. The message revealed the Marshall Plan was intended to be a substitute for the payment of reparations by Germany. At that time the Soviet Union had no export earnings, war reparations were the sole source of foreign capital to rebuild the wartorn Soviet economy. Yalta and Potsdam agreements allowed German reparations in the form of equipment, manufacturing machinery, cars, trucks, and building supplies to be sent to Russia for five years. The flow of goods were unregulated by international control, and could be used for whatever purposes the Soviets chose. Six months after the Marshall Plan was rejected by the Soviet Union, multiparty rule in Eastern Europe ended.

Related Topics:
Marshall Plan - Reparations

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

In 1948, MacLean was transferred to the British Embassy in Cairo. Undoubtedly, MacLean's information was significant in assisting Stalin in his strategy for the Cold War.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~