Counter-Subversion in Early Cold War Britain: The Official Committee on Communism (Home), the Information Research Department, and ‘State-Private Networks’

Abstract

This article applies the concepts of ‘transnationalism’ and ‘state-private networks’ to early Cold War Britain to analyze the aims and methods of governmental and non-governmental counter-subversion and propaganda in the ‘Cultural Cold War’. Using recently declassified and underutilized files, the article explores the roles of the Official Committee on Communism (Home) and, more particularly, the Foreign Office Information Research Department. The Attlee and Churchill administrations of the late 1940s and early 1950s increasingly perceived the primary non-military threat of communism to Britain as part of Soviet-inspired transnational subversion of western European societies. This created a growing impetus for a symmetrical, transnational response through both domestic and foreign clandestine ‘indoctrination’ campaigns operating via influential non-state British institutions. Despite constitutional concerns still relevant today, in 1951 ministers endorsed the domestic component of this response as a fully-fledged strategy that would encourage greater state intervention in British society in the Cold War struggle for both liberty and security.

Notes

¹ See, for example, Frances Stonor Saunders, Who Paid the Piper? CIA and the Cultural Cold War (London: Granta 1999); Hans Krabbendam and Giles Scott-Smith (eds.) The Cultural Cold War in Western Europe 1945–1960 (Abingdon: Frank Cass 2003); and Peter Romijn et al. (eds.) Divided Dreamworlds: The Cultural Cold War in East and West (Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press 2012).

² The term ‘state-private network’ was first coined by Scott Lucas with regards to CIA operations in Europe. See Scott Lucas, Freedom's War: The US Crusade against the Soviet Union, 1945–56 (Manchester: Manchester University Press 1999).

³ John Dumbrell, ‘Review: Hugh Wilford and Helen Laville (eds.) The US Government, Citizen Groups, and the Cold War: The State-Private Network (London: Routledge 2006)’, Journal of American Studies 40/3 (2006) p.686.

⁴ See, for example, Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (Boston: Harvard University Press 2008).

⁵ In addition to those above, see also Giles Scott-Smith's use of transnationalism in The Politics of Apolitical Culture: The Congress for Cultural Freedom, the CIA and Post-War American Hegemony (Abingdon: Routledge 2002) and Western Anti-Communism and the Interdoc Network: Cold War Internationale (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2012). While the lexicon of this academic sub-field uses the word ‘private’ to describe those non-state organizations that partnered or liaised with instruments of the state, given that they tended to be non-profit, socio-cultural entities, ‘civic’ and ‘state-civic networks’ represent more accurate nomenclature. For the purposes of this article, nevertheless, the established terminology will remain in place.

⁶ For example, Andrew Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, 1945–53: The Information Research Department (Abingdon: Routledge 2004); James Vaughn, The Failure of American and British Propaganda in the Arab Middle East, 1945–1957: Unconquerable Minds (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan 2005); Linda Risso, ‘A Difficult Compromise: British and American Plans for a Common Anti-Communist Propaganda Response in Western Europe, 1948–58’, Intelligence and National Security 26/2–3 (2011) pp.330–54.

⁷ Transnationalism is a social movement and scholarly research agenda grown out of the heightened interconnectivity between people and the receding economic and social significance of boundaries among nation states. As a political paradigm, it focuses on the impact of non-state actors who operate across and between boundaries upon those state actors who operate according to an international, as opposed to transnational, order. As a tool of historical analysis, this concept is in its early stages of development, emerging out of prior concepts such as ‘global history’ and ‘international history’. Here, this concept is used to refer to the impact of communist non-state actors upon the perceptions and actions of the British state, and the operations of state-private networks directed at these actors which transcended state boundaries. See, for example, Thomas Risse, ‘Transnational Actors and World Politics’, in Walter Carlsnaes, Thomas Risse, and Beth Simmons (eds.) Handbook of International Relations (London: Sage 2002) pp.255–74; and ‘AHR Conversation: On Transnational History’, American Historical Review 111/5 (2006) pp.1440–64.

⁸ Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer, passim.

⁹ Christopher Andrew, Defence of the Realm: The Authorised History of MI5 (London: Allen Lane 2009); Christian Schlaepfer, ‘Industrial Subversion in Early Cold War Britain’, Inteligencia y Seguridad 13/1 (2013) pp.29–59; Daniel W. B. Lomas, ‘Labour Ministers, Intelligence and Domestic Anti-Communism, 1945–1951’, Journal of Intelligence History 12/2 (2013) pp.113–33.

¹⁰ Nigel Gould-Davis, ‘The Logic of Soviet Cultural Diplomacy’, Diplomatic History 27/2 (2003) p.195.

¹¹ Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.400–19; Schlaepfer, ‘Industrial Subversion’, p.43; Keith Jeffrey and Peter Hennessy, States of Emergency: British Governments and Strikebreaking since 1919 (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul 1983) p.156; Robert Taylor, The Trade Union Question in British Politics: Government and Unions since 1945 (Oxford: Blackwell 1983) p.38; The National Archives (TNA): Public Record Office (PRO) CAB81/133: Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), ‘The Spread of Communism throughout the World and the Extent of its Direction from Moscow – Annex: Part I: Extent of Communism throughout the British Commonwealth’, Top Secret, 23 September 1946.

¹² TNA: PRO CAB134/737: ‘Annexe C: Communism in the UK’, n.d., attached to Official Committee on Communism (Home), AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, Top Secret, 7 June 1951.

¹³ Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.591, 667.

¹⁴ ‘Amplification to the Report at Part I Resulting From the Discussion of the Combined Civil Military Committee’, Top Secret, n.d. [c. September 1955], attached to SEACDT, ‘Report of the Military Sub-Committee to Combat Communist Subversion’, Top Secret, 15 September 1955, Box 3, Records of the Foreign Service Posts of the Department of State, Thailand, Bangkok Embassy, Top Secret General Records, 1947–58, RG84, National Archives and Records Administration (NARA), United States of America.

¹⁵ Andrew, Defence of the Realm, p.843.

¹⁶ TNA: PRO CAB130/37: Cabinet Committee: European Policy, ‘Security Measures Against Encroachments by Communists or Fascists in the United Kingdom: Report by a Working Party’, GEN 226/1, Top Secret, 1 April 1948; GEN 226/2nd Meeting, Top Secret, 1 June 1948.

¹⁷ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: ‘Annexe C: Communism in the UK’, n.d.

¹⁸ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: Cabinet Committee on Communism, C (49) 14, ‘Report to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs’, Top Secret, 19 July 1949.

¹⁹ TNA: PRO CAB21/2750: Overseas Planning Section, ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, Top Secret, 27 November 1950.

²⁰ TNA: PRO CAB21/2504: C (49) 1, Norman Brook, ‘Composition and Terms of Reference – Note by the Secretary of the Cabinet’, Top Secret, 24 May 1949. For the wide-ranging work of this committee, see its minutes and memoranda in TNA: PRO CAB134/153.

²¹ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 14, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 19 July 1949.

²² TNA: PRO CAB134/737: ‘Annexe B: Countering Communism’, n.d., attached to AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, Top Secret, 7 June 1951.

²³ ‘Psychological Intelligence’ was used frequently by American officials and is a useful collective term for intelligence collected and supplied for use in constructing, disseminating, and evaluating propaganda. It was used more infrequently by their British counterparts, who did not have an agreed phrase at this time. See, for example, TNA: PRO WO291/1770: ORS(PW) Memorandum No. 8/53, PB Humphrey, ‘Some Items of Psychological Warfare Intelligence as Obtained from Surrendered Communist Terrorists in Malaya’, Secret, 5 October 1953. See Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, ch.2, for more on the nature of IRD productions.

²⁴ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, 7 June 1951; Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, pp.82, 167.

²⁵ TNA: PRO FO1110/11: Ralph Murray (H/IRD) memorandum, 8 May 1948; Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, pp.76–7.

²⁶ TNA: PRO CAB127/296: IRD memorandum, ‘Anti-Communist Propaganda Operations’, 27 July 1951, attached to Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Foreign Affairs (Ernest Davies) to Patrick Gordon-Walker (Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations), 30 July 1951.

²⁷ Ibid.

²⁸ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: ‘Annexe C: Communism in the UK’, n.d.

²⁹ TNA: PRO CAB129/23: Bevin memorandum, ‘Future Foreign Publicity Policy’, Top Secret, 4 January 1948; CAB128/12: Cabinet conclusions, 8 January 1948; CAB129/25: Bevin memorandum, ‘The Threat to Western Civilisation’, Top Secret, 3 March 1948; FO371/56885: Russia Committee terms of reference, 18 April 1946. See Defty, Britain, America and Anti-Communist Propaganda, pp.63–101; Thomas J. Maguire, British and American Covert Action, Propaganda, and the Battle of Ideas in Early Cold War Europe, unpublished MPhil thesis (University of Cambridge 2010), pp.11–16.

³⁰ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Second Report to Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs’, Top Secret, 30 November 1949; CAB134/2: Ministerial Committee on Communism, AC(M) (49) 1, ‘Note by the Secretary of the Cabinet’, Top Secret, 31 December 1949; CAB134/4: AC(O) (50) 1st meeting, ‘Terms of Reference and Procedure of the Committee’, Top Secret, 25 January 1950.

³¹ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 14, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 19 July 1949.

³² TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949.

³³ TNA: PRO CAB130/37: GEN 231/3rd Meeting, ‘Confidential Annex’, Top Secret, 19 December 1949; CAB134/153: C (49) 17, ‘The Committee's Second Report: Ministerial Decisions – Note by the Joint Secretaries’, Top Secret, 21 December 1949.

³⁴ For an excellent recent publication on the extent of Labour Party, as well as Norwegian Labour Party, cooperation in disseminating IRD anti-communist propaganda, see Tony Insall, Haakon Lie, Denis Healey and the Making of an Anglo-Norwegian Special Relationship, 1945–51 (Oslo: Oslo Academic Press 2010).

³⁵ TNA: PRO CAB130/37: GEN 226/1, minutes of meeting, 13 April 1948.

³⁶ TNA: PRO CAB130/37: GEN 231/3rd Meeting, ‘Confidential Annex’, 19 December 1949.

³⁷ For more on Healey's conversion and subsequent anti-communist proclivities, see Denis Healey, The Time of My Life (London: Politico's Publishing Ltd 2006).

³⁸ TNA: PRO FO1110/15: Healey to Adam Watson (IRD), 8 December 1948, Watson to Peter Tennant (Paris), 10 December 1948, and M. A. Robb (The Hague) to Watson, 16 December 1948; FO1110/99: Watson minute, 5 January 1949; CAB127/296: IRD memorandum, ‘Anti-Communist Propaganda Operations’, 27 July 1951. Watson and Healey's correspondence and the supply of material in each direction are very apparent in the IDLP records: e.g. see National Museum of Labour History (NMLH), Manchester: File: Anti-Communist Propaganda, 1948, IDLP: Sofia to FO, 11 and 12 November 1948, attached to Watson to Healey, 12 November 1948.

³⁹ TNA: PRO FO1110/11: Mayhew, memo for Warner, 17 June 1948.

⁴⁰ TNA: PRO FO1110/15: ‘Labour Party Talking Points, 23 December 1948’ and ‘End the Veto on Peace’ pamphlet, attached to Healey to Watson, 17 December 1948, and Watson minute, 21 December 1948.

⁴¹ TNA: PRO FO1110/41: Mayhew minute to Warner, 24 March 1948; FO1110/87: ‘Standard Distribution of IRD Digests’, attached to Murray minute to Warner, 29 July 1948, Mayhew to D. R. Rees-Williams, MP, 11 August 1948; and FO1110/15: Norman Reddaway minute to Murray, 1 December 1948.

⁴² TNA: PRO FO1110/41: Warner minute to Mayhew, 15 June 1948; FO1110/191: Murray minute, 14 January 1949, Mayhew minute to Bevin, 25 January 1949, and Cabinet conclusions, 3 February 1949; and FO1110/192: Mayhew minute to Clement Attlee, 31 March 1949.

⁴³ Richard J. Aldrich, The Hidden Hand: Britain, America and Cold War Secret Intelligence (London: John Murray 2001) pp.456–7.

⁴⁴ TNA: PRO FO1110/271: IRD to Healey, 7 April 1949, Tennant to Murray, 29 April 1949, Graham Mitchell to Murray, Secret, 28 July 1949, and MI5 report, ‘The World Congress of Partisans of Peace, Paris 20–25 Apr 1949’, 9 July 1949, attached to M. J. E. Bagot (MI5) to Murray, 11 August 1949; Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.411–12.

⁴⁵ Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.412–3.

⁴⁶ See TNA: PRO CAB134/737 – /740, CAB134/1194, CAB134/1342 – /1349.

⁴⁷ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting of the Committee held on Friday 22^nd June, 1951’, Top Secret, 23 June 1951.

⁴⁸ TNA: PRO FO1110/258: Mayhew memorandum (IRD-drafted) to Ernest Bevin, 7 May 1949.

⁴⁹ Schlaepfer, ‘Industrial Subversion’, pp.43–4; Taylor, The Trade Union Question, pp.38–9.

⁵⁰ TNA: PRO FO1110/258: H. G. Gee (Min. of Labour) memorandum, ‘The TUC and its International Policy’, 23 March 1949.

⁵¹ Anthony Carew, ‘The Schism within the World Federation of Trade Unions: Government and Trade Union Diplomacy’, International Review of Social History 29/3 (1984) pp.297–335.

⁵² TNA: PRO FO1110/258: Mayhew memorandum to Bevin, 7 May 1949.

⁵³ Ibid.

⁵⁴ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 14, ‘Report to the Secretary of State…’, 19 July 1949.

⁵⁵ TNA: PRO FO1110/98: ‘Freedom First: News Letter of the Defence of Democracy Trust Against All Forms of Totalitarianism’, Introductory Issue [May 1948], attached to Isabel M. Jervis (Defence of Democracy Trust) to Lord Talbot (Information Policy Department), 21 September 1948.

⁵⁶ TNA: PRO FO1110/213: Mayhew minute to Bevin, 6 January 1949.

⁵⁷ TNA: PRO FO1110/98: Tracey to Mayhew, 11 August 1948; FO1110/99: J. C. Cloake (IRD) minute, 15 September 1948.

⁵⁸ TNA: PRO FO1110/98: Cloake minute, 18 August 1948.

⁵⁹ TNA: PRO FO1110/213: IRD circular, 31 January 1949; FO1110/99: Gee minute, 28 September 1948.

⁶⁰ TNA: PRO FO1110/98: IRD to Michael Stewart (Rome), Draft, September 1948; FO1110/99: Cloake minute, 23 September 1948.

⁶¹ TNA: PRO FO1110/213: Mayhew minute to Bevin, 6 January 1949; such assessments in contemporary PSYOPS parlance are known as Measurement of Effect (MOE) and Target Audience Analysis (TAA).

⁶² TNA: PRO FO1110/213: Mayhew minute to Bevin, 6 January 1949; for more on the development of this project, see also TNA: PRO FO1110/13.

⁶³ TNA: PRO FO1110/258: Murray minute, 29 March 1949; FO1110/213: Leslie Sheridan (IRD) minute, 31 December 1949.

⁶⁴ Richard Stevens, ‘Cold War Politics: Communism and Anti-Communism in the Trade Unions’, in Alan Campbell, Nina Fishman and John McIlroy (eds.) British Trade Unions and Industrial Politics, vol. I (Aldershot: Ashgate 1999) p.171; Schlaepfer, ‘Industrial Subversion’, pp.46–50.

⁶⁵ TNA: PRO FO1110/380: T. S. Tull (IRD) minute, 3 May 1951.

⁶⁶ TNA: PRO FO1110/380: ‘Minutes of Meeting with Mr. Tennant (Min. of Labour) and Mr. Bell (TUC) in Mr. Gee's Room’, 11 January 1951.

⁶⁷ TNA: PRO FO1110/380: Healey to Peck, 8 December 1950, Peck to S. A. Lockhart (Brussels), 19 January 1951, F. C. Mason (IRD) minute, ‘ICFTU Propaganda Work’, 22 January 1951, and Wilkinson minute, 21 February 1951.

⁶⁸ TNA: PRO FO1110/380: Sheridan minute, 8 December 1950, Mason minute, 22 January 1951, and Wilkinson minute, 21 February 1951.

⁶⁹ See Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer; Hugh Wilford and Helen Laville (eds.) The US Government, Citizen Groups, and the Cold War: The State-Private Network (London: Routledge 2006).

⁷⁰ TNA: PRO FO1110/516: Peck to Watson, 7 February 1952.

⁷¹ On par with this operation, perhaps, was the global exposure of the Soviet Forced Labour Codex in 1949. See TNA: PRO FO1110/174 – /177.

⁷² TNA: PRO FO1110/275: Murray minute, 19 March 1949.

⁷³ TNA: PRO CAB127/296: IRD memorandum, ‘Anti-Communist Propaganda Operations’, 27 July 1951.

⁷⁴ TNA: PRO CAB130/65: GEN 341/1, Cabinet memorandum by Bevin (drafted by IRD), ‘World Peace Congress’, n.d. [October 1950]; FO1110/348: Murray memorandum, ‘Sheffield “Peace” Congress’, to Ashley Clarke, 16 October 1950.

⁷⁵ TNA: PRO CAB21/2750: ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, Overseas Planning Section, 27 November 1950; FO1110/370: MI5 memo, ‘Second World Peace Congress Sheffield/Warsaw 1950’, Secret, 15 January 1951, attached to Bagot to Peck, 30 January 1951; FO1110/371: Peck memorandum to Warner, 4 June 1951.

⁷⁶ TNA: PRO FO1110/371: Peck memorandum to Warner, 4 June 1951; FO1110/321: MI5 memo, ‘International Union of Students (IUS): International Day of Solidarity with Youth and Students Fighting against Colonialism’, 30 December 1949, attached to MI5 to Murray, 5 January 1950.

⁷⁷ TNA: PRO CAB134/2: AC(M) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Tuesday, 24^th July, 1951’, Top Secret, 25 July 1951.

⁷⁸ TNA: PRO FO1110/346: Murray minute to Warner, ‘Communist Peace Meeting, London, 31 May 1950’, Secret, 25 May 1950; FO1110/347: Murray memorandum, ‘Proposal to hold the Second World Peace Congress in London on 13^th November’, Secret, 26 August 1950; FO1110/371: Peck memorandum to Warner, 4 June 1951; FO1110/516: Minutes of a meeting held at No.12, Carlton House Terrace, to discuss the ‘Festival of British Youth’, 29 January 1952, and IRD memorandum, ‘The Whitsun “Festival of British Youth”’ (revised version), n.d. [January 1952]. The BPC, like other national peace committees, was formed in May 1949 in the wake of the Paris Peace Congress. For a more detailed analysis of the Sheffield Peace Congress operation, see Philip Deery, ‘The Dove Flies East: Whitehall, Warsaw and the 1950 World Peace Congress’, Australian Journal of Politics and History 48/2 (2002) pp.449–68, and Weston Ullrich, ‘Preventing “Peace”: The British Government and the Second World Peace Congress’, Cold War History 11/3 (2011) pp.341–62.

⁷⁹ TNA: PRO FO1110/371: Peck memo to Warner, 4 June 1951.

⁸⁰ TNA: PRO FO1110/346: Murray minute to Warner, ‘Communist Peace Meeting, London, 31 May 1950’, 25 May 1950, and P. S. Falla minute, 25 May 1950; PREM8/1150: Bevin to Attlee, 12 October 1950.

⁸¹ TNA: PRO FO1110/349: Extract from minutes of a Cabinet meeting, 30 October 1950.

⁸² TNA: PRO FO1110/371: Peck memorandum to Warner, 4 June 1951.

⁸³ TNA: PRO FO1110/271: Murray minute, 19 March 1949, Mayhew minute, 22 March 1949, and FO circular, 24 March 1949; FO1110/346: Watson minute, ‘Action to Combat the Communist Peace Offensive’, Secret, 16 March 1950.

⁸⁴ TNA: PRO FO1110/347: Murray to Sir David Kelly (Moscow), 6 October 1950.

⁸⁵ TNA: PRO FO1110/346: Warner minute, 18 May 1950; CAB127/296: IRD memorandum, ‘Anti-Communist Propaganda Operations’, 27 July 1951; CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 10, ‘Future Business of the Committee’, Top Secret, 13 July 1951.

⁸⁶ TNA: PRO CAB21/2750: Note for Record, 28 November 1950; CAB134/2: Pierson Dixon, M. J. Dean & A. P. M. Sanders, ‘Communism in the United Kingdom – Memorandum by the Official Committee’, 16 December 1950, attached to AC(M) (51) 1, ‘Communism in the United Kingdom – Note by the Secretary’, Top Secret, 19 January 1951.

⁸⁷ TNA: PRO CAB134/2: AC(M) (51) 1st Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting on Tuesday, 6^th February, 1951’, Top Secret, 8 February 1951.

⁸⁸ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949.

⁸⁹ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949; CAB134/2: Dixon et al., ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, 16 December 1950.

⁹⁰ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949; CAB134/2: Dixon et al., ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, 16 December 1950.

⁹¹ TNA: PRO CAB134/2: AC(M) (51) 1st Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 8 February 1951.

⁹² TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, Top Secret, 7 June 1951, AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 23 June 1951, AC(H) (51) 10, ‘Future Business of the Committee’, Top Secret, 13 July 1951.

⁹³ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949; CAB134/738: D (53), ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, February 1953. For examples of IRD topics focused on abroad, see a selection of its basic papers in TNA: PRO FO975.

⁹⁴ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 23 June 1951.

⁹⁵ TNA: PRO CAB134/153: C (49) 16, ‘Report to Secretary of State…’, 30 November 1949; CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 1, ‘Constitution and Terms of Reference of the Committee: Note by the Secretary of the Cabinet’, Top Secret, 7 June 1951, AC(H) (51) 1st Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Friday, 15^th June, 1951’, Top Secret, 18 June 1951, AC(H), Lists of Memoranda for 1951 and 1952; and CAB134/738: AC(H), List of Memoranda for 1953.

⁹⁶ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, 7 June 1951, and ‘Annexe D: Combatting Communism in the UK – Tactics, Material and Machinery’, Top Secret, n.d. [c. June 1951], attached to AC(H) (51) 2, ‘Countering Communism’, 7 June 1951. Unfortunately for deeper investigation, all of the regular English Section progress reports – detailing operations and domestic contacts – were retained in the recent releases of AC(H) files.

⁹⁷ TNA: PRO FO1110/516: Peck minute, 26 July 1952; private information. The large batch of PUSD files released in May 2013 reveal in several instances the growing intimacy between the IRD and both intelligence services from as early as 1948. See, for example, documents within FO1093/370, /375, and /380.

⁹⁸ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 23 June 1951.

⁹⁹ TNA: PRO FO1110/516: R. M. Frewen (IRD) minute, Secret, 23 May 1952, J. O. Roach (IRD) to J. H. Marriott (MI5), 23 May 1952, and Marriott to Roach, 17 June 1952.

¹⁰⁰ Tony Shaw, ‘The Information Research Department of the British Foreign Office and the Korean War, 1950–53’, Journal of Contemporary History 34/2 (1999) p.272; TNA: PRO CAB134/2: AC(M) (51) 2, ‘Communism in the United Kingdom: Memorandum by the Lord President of the Council’, Top Secret, 22 February 1951; CAB21/2750: King minute, 15 June 1951; CAB128/20: Cabinet minutes, 53 (51) 7, 19 July 1951; FO1110/423: Attlee minute, ‘Defence Digest’, n.d. [September 1951], ‘Defence Digest No.1’, 28 September 1951; CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 5th Meeting, ‘Minutes of Meeting held on Tuesday, 2^nd October, 1951’, Top Secret, 4 October 1951; FO1110/423: Dixon to Anthony Eden, 4 December 1951. For more on the work of this Group, see also CAB127/323.

¹⁰¹ TNA: PRO CAB134/738: Defence Committee, D (53), ‘Communism in the United Kingdom: Memorandum by the Secretary of the Cabinet’, Top Secret, February 1953.

¹⁰² TNA: PRO CAB134/737: J. W. Nicholls to Sir Norman Brook, 24 October 1951, attached to AC(H) (51) 13, ‘Distribution of Points at Issue’, Top Secret, 31 October 1951, AC(H) (52) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Monday, 24^th March, 1952’, Top Secret, 26 March 1952.

¹⁰³ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: ‘Annexe D: Combatting Communism in the UK’, n.d. [c. June 1951], AC(H) (51) 10, ‘Future Business…’, 13 July 1951, AC(H) (52) 1st Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 14 March 1952, AC(H) (52) 4th Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Monday, 20^th October, 1952’, Top Secret, 21 October 1952.

¹⁰⁴ TNA: PRO CAB134/738: D (53), ‘Communism in the United Kingdom’, February 1953.

¹⁰⁵ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 23 June 1951; CAB134/738: AC(H) (53) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Monday, 27^th July, 1953’, Top Secret, 27 July 1953.

¹⁰⁶ TNA: PRO CAB134/737: AC(H) (51) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting…’, 23 June 1951; CAB134/738: AC(H) (53) 2nd Meeting, ‘Minutes of a Meeting held on Monday, 27^th July, 1953’, Top Secret, 27 July 1953; Gill Bennett, Churchill's Man of Mystery: Desmond Morton and the World of Intelligence (Abingdon: Routledge 2007) pp.308–10.

¹⁰⁷ Schlaepfer, ‘Industrial Subversion’, pp.44–51; Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.400–19, 522–43, 587–99, 656–82.

¹⁰⁸ Andrew, Defence of the Realm, pp.596–7, 658–9 (quote on p.658); TNA: PRO FO1110/1330: D. R. M. Ackland, ‘The Distribution of IRD Papers in the UK’, 31 March 1960; D. C. Hopson (H/IRD) memo, n.d. [c. April 1960]; private information.

¹⁰⁹ A profitable starting point will be the further AC(H) files from 1954–1964 released in June 2013 in the CAB134 series, in addition to the scattered ‘United Kingdom’ IRD files in FO1110.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Thomas J. Maguire

Thomas J. Maguire is a PhD candidate in the Department of Politics and International Studies (POLIS) at Gonville and Caius College, University of Cambridge, and the John Garnett Fellow 2014–15 at the Royal United Services Institute. His research focuses on intelligence, counter-subversion, psychological warfare and international liaison – especially Anglo-American – with a particular concentration on the Cold War and decolonization in Southeast Asia. Thomas holds a BA (Hons) in History from Durham University and received an MPhil in International Relations from the University of Cambridge.