Maclean, Donald

The Oxford Companion to World War II | 2001 | 700+ words | Copyright

Maclean, Donald (1913–83),British diplomat and traitor, son of an eminent liberal politician, who became a communist while reading modern languages at Cambridge. He disguised his views to enter diplomatic service where, regarded as a high flyer, he served in embassies in Paris, 1938–40, and Washington, 1944–8, and in the foreign office in between. A useful spy for the USSR, both on diplomatic and on atomic matters, he drank heavily and was bisexual. MI5 detected his activities but before they could arrest him he defected to Moscow in 1951, with the Cambridge friend Guy Burgess who had recruited him. There he spent the next 32 years writing about international affairs and enduring the system he had advocated.

M. R. D. Foot

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I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Maclean, Donald." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. 28 May. 2012 <http://www.encyclopedia.com>.

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Maclean, Donald." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Encyclopedia.com. (May 28, 2012). http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-MacleanDonald.html

I. C. B. DEAR and M. R. D. FOOT. " Maclean, Donald." The Oxford Companion to World War II. 2001. Retrieved May 28, 2012 from Encyclopedia.com: http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1O129-MacleanDonald.html

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