Originally Posted by
langleybaston
I am reading Lownie's biography of Guy Burgess, "Stalin's Englishman". It is almost soiling and contaminating to read about this arrogant flawed genius, with filthy finger nails and clothes and Old Etonian tie, chewing garlick, swilling any alcohol in sight, and bumming indiscriminately even when he had a steady living-in boyfriend. How such a bastard was allowed to betray his country for so long is an indictment of the then Establishment, and the unmasking [painfully slow and clumsy] of Burgess, Maclean and Philby may mark the beginning of the loss of respect [even deference] towards our leaders, lords and masters.
However, one fact jumped out at me, the introduction of Positive Vetting, said to be c. 1951, in the wake of Klaus Fuchs and the Cambridge quintet. Thus I, and many RAF PPruners, signed up when PV was tiered on to NV. I expect almost all aircrew needed PV [or a military equivalent] from the outset, a huge task for the ex-Policemen and ROs in flashers' macs to maintain.
NV was good enough for most Met men and women unless they were appointed to certain posts, and my first experience of PV was doing leave reliefs from Finningley to Wyton in the early 1970s. It had to be topped up [5 years]? when I joined the TACEVAL team in BFG [with quite a few bolt-on indoctrinations which I am sure were not relevant on a need to know basis], and lapsed when I went from 1 Group HQ to civil aviation. Finally it was needed again at JHQ.
This last fling involved the usual interview in 1989, by which time all manner of naughty behaviour was legal and tolerated, so some of the questions seemed fatuous.
"What do you consider to be deviant sex?"
"Anything I wouldn't do!"
So, if you are allowed to tell PV tales of long ago, please tell them.
Read the book 'Guy Liddell's Diaries Of a Cold War Spymaster' by Nigel West and be prepared to be actually sickened how MI5 and MI6 operated in catching these traitors. Maclean's interrogation was more a friendly chat than actually really holding his feet to the fire. He was lucky it ws the British who questiond him rather than the NKVD which I suspect would have been far more brutal and terminal for his health. Blunt and Caircross should also have been rigoursly interrogated. The establishment at this time covered up treason for which a rope was still an option.