TRIPLEX: Secrets from the Cambridge Spies

TRIPLEX reveals more clearly than ever before the precise nature and extent of the damage done to the much-vaunted British intelligence establishment during World War II by the notorious “Cambridge Five” spy ring—Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross. The code word TRIPLEX refers to an exceptionally sensitive intelligence source, one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war, which appears nowhere in any of the British government’s official histories. TRIPLEX was material extracted illicitly from the diplomatic pouches of neutral missions in wartime London. MI5, the British Security Service, entrusted the job of overseeing the highly secret assignment to Anthony Blunt, who was already working for the NKVD, Stalin’s intelligence service. The rest is history, documented here for the first time in rich detail.

TRIPLEX reveals more clearly than ever before the precise nature and extent of the damage done to the much-vaunted British intelligence establishment during World War II by the notorious “Cambridge Five” spy ring—Kim Philby, Donald Maclean, Guy Burgess, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross. The code word TRIPLEX refers to an exceptionally sensitive intelligence source, one of the most closely guarded secrets of the war, which appears nowhere in any of the British government’s official histories. TRIPLEX was material extracted illicitly from the diplomatic pouches of neutral missions in wartime London. MI5, the British Security Service, entrusted the job of overseeing the highly secret assignment to Anthony Blunt, who was already working for the NKVD, Stalin’s intelligence service. The rest is history, documented here for the first time in rich detail.

Library Journal

The recruitment of upper-crust young Englishmen (the "Cambridge Spy Ring") and their subsequent penetration of British intelligence is perhaps the best-known espionage feat of the Soviets against the United Kingdom, with five agents operating at the heart of Whitehall. As a companion to their previous collaboration, The Crown Jewels: The British Secrets at the Heart of the KGB Archives, West and Tsarev, a retired KGB officer, here collect the reports sent to Moscow during World War II, later retrieved from the Russian archives. The bulk of these were sent by former journalist Kim Philby, the most skilled of the bunch. There are interesting details about British contacts in foreign embassies, the organization of the Secret Intelligence Service, and London's valid concerns with extensive Soviet espionage in the U.K. While the outlines of many events are well known, here one can find documentary evidence of the betrayals that led to loss of life and the frustration of British efforts to spy on the USSR. There is a list of abbreviations but no bibliography, chronology, or photographs. VERDICT Of interest to specialists and for historical espionage collections in academic libraries and ideally to be read in conjunction with The Crown Jewels. (Index not seen.)—Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL

Nigel West is a renowned British historian of military intelligence and has written more than 25 related books. Oleg Tsarev is a retired KGB officer who has co-written a number of books on wartime espionage and intelligence.