Spys and astronauts
There are two rather nice articles in this week's LRB. First a review of the "Guy Liddell Diaries", Britain's premier spymaster of WWII. Much of it seems farcical, such as when three Nazi agents on route from Brest to Le Touquet set the wrong course and ended up in Plymouth, and the arrest of De Gaulle's deputy as a Nazi spy only to find out that it was other members of the Free French who had fabricate the stories as part of a power struggle.The British also had their moments. Much energy went into exposing and getting sacked the Italian manager of Claridges, because he was Italian, or uncovering Mrs Gertrude Plugge, wife of a Tory MP, for 'going rather far with the Egyptian Ambassador'. Secret trips by Churchilll to meet Roosevelt, or other members of the Cabinet, were so leaked they would appear on German radio before anywhere else.
Otherwise the operation at the time was a success, mainly down to Liddell's 'double-cross' system of turning enemy spys. Nevertheless ultimately its was a failure, for reasons that become clear when you note that Liddell, whose wife had left him to go to America, would often have dinner with Philby, who worked in the office next to him, Blunt, his personal assistant, or Burgess, a close friend and colleague.
Second, a look at the Astronauts who landed on the moon. The rivalry as to who would step on the moon first between Armstrong and Aldrin is amusing in its pettiness, but my favourite bit is a Times article of 1969 titled, 'Put a poet on the Moon'. Absurd as it suggests, though the author, Colin Webb, at least had the grace to say, "I'm not carping [about Armstrong's first words]; a British astronaut would have stuck a flag in and said "I name this moon Elizabeth".
For some reason blogger is not allowing links and I can't be bothered to look at the code. Both can be found at www.lrb.co.uk, but subscribers only.
posted by Matthew @ 8/26/2005 08:58:00 AM
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