The Secret History of MI6

839 Pages·2010·5.92 MB·English

by  Keith Jeffery

Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright Page
Foreword
Preface
Acknowledgements
PART ONE - EARLY DAYS
Chapter 1 - The beginnings of the Service
PART TWO - THE FIRST WORLD WAR
Chapter 2 - Status, organisation and expertise
Chapter 3 - Operations in the West
Chapter 4 - Working further afield
PART THREE - THE INTERWAR YEARS
Chapter 5 - The emergence of SIS
Chapter 6 - From Boche to Bolsheviks
Chapter 7 - Domestic matters
Chapter 8 - Existing on a shoestring
Chapter 9 - Approaching war
PART FOUR - THE IMPACT OF WAR
Chapter 10 - Keeping afloat
Chapter 11 - The European theatre
Chapter 12 - From Budapest to Baghdad
Chapter 13 - West and East
PART FIVE - WINNING THE WAR
Chapter 14 - The tide turns
Chapter 15 - From Switzerland to Normandy
Chapter 16 - Victory in Europe
Chapter 17 - Asia and the end of the war
Chapter 18 - Postwar planning
PART SIX - FROM HOT WAR TO COLD WAR
Chapter 19 - Adjusting to peace
Chapter 20 - Deployment and operations in Europe
Chapter 21 - A worldwide Service
PART SEVEN - CONCLUSION
Chapter 22 - SIS: leadership and performance over the first forty years
Notes
Bibliography
Index
One of SIS’s founding documents: the letter of 10 August 1909 from Admiral
Alexander Bethell (Director of Naval Intelligence) to Mansfield Cumming
offering him ‘something good’, which turned out to be appointment as Chief of
the new Secret Service.

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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGINGIN PUBLICATION DATA
Jeffery, Keith.
Secret history of MI6 / Keith Jeffery.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
eISBN : 978-1-10144346-0
1. Great Britain. MI6—History. 2. Intelligence service—Great Britain—History—20th century. I. Title.
UB251.G7J44 2010
327.1241009—dc22
2010024158
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Foreword
Keith Jeffery’s history of the Secret Intelligence Service 1909-1949 is a
landmark in the history of the Service.
At the initiative of my predecessor, John Scarlett, SIS decided in the run up to
our centenary to commission an independent and authoritative volume on the
history of the Service’s first forty years. The aim was to increase public
understanding of SIS by explaining our origin and role in a rigorous history,
which would be accessible to the widest possible audience but would not
damage national security. This is the first time we have given an academic from
outside the Service such access to our archives. The Foreign Secretary of the day
approved our plans.
Why focus on 1909-1949? Firstly, SIS’s first forty years cover a period of
vital concern for the United Kingdom. Secondly, 1949 represents a watershed in
our professional work with the move to Cold War targets and techniques. Thirdly
and most importantly, full details of our history after 1949 are still too sensitive
to place in the public domain. Up to 1949 Professor Jeffery has been free to tell a
complete story and to put on the public record a well-informed picture of the
intelligence contribution to a key period of twentieth-century history. During this
time, SIS developed from a small, Europe-focused organisation into a worldwide
professional Service ready to take an important role in the Cold War.
Throughout, we have been at pains to provide the necessary openness to
enable the author to tell our history definitively. We take very seriously our
obligations to protect our agents, our staff and all who assist us. Our policy on
the non-release of records themselves, as opposed to information drawn from the
archive, remains unchanged. A statement on this policy is outlined below.
Professor Jeffery has had unrestricted access to the Service archive covering
the period of this work. He has made his own independent judgements as an
experienced academic and scholar. In so doing he has given a detailed account of
the challenges, successes and failures faced by the Service and its leadership in
our first forty years.
Above all Professor Jeffery’s history gives a view of the men and women
who, through hard work, dedicated service, character and courage, helped to
establish and shape the Service in its difficult and demanding early days. I see
these qualities displayed every day in the current Service as SIS staff continue to
face danger in far-flung places to protect the United Kingdom and promote the
national interest. I know my predecessors would be as proud as I am of the men