MI6: Stephen Dorril

Paper Summary:

In this article, the writer discusses whether the British Secret Intelligence Service, MI6, intentionally and deliberately helped to initiate the Cold War, and then kept it going. The writer maintains that this is one of the thrusts of Stephen Dorril's book, 'MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence'. The writer discusses that another clear message from Dorril's book is that there were numerous misguided and failed strategies used by the British in their attempts at covert influence against communism during the Cold War. This paper outlines several intelligence operations that were run against the Soviet Union during the Cold War. The writer also reviews whether the operation was a success or a failure and assesses the reasons why they succeeded or failed.

From the Paper:

"Working in tandem with the R5 (MI6's anti-Soviet group), IRD had agents in British embassies around the world. The task of the R5 was to plant stories, create forgeries, lies and fabrications to be broadcast on secretly funded (by the MI6) radio stations and newspapers. This was pure propaganda, and it was linked to the truth (because the Soviets indeed had slave labor camps and gulags), but ultimately it failed and was shut down. On page 80 Dorril explains that "secrecy does not ultimately corrupt" and the R5 was really no better, in the end, than Soviet propaganda. This was a dismal failure on the part of Britain to establish on the ground floor something that would eventually become an intelligence operation."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Dorril, Stephen. MI6: Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service. London: The Free Press, 2000.

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