‘The timely use of atomic weapons should be considered’

Abstract

The briefs for Attlee’s visit to Washington in the most critical phase of the Korean War were prepared by the head of the American Department in the Foreign Office, Donald Maclean. Serving in the British Embassy in Washington from 1944 to 1948, he had been one of the few officials there with access to the files about ‘Tube Alloys’ and was a junior member of the British negotiating team in the discussions leading to the establishment of NATO. Maclean had been recruited by Soviet intelligence while at Cambridge before the war, together with Kim Philby, Guy Burgess and Anthony Blunt. Appointed to Cairo as the youngest Counsellor in the Foreign Service, Maclean, after two days of heavy drinking with his friend Philip Toynbee, destroyed a flat belonging to two girls in the American Embassy. This unusual behaviour caused him to be recalled to London, but did not prevent him from being put in charge of relations with North America.