Leigh, David. The Wilson Plot: How the Spycatchers and Their American
Allies Tried to Overthrow the British Government. New York: Pantheon
Books, 1988. 271 pages.
British journalist David Leigh has done a credible job with a
difficult subject. It's difficult because British authors interested in
British intelligence face severe handicaps. The U.S. has a Freedom of
Information Act, even if it doesn't work too well, but in Britain the shoe
is on the wrong foot: they have secrecy laws and can go after journalists.
There's also a long history of treachery at the highest levels, which adds
to the "fog index" when interviewing former British intelligence officers.
Without recourse to documentary evidence, it gets tricky to sort out who's
telling the truth, who's grinding another axe, and who's covering their ass.
One who was grinding and covering seems to have been Peter Wright,
but his "Spycatcher" at least loosened up the secrecy laws. Leigh presents
Wright's role more objectively, and also includes more on the role of
James Angleton. The major premise of this book is that the CIA and MI5,
mostly out of their habitual and hysterical anti-Communism, came to
suspect Labour Party leader Harold Wilson, who became Prime Minister in
1964, of working for the Soviets. They apparently ran some dirty tricks in
an effort to discredit Wilson; in 1976 he resigned suddenly under circum-
stances that were suggestive of something going on behind the scenes.
ISBN 0-394-57241-6
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