Making traitors tick

Press, 24 September 1988, Page 27

Making traitors tick

Traitors. By Chapman Pincher. Sidgwick and Jackson, 1987. 346 pp. $29.95. (Reviewed by Robert Edwards) Chapman Pincher has built up a reputation over the years ’ as a journalist specialising in the intelligence world. He has provided a shoulder for numerous disaffected intelligence officers to cry on, with the result that, as the British Cabinet Secretary, Sir Robert Armstrong, was forced to admit during the “Spycatcher” trial in Australia, “Chapman Pincher has a good reputation for accuracy and good sources.” For many years Pincher was the defence and intelligence correspondent for a London daily newspaper, but such has been the success of his journalism, he has of recent years been able to devote himself entirely to writing full time. “Traitors” is the latest in a long line of books on spies and spying. This one differs from its predecessors in that it offers no revelations; Margaret • Thatcher has not been asked questions in the House about its contents. Rather Chapman Pincher has sought to pause, to take stock, to look back over the years at those who have committed treason, and he has tried to discover’ why they did it. People betray their country for any number of reasons, and the author has set out to explore these reasons, to examine what makes a traitor tick. He has looked at the phenomenon of treason from every conceivable angle, and has isolated common threads that run through all of them. Pincher concludes that treason can only come about when access to the raw material is combined with a combination of money, resentment, blackmail, character flaw, self-satisfaction, and ideology. Not all these facets have to be present in each case, but the

author has found that one or more of them exist in every case he has examined. The F. 8.1. has a more succinct adage to the effect that there has never been an espionage case in which sex did not play a part. “Traitors” is basically a rehash of the case histories of people who have been guilty of betraying their country, but with the emphasis being placed on why they did it. A suitable subtitle could be “Chapman Pincher’s Greatest Hits.” Pincher is familiar with his subject and his time spent with the “Daily Express” has given him a style of writing which is easy to read. The reader may not necessarily learn anything new, but Pincher has tried to approach the subject from a different He succeeds, after rather a heavy start; by the third chapter he has caught the reader’s interest. One slightly annoying feature is Pincher’s habit of referring to his subjects as “type specimens,” as if they are in a laboratory. To seek to explain human nature by scientific means is foolish, as everybody is different, and it is •rather ironic that’the author uses this method, which is one of the analytical tools of Marxism, a creed decried by Pincher. Chapman Pincher has not been averse to blowing his own trumpet, and he has not been reluctant to highlight the part he has played, or claims to have played, in unmasking several traitors. There is no doubt, however, that the journalist has played a role in the exposure of many cases or espionage and treason which the authorities, for various reasons, have wanted kept secret. Before dismissing the Philbys. and Blunts out of hand for their undoubted and unforgiveable treachery, the reader should not forget that to 270 million Russians, they were heroes.