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Donald Duart Maclean ( / məˈkleɪn /; 25 May 1913 – 6 March 1983) was a British diplomat and Soviet double agent who participated in the Cambridge Five spy ring. After being recruited by a Soviet agent as an undergraduate student, Maclean entered the civil service. In 1938, he was appointed as Third Secretary at the British embassy in Paris.
Donald Maclean (born May 25, 1913, London, Eng.—died March 11, 1983, Moscow, Russia, U.S.S.R.) was a British diplomat who spied for the Soviet Union in World War II and early in the Cold War period.
Apr 29, 2018 · An ideological communist whose core ideals managed to survive the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, he was to become as valued a spy for Moscow as Kim Philby. When Maclean was posted to Washington DC towards the end of the war the flow of information became even more vitally useful.
Maclean’s betrayal was a major blow to British intelligence at a critical time in history and the Cambridge Five spy ring - which included Maclean, Burgess, Philby, Anthony Blunt, and John Cairncross - is still considered one of the most damaging espionage operations in British history.
The Cambridge Five was a ring of spies in the United Kingdom that passed information to the Soviet Union during the Second World War and the Cold War and was active from the 1930s until at least the early 1950s. None of the known members were ever prosecuted for spying. The number and membership of the ring emerged slowly, from the 1950s onwards.
Jan 3, 2023 · Donald Duart Maclean was a senior British diplomat and a Soviet spy, part of a ring that became known as the Cambridge Five. In just the period between 1941 and 1945, he passed over 5000 documents to the USSR, including details of the atomic bomb.
May 9, 2018 · The Cambridge Five's penetration of the British intelligence service was extraordinarily complete but Donald Maclean was the only one to enjoy the inevitable life in exile when his spying days...
