ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the impact of Goleniewski’s revelations on British intelligence, particularly the Security Service MI5 and the Secret Intelligence Service MI6. Goleniewski’s information led to the discovery of the Portland spy ring in which Harry Houghton, a worker at the Admiralty Underwater Weapons Establishment was found to be passing secrets to the Soviets. The investigation also revealed the existence of a network of Soviet ‘illegals’ operating in the UK led by Konon Molody aka ‘Gordon Lonsdale’ and supported by the husband and wife team of Morris and Lona Cohen. Goleniewski also helped to expose John Vassall, a Soviet spy in the Admiralty. Most significantly, his revelations led to the capture and imprisonment of George Blake, an important spy for the Soviets inside MI6. The chapter concludes by exploring how Goleniewski’s allegations about a ‘middling grade’ traitor in MI5 would contribute to the feverish atmosphere of paranoia and mistrust within the Anglo-American intelligence community with former CIA counterintelligence chief James Jesus Angleton and the hawkish Peter Wright suggesting that senior figures in MI5 such as Director Generals Michael Hanley and Roger Hollis were Soviet spies.
