In 1963, it was learned that Defence Minister, John Profumo, had had an affair with 19-year old Christine Keeler who was also seeing a Soviet diplomat and suspected spy, Eugene Ivanov. The resulting scandal saw the death, an apparent suicide, of society osteopath Stephen Ward (who brought them together) and is widely regarded as contributing to the resignation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan through ill health and the defeat of the Tory government at the next election - though the public was assured that national security had not been damaged.
This book produces evidence that only a fraction of the story was made known at the time or revealed by the trial of Ward for prostitution. The involvement of MI5, the use of sex to procure defections, suspicions that Ward was murdered, and many other aspects of the case are produced here as links in a chain that leads right back to President Kennedy.
Stephen Dorril is Senior Lecturer in Print Journalism in the Media and Journalism Department of Huddersfield University. He has been investigating the British security and intelligence services for more than twenty years. He is particularly interested in the realtionship between intelligence and politics.He has appeared on numerous radio and television programmes - Panorama, Media Show, Secret History, World at One, NBC News, Canadian television, History Channel, French television etc. - as a specialist and consultant on intelligence matters. He is consultant to a forthcoming series on Chan...
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