|
|
|
| Current Issue |
|
|
| Resources |
|
|
|
Scandaltime in Britain
| Article
# : |
16745 |
|
|
Section : |
THE ARTS
|
| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1989 |
2,051 Words |
| Author
: |
Joshua Muravchik
Joshua Muravchik is a resident scholar at the American
Enterprise Institute. |
The scandal that rocked England seems quite tame now. In 1963, London tabloids vied with each other for fiery headlines about sex for sale and spies, kinky orgies and people in high places. The scandal was enough to precipitate the fall of the Conservative government of Harold Macmillan. Two young and comely party girls of humble origin--Christine Keeler and Mandy Rice-Davies--were at the center of a swirl of sexual hedonism that embraced the well-born, the well-off, and the well-placed. The most prominent, perhaps, among the latter was up-and-coming John Profumo, already minister of state for war and, still in his forties, looking ahead to even higher office.
As word of Profumo's extramarital affair with Keeler spilled into the gossip pages, the minister steadfastly denied the story to his colleagues. He dug himself in deeper by taking to the floor of Parliament for the rarely used procedure of a "personal statement," in which he declared firmly that his relationship with "Miss Keeler" involved "no impropriety whatsoever." He threatened to sue anyone who repeated allegations to the contrary.
Intimate Letter
Soon, however, Profumo's stone wall began to crumble under the impact of Keeler's own account in the public prints of their relationship, buttressed by the evidence of an intimate letter from him that she had kept, which was addressed "Darling." (His dogged explanation that he addressed lots of people that way somehow rang hollow.)
What gave the scandal the fuel it needed to really soar was the implication of an espionage angle. Just as her affair with Profumo was warming, Keeler also had a bit of romance with Yevgeny Ivanov, assistant naval attache of the Soviet embassy in London and presumably a member of the KGB. Her Majesty's government was thus compromised. Might Keeler have gathered British defense secrets on Profumo's pillow, only to repeat them on Ivanov's?
Interestingly, Keeler had been introduced to both men by the same intermediary, Dr. Stephen Ward, an osteopath and semiprofessional portrait artist, who in both lines catered to the rich and famous, in the process carving a niche for himself in high society. When the scandal exploded, Ward was tried on charges of living on the immoral earnings of Keeler and Rice-Davies--that is, pimping. Both women had shared his flat at various times. In his trial, it was brought out that Ward had expressed rather neutralist views about East-West relations and had
...
Read Full Article
Look for this article in Ask.com
|
|
