Profumo Affair

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The Profumo Affair was a political scandal from 1963 in the United Kingdom that is named after the then Secretary of State for War, John Profumo. The Profumo affair developed after Profumo had a brief relationship with a showgirl named Christine Keeler, who was also reputedly the mistress of a known Russian spy, and then lied in the House of Commons when he was questioned about it. The scandal forced Profumo to resign and severely damaged the reputation of Prime Minister Harold Macmillan's government. Macmillan himself would resign a few months later owing to ill health.

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[edit] Profumo's relationship with Keeler

In the early 1960s Profumo was the secretary of state for war in Harold Macmillan's Conservative government and was married to actress Valerie Hobson. In 1961 Profumo met Christine Keeler, a London showgirl, at a house party at Cliveden, the Buckinghamshire mansion owned by Lord Astor. Many years later he would claim, in discussion with his son, David, that he had met Keeler previously at a night club in London called Murray's and "probably had a drink with her."[1] Also present at the Cliveden party were Profumo's wife and the fashionable osteopath, Dr Stephen Ward, a long-standing acquaintance of Keeler.

The relationship with Keeler lasted only a few weeks before Profumo ended it. However, rumours about the affair became public in 1962, as did the allegation that Keeler had also had a relationship with Yevgeny "Eugene" Ivanov, a senior naval attaché at the Soviet embassy in London. Given Profumo's position in the government and with the Cold War in full swing at the time, the potential ramifications in terms of national security were grave, and this, along with the adulterous nature of Profumo's relationship with Keeler, quickly elevated the affair into a public scandal.

Christine Keeler — the iconic Lewis Morley image, taken in May 1963, became an instant national talking point when a stolen copy was published by the Sunday Mirror, adding yet more fuel to the fire under Profumo. As the scandal intensified, it was endlessly republished.[2]

In March 1963, Profumo stated to the House of Commons that there was "no impropriety whatever" in his relationship with Keeler and that he would issue writs for libel and slander if the allegations were repeated outside the House.1 (Within the House, such allegations are protected by parliamentary privilege.) However, in June, Profumo confessed that he had misled the House and lied in his testimony and on June 5, he resigned his cabinet position, as well as his Privy Council and parliamentary membership.

There was never proof of actual espionage activity involving Keeler, the Soviet Naval Attache Ivanov, and Profumo, but there was ground for suspicion. Peter Wright, in his autobiography 'Spycatcher', relates that he was working at the British Counterintelligence Agency MI5 at the time and was assigned to question Keeler on security matters. He conducted a fairly lengthy interview and found Keeler to be poorly educated and not well informed on current events, very much the 'party girl' described in the press at the time. However, in the course of questioning her, the subject of nuclear missiles came up, and Keeler, on her own, used the term 'nuclear payload' in relation to the missiles. This set off alarm bells in Wright's head. According to Wright, in the very early 60s in Britain, the term 'nuclear payload' was not in general use by the public, and even among those who kept up with such things the term was not commonly heard. For Keeler, a young girl with such limited knowledge, to use the term casually was more than suspicious to Wright. In fact Wright came away convinced that, at the very least, there had been an attempt by the Soviet Attache (perhaps through Stephen Ward) to use Keeler to get classified information from Profumo.

Lord Denning released the government's official report on September 25, 1963, and one month later, Prime Minister Harold Macmillan resigned on the grounds of ill health, which had apparently been exacerbated by the scandal. He was replaced by the foreign secretary, the Earl of Home, who renounced his title to become Sir Alec Douglas-Home.

Stephen Ward was prosecuted for living on the immoral earnings of prostitution and he committed suicide in August. He was defended by James Burge QC (who was later the basis for John Mortimer's character Rumpole of the Bailey. Keeler was found guilty on unrelated perjury charges and she was sentenced to nine months in prison. Profumo died on March 9, 2006.

[edit] Cultural references to the scandal

American folk singer Phil Ochs wrote and recorded a song about the affair, "Christine Keeler", in 1963. It is available on The Broadside Tapes 1, released in 1989 by Smithsonian/Folkways Records.

The Jamaican Band The Skatalites recorded an instrumental song called "Christine Keeler" in 1964.

Some of the events of the Profumo Affair are depicted in the 1963 film The Keeler Affair (which was never distributed) and in the 1989 film Scandal, starring John Hurt, Joanne Whalley, Bridget Fonda, Ian McKellen, and Leslie Phillips.

Christine Keeler is mentioned in the song "Post World War Two Blues" from the album Past, Present and Future (1973), written and performed by Al Stewart.

The film Sweeney! (made in 1977) was a movie spin-off of the popular police drama The Sweeney, starring John Thaw and Dennis Waterman. In it they get involved in a plot based on the Profumo Affair. British actor Barry Foster guest-starred as an Americanised, and more deadly, version of Stephen Ward. [3]

The British post-punk group Glaxo Babies released a 7-inch single in 1979 entitled "Christine Keeler" that included a song of the same name.

The TV comedy-drama film Blore M.P. (made in 1989) starred Timothy West as a cabinet minister who also gets involved with a prostitute and faces blackmail from the Russians. [4]

The affair is central to the hit songs "Nothing Has Been Proved" and "In Private", performed by Dusty Springfield and written by Pet Shop Boys. It is also referenced in the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire" with the line "British politician sex."

The Lewis Morley image of Christine Keeler is used on the cover of The Charlatans 1997 single release "Telling Stories".

Hugh Whitemore's play A Letter of Resignation, first staged at the Comedy Theatre in October 1997, dramatises the occasion when Harold Macmillan, staying with friends in Scotland, received a political bombshell, a letter of resignation from Profumo, his war minister. Edward Fox portrayed Macmillan with uncanny accuracy. But the play also explores the involvement of MI5 and the troubled relationship between Macmillan and his wife Dorothy (Clare Higgins) who had made no secret of her adultery with the wayward Tory MP, Robert Boothby. The play was directed by Christopher Morahan.

In the Autobiography of Malcolm X, Malcolm mentions the Profumo case as a symbol of the low morals of even the most respectable, highest ranking white people.

[edit] References

  • Theatre Record 1997 (for production details of A Letter of Resignation)
  1. ^ David Profumo (2006) Bringing the House Down
  2. ^ National Portrait Gallery, NPG P512(13); Victoria & Albert museum: A modern icon
  3. ^ IMDB entry
  4. ^ IMDB entry

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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