William Stephenson - Disputes

Disputes

In 1976 British-born Canadian author William Stevenson published a biography of Stephenson, A Man Called Intrepid. Some of the book's statements have been called into question, notably in Nigel West's Counterfeit Spies (1998). "Intrepid" was probably not Stephenson's codename, but BSC's telegraphic address in New York.

Many consider to be a more reliable account H. Montgomery Hyde's The Quiet Canadian (1962, before Stevenson's book). But generally acknowledged as the most accurate account of Stephenson's life is Bill Macdonald's The True Intrepid (1998), with foreword by a CIA staff historian. The book clears up the spymaster's fictitious background and contains oral histories from his ex-agents.

1. In Counterfeit Spies, Rupert Allason (Nigel West) reports that no record exists of Stephenson having received the French Croix de guerre avec Palmes or the Légion d'honneur. Stephenson was of course awarded Britain's Military Cross and Distinguished Flying Cross for his heroics in France. In September 2009 his medals and other effects were displayed in Manitoba's legislative building, in Winnipeg.
2. William Stevenson describes a dinner held at Lord Beaverbrook's house in May or June 1940 which Stephenson purportedly attended. Churchill's private secretary Jock Colville casts doubt on Stevenson's account, pointing out that the invitation that Churchill supposedly sent Stephenson was clearly a forgery. The highly punctilious Churchill would never have called Beaverbrook "the beaver", and he would never have signed himself "W.C." (the abbreviation for "water closet)." Moreover, Stevenson reports that Lord Trenchard chatted with Stephenson about his own fighter plane; however, in 1940 Trenchard was over 65 years old and was retired from the military. In author William Stevenson's papers at the University of Regina there is a reference to the Beaverbrook dinner, noting that in later years Stephenson had cabled the author that he did not recall the exact date of the gathering. There is no mention of Stephenson having received an invitation from Churchill. In his foreword to Richard Dunlop's Donovan, Stephenson writes that he received a telephoned invitation to the dinner.
3. In his 1981 book The Churchillians, Jock Colville took issue with Stevenson's description of Stephenson's wartime relations with Churchill. Colville pointed out that Stephenson was not Churchill's personal liaison with Roosevelt, that in fact (as is well known) the two leaders corresponded directly. Indeed, Colville contends that he never heard Churchill speak of Stephenson (which may say as much about Churchill's relations with Colville, an Assistant Private Secretary, as it does about his relations with the spy Stephenson). Based on this and other questions, Colville expressed the hope that Stevenson's book would not be "used for the purpose of historical reference." Meanwhile, numerous other references to a Stephenson-Churchill connection can be found; for example, in Maclean’s magazine, 17 December 1952, and The Times, 21 October 1962. The relationship is also referenced in Hyde’s biography of Stephenson, The Quiet Canadian (1962). In addition, British–Soviet double agent Kim Philby, in his book My Silent War, refers to Stephenson as a friend of Churchill's. Stephenson’s personal secretary and personal cipher clerks mention Stephenson-Churchill communications in The True Intrepid and in the documentary film Secret Secretaries. In CIA historian Thomas Troy's book Wild Bill and Intrepid, there is a chapter on the relationship. Controversial historian David Irving, in Churchill’s War, reveals evidence of a secret communications link between Roosevelt and Churchill that was run by the FBI but controlled through Stephenson’s office. There are references to this link in The True Intrepid.