LONDON -- Every major decision former President Harry Truman made on the Korean war was passed on directly to the Kremlin by Donald Maclean, the British spy who died in Moscow three weeks ago, a newspaper reported.
Maclean believed his information was responsible for getting China deeply involved in the war and keeping the Soviets out of it, a 'Soviet source' in Moscow told the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.
'Maclean boasted he gave Stalin, on a plate, every significant secret decision on the war taken by President Truman,' the Telegraph said.
The British spy knew Truman prohibited Gen. Douglas MacArthur from bombing bridges over the Yalu River, flying reconnaissance in the area or engaging Chinese planes, the source said.
The source said the information enabled China to commit large numbers of troops to Korea without fearing retaliation.
It also allowed Soviet leader Josef Stalin to support China militarily 'without committing Soviet troops,' the source said.
Maclean regularly saw top-secret U.S. war documents from October 1950, when he was appointed head of the American desk at the Foreign Office, until early May 1951 when British intelligence suspected him of passing secrets.
On May 25, 1951, Maclean escaped to Moscow with Guy Burgess, a Foreign Office colleague who was also a spy. They were joined there in 1963 by master spy Kim Philby, who still lives in Moscow.
It was not until 1980 that the so-called 'fourth man' was exposed - Queen Elizabeth's art adviser Anthony Blunt, who died Saturday in London of a heart attack. Blunt was not prosecuted because of information he had given Western intelligence agencies.
