Editing Profumo affair (section)

==Background==
===Government and press===
In the early 1960s, the British news media were dominated by several high-profile spying stories: the breaking of the [[Portland spy ring]] in 1961, the capture and sentencing of [[George Blake]] in the same year and, in 1962, the case of [[John Vassall]], a homosexual [[Admiralty (United Kingdom)|Admiralty]] clerk who had been [[blackmail]]ed into spying by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>Pincher, p. 65</ref> Vassall was subsequently sentenced to eighteen years in prison. After suggestions in the press that Vassall had been shielded by his political masters, the responsible minister, [[Tam Galbraith|Thomas Galbraith]], resigned from the government pending inquiries. Galbraith was later exonerated by the [[Vassall Tribunal]], after which judge [[Cyril Radcliffe, 1st Viscount Radcliffe|Lord Radcliffe]] sent two newspaper journalists to prison for refusing to reveal their sources for [[sensationalism|sensational]] and uncorroborated stories about Vassall's private life.<ref>Levin, pp. 59–60</ref> The imprisonment severely damaged relations between the press and the [[Conservative government, 1957–1964|Conservative government]] of Prime Minister [[Harold Macmillan]];<ref>Levin, p. 62</ref> columnist [[Paul Johnson (writer)|Paul Johnson]] of the ''[[New Statesman]]'' warned, "any [[Conservative Party (UK)|Tory]] minister or MP&nbsp;... who gets involved in a scandal during the next year or so must expect—I regret to say—the full treatment".<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 241, quoting Paul Johnson in the ''New Statesman'', 22 March 1963</ref>{{#tag:ref|The two imprisoned reporters, Brendan Mulholland and Reg Foster, were initially hailed as martyrs and heroes, defending the high moral principle of press freedom. Davenport-Hines states "they did not want to admit they were liars who had invented their stories".<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 240</ref> |group= n}}

===John Profumo===
[[John Profumo]] was born in 1915 and was of Italian descent. He first entered [[Parliament of the United Kingdom|Parliament]] in 1940 as the [[Conservative Party (United Kingdom)|Conservative]] member for [[Kettering (UK Parliament constituency)|Kettering]] while serving with the [[Northamptonshire Yeomanry]], and combined his political and military duties through the [[Second World War]]. Profumo lost his seat in the [[1945 United Kingdom general election|1945 general election]] but was elected again in 1950 for [[Stratford-on-Avon (UK Parliament constituency)|Stratford-on-Avon]]. From 1951 he held junior ministerial office in successive Conservative administrations.

In 1960, Macmillan promoted Profumo to [[Secretary of State for War]], a senior post outside the [[Cabinet of the United Kingdom|Cabinet]].<ref name="odnbP">{{cite ODNB|last=Heffer|first=Simon|title=Profumo, John Dennis [Jack]|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/97107?docPos=1|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/97107|access-date=11 January 2014}} {{subscription required}}</ref> After his marriage in 1954 to [[Valerie Hobson]], one of Britain's leading film actresses, Profumo may have conducted casual affairs, using late-night parliamentary sittings as his cover.<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 59</ref> His tenure as war minister coincided with a period of transition in the armed forces, involving the end of [[conscription]] and the development of a wholly professional army. Profumo's performance was watched with a critical eye by his opposition counterpart [[George Wigg]], a former [[Regular army|regular soldier]].<ref>Davenport-Hines, p. 66</ref><ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 93–94</ref>

===Christine Keeler, Mandy Rice-Davies, and Lord Astor===
[[File:Cliveden Estate from the River Thames - geograph.org.uk - 94809.jpg|thumb|Spring Cottage, Stephen Ward's rented riverside cottage on the [[Cliveden]] estate, one of the key locations in the Profumo affair]]
[[Christine Keeler]], born in [[Uxbridge]] in 1942, left school at age 15 with no qualifications and took a series of short-lived jobs in shops, offices and cafés. She aspired to be a model, and at age 16 had a photograph published in [[Tit-Bits|''Tit-Bits'' magazine]].<ref>Irving et al, pp. 6–7</ref> In August 1959, Keeler found work as a topless showgirl at [[Murray's Cabaret Club]] in [[Beak Street]], [[Soho]]. This long-established club attracted a distinguished clientèle of whom, Keeler wrote, they "could look but could not touch".<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 56</ref><ref>Keeler, p. 2</ref>

Shortly after starting at Murray's, Keeler was introduced to a client, the society [[Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine|osteopath]] [[Stephen Ward]]. Captivated by Ward's charm, she agreed to move into his flat, in a relationship she has described as "like brother and sister"—affectionate but not sexual.<ref>Summers and Dorril, p. 88</ref> Keeler left Ward after a few months to become the mistress of the property dealer [[Peter Rachman]],<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 58–59</ref>{{#tag:ref|Rachman later transferred his attentions to Mandy Rice-Davies, who lived in his Bryanston Mews flat for more than a year, until his death in November 1962.<ref>Davenport-Hines, pp. 148 and 286</ref> |group= n}} and later shared lodgings with [[Mandy Rice-Davies]], a fellow Murray's dancer two and a half years her junior. The two girls left Murray's and attempted without success to pursue careers as freelance models.<ref>Irving et al, p. 35</ref><ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 80</ref> Keeler also lived for short periods with various boyfriends, but regularly returned to Ward, who had acquired a house in [[Wimpole Mews]], [[Marylebone]].<ref>Irving et al, p. 13</ref><ref name="Denning8">Denning, p. 8</ref> There she met many of Ward's friends, among them [[William Astor, 3rd Viscount Astor|Lord Astor]], a long-time patient who was also a political ally of Profumo.<ref name="odnbP" /><ref>Davenport-Hines, pp. 100–01</ref> She often spent weekends at a riverside cottage that Ward rented on Astor's country estate, [[Cliveden]], in [[Buckinghamshire]].<ref>Robertson, p. 20</ref>

===Stephen Ward and Yevgeny Ivanov===
Stephen Ward, born in [[Hertfordshire]] in 1912, qualified as an osteopath in the United States. After the Second World War he began practising in [[Cavendish Square]], London,<ref name="odnbW">{{cite ODNB|last=Davenport-Hines|first=Richard|title=Ward, Stephen Thomas|url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40839|doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40839|access-date=11 January 2014}} {{subscription required}}</ref> where he rapidly established a good reputation and attracted many distinguished patients. These connections, together with his personal charm, brought him considerable social success. In his spare time, Ward attended art classes at the [[Slade School of Fine Art|Slade school]],<ref name="odnbW" /> and developed a profitable sideline in portrait sketches. In 1960 he was commissioned by ''[[The Illustrated London News]]'' to provide a series of portraits of national and international figures. These included members of the [[British royal family|Royal Family]], among them [[Prince Philip]] and [[Princess Margaret]].<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 61–66</ref>

Ward hoped to visit the Soviet Union to draw portraits of Russian leaders. To help him, one of his patients, the ''[[Daily Telegraph]]'' editor [[Colin Coote|Sir Colin Coote]], arranged an introduction to Captain [[Yevgeny Ivanov (spy)|Yevgeny Ivanov]] (anglicised as "Eugene"), listed as a [[naval attaché]] at the Soviet Embassy.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 68–69</ref> British Intelligence ([[MI5]]) knew from the [[double agent]] [[Oleg Penkovsky]] that Ivanov was an intelligence officer in the Soviet [[GRU (Soviet Union)|GRU]].<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, p. 74</ref> Ward and Ivanov became firm friends. Ivanov frequently visited Ward at Wimpole Mews, where he met Keeler and Rice-Davies, and sometimes joined Ward's weekend parties at Cliveden.<ref name="Denning8" />

MI5 considered Ivanov a potential [[defector]] and sought Ward's help to this end, providing him with a case officer known as "Woods".<ref>Robertson, pp. 20–21</ref><ref>Summers and Dorril, pp. 24 and 123</ref> Ward was later used by the [[Foreign Office]] as a [[Track II diplomacy|backchannel]], through Ivanov, to the Soviet Union,<ref>Robertson, p. 166</ref> and was involved in unofficial diplomacy during the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] in October 1962.<ref>Knightley and Kennedy, pp. 105–12</ref> Ward's closeness to Ivanov raised concerns about his loyalty; according to [[Alfred Denning, Baron Denning|Lord Denning]]'s September 1963 report, Ivanov often asked Ward questions about British foreign policy, and Ward did his best to provide answers.<ref name="Denning8" />