Early cold war evolution of british and us defector policy and practice

Abstract

The British and US governments entered World War II without policies or defined practices for handling, interrogating, and disposing of Soviet defectors. This gradually changed, necessitated by a post-war surge of defectors and deserters. Although the United States and Great Britain initially took different paths toward defector policies, diverging and evolving at different rates, both countries ultimately arrived at nearly the same destination. By 1950 their policies were founded on two broad benefits of defectors: they were sources of valuable intelligence; and they presented opportunities for propaganda, hopefully positive, for the West.