Talk:St. John Philby
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[edit] One deletion
I removed the sentence
The Philby's helped create the climate of chaos necessary to suppress the Hungarian uprising.
This may or may not be a fair assessment of the impact of the information that they passed to the Soviet Union, but appears to this largely uninformed reader to claim too much. Even though the sentence uses elastic terms such as "helped" and "climate", it still conveys the impression that there was a straight line of cause and effect from one event to the other. In addition, was a "climate of chaos" really "necessary" for Khruschev to send tanks into Hungary? Rather than try to fix it, I deleted it. Perhaps someone else might want to rework it to state "the Soviet Union took advantage of the international climate of chaos produced by this failed seizure to suppress the Hungarian uprising", but I don't have enough confidence in that statement to make it myself.
- This article is far from complete; I intend to rewrite the entire Kim Philby page to show the relationship between father and son. As of now, little is known of Jack Philby's activities in his later years of life, and that sentence (which true is directed more toward Kim, is really lifted from John Loftus's book chapter entitled Revenge of the Philby's). Only in recent years have efforts been made to write about activities of both father & son which appear to have some common parellal and purpose. Thx for input. Nobs 03:07, 7 May 2005 (UTC)
[edit] Several small additions
Having read the Monroe book and noted her sources, I have added a few brief comments but notably changed the nature of Philby's second "marital" relationship. As his "first" wife remained a practising Christian throughout her life and they were not divorced, the status is not clear, however under Islamic law, Rozy, the girl presented to him as a gift by Ibn Saud, became his wife when she gave birth to a son. This son, and the next, both died of illness early in their lives. Rozy had a third son, who survived and knew Kim Philby quite well.
What is not clear from the article is that Philby was regarded as a person unable to grasp the bigger picture throughout his career, whether in the English civil service, or when advising Ibn Saud. His refusal to accept the views of others was acknowledged by all, as was his fearful temper and bullying nature. I have used this background to reflect the transition to US influence in Saudi Arabia. It is a particularly narrow view as Ibn Saud really just went where the money was and the British had run out of money. This need for money sat behind Philby's idea of $20 million for settlement of Jews into Palestine.
His real fame (which he sought so desperately) was as an explorer and the article would be enhanced by a map showing his trips criss-crossing the region.
- St. John Philby is an interesting character; I would question the insertion of "unintentionally" undermined British influence, etc.; that insertion may radically alter the entire text, and may need proper sourcing. That he did undermine British influence there is no doubt, "unintentionally" is a more subjective motive assigned to him, that changes his whole life story. It is definitley debateable. Good edits! Thank you. nobs 16:43, 19 October 2005 (UTC)
[edit] image
The image Image:190523ar.gif, used in this article, is high resolution and not really appropriate for fair use. It is a map, and it seems possible to create a replacement using our own blank maps. Would anyone watching this article be interested in creating such an image? You would be praised in song and story forever, etc. I have no plans to delete the current image, but it could be deleted at some point in the future. Thanks. Chick Bowen 21:41, 15 February 2006 (UTC)
[edit] unattributed quote
"...religion was simple and fundamental, and the law of the gun prevailed..."
This is a nice little quote, but where did it come from? Just curious.
