Product Description

In 1940 Winston Churchill dispatched a Canadian industrialist to New York with an extraordinary mission in a neutral country: to set up a secret spy network across both North and South America to cripple and confound Nazi propaganda and to fan the flames of pro-war sentiment. Sir William Stephenson (of A Man Called Intrepid fame) set up shop in Rockefeller Center to build a vast intelligence network-the British Security Coordination-the full story of which is now told for the first time. Operating on still-neutral soil, Stephenson's people soon launched an astonishing bagful of dirty tricks: they unmasked Axis spies, intercepted enemy communications, slipped beautiful female spies into the Vichy and Italian embassies in Washington, infiltrated labor unions, and spread British propaganda using U.S. radio stations and such prominent journalists as Walter Winchell and Drew Pearson. The complete report-commissioned at the end of the war and written by Roald Dahl and Gilbert Highet, among others-has been kept secret until now.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #415960 in Books
• Published on: 1999-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 536 pages

From The Washington Post
"A chilling account-a virtual textbook on the art of manipulation."

From Kirkus Reviews
Introduced by historian and member of Parliament Nigel West (Cuban Bluff, 1992, etc.) and compiled just after WWII by Stephenson, this is little more than a government report, albeit on a stellar topic and with contributors such as Roald Dahl and Gilbert Highet. The account is in chronological order from the start of the war, when Stephenson, a Canadian businessman (who plays a central role in A Man Called Intrepid), arrives in New York City and moves the office for British Security Coordination from Wall Street to Rockefeller Center. It then goes on to detail a host of activities undertaken by the British in the US, both to combat the Axis and to gain the sympathies and cooperation of the American public through propaganda. In addition to aiding the FBI by identifying and maintaining surveillance on enemy spies (thus circumventing any scruples the FBI might have about spying on American citizens), the British seduced Vichy and Italian officers in order to get secrets. They also gleaned countless reams of data from outside sources, such as economic contacts in neutral countries, and harassed German nationals and German-owned businesses in the US. Most interesting are depictions of the operations undertaken in Latin America and the Caribbean, particularly a plot to liberate Martinique (as well as France's gold reserves, stored on the island) from the Vichy French who controlled it and the French fleet stationed there, and the attempts to infiltrate American labor unions to ensure sympathy for the British and the security of the waterfront. Though West's introduction places the report in a context that is understandable, its completely devoid of any narrative structure and virtually unreadable to anyone unaccustomed to curling up with a government document. -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About the Author
Nigel West, a military historian specializing in security matters, is the author of A Matter of Trust: MI5 1945-72 and The Secret War for the Falklands.

Customer Reviews

A Great Buy
This book was introduced by Nigel West and it was done after World War II by Stephenson. It is a government report. The book is in chronilogical order, meaning it is in order the way things happened. It starts when a Canadien arrives in New York city and.....