The Shadow War Against Hitler
The Covert Operations of America's Wartime Secret Intelligence Service
Will be published approx. on 30. April 2003
Book
Hardback
352 pages
978-0-231-12044-9 (ISBN)
Description
Surveying the expanding conflict in Europe during one of his famous fireside chats in 1940, President Franklin Roosevelt ominously warned that "we know of other methods, new methods of attack. The Trojan horse. The fifth column that betrays a nation unprepared for treachery. Spies, saboteurs, and traitors are the actors in this new strategy." Having identified a new type of war-a shadow war-being perpetrated by Hitler's Germany, FDR decided to fight fire with fire, authorizing the formation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to organize and oversee covert operations. Based on an extensive analysis of OSS records, including the vast trove of records released by the CIA in the 1980s and '90s, as well as a new set of interviews with OSS veterans conducted by the author and a team of American scholars from 1995 to 1997, The Shadow War Against Hitler is the full story of America's far-flung secret intelligence apparatus during World War II.
In addition to its responsibilities generating, processing, and interpreting intelligence information, the OSS orchestrated all manner of dark operations, including extending feelers to anti-Hitler elements, infiltrating spies and sabotage agents behind enemy lines, and implementing propaganda programs. Planned and directed from Washington, the anti-Hitler campaign was largely conducted in Europe, especially through the OSS's foreign outposts in Bern and London. A fascinating cast of characters made the OSS run: William J. Donovan, one of the most decorated individuals in the American military who became the driving force behind the OSS's genesis; Allen Dulles, the future CIA chief who ran the Bern office, which he called "the big window onto the fascist world"; a veritable pantheon of Ivy League academics who were recruited to work for the intelligence services; and, not least, Roosevelt himself. A major contribution of the book is the story of how FDR employed Hitler's former propaganda chief, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstengl, as a private spy.
More than a record of dramatic incidents and daring personalities, this book adds significantly to our understanding of how the United States fought World War II. It demonstrates that the extent, and limitations, of secret intelligence information shaped not only the conduct of the war but also the face of the world that emerged from the shadows.
In addition to its responsibilities generating, processing, and interpreting intelligence information, the OSS orchestrated all manner of dark operations, including extending feelers to anti-Hitler elements, infiltrating spies and sabotage agents behind enemy lines, and implementing propaganda programs. Planned and directed from Washington, the anti-Hitler campaign was largely conducted in Europe, especially through the OSS's foreign outposts in Bern and London. A fascinating cast of characters made the OSS run: William J. Donovan, one of the most decorated individuals in the American military who became the driving force behind the OSS's genesis; Allen Dulles, the future CIA chief who ran the Bern office, which he called "the big window onto the fascist world"; a veritable pantheon of Ivy League academics who were recruited to work for the intelligence services; and, not least, Roosevelt himself. A major contribution of the book is the story of how FDR employed Hitler's former propaganda chief, Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstengl, as a private spy.
More than a record of dramatic incidents and daring personalities, this book adds significantly to our understanding of how the United States fought World War II. It demonstrates that the extent, and limitations, of secret intelligence information shaped not only the conduct of the war but also the face of the world that emerged from the shadows.
Reviews / Votes
A thrilling look into the work of the first central secret service of the U.S. Stuttgarter Nachrichten (of the German edition) This excellent book...is well translated and boasts impressive research...a fine job of telling the OSS story. Library Journal [Mauch] offers valuable information concerning the 'Sauerkrauts,' German POWs who volunteered to infiltrate German lines to spread defeatism amongWehrmacht units and the SS formations in northern Italy. This is a valuable addition for graduate students and professionals in the field. Recommended. Choice [Mauch] succeeds in transforming his meticulous archival research into a readable and thought provoking monograph. This volume will provide significant new data for scholars and laymen alike on the OSS and its 'shadow war' against the Nazis. Jewish Book World Mauch has not only written a superb account of OSS activities during the war, but he has also woven into his narrative the political, diplomatic, and military dynamics that framed key decisions... It is essential reading for students of intelligence and strategy alike and would make a fine addition to the professional library. -- Raymond Millen International History Review A valuable contribution to an understanding of the postwar world. -- Freie Universitat Berlin Journal of Military History The Shadow War Against Hitler is an excellent read. -- Mitchell McNaylor Military Review Christof Mauch's book... is a brilliant volume that expertly chronicles the epic saga of the OSS's robust intelligence warfare against the Third Reich, with vivid narratives and critical analysis skillfully intermingled throughout the text... This is a must read for anyone who studies America's war against Nazi Germany. -- Maochun Yu, United States Naval Academy American Historical Review The most authoritative single volume on the subject... Mauch brilliantly integrates both the research/analytical as well as operational histories of the OSS. -- Rorin M. Platt American Diplomacy.org A well-researched and balanced study. -- Steve Hewitt History: The Journal of the Historical Association Scholars of the Second World War should look to Mauch's work to provide a template for analysis of this important subject. -- Patricia Kollander H-NetMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
New York
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Trade binding
Weight
610 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-231-12044-9 (9780231120449)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Christof Mauch
The Shadow War Against Hitler
The Covert Operations of America's Wartime Secret Intelligence Service
Book
06/2005
Columbia University Press
€37.20
Article not available at the moment
Persons
Christof Mauch is Director of the German Historical Institute in Washington, D.C., and a professor of modern history at the University of Cologne. He was the director of the OSS Oral History Project at Georgetown University and is the author or editor of more than a dozen books, mostly in German. Jeremiah M. Riemer is a translator living in Washington, DC.
Content
Introduction I. The Setting Historical Perspectives The Place of the OSS in American History Within the Secret Intelligence Service Anatomy of the OSS II. Donovan on the Offensive and America's Path to War The fifth column as a danger William J. Donovan's lessons for America On the eve of confrontation William J. Donovan as Director of Intelligence and the origins of the COI -The peace feeler of Federico Stallforth - Pearl Harbor The COI and the New "World Pattern" Germany's Military and Economic Capabilities in the COI's calculations, 1941 - Assessing the Situation in the East Between Opinion Research and Counterespionage The Foreign Nationalities Branch and the Role of German Emigres - German-Americans, Exile, and Propaganda Excursus: Franklin D. Roosevelt, John Franklin Carter and Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl The Secret Carter Organization - The "S"-Project: Ernst "Putzi" Hanfstaengl in the Service of American Secret Intelligence - Analyses of Germany and Propaganda Plans - The End of the "S"-Project The COI in Crisis and the Creation of the OSS III. 1943, The Turning Point Strategies and discourses State Department versus OSS: Initial Speculation about the German collapse, 1942 - The Discussion About Strategic Priorities, 1943 Lessons from Moscow and the OSS' Answer The National Committee for a Free Germany and the Beginnings of the Crisis Between the Allies - Secret Intelligence Initiatives for Mobilizing German Emigres Germany and the Germans The Mood of the Germans as Assessed by the OSS - A German Parallel: 1918 and 1943 Ideology and Economy in the Bombing War Theories and Experiences-The Enemy Objectives Unit (EOU) - From Casablanca to POINTBLANK - Tensions with the British and the philosophy of the EOU IV. Bern: the Big Window Onto the Fascist World Allen Dulles and the Establishment of the OSS Outpost in Bern - Psychological and Military Warfare - Opportunists and Conspirators - The German V Weapons and the Attack on Peenemunde - The Wood Story V. Media War and Black Propaganda The Difficult Beginnings of the OSS Morale Operations - From the Hamilton Plan to Operation Sauerkraut - Blankenhorn's Soldiers Councils Project and the "Neues Deutschland" Underground movement - OSS Radio War: Joker and Matchbox - Operation Musac: American Pop Music in the War Against Hitler VI. Penetration of Germany Conceptions The Infiltration of Agents into Germany in the British Calculation - American Secret Intelligence Plans for Operations in the German Reich - The Post-invasion Syndrome and the Significance of the OSS Labor Division for Operations in Germany Excursus Paul Hagen, the Origins of the OSS Labor Division, and the Trade Union Contacts of British Intelligence - Goldberg's 'Philosophy of the Underground' and the FAUST Plan Operations "Special Operations": Foreign Workers and CALPO Communists as "Trojan horses" - Infiltrating SI Agents into the Reich VII. Gotterdammerung - Between Peace and War Phantom Stronghold in the Alps: The Redoubt as an Idee Fixe? Defense of the Alps and the Ideological Phantom of the "Nazi Underground" - The Redoubt in the Calculation of the OSS - The Alpine Fortress from the Perspective of British Intelligence - The "Redoubt Psychosis" of the Americans and the Perspective of Gauleiter Hofer - Eisenhower, Marshall, Roosevelt Last-minute Putsch The Munich "Pheasant Hunt" and American intelligence - The Peace Feelers of Ritter von Epp - The Munich Putsch of April 28 - Operation Capricorn: Simulated Resistance Under the Sign of Zodiac Good and Bad Germans Allen Dulles as Promoter of Postwar German Politicians VIII. The Dream of the Miracle War: the Legacy of the OSS Conclusion and Summary The End of the OSS and the Origins of the Myth - Outline of the Shadow War: A summary - The Legacy of the OSS 3