Joseph E. Persico

by Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR;World War II Espionage

  “Our object is to get Turkey… .”: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 344.

  While the ambassador was in his office: ibid., pp. 340–41.

  The Allies learned of the alarming leak: Breuer, p. 32.

  Cicero, feeling the approaching breath: Joseph E. Persico, Piercing the Reich, pp. 69–70; Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 345; Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 398.

  The crafty German ambassador: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 344.

  British intelligence operatives: Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 402.

  “the ambassador’s valet succeeded… .”: Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Spy Book, p. 121.

  chapter xx: the white house is penetrated

  “all the major railroad stations… .”: PSF Box 4.

  “The essential business of Berlin proceeds… .”: ibid.

  “that immediate retaliatory action… .”: PSF Box 83.

  “It seems to me that such action… .”: ibid.

  “Entire train on bridge… .”: RG 457 Memorandum from General Marshall to FDR, Feb. 15, 1944.

  The latter, unknown to the Americans: Allen Weinstein and Alexander Vassiliev, The Haunted Wood, pp. 240–41; William B. Breuer, Hoodwinking Hitler, p. 72.

  Fitin, blond, blue-eyed, and soft-spoken: Breuer, p. 72.

  “the boon companion… .”: Bradley F. Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 338.

  As a sweetener, he immediately offered: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 241; Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 338.

  By the end of the day: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 339.

  The Soviets soon announced: ibid.

  All that now remained for him: MR Box 163.

  Hopkins read Hoover’s letter: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 341; Curt Gentry, J. Edgar Hoover, p. 311.

  “a highly dangerous… .”: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, pp. 340–41.

  “[m]ilitary advantages accruing to the United States… .”: MR Box 163.

  “I don’t need to suggest to you… .”: ibid.

  “engaged in attempting to obtain… .”: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 341.

  “Under the statutes… .”: PSF Box 49.

  The implication Biddle so delicately raised: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 346.

  “What do we do next?”: PSF Box 49.

  “an exchange of O.S.S. and N.K.V.D… .”: Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, p. 171; Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 344; M 1642, Leahy memorandum, March 15, 1944.

  He provided the Russians: Gentry, p. 312; Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 349; Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 245.

  Donovan also assured the Soviets: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 244.

  One man who knew immediately: ibid., p. 257.

  “[O]ur task is to insert there… .”: ibid., pp. 240, 257.

  Thirty years old in 1944: U.S. Congress, Hearings on Proposed Legislation to Curb or Control the Communist Party of the United States, 1948, p. 717.

  “[a]verage height, medium brown hair… .”: Elizabeth Bentley, Out of Bondage, Devin-Adair edition, p. 182.

  Though Lee was not a Communist: Hearings, p. 175; Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 257; Bentley, Out of Bondage, Devin-Adair edition, p. 182.

  Immediately after graduating: Hearings, p. 720; Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 241.

  By the time the COI: M 1642, Reel 67, Frames 457, 463.

  Early in 1943, Lee: Hearings, pp. 720, 725.

  “I am the gal… .”: ibid., p. 529.

  An FBI agent later described Bentley: Bentley, Devin-Adair edition, pp. 223–24.

  This product of a stern New England: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 88.

  Bentley and Lee began meeting: Hearings, p. 529.

  “… highly secret information… .”: ibid.

  “Cables coming to the State Department… .”: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 257.

  “He was one of the most nervous… .”: Bentley, Ivy edition, p. 126.

  On the delicate matter of Poland’s future: Robert Louis Benson and Michael Warner, eds., VENONA, p. 227.

  “… he told me,” she later claimed: Hearings, p. 728.

  Oak Ridge was the site: Richard Rhodes, The Making of the Atomic Bomb, p. 486.

  At one of their drugstore: Hearings, p. 727.

  “I’m finished. They’ll come… .”: Bentley, Devin-Adair edition, p. 260.

  “According to Kokh… .”: Robert Louis Benson, A History of U.S. Communications Intelligence During World War II, pp. 337–38.

  He feared Donovan had begun: Weinstein and Vassiliev, pp. 259–61.

  The Soviets were just as happy: ibid., pp. 260–61.

  “drug stores with two exits… .”: Statement of Elizabeth Ferrill Bentley to the FBI, Nov. 30, 1945, p. 66.

  “memorize the last two numbers… .”: ibid., p. 67.

  “to go down one or several… .”: ibid.

  “to turn around and start following… .”: ibid., p. 61.

  “place a book behind my front door… .”: ibid., p. 68.

  “a thin black thread… .”: ibid.

  “I was to remove… .”: ibid.

  No conversation of substance: ibid., p. 69.

  “should either use a phone booth… .”: ibid., p. 70.

  Either Bentley’s training was sound: Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen, Spy Book, p. 56.

  Soviet agents like Elizabeth Bentley: Christopher Andrew, For the President’s Eyes Only, p. 89.

  The image the President had: ibid.

  “I have a weakness… .”: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 63.

  She displayed this penchant: ibid., p. 51.

  “[M]y father has great influence… .”: ibid., p. 57.

  “I have access… .”: ibid., p. 55.

  As an NKVD officer put it: ibid., p. 58.

  She did not hesitate to use: ibid., p. 64.

  “She should … be guided to approach… .”: ibid., p. 62.

  Dodd would remain unwavering: ibid., p. 71.

  There he joined the Communist Party: ibid., p. 72.

  The usher’s log for October 21: Day-by-Day, Oct. 21, 1941, FDRL.

  The First Lady suggested: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 74.

  “In those places… .”: ibid.

  “[O]ne should render assistance… .”: ibid., pp. 82–83.

  “I got a very mysterious call… .”: John Morton Blum, Years of Urgency, 1938–1941: From the Morgenthau Diaries, p. 340.

  White, valued by Morgenthau: John Morton Blum, Years of War, 1941–1945: From the Morgenthau Diaries, p. 89.

  The Treasury secretary continued: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. xxiv; Benson, p. 322.

  “ready for any self-sacrifice… .”: Weinstein and Vassiliev, p. 168; Benson and Warner, pp. 321–22.

  “Timely receipt by us… .”: Weinstein and Vassiliev, pp. 163–64.

  No record of this letter: ibid., p. 226.

  Roosevelt was highly sensitive: Smith, The Shadow Warriors, p. 143.

  “Bill, you must treat the Russians… .”: Stanley Lovell, Of Spies and Stratagems, p. 185.

  “Pappy thought American words… .”: John Franklin Carter Diary, March 25, 1943.

  “The Soviet people in Moscow… .”: PSF Navy, Box 62.

  “[h]aving had my fingers burned… .”: Adolf Berle Papers, Box 213, FDRL.

  “The list of the military secrets… .”: ibid.

  “… [T]he engineers they have wished to let in… .”: ibid.

  “The Russian denouement is unpredictable… .”: ibid.

  The Army, Navy, and FBI: ibid.

  It was not until the spring: Bradley F. Smith, Sharing Secrets with Stalin, p. 119.

  “specifications of the latest… .”: ibid., pp. 119, 140.

  The U.S. naval attaché in Moscow: ibid., p. 140.

  Wallace is said to have planned: Christopher Andrew and Vasili Mitrokhin, The Sword and the Shield, pp. 59, 109.

  chapter xxi: if overlord fails

  German towns were being incinerated: David G. McCullough, ed., The American Heritage Picture History of Wor
ld War II, p. 418.

  “all secret and confidential intelligence… .”: MR Box 164.

  “… [T]here is no substantial evidence… .”: ibid.

  “The OSS representative in Bern… .”: MR Box 73.

  Speer, a realist, put together: RG 457 CBOM 76.

  FDR’s military staff advised him: F. H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 42.

  “A man who does not… .”: Martin Blumenson, Patton, p. 222.

  Two weeks before the North African: PSF Box 83.

  “During the tea some screams… .”: ibid.

  “This report must be kept secret… .”: ibid.

  On D-Day, Patton: Anthony Cave Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 474.

  Two massive army groups: ibid., pp. 460–61.

  Its genuine units: ibid., p. 474.

  “A man must be alert… .”: Blumenson, pp. 222–23.

  The Russians even agreed: Bradley F. Smith, Sharing Secrets with Stalin, p. 181.

  “… [D]etails for the preparation… .”: MR Box 104.

  “Would it not be well for you and me …?”: Francis L. Loewenheim, Harold D. Langley, and Manfred Jonas, eds., Roosevelt and Churchill: Their Secret Wartime Correspondence, p. 486.

  “… [I]t is our firm intention to launch Overlord …”: ibid., pp. 488–89.

  “pay a handsome tribute …”: ibid., p. 488.

  “probably the most important… .”: Smith, Sharing Secrets, p. 193.

  Kept from the D-Day secret: Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, p. 487.

  “We call him Joan of Arc… .”: Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 570.

  “Personally, I do not think… .”: Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, p. 484.

  The Prime Minister agreed …: James Leutze, “The Secret of the Churchill-Roosevelt Correspondence, September 1939–May 1940,” Journal of Contemporary History, July 10, 1975, pp. 1498–99.

  “The resistance army… .”: MR Box 17.

  Ike was to lead him to believe: Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 582.

  Early in the war, FDR: Kimball, vol. 8, p. 57.

  “[A] great deal of information… .”: Brown, Bodyguard of Lies, p. 543.

  He found particularly disconcerting: ibid., p. 544.

  “continues to operate in favor… .”: ibid., p. 543.

  The note ended: ibid., pp. 543–44.

  De Valera, as much the politician: Kimball, vol. 8, p. 57.

  “Now as for the question… .”: RG 457 CBOM 77.

  The transcript, delivered to Hitler: Ladislas Farago, The Game of the Foxes, p. 591; Kimball, vol. 8, p. 11.

  “For it is there that the enemy… .”: David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 489.

  “They would establish… .”: Hinsley, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 61.

  “the Cotentin [Peninsula] would be… .”: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 502.

  Consequently, two seasoned German: ibid.; Hinsley, vol. 8, pt. 2, p. 61.

  “What I want to impress upon the people… .”: MR Box 30.

  “I brought your No. 341… .”: ibid.

  “I have received your message… .”: ibid.

  At the same time that FDR: PSF Box 99.

  “I assume that somewhere here… .”: ibid.

  “What do you think …?”: ibid.

  “For a matter of two or three hours… .”: ibid.

  “When I think of the beaches… .”: Time, June 6, 1994.

  “I doubt if I did… .”: William B. Breuer, Hoodwinking Hitler, p. 92.

  “I am personally… .”: Loewenheim, Langley, and Jonas, p. 493.

  “… [T]he war cabinet shares my apprehension… .”: ibid., p. 494.

  And FDR, unlike Churchill, was disinclined: ibid., pp. 493–95.

  Both Bodyguard and Fortitude: RG 457 CBOM 77.

  “… [M]ost indications point toward his action… .”: ibid.

  Every night, members of the French resistance: Farago, pp. 625–26.

  If Overlord failed: Breuer, p. 194; MHQ, Spring 1998, p. 66.

  chapter xxii: cracks in the reich

  The first to express concern: Jim Bishop, FDR’s Last Year, p. 3.

  His breathing was shallow: ibid., p. 2; David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War, p. 247.

  On March 27 he called: Bishop, p. 2.

  For years, part of the physician’s job: ibid., p. 3.

  The President was suffering: ibid., p. 6.

  His blood pressure: ibid., p. 4.

  Bruenn estimated the life left: ibid., p. 6.

  After the examination FDR: ibid.

  The mid-forties were not a favorable era: Robert H. Ferrell, The Dying President: Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1944–1945, p. 44.

  “He would ask my opinion… .”: William Leahy, I Was There, p. 298.

  When an aide asked: Ferrell, The Dying President, p. 107.

  “I had a good talk with the P… .”: Suckley, Binder 17, p. 85.

  On Monday afternoon, June 5: ibid., p. 118.

  Grace Tully noted: James MacGregor Burns, Roosevelt: The Soldier of Freedom, pp. 475–76; Bishop, p. 63.

  At five minutes past 11 p.m.: Bishop, p. 63.

  Sensing the pall: ibid.

  As he spoke, the mightiest armada: F. H. Hinsley, British Intelligence in the Second World War, vol. 3, pt. 2, p. 131; David G. McCullough, ed., The American Heritage Picture History of World War II, p. 482.

  a flotilla one hundred miles wide: Time, June 6, 1994.

  He kept picking up his bedside phone: Eric Larrabee, Commander in Chief, p. 624.

  Allied casualties: Hinsley, p. 131; Time, June 6, 1994.

  For all the elaborate machinations: Doris Kearns Goodwin, No Ordinary Time, p. 508.

  “They will need thy blessings… .”: Bishop, p. 66.

  “The Germans appear to expect… .”: William B. Breuer, Hoodwinking Hitler, p. 215.

  “Not a single unit”: David Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 515.

  Three days after the invasion: ibid., p. 516.

  “Rommel had insisted… .”: PSF Box 149.

  After Hitler issued an order: F. W. Winterbotham, The Ultra Secret, p. 198.

  On August 7, Kluge conceded: Kahn, Hitler’s Spies, p. 519.

  By then, the Allies: McCullough, American Heritage Picture History, p. 464.

  Over two years before D-Day: Adolf Berle Papers, Box 214, FDRL.

  “I said that in a country… .”: ibid.

  On July 10, 1944: PSF Box 149.

  Donovan’s source revealed: ibid.

  Their rapacity surfaced: RG 457 CBOM 76.

  “At our last meeting… .”: RG 457 CBOM 77.

  However, that the gold ingots: William Slany, “Preliminary Study on U.S. and Allied Efforts to Recover and Restore Gold and Other Assets Stolen or Hidden by Germany During World War II,” U.S. Department of State, p. 165.

  “We would like to warn you… .”: PSF Box 149.

  While it was selling Germany: Slany, pp. 165–66.

  They had allowed American fliers: Joseph E. Persico, Piercing the Reich, p. 69.

  On April 11, 1944: PSF Box 9.

  The approach was simple: Slany, pp. 166–67.

  “We ought to block the Swiss participation… .”: PSF Box 153.

  And while most Swiss loved: Slany, p. 168.

  After the American raids: Roger J. Sandilands, The Life and Political Economy of Lauchlin Currie, p. 395.

  “the most valuable of all… .”: Slany, p. 91.

  “… [R]ush orders given to SKF by the Germans… .”: M 1642, Reel 79, Frame 513.

  The Swedish navy escorted: Slany, p. xviii.

  Over 250,000 of Hitler’s forces: NYT, June 21, 1998.

  Theirs was a small country: Slany, p. xviii.

  Before 1944 was out: ibid.

  Spain’s Blue Division: NYT, June 21, 1998.

  “… [W]e Spaniards and Portuguese… .”: RG 457 CBOM 77.

  Albert Speer: Slany, p. xiv.

  He told the President: PSF Box 50.

  “We
certainly want to cut down… .”: ibid.

  Ultimately, the shipments: Slany, pp. xxxviii, xiv.

  In late January 1944: Jürgen Heideking and Christof Mauch, eds., American Intelligence and the German Resistance to Hitler, p. 8.

  He quickly became disillusioned: Persico, Piercing the Reich, pp. 49–50.

  He cited a date for the coup: ibid., p. 58.

  Still, he continued to send messages: Breuer, p. 33.

  Several weeks before D-Day: Anthony Cave Brown, The Last Hero, p. 531.

  “The Breakers group wishes… .”: Heideking and Mauch, p. 231.

  “… is especially concerned… .”: Neal H. Petersen, ed., From Hitler’s Doorstep, p. 265.

  Gisevius informed Dulles: Persico, Piercing the Reich, p. 60.

  “There is a possibility… .”: The “Magic” Background of Pearl Harbor, vol. 1, p. A-224.

  “A revolution is not to be expected… .”: PSF Box 149.

  “Those opposed to the Nazis… .”: ibid.

  “We must judge… .”: ibid.

  That summer, Eleanor Roosevelt: PSF Box 37.

  “Large sums of money… .”: ibid.

  “the Bolshevik armies are supreme… .”: ibid.

  “not on any grounds of principle… .”: PSF Box 149.

  On July 20 the conspirators: Heideking and Mauch, p. 234; William L. Shirer, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich, p. 1054.

  “The developments did not come… .”: PSF Box 149.

  “Photographs appearing in the German press… .”: ibid.

  Donovan also reported: Heideking and Mauch, p. 9.

  Days after the failed coup: RG 457 CBOM 77.

  “The doctor reported,” Hewitt cabled: PSF Box 4.

  “Hitler has often vowed… .”: PSF Box 99.

  “Mr. Towell of OSS has requested… .”: Athan Theoharis, ed., From the Secret Files of J. Edgar Hoover, p. 301.

  In the fall of 1944, Wild Bill: Kermit Roosevelt, The Overseas Targets, p. xvi.

  “Dear Bill, Ever so many thanks… .”: PPF Box 6558.

  chapter xxiii: a secret unshared

  His daylight hours were spent: Ernest B. Furgurson, “Back Channels,” Washingtonian, vol. 31 (June 1996).

  “I talked with the Prime Minister… .”: PSF Box 99.

  “If it is not the fashion now… .”: Furgurson.

  FDR called Hanfstaengl’s reports: ibid.

  “allowed their embryo doctors… .”: PSF Box 99.

  The British, he explained: John Franklin Carter Diary, Feb. 4, 1944.

  “If I can get close enough… .”: Furgurson.