Through all the vicissitudes of the postwar years, Dahl remained lifelong friends with his fellow spies. He never wrote about his time in the BSC, even after numerous books about Stephenson and Fleming delved into its activities in America, and both Ogilvy and Bryce penned jaunty memoirs. Dahl touched on his experiences in Washington only once, in an autobiographical short story called “Lucky Break,” in which he recounted his beginnings as a writer while employed at the British Embassy. Whatever secret oath they swore, Stephenson’s recruits remained fiercely loyal to him and stood by one another, even when luck played havoc with their lives, arbitrarily doling out mortal disasters and phenomenal successes. They saw less and less of one another as time went on but were never out of touch.
In July 1969, just a few days after Neil Armstrong took his first steps on the moon, Dahl received a cable from his old boss, like a bolt out of the blue. It was in reference to an intelligence report he had filed in late 1944, stating that a government source had revealed a U.S. plan to plant the American flag on the surface of the moon. “It was a proper and accurate piece of information that I’d gotten,” recalled Dahl, but he had been told at the time that when his message was read in the New York office, it was greeted with hoots of laughter. “Then I got the telegram from Bermuda [where Stephenson ultimately retired] saying ‘Congratulations, you were right.’ You think of all the messages he got through the war years,” marveled Dahl, “and he remembered.”
When the television movie of A Man Called Intrepid came out in the spring of 1979, based on the best-selling biography and starring David Niven—who had done a few favors for Stephenson during the war and coincidentally played the part of James Bond in the film version of Casino Royale—the surviving members of the old gang all traded letters. Sir William, then a frail eighty-three, had recovered from a devastating stroke, and they wanted to congratulate him on making it that far and tease him a bit about his Hollywood fame. They were all in their final lap and given to cataloging complaints about their various aches and pains and looking back with nostalgia “on the days when we were in the summer of our lives,” as Cuneo wrote to “Intrepid,” still playing the part of the faithful aide-de-camp twenty-four years later. Quoting his favorite Spanish proverb, “No one can steal the dance you’ve danced,” he added, “For full lives, particularly the ones of world crises, which we shared, we must admit we’ve had a hell of a ball.”
NOTES
ABBREVIATIONS
AH
Antoinette Marsh Haskell, oldest daughter of Charles Marsh, interview.
BBB
David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains and Beer: The Autobiography of David Ogilvy (New York: Atheneum, 1978).
BSI
Bickham Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (London: Methuen, 1965).
BOY
Roald Dahl, Boy–Tales of Childhood (New York: Puffin, 1984).
CF
Creekmore Fath, interview with author.
CBC
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation’s “Tuesday Night” documentary A Man Called Intrepid, which inspired the best-selling book by the same name by William Stevenson. During the preparation of this 1972 documentary, the CBC conducted in-depth interviews with Sir William Stephenson, as well as a number of his BSC operatives, including Roald Dahl, Dick Ellis, and Bickham Sweet-Escott. Transcripts of these interviews are housed in the William Stevenson Papers, University of Regina Archives, and were made available with the permission of the author, William Stevenson. Parts of these interviews have been quoted elsewhere, but in all cases I have used the original transcripts.
CMC
Charles Marsh correspondence with Roald Dahl, uncataloged family papers, viewed and quoted with permission of Marsh’s grandson and literary executor, Robert Haskell III.
CMP
Charles E. Marsh Papers, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, University of Texas, Austin.
ECP
Ernest L. Cuneo Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.
ERP
Eleanor Roosevelt Papers, Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, Hyde Park, N.Y.
GS
Roald Dahl, Going Solo (New York: Puffin 1986).
HWD
Diaries of Henry Agard Wallace, 1935–1946, Special Collections, University of Iowa Library.
LB
Roald Dahl, “Lucky Break: How I Became a Writer,” 1977, in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar and Six More (New York: Knopf, 2001).
LBJ
Oral History Collection, Lyndon B. Johnson Library, University of Texas, Austin.
NR
Adolf A. Berle, Navigating the Rapids, 1918–1971: From the Papers of Adolf A. Berle, ed. Beatrice Bishop Berle and Travis Beal Jacobs (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1973).
NYT
New York Times
NYTBR
New York Times Book Review
OH
Official History of the BSC British Security Coordination. British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940–45. Introduction by Nigel West (London: St. Ermin’s Press, 1998). A top-secret document prepared in 1945 by William Stephenson and a handful of BSC agents, including Roald Dahl. Since then, as West explains in his introduction, it was “deliberately kept from the public,” with a few photocopied versions of Sir William’s personal edition made available to a small circle of intelligence historians and journalists. This “remarkable document,” as West calls it, in its complete and unexpurgated form, was finally made available to the public in 1998, though the publication still carries the caveat that it “has not been officially endorsed by Her Majesty’s Government.”
QC
H. Montgomery Hyde, The Quiet Canadian: The Secret Service Story of Sir William Stephenson (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1962). Published in the United States as Room 3603: The Story of the British Intelligence Center in New York During World War II (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1962).
RDM
Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre, Archives, Great Missenden, Buckinghamshire, England.
RIP
Ralph Ingersoll Papers, Howard Gotlieb Archival Research Center, Boston University. Includes an unfinished memoir of Charles Marsh, But in the Main It’s True.
WD
H. G. Nicholas, ed., Washington Despatches, 1941–45: Weekly Political Reports from the British Embassy (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1981).
WDA
Walt Disney Archive, Burbank, California.
WP
Washington Post
WTH
Washington Times-Herald
YOLO
Ivar Bryce, You Only Live Once: Memories of Ian Fleming (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1975 and 1984).
PREFACE
“to do all that…”: OH.
“invisible fortress”: Stevenson, Man Called Intrepid, p. 101.
“man in Washington”: Troy, Donovan and CIA, p. 62.
“ignited controversies”: Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 150.
“Truth is far too…”: Stafford, Camp X, p. 20.
CHAPTER 1: THE USUAL DRILL
“a rotten job”: CBC, Dahl, take 1–2.
“the ideal height”: GS, p. 82.
“was marvelous fun”: Ibid, p. 88.
“Who wants to be invalided home…”: Ibid., p. 116.
“palm-trees and coconuts…”: BOY, p. 175.
“very fit” and “fun”: GS, p. 204.
“She’ll probably have been…”: lbid., p. 205.
“flew down the steps…”: Ibid., p. 210.
“Oh no, sir…”: CBC, Dahl, take 3.
“wave of the future”: Steel, Walter Lippman and the American Century, p. 386.
“flung in at the deep end”: GS, p. 96.
“a most unimportant…”: CBC, Dahl, take 3.
“the inward excitement”: Astley, The Inner Circle, p. 85.
“[I’d] just come from the war…”: Ibid.
“unpredictabl
e…”: BOY, p. 162.
“a very vivacious…”: Drew Pearson, Oral History Interview, LBJ.
“Charles was able…”: CF.
“Hawk-beaked Charles…”: RIP.
“Charles always had a group…”: CF.
“his wit…”: RIP.
“We all just adored him…”: AH.
“bit of divine…”: CMC.
“being not of this century”: Ignatieff, Isaiah Berlin, p. 111.
“very grand”: Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 56.
“For Transmission to the King”: CMC.
“Roald could be like sand…”: Neal, As I Am, p. 166.
“In a game of one-upmanship…”: AH.
“I started nosing around…”: CBC, Dahl, take 1–2.
“It was a very strange…”: Peter Viertel, interview by author.
“I knew who he was…”: CBC, Dahl, take 1–2.
“I had been contacted…”: Ibid., take 3.
“For security reasons…”: BSI, p. 17.
“This meant that recruiting…”: Ibid., p. 32.
“I’d slip him a couple of bits…”: CBC, Dahl, take 3.
“an RAF uniform with wings…”: GS, p. 207.
CHAPTER 2: PIECE OF CAKE
“Becoming a writer…”: NYTBR, December 25, 1977.
“rare bird…been in combat”: LB, p. 195.
“detail, that’s what counts…”: LB, p. 197.
“You were meant…”: Ibid., p. 198.
“He [Donovan] was lying in bed…”: C. S. Forester letters, Thayer Hobson Papers, Harry Ransom Center, University of Texas, Austin.
“progressively less realistic…”: NYTBR, December 25, 1977.
“It’s almost impossible…”: Twilight Zone Magazine, February 1983.
“BELIEVE IT HAS…”: WDA.
“overcome the difficulties…”: Ibid.
“Gremlinologist…because I really do…”: Ibid.
“It will seem strange…”: Observer (London), November 8, 1942, p. 6.
“We would want…”: WDA.
“We’re doing this…”: WP, November 18, 1942.
“the whole subject…”: WDA.
“remarkable adeptness…”: NYT, June 13, 1942.
“He was terribly pleased…”: AH.
“the problems facing all humanity…”: NYT, January 10, 1943.
“a libel on the staid…”: WTH, January. 11, 1943.
“Europeans who hate Hitler…”: HWD, memo from CM to HW, December 15, 1942.
“danger justified privilege”: Waugh, The End of the Battle.
“very, very attractive…”: Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 61.
“man across the sea”: The New Yorker, May 2, 1942.
“isolation ends…”: Gabler, Walter Winchell, p. 294.
“The conduct of…”: OH.
“Of course, my father knew…”: AH.
“I want this message…”: RIP.
“staccato, disjointed…”: Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 280.
“You woke me…”: CMC.
“airplane of the future”: HWD.
“persona non grata”: Ibid.
“is our best…”: CMC.
“Eden is respected…”: Ibid.
“Berle may go to England…”: Ibid.
“that menace”: Brown, Secret Life of Menzies, p. 482.
“crazy”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 342.
“Henry Wallace is now…”: NYT, October 12, 1941.
“With no source as frank…”: RIP.
CHAPTER 3: ENTHUSIASTIC AMATEURS
“this mythical, magical name…”: CBC, Dahl, take 3.
“hiding in the back…”: Ibid.
“He [Stephenson] had such immense…”: Ibid.
“to establish relations on the highest…”: Troy, Donovan and CIA, p. 34.
“Sir William did not want to make…”: Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 39.
“broken-down boarding house”: Ibid., p. 63.
“A true top-level operator…”: Philby, Silent War, p. 73.
“Realizing what a task…”: CBC, Dahl, take 1–2.
“that gang at Broadway”: Brown, Secret Life of Menzies, p. 263
“thumb-twiddlers…”: Stevenson, Man Called Intrepid, p. 99.
“to do all that was not being done…”: OH.
“Six months before…”: Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins, p. 270.
“indefinite”: Troy, Donovan and CIA, p. 34.
“cramped and depressing”: QC, p. 35.
“Our best information…”: Downes, Scarlet Thread, p. 61.
“threat to the American way…”: QC, pp. 80–82.
“It is unlikely…”: OH.
“He was small…”: Coward, Future Indefinite, p. 167.
“I waited in this…”: Hoare, Noël Coward, p. 310.
“I was to go as an entertainer…”: Coward, Letters, p. 403.
“It took eleven secretaries…”: BBB, p. 90.
“a man of few words…”: Pearson, Life of Fleming, p. 98.
“by far the largest”: CBC.
“one of the great secret agents…”: Hyde, Room 3603, pp. x–xi.
“the chocolate sailor”: Pearson, Life of Fleming, p. 84.
“innumerable services…”: Hyde, Room 3603, p. xii.
“with the air…”: Pearson, Life of Fleming, p. 97.
“It is certainly a bit difficult…”: Astor Letters to FDR, April 1940, Roosevelt Papers.
“real object”: Troy, Donovan and CIA, p. 33.
“read history backwards…”: Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 44.
“supplying our friend…”: QC, p. 152.
“pressed his view”: Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 67.
“the earliest collaborator…”: Ibid.
“$3,000,000 to play with…”: McLachlan, Room 39, p. 230.
“Ian got on well…”: Ibid.
“splendid American”: Hyde, Room 3603, p. xi.
“original charter of the OSS”: Pearson, Life of Fleming, pp. 101–2.
“my memorandum…the cornerstone…”: Ibid.
“as a sort of imaginary exercise…”: Ibid.
“[He] must have trained powers…”: Lycett, Ian Fleming, p. 130.
“if you are willing…”: YOLO, p. 50.
“the dreadful responsibility…”: Ibid., p. 52.
“jealousies and petty rivalries…”: Ibid., p. 61.
“If you felt”: Mahl, Depererate Deception, p. 55.
“The obvious aggrandizement…”: YOLO, p. 65.
“Were a German map…”: Ibid.
“the Reich’s chief”: Ibid.
“I have in my…”: Weber, “‘Secret Map’ Speech.”
“a sky-high reputation…”: Ibid.
“The item was made…”: YOLO, p. 67.
“on our guard” and “false scares”: Weber, “‘Secret Map’ Speech.”
“full size secret police…”: Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 74.
“all but blind adoration…”: ECP.
“all against an atmosphere…”: Ibid.
“Bill knew this very well…”: CBC, Dahl, take 3.
CHAPTER 4: SPECIAL RELATIONSHIPS
“He’s a killer with women”: Patricia Neal, interview by author.
“a roaring time”: Dahl, to a Time magazine correspondent, unpublished interview.
“They were having a ball…”: AH.
“parties for a purpose”: Brinkley, Washington Goes, p. 141.
“racketeers”: CMC.
“paid to throw parties”: CMC.
“Dahl, an R.A.F. man…”: Susan Mary Patten to Joseph Alsop, July 30, 1943. Courtesy of Elizabeth Winthrop, reprinted with permission of Anne Milliken and Bill Patten.
“The truth is”: OH.
“A good rumour”: Ibid.
“She absolutely hated…”: AH.
“Don’t touch it, bad luck…”: “Town Talk,” WP, December 23, 1944.
“para
site”: Brinkley, Washington Goes, p. 139.
“Just why are you…”: HWD.
“Be sure and come back…”: Ibid.
“Her basic thought…”: Ibid.
“She runs a good saloon…”: Ibid.
“Come back…”: Ibid.
“cut quite a local swath”: “The Magazine Rack,” WP September 21, 1947.
“Girls just fell…”: Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 59.
“There was a parade…”: AH.
“one of the biggest…”: Treglown, Roald Dahl, p. 59.
“She went for Roald…”: CF.
“She is a clever…”: Brown, Secret Life of Menzies, p. 479.
“Clare, you just can’t be that way”: CMP.
“But much of what Mr. Wallace…”: Henley, Au Clare de Luce, p. 172.
“spheres of influence”: Josephson, Empire of Air, p. 12.
“Freedom of the air…”: Ibid.
“The future of every nation…” Henle, Au Clare de Luce, p. 174.
“clarification of loose thinking”: WD, p. 153.
“Some have spoken…”: Culver and Hyde, American Dreamer, p. 277.
“to assume leadership…”: Ibid.
“All bets are off…”: Josephson, Empire of Air, p. 214.
“Otherwise there will be friction…”: Ibid., p. 11.
The Irregulars Page 36