The Heydrich Sanction

by Denis Kilcommons

  ‘Paranoia can be a useful weapon. Perhaps we can feed it.’

  ‘It’s feeding itself.’

  ‘How was Nixon?’

  ‘Straight laced. Sweaty handshake. Very wary. He’s nobody’s fool. Kennedy appointed him on ability but he has higher ambitions. If Kennedy’s reforms aren’t accepted, he could run against him for the Presidency.’

  ‘Would he have a chance? Would anybody have a chance? The Kennedy dynasty has been in place for 23 years.’

  ‘Kennedy has one failing. Political morality. He believes in democracy and, in an election, anything can happen.’

  ‘What about Hoover?’

  'Hoover was the most approachable. He runs the FBI like a robber baron. It’s his fiefdom. Kennedy would get rid of him if he could but he can’t. Hoover doesn’t just know where the bodies are buried. If there are none, he’ll bury some. He’s no doubt got something on the Kennedys. He’s got something on everybody else. He’s anti-Semitic, anti-black and anti-Communist. Sir Donald agrees he’s worth cultivating.’ Sir Donald MacLean was the British Ambassador in Washington. ‘If the Fuhrer ever conquered America, he would do well to keep him in place.’

  Sir Oswald said, ‘Would he accept?’

  ‘Of course. Intelligence services and law enforcement are always adaptable. They know which side their bread is buttered. Besides, the game’s the same, no matter whose side you’re on.’

  ‘How about you, Kim? Did you adapt?’

  ‘I didn’t have to, sir. I was recruited in the month of peace without a twinge of conscience. But then, I always knew the real enemy was Russia.’

  After the peace of 1940, the British Secret Intelligence Services of MI5 and MI6 were pruned of anyone with left wing sympathies. Philby’s abilities, drive and charm had led to promotions and an inevitable rise to become head of Six.

  Burgess, meanwhile, had at first been a liability. Philby had warned him he had to change to survive. When Britain had been a democracy, he had been rampant in the public parks and lavatories of London and had revelled in being outrageous. All he might have suffered then, if his behaviour had become public, was disgrace. But in a fascist Britain the penalties were different. The threat of a pink star and a concentration camp had matured his attitude. Burgess had worked hard to contain his sexual inclinations and control his drinking and ensure any dalliance was discreet. He had directed his energies into his work and had become deputy head of MI5.

  Sir Donald McLean, the British Ambassador to the United States, was another ex-Apostle who had become a Soviet agent at Cambridge. This perfect English gentleman with a wealthy American wife, had been third secretary at the Paris Embassy in 1940, and had been tipped for the top from the start of his Foreign Office career. He had overcome his own personal devils, although he still drank too much, and had fulfilled his promise.

  If circumstances had been different, perhaps only Philby would have survived. In the lax days of the old democracy, the other two had failings they might not have controlled with such ardour. But in a fascist world, the consequences were sudden and there was little room for error. They had applied themselves and been successful and their unique background had made them a tight triumvirate at the heart of the British intelligence establishment.

  ‘What do I tell Heydrich?’ said Mosley. ‘Is America a threat?’

  ‘They feel isolated and they’re nervous. They’re concerned about our influence in South and Central America. As for being a trans-Atlantic threat, they have enough ballistic missiles to cause a lot of damage but not a knock out blow and they’re worried we already have missiles in space. If frost turns to chill, they won’t attempt to get their retaliation in first. They dare not. Militarily, they believe the Reich and the European Union is stronger than they are, and believing it, is as good as it being true.’

  He looked meaningfully at Mosley. They both knew it wasn’t true. Hitler had always been the master of bluff.

  ‘What about Kennedy? Wouldn’t we be better off with Nixon as President?’

  Philby shrugged. ‘Nixon is a patriot, but a right wing patriot. He might be easier politically, but he might be a hell of a lot more bullish than Kennedy.’

  ‘Are the reforms popular?’

  ‘Americans can sell snow to Eskimos. So far, the pitch is right. And Kennedy has the Press, don’t forget. His father bought and paid for them years ago. You can achieve most things with the Press on your side. You haven’t done so badly, yourself.’

  ‘It is essential to good order,’ said Sir Oswald. ‘There is nothing I admire more than the power of the Press.’ He raised a hand, palm upwards and closed his fingers into a fist. ‘As long as I have its balls in my hand.’

  ‘Kennedy has the Eastern Seaboard, and most of the mid-West and Pacific West. It’s the South where he has problems.’

  ‘Is it worth our while to exploit them?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘You have a gleam in your eye, Kim. You’ve been plotting.’ Sir Oswald brought the decanter across the room and topped up Philby’s glass. ‘Tell me.’

  Philby sipped the freshened drink, sat back and crossed his legs. Sir Oswald resumed his pose by the fireplace.

  ‘It’s a question of global balance. There are still terror groups and Communist cells across Europe.’ Terror group was the political term for resistance group. ‘Lithuania continues to be a particular problem, but then, there always will be trouble spots in the East. I mean, they are such godforsaken places that the people are born with suicidal tendencies. South and Central America are not going totally to the Fuhrer’s master plan, and India, quite frankly, is a mess that is draining far too many resources. Australia and New Zealand remain part of the Commonwealth in name only. They have never passed any racial laws and still operate democracies. They could be troublesome, if the right set of circumstances come along. They and Canada are very close. Even here, there have been rumblings in Scotland and the North of England.

  ‘Now, exclude South and Central America and India. Let’s look at the troublemakers in Europe, Russia and the Slavic nations. The one thing that gives them hope is the USA. It provides an option. If insurrection breaks out in the European Union – and no, it won’t – they hope America would provide support in some way, give official recognition to a breakaway state, pressure the League of Nations to do the same, or take advantage of the confusion and declare war.

  ‘Let’s take Britain as an example. Scottish Nationalists start an insurrection and we haven’t enough troops on the ground to immediately restore order because most of them are in India or are part of the Army of Occupation in Uzbekistan. Scotland could appeal to the League for recognition and America could be the first to give it. Troublemakers in the North of England see how easy it is and try the same and the whole country could be in turmoil in a matter of weeks.’

  ‘You mentioned balance, Kim. So far all you’ve done is tip the scales into chaos.’

  ‘Quite right. But that’s the scenario that is running through the heads of all these different groups across the Union and the Reich and, because they believe that it might be possible, they are active and causing trouble. Now, if we were to remove the option from the equation, they wouldn’t have the same incentive.’

  ‘We’ve always kept a tight grip. We still do.’

  ‘But America is increasing the pressure. Have you seen this?’

  Philby took a magazine from a briefcase that sat on the carpet by the side of his chair and handed it to the Prime Minister, who flipped it open. It contained text and photographs. The pictures were of concentration camps, of gas chambers, naked and frightened women and children, stacked bodies.

  ‘Where did you get it?’

  ‘A fishing boat was bringing them in from Ireland. They originate in America. It might make people think twice about the newsreel pictures they see of work camps that look like Butlins. It won’t start a revolution but it will sow seeds, change the public perception. Make them wonder about Coventry and Guern
sey. And there’s the increased coverage they’ve been giving Elizabeth and Philip. They visited Hollywood last month and are due at the White House in two weeks. They are being courted by the Americans and given a high profile.’

  He handed another magazine to Mosley. This was a copy of Picturegoer, whose cover showed a smiling Elizabeth in a tiara and white evening gown on the arm of a beaming Charlton Heston under a headline that said Queen Liz Outshines Stars.

  ‘We stop the imports but they’re smuggled in from Ireland. We can’t stop them all.’

  ‘Bloody Ireland. We should have taken Ireland 20 years ago.’

  Ireland was a thorn that prickled. It had remained a democracy with liberal race laws and had become a close ally of America. The United States had military and air force bases in the Republic. It was as annoying as if Cuba had been a German satellite off the coast of Florida.

  Philby said, ‘Nor can we stop Voice Of America. People listen. They’re interested in Queen Elizabeth. She’s so much prettier than Queen Wallis and she’s British.’

  ‘Kennedy’s behind this?’

  ‘He’s given approval.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘To soften us, make us vulnerable. Propaganda to destroy the equilibrium. Make us worry about revolution while they catch up in the arms race.’

  ‘You have a plan, Kim. Tell me what it is.’

  ‘It’s radical but simple. We remove the option. We assassinate Kennedy.’

  Mosley sipped whisky and said nothing for a while.

  ‘Dangerous.’

  ‘Not necessarily. Besides, the results will be immediate. Lyndon Johnson is a man we can deal with, at least in the short term. Particularly if we make him President.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘As I said, there’s serious opposition in the southern states to the Kennedy bandwagon. A group of Texas oilmen and businessmen don’t want change. They like the old order. We can come to an understanding with them and remove the President.’ He smiled. ‘We kill Kennedy, Johnson takes over, the bandwagon falls apart and the immediate threat is removed.’

  ‘Who gets the blame?’

  ‘A patsy.’

  ‘A what?’

  ‘An American expression. We set up some third party who is unconnected with us, put him in place, carry out the job and leave, and he is arrested with enough incriminating evidence to convince Saint Thomas of his guilt.’

  Mosley chuckled and thought about it.

  ‘You said Johnson was short term. Who’s long term?’

  ‘One possibility is a chap called George Wallace. He’s Governor of Alabama. He’s been campaigning against the civil rights reforms, he hates Negroes, has extreme prejudices and, best of all, he’s a Democrat like Kennedy and Johnson. If Mr Johnson was to have an accident or step-down at the next presidential election, Wallace could take his place and, with the funding of those Southern gentlemen, he could be elected. But that’s for the future. The immediate problem is John Fitzgerald Kennedy.’

  Sir Oswald strode to the window again and twitched the curtain to look at the crowd. He eventually turned and looked at Philby.

  ‘This could be done without attribution?’

  ‘Even the killing team won’t know who sent them. And the patsy will take the blame.’

  ‘When do you recommend?’

  ‘Texas, in November.’

  ‘You have people in place already?’

  ‘I’ve made contingency arrangements.’

  The Prime Minister nodded. ‘We’ll put it to the Reichsfuhrer. I think he’ll approve.’

  Chapter 9

  September 6. London

  Kim Philby waited in the Cabinet Room at Downing Street for the arrival of Sir Oswald and Reichsfuhrer Reinhard Heydrich, one of the three most powerful men in Europe and the German Empire, of which - and he had no illusions - Britain and her possessions were a part. You had only to walk along Whitehall, as he had this morning, and see the swastikas and union flags hanging side by side from windows in honour of Heydrich, to sense this was an outpost of the Reich rather than a sovereign nation.

  Sir Oswald had done everything he could to emulate and please the Fuhrer since taking power. One of the first acts of his government in 1940 had been to replicate the National Socialist Party’s Nuremberg Laws Against Jews and expel them to Palestine. After a bomb exploded in the House of Lords, killing three titled gentlemen and a policeman, he had also passed the Decree for the Protection of People and State, which in effect abolished human rights, freedom of expression and assembly, and authorised the tapping of telephones, interception of mail, the search of property without warrants and the indefinite detention of individuals judged to be a threat or menace to the state. The bomb had been planted by two of Mosley’s State Police.

  In 1942, he had adopted the Wannsee Protocol, the policy document that had been the brainchild of Heydrich and which was subtitled The Final Solution. This said, in part: Jews should be taken to the East to be used as labour and those who survive – since these are the ones with the strongest resistance – must be treated accordingly. Since these people represent a natural selection they are to be regarded as the germ cell of a new Jewish development and should not be allowed to go free. They will be disposed of in the course of the Final Solution.’

  The policy was never made public but repatriation ships were diverted from destination Palestine to destination death camp. The end result was the same in any case. The passengers eventually died in either death camp or Palestine.

  Jews had not been his only targets. Gypsies, Jehovah’s Witnesses, Communists, Socialists, homosexuals and Freemasons were all out of favour. The Scouting movement was banned and replaced by the Fascist Youth, trade unions were emasculated, newspapers brought to heel. Politicians and journalists who refused to comply with the Party line were arrested or emigrated, usually to Canada.

  Parliament rubber-stamped his edicts, such as the Law For The Elevation Of The People’s Misery, which meant further use of labour camp workforces to build motorways and urban infrastructure, and repair and renew the railway system to ensure that trains ran on time. He improved state pensions and linked them to the cost of living and introduced a National Health Service. Mosley’s fascist government delivered everything so quickly that no one questioned how the miracle had been achieved.

  He boasted, in a famous speech, ‘I have overcome chaos, restored order, raised production in all fields of our national economy and succeeded in re-settling the unemployed in useful production. With your help, I have made Britain great again.’

  The price had been work camps and concentration camps at Coventry and Guernsey and democracy by plebiscite. When Mosley wanted public acceptance for a new law he held a referendum and got 90 per cent approval.

  He had been the model apprentice, but that’s all he still was. The British Empire was now a shadow of what it had been. The Indian subcontinent was ready to break apart, Australia and New Zealand had become virtually independent without declaring the fact, and only South Africa and Rhodesia had any stability in Africa. Britain, along with the rest of the European Union, was to all intents and purposes a part of the German Empire.

  For a time, it had looked as if President Joseph Kennedy might similarly turn America into a fascist state. In the 1940s, he had initiated policies closely modelled on ones he admired in the Third Reich. They were not unpopular, for there were many in politics and industry in the US who saw Germany as a bulwark against Communism and a protector of racial purity. Twenty years ago, they still practised lynch law in some southern states and Jews had never been welcome. The country had been ripe for a witch-hunt of Reds and Semites.

  Then the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour and gave xenophobic nationalism an excuse. Jews became second-class citizens, lived in designated areas and could only attend their own theatres, cinemas, concerts or golf clubs. Jewish doctors, pharmacists or vets could only treat Jews (or Jewish pets). Blacks remained second-class.

  Japan had been pl
aying percentages when they attacked America. They lost. The had been attempting to subdue China for four years and were running out of oil. They had signed the Axis treaty with Germany, Britain and Italy, and had felt safe in helping themselves to the oil fields of the Dutch East Indies and the air bases in French Indo China.

  They had declared a Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and had intended to establish control over the Far East and the Pacific. America had watched nervously and, when the Japanese had renewed their attack on China, the US had frozen all their assets in the United States in retaliation. It was not that Joe Kennedy had wanted to save the Chinese, but that the Pacific flowed all the way to the West Coast. America felt threatened.

  If Japan was not to be eclipsed in the Pacific, it had to take on America and Admiral Yamamoto offered a plan to destroy the US fleet at Pearl Harbour by air strikes. If that had worked, the Japanese would have had a fighting chance. It didn’t. What it did was reinforce Joe Kennedy’s grip on power. He used the excuse of war to rule the United States without reference to Congress.

  Germany had ended the war in the east in 1946 by dropping a totally unnecessary atomic bomb on Stalingrad and America had ended their war with Japan by dropping an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, to show that they could. Since those nuclear moments, the world had been divided into two spheres of influence: German and American.

  The difference was that, despite edging to the brink of extremism, Americans had pulled back. They had fought a war for freedom and independence and a civil war over slavery and were uncomfortable about going too far down a road that was leading away from the foundations of their nation. Joe Kennedy had recognised the fact and returned the country to democratic elections, although he made sure he won them, and served as President until 1956.