Agents of influence, p.30
Agents of Influence, page 30
While much of this book was written in crowded spaces, there were two remarkable exceptions. George and Lizzie Lewis very kindly looked after me in New York, which is where I began to write this book – at their kitchen table with a pet rabbit by my feet. I would also like to thank David Campbell and the trustees of the Hawthornden Literary Institute for generously having me to stay in Casa Ecco, and to Marilena and Margarita for their wonderful cooking and company.
I am indebted to all those who have worked on the book at PublicAffairs and Quercus, from John English and Anthony Hippisley to Ana McLaughlin and Elizabeth Masters, and most of all to the two Bens, a model of transatlantic cooperation to rival the two Bills: Ben Adams in New York, for his encouragement and consistently wise advice; and Ben Brock in London for his excellent judgement and skilful handling of the project. Working with both has been an absolute pleasure. I could not ask for better editors.
Nor could I hope for better film agents in the shape of Gemma Hirst and Katie Snaydon. I’m thrilled to be working on the dramatic adaptation of this book with Rosanne, Jez and Ed at Element Pictures.
None of this, however, would have happened without the support and friendship of my literary agent, Jonathan Conway, who has been involved at every stage of this project. I cannot thank him enough.
Moving steadily closer to home, I am unendingly grateful to my Mum, Sukie Hemming, for her help, her generosity, for her food, and for every time she took Matilda to leave me with a writing window. Without this, the deadline, as Douglas Adams put it, would have whooshed by. Nor could I have done this without the support of the two children in the back of that Buick as it roared into the United States in late 1941: Louisa Service and John Hemming, my aunt and Dad. Their loan of Harold and Alice’s papers and their advice and comments were all vital. In a different way, I’m grateful to the two children often to be found in the back of our Prius as it hums around south-west London: Matilda and Sam. Well done Matilda for putting up with Daddy as he finished the book, and Sam, for everything that you are. It may not happen for a while, but I hope you both get to read this one day.
Finally, I want to thank my wife, Helena, whose presence is woven deep into the fabric of this book. She has buoyed me throughout and been a constant source of advice on what’s interesting and what’s not. She was the first to attack this text with her trusty red pen. She has an incredible flair for storytelling, and is imbued with superhuman patience and love. She is extraordinary. I am indebted to her and could not have written this without her.
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Credit: Jeff Overs
Henry Hemming is the author of five works of nonfiction including most recently Agent M and The Ingenious Mr. Pyke, which landed on the New York Times monthly espionage bestseller list. He has written for the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, the Times, The Economist, FT Magazine, and the Washington Post, and has given interviews on Radio 4’s Today Programme and NBC’s Today Show and spoken at schools, festivals, and companies including RDF Media, the RSA, Science Museum, Frontline Club, and the School of Life. Henry lives in London with his wife, daughter, and son.
Also by Henry Hemming
Agent M
The Ingenious Mr. Pyke
Together
In Search of the English Eccentric
Misadventure in the Middle East
Notes
Given that in so many ways the theme of this book is provenance, it is perhaps more important than ever to provide the source of each quotation. Most have come from published material, including memoirs, diaries, public opinion surveys, biographies, histories, newspapers, journals and magazines. There is one caveat on public opinion surveys. During the early 1940s, the Gallup Organization frequently excluded from its survey results any respondents who had no opinion, so that if a third of the interviewees replied ‘yes’ to a question, another third said ‘no’ and a final third said ‘don’t know’, Gallup might report that 50 per cent of the population had said ‘yes’. Where this has happened I have adjusted the results accordingly.
Other notes relate to unpublished material. Most of these papers I was able to access either in person or virtually at a variety of archives, libraries and institutions in Britain, Canada and the US. Below is a guide to the abbreviations I have used for each. If you would like more detail on any of these please get in touch via my author website and I will do my best to point you in the right direction.
ADM (Records of the Admiralty) – National Archives, London, UK
Adolf A. Berle Papers – Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park (NY), US
CAB (Cabinet Office files) – National Archives, London, UK
Charles A. Lindbergh Papers – Yale University (CT), US
Dorothy Thompson Papers – Syracuse University Libraries (NY), US
Ernest Cuneo Papers – Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park (NY), US
Fight For Freedom Papers – Princeton University (NJ), US
FO (Foreign Office records) – National Archives, London, UK
HS (Records of Special Operations Executive) – National Archives, London, UK
KV (Records of the Security Service) – National Archives, London, UK
Lewis W. Douglas Papers – University of Arizona (AZ), US
Nelson A. Rockefeller Private Papers – Rockefeller Archive Center, Sleepy Hollow (NY), US
Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights Papers – Columbia University, New York City (NY), US
PREM (Prime Minister’s Office files) – National Archives, London, UK
President’s Secretary’s File – Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park (NY), US
Rene MacColl Papers – University of Leicester, UK
RG 59 (State Department Papers) – National Archives, Washington (DC), US
RG 226 (George Office Records) – National Archives, Washington (DC), US
Whitney Hart Shepardson Papers – Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library, Hyde Park (NY), US
William Stevenson Papers – University of Regina, Canada
Epigraphs
1 Alexander Hamilton, Pacificus No. VI, 17 July 1793
2 Charles Eade (ed.), The War Speeches of the Rt Hon. Winston S. Churchill, Vol. 2 (London: Cassell, 1952), pp. 151, 202
Preface
1 Nicholas Cull, Selling War (New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1995), p. 4
2 David Ignatius, ‘Britain’s War in America’, Washington Post, 17 September 1989, Outlook, C1–2
3 Thomas F. Troy in Bill MacDonald, The True Intrepid (Vancouver: Raincoast, 2001), p. 4
4 ‘A Blonde Bond’, Time, 20 December 1963, p. 23
5 Fortune, July 1940, ‘Which of these comes closest to expressing what you think the US should do now? Enter the war at once on the side of the Allies: 7.7%; Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 4 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1940), p. 714
6 Gallup, 17 December 1941 (survey period 15–20 November 1941), ‘Which of these two things do you think is the more important – that this country keep out of war, or that Germany be defeated?’ Defeat Germany – 68%; Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 6 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, Spring 1942), p. 151
7 Psy-Group motto quoted in Adam Entous and Ronan Farrow, ‘Deception, Inc.’, New Yorker, 18 & 25 February 2019, pp. 44–57
8 Thomas E. Mahl, Desperate Deception (Dulles, VA: Brassey’s, 1999), p. 47
9 King Tut, ‘Fake News’, The Advocate Messenger (Danville, KY), 5 April 1939, p. 2
PART ONE
1 Losses to the end of May 1940 calculated from Donald P. Steury, ‘The Character of the German Naval Offensive’, Timothy J. Runyan & Jan M. Copes (eds), To Die Gallantly (Boulder, CO, San Francisco & Oxford: Westview Press, 1994), pp. 75–94; Retrieved from https://web.archive.org/web/20090409070707/http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk:80/2WWbritishA.htm on 22 January 2019; SteveMerc, ‘Evaluating The German Army and Luftwaffe’s Growth From September of 1939 to June of 1941’, 23 October 2017, retrieved from globeatwar.com on 19 March 2019
2 Gallup, 29 May 1940 (survey date 18–23 May 1940) ‘Do you think the United States should declare war on Germany and send our army and navy abroad to fight?’ Yes – 7%; Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940), p. 552
Chapter 1
1 Winston Churchill quoted in Warren F. Kimball (ed.), Churchill and Roosevelt (Princeton & Woodstock, Oxon: Princeton University Press, 1984), p. 43
2 Churchill quoted in Stanley Weintraub, ‘Churchill’s War’, Washington Post, 4 December 2005, retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/entertainment/books/2005/12/04/churchills-war/94bcbcf5-fa95-4064-bf53-7bc55c1187b2/ on 4 December 2018
3 Churchill, ‘We Shall Fight on the Beaches’, 4 June 1940, retrieved from https://winstonchurchill.org/ on 18 March 2019
4 ‘Britannic, Athlone’s Ship, Here With 760, Including Jan Masaryk’, New York Times, 22 June 1940, p. 17
5 Adolf Berle quoted by Thomas F. Troy in Bill MacDonald, The True Intrepid (Vancouver: Raincoast, 2001), p. 1
6 Grace Garner in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 273
7 ‘Stephenson – Dahl’, Roll 2, 83-7, Box 4, File 500.1-4, William Stevenson Papers
8 David Ogilvy, Blood, Brains and Beer (London: Hamish Hamilton, 1978), p. 57
9 Charles M. Peters, Five Days in Philadelphia (New York: PublicAffairs, 2005), pp. 77–8
Chapter 2
1 Malcolm Muggeridge, Chronicles of Wasted Time, Vol. 2 (London: Collins, 1973), p. 136
2 Macdonald, The True Intrepid, p. 26
3 William Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid (London: Macmillan, 1976), p. 4
4 Stevenson, A Man Called Intrepid, Contributing Material, 83-7, Box 10, File 801.10-11, William Stevenson Papers
5 Military Cross citation, Supplement to the London Gazette, 22 June 1918, p. 7423
6 Alice Hemming, Diary, 26 Sept 1937, Private Collection
7 Gill Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery (London & New York: Routledge, 2007), p. 193
8 Quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, p. 193
9 S. Freeman-Mitford, Memorandum, February 1940, FO 371/24237/A.3779
10 Gene Tunney, 83-7 Box 4, File 500.1-7, p.1, ‘CBC Tuesday Night: The Two Bills’, William Stevenson Papers
11 Edward K. Merritt quoted in Thomas F. Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1996), p. 34
12 William Stephenson quoted in Keith Jeffery, MI6 (London: Bloomsbury, 2011), p. 439
13 Federal Bureau of Investigation, ‘British Intelligence Service in the United States (Running Memorandum)’, 1 January 1947, p. 20
14 William Donovan quoted in Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, p. 149
15 Stewart Menzies quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, p. 254
16 Gallup, 23 May 1940 (survey date 16–21 May 1940), ‘If England and France are unable to pay cash for airplanes they buy in this country, do you think we should sell them planes on credit supplied by our Government? No – 46%; Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 4 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1940), p. 552
17 John Bruce Lockhart quoted in Christopher Andrew, For the President’s Eyes Only (London: HarperCollins, 1995), p. 39
18 Lord Lothian, 13 June 1940, FO 1093/140
19 Jeffery, MI6, p. 450
20 Gladwyn Jebb, 15 June 1940, FO 1093/140
Chapter 3
1 ‘New York’s Newest Apartment Building Overlooking Central Park’, House and Garden, October 1937, Vol. 72, pp. 60–1
2 Noel Coward, The Autobiography of Noel Coward (London: Methuen, 1999), p. 391
3 Gill Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery (London: Routledge, 2007), p. 220
4 Bickham Sweet-Escott, Baker Street Irregular (London: Methuen, 1965), p. 132
5 Colonel John Magruder to Cordell Hull, 3 August 1940, RG 59/4930/841.20211/23
6 Stewart Menzies quoted in Bennett, Churchill’s Man of Mystery, p. 220
7 Walter Bell interviewed in Bill MacDonald, The True Intrepid (Vancouver: Raincoast, 2001), p. 229
8 Bill Ross Smith interviewed in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 210
9 Roald Dahl, ‘Stephenson – Dahl’, Roll 2, 83-7, Box 4, File 500.1-4, William Stevenson Papers
10 Betty Raymond interviewed in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 224
11 Roald Dahl interviewed in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 248
12 Walter Bell interviewed in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 230
13 Dick Ellis, ‘Colonel Ellis Roll’, Roll C, T83-7, Box 4, File 500.1-4, William Stevenson Papers
14 Ross Smith interviewed in MacDonald, The True Intrepid, p. 208
Chapter 4
1 ‘Lindbergh is Guarded as he Reaches NY’, Lincoln Star, 15 April 1939, p. 3
2 ‘Lindbergh Here, Guarded by Police’, New York Times, 16 April 1939, p. 8
3 Lindbergh quoted in A. Scott Berg, Lindbergh (London: Macmillan, 1998), p. 387
4 ‘Lindbergh is Guarded as he Reaches NY’, Lincoln Star, 15 April 1939, p. 3
5 Philip Roth, The Plot Against America (London: Vintage, 2016), p. 6
6 ‘Lindbergh Here, Guarded by Police’, New York Times, 16 April 1939, p. 8
7 Charles Lindbergh, Diaries, 19 May 1940, Series V, Box 215, Charles A. Lindbergh Papers
8 Milton Bronner, ‘Lindbergh Transformed from Shy Young Air Hero to Political Figure’, Marshfield News-Herald, 15 April 1939, p. 4
9 Charles F. Adams (ed.), The Works of John Adams, Vol. 2 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1850), p. 505
10 Washington and Jefferson quoted in David Fromkin, ‘Entangling Alliances’, Foreign Affairs, July 1970
Chapter 5
1 Hans Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 22 May 1940, Document No. 299, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 9 (London: HMSO, 1956), pp. 410–12
2 Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 19 June 1940, Document No. 493, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 9, pp. 625–6
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Hans Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 27 June 1940, Document No. 39, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 10 (London: HMSO, 1956), pp. 39–40
6 Ibid.
7 Fortune, July 1940, ‘Which of these comes closest to expressing what you think the US should do now? Enter the war at once on the side of the Allies: 7.7%, Public Opinion Quarterly, Vol. 4 (Princeton: Princeton University, 1940), p. 714
8 Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 4 July 1940, Document No. 108, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 10, pp. 119–21
9 Lord Lothian to Foreign Office, 26 June 1940, FO 371/24230/A.3464
10 Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 5 July 1940, Document No. 112, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 10, pp. 125–6
11 Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 12 June 1940, Document No. 417, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 9, pp. 550–1
12 Ibid.
13 ‘Stop the March to War’, New York Times, 25 June 1940, p. 19
14 Thomsen to Foreign Ministry, 3 July 1940, Document No. 91, Documents on German Foreign Policy, 1918–1945, Series D, Vol. 10, pp. 101–2
15 David Stout, ‘How Nazis Tried to Steer U.S. Politics’, New York Times, 23 July 1997, p. 17
16 Hamilton Fish, 4 April 1940, Congressional Record, Vol. 86, Part 4, p. 4027
17 ‘Polish Papers Linking US With War Called Fakes’, Emporia Gazette, 30 March 1940, p. 5
18 Charles Lindbergh, Diaries, 12 June 1940, Series V, Box 215, Charles A. Lindbergh Papers
19 Lindbergh, Diaries, 15 June 1940
20 Alton Frye, Nazi Germany and the American Hemisphere, 1933–1941 (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1967), p. 138
21 Ernest Lundeen, 17 June 1940, Congressional Record, Vol. 86, Part 8, p. 8357
22 Lindbergh, Diaries, 15 June 1940
23 Editorial, Pittsburgh Press, 17 June 1940, p. 12
24 ‘Our First Duty – To Our Own’, Detroit Free Press, 18 June 1940, p. 6
25 Hamilton Fish, 22 June 1940, Congressional Record, Vol. 86, Part 8, quoted in Box 285, Folder 18, Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League Papers
26 Donald Heath to State Department, 29 May 1940, RG 59/4930/ 841.20211/23
Chapter 6
1 Gladwyn Jebb to Stewart Menzies, 7 July 1940, FO 1093/238
2 Menzies to Jebb, 12 July 1940, FO 1093/238
3 Quoted in Christopher Baxter, ‘The Secret Intelligence Service and the origins of the Anglo-American Intelligence Relationship, 1940–1941’, FCO Historians, World War to Cold War: the records of the FO Permanent Under-Secretary’s Department, 1939–51 (London: Foreign & Commonwealth Office, 2013), p. 35
4 Jay Racusin, ‘Hitler’s Agent Ensconced in Westchester’, New York Herald Tribune, 1 August 1940, p. 1
5 Helen Reid to Lord Halifax, 13 July 1939, FO 800/324
6 British Security Coordination, The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940–1945 (New York: Fromm, 1999), p. 20
