Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II [Hardcover]

Agostino von Hassell (Author), Sigrid MacRae (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 14, 2006

Alliance of Enemies tells the thrilling history of the secret World War II relationship between Nazi Germany's espionage service, the Abwehr, and the American OSS, predecessor of the CIA. The actors in this great as-yet-untold story were often at odds with their respective governments. Working in the face of competing ideologies and at great personal risk, these unorthodox collaborators struggled to bring about an early peace.

By mining secret World War II files that were only recently declassified, as well as personal interviews, diaries, and previously unpublished accounts to unearth some of history's surprises, Agostino von Hassell and Sigrid MacRae shed new light on Franklin Roosevelt's surprising stance toward Hitler before the U.S. entered the war, and on the relationship of American business to the Third Reich. They offer vivid details on the German resistance's desperate efforts to at first avert war and then to make common cause with enemy representatives to end it. And their work details the scope and depth of German resistance and its many plots to eliminate Hitler and why they failed.

New names and incredible wartime plots reveal the titanic power struggles that took place in Istanbul and Lisbon---cities crawling with spies. Intense, clandestine communications and spy rings come clear, as do the self-serving neutrality of Switzerland and Portugal and the shocking postwar scramble for German spies, scientists, and more, all to aid in the fight against a new enemy: communism.

Alliance of Enemies fills a huge void in our knowledge of the hidden, layered warfare---and the attempts for peace---of World War II. It will fascinate and excite historians, spy and policy enthusiasts, and anyone concerned with the uses of intelligence in trying times. Nowhere has such a complete and provocative history of the wars behind World War II  been told---until now.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

This eye-opening account details the German opposition that long predated the well-known July 1944 putsch that attempted to assassinate Hitler. The coarseness, rhetoric and brutality of the lower-echelon Nazis offended the elite who ran the military and civil service, and when Hitler threatened war in 1938 if his demand to annex the Sudetenland was rejected, military leaders began planning his ouster. But their plan depended on Hitler starting a war that had little popular support, which Britain short-circuited by yielding at Munich. Once war did begin, German victories in 1939–1940 discouraged the opposition, which revived when Russia and America entered the war in 1941. Readers may be amazed at the number of top officials who not only opposed Hitler but also actively aided the Allies. Sadly, the resistance was reluctant to plan a coup without assurance that Britain and America would deal gently with Germany once Hitler was gone. When they finally acted in 1944, they failed, and Hitler took terrible vengeance. Like Roger Moorhouse in his recent Killing Hitler, Von Hassell (grandson of a bomb plotter) and MacRae, an editor and translator, have done an impressive job of demolishing the myth of a German monolith, united behind their fanatical leader. (Nov. 23)
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Review

Praise for Alliance of Enemies:
 

"This is a landmark book that will revolutionize our thinking about many aspects of the war with Hitler's Germany."--Thomas Fleming, author of The New Dealers' War: FDR and the War Within World War II

 

"How significant was the anti-Hitler movement inside Germany? How many lives lost in World War II might have been spared had the Allies embraced rather than disdained this surprisingly wide-ranging resistance? The most compelling answer to date is to be found in this definitive and eminently readable history."--Joseph E. Persico, author of Roosevelt' Secret War and Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour
 
"Alliance of Enemies is a superbly told book that further unearths a new chapter in the hidden history of the OSS. It should be essential reading for students of intelligence history and the general public who see the War on Terror flash across their television screens. This book is not only a great story but it also provides crucial context on the origins of our human intelligence sources and methods--something all too relevant in today's world."--Patrick O'Donnell,  author of We Were One: Shoulder to Shoulder with the Marines Who Took Fallujah

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Dunne Books; 1st edition (November 14, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312323697
• ISBN-13: 978-0312323691
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,847,506 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars History that is highly relevant for today, January 8, 2007

By 

Metallurgist (USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II (Hardcover)

This book is more than just a history of events that occurred over 50 years ago. It raises important questions regarding those events - questions that are highly relevant to the 21st century. As the title says, this is a book about an alliance of enemies, in this case with the Germans opposed to Hitler and their interactions with the Allies before and during the Second World War. Alliance is perhaps a poor designation, since a main theme is that there was much less of an alliance than there should have been. This book is highly recommended not only to students of WWII, the OSS/CIA, and the Holocaust, but also to those interested in the question of loyalty and the proper use of intelligence, both of which resonate with us today.

This book goes into detail about the activities of Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence (the Abwehr), who turned much of that organization into a haven for the resistance and was the source of information for the OSS. While the story of the July 1944 Hitler assassination attempt is well known, this book also discusses lesser-known assassination attempts. It discusses the actions of many high-ranking German officers and their several other but also failed, attempts at unseating the Nazis. There is also a brief discussion of the business dealings of many prominent US companies, both is supporting the Nazi regime before the war and trading with it during the war. The information provided by the German resistance concerning the Holocaust is also very important and is discussed in some detail. The book also discusses, at length, why Roosevelt's desire for Unconditional Surrender undercut the resistance and helped prolong the war. (In this regard the narrative is, in my opinion, somewhat weak. It gives great weight to the argument that this was a very bad policy and less to the desire to see that WWII did not end like WWI, thereby setting the stage for another war with Germany.)

As has been noted, this history is very relevant to current times. It raises the important question as to where ones loyalty should lie. The German army was forced into swearing personal allegiance to Hitler and many agonized as to where their true allegiance lay. In hindsight it is clear that it lay with Germany and the German people and not with the Nazi regime. Most gave their lives to fight for the "real Germany", against the Nazis, but their sacrifice was largely ignored or denigrated. This book aims to rectify this, and in my opinion, succeeds. This book, written in 2006, also raises the question as to the use of intelligence. During WWII, the good intelligence provided by very highly placed German officers and members of the civilian government was largely ignored.

Several useful appendices are included. There is a glossary of terms used, short biographies of the people mentioned, and a table of military rank equivalencies. Extensive notes are included, and there is an index. These appendices, notes and index help sort out the many people mentioned and greatly simplify following the thread of the narrative.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Offers an extraordinary, behind-the-scenes look..., January 17, 2007

By 

Susan Wright (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II (Hardcover)

"Alliance of Enemies" reveals the early U.S. government knowledge of Hitler's extermination policies; the fervent opposition of U.S. military leaders to the Anglo-American demand for FDR's non-negotiable unconditional surrender; Washington intelligence's "Black Hole," which ignored prime intelligence, and Roosevelt's unwillingness to act on information obtained by OSS Europe, to respond to peace feelers or consider compromise.

It is gripping reading and tells of the hundreds of opportunities the U.S. and Britain had to end the war far sooner. We learn in tragic detail why our government allowed it to continue, profiting all the way,despite the many desperate as well as highly strategic, high level attempts to stop it.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Important Book on World War II History in Decades, January 17, 2007

By 

Animal Lover (CT USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alliance of Enemies: The Untold Story of the Secret American and German Collaboration to End World War II (Hardcover)

This book puts together themes of WW II never before connected, which is possible because of recent freeing of information. Why did the Allies rebuff efforts by the German resistance--some at very high levels--to bring the war to an early end? How could the Allies have abandoned the Jews? Even if you are already knowledgeable about WW II, its spy history and the Holocaust, this book presents links we could never make before. A warning--the book is not an easy read for the beach, but rather serious history. It will be cited, discussed and debated for many years. Your knowledge of the period is not complete without it.