Last page: ''Strong armies would have been useless without that deeper commitment to principles. The human race came very close to falling into a dark age. The same spirit still lives. Perhaps it survives only through struggle. It's needed now to recreate an alliance in defense of the main priorities of Westen Civilization.'' (470)
Reads like a good novel. Serious but not pedantic. Explains the role of the 'secret' world of spies and assassination. However the primary focus is the role and use of ultra, the intelligence code breakers of England. Not a biography of a man, but a biography of an organization.
Point of Departure
A Forward by Intrepid
A Break in the Silence
A Historical Note
1. In Time of peace
2. Fight On
3. Impeachable Offences
4. Cry, ''Havoc!''
5. The End of the Beginning
Epilogue
A View from Another Island
Valediction
In the forward - ''When the history of World War 2 is revised in the light of the secret war, this may be the most striking element: the great engines of destruction did not determine the outcome. The invincibility of free people and the ingenuity of free minds did. I believe this as I believe today that the spirit of human resistance refuses to be crushed by mere technology. . . . Perhaps a day will dawn when tyrants can no longer threaten the Liberty if any people, when the function of all nations, however varied their ideologies, will be to enhance life, not to control it.''
This written in 1976. Control is still the goal. Amazing.
Intrepid comments: ''It has been claimed that human progress depends on challenge, that individuals and nations need to believe in causes and struggle for them. Some theorists have extended this application of instinctual behavior to account for the periodic wholesale slaughter we call ''war''. . . . What seems poignantly evident to me is that humankind already has awesome enemies to engage - poverty, disease, and ignorance, for example - and in such common cause there is reward and glory for all.''
Perhaps this assumptions he accepts in this heartfelt expression provides a clue.
1) Dividing individuals into ''nations'' - accepting nationalism as fundamental.
2) ''Instinctual behavior'' - implying humans are animals.
3) People need a ''common cause'' - suggesting goals imposed by others.
4) Also, that ''glory'' for self or group needs to be provided.
These assumptions so deep rooted he can't even imagine that these could cause the problem he hates.
Four men play key roles in this story - Stephenson, Donovan, Roosevelt and Churchill.
Donovan went to Germany in 1920. ''His carefully documented notes on Germany dwelt upon the dangerous mood of self-pity induced by the notion that German leaders had never actually surrendered and were therefore still unbeaten.'' (20)
Churchill understood this.
An American poet wrote after WW1: ''The most tragic thing about the war was not that it made so many dead men, but that it destroyed the tragedy of death. Not only did the young suffer in the war, but so did every abstraction that would have sustained and given dignity to their suffering.'' (13)
Enigma, the machine the Germans and Japanese used to encode radio transmissions, is highlighted throughout as the key to allied victory. Why? The British broke the code. Much detail on how this was done. When researching enigma, Baruch recalled Stephenson this way:
''He was very serious, frightening even. He could think seven stages ahead of you. It was terrifying to watch. If he was absorbing information, not a muscle in his face moved, nor did his eyes shift around as you would expect from someone reflecting. . . . When he spoke, he cut clean through the matter. Never wasted a word.'' (39)
Fascinating man!
Years later he gave this formula for the best agents: ''Their response to danger is positive. In modern terms, they belong to the type A personality who has full control of himself although driven by great energy. The good agent starts out as a man who chose action over inaction but who learns to control his impulses and detach himself from a temporary reality in order to resume abstract thought.'' (195)
Many insights into public events. The role of Philiby in destroying the ability of the British to work with the Americans after the war. This was not discovered until he went to Russia. The huge cache of gold in the indies that is the true story behind Ian Fleming's Goldfinger. In fact, numerous references to Fleming and the source of many of his stories.
Rommel's african success was caused by breaking the British codes. Rommel read the daily battle plan each morning. Assassination of Heydrich. Explains Stalin's purge of 35,000 of his best officers during the war, due to forged documents created by the Nazi's. The role of Greta Garbo and the death of Leslie Howard are mentioned. The rescue of Bohr, etc., etc..
Anyone with curiosity about the underlying causes of public events will enjoy this. The strain and anguish of using secret information is explained. Adds depth to superficial knowledge. Well done.
Epilogue of ten pages. Thoughtful analysis of the war work. Author talking to Stephenson:
''For the first time in history, we see everywhere the means of conveying information - and everywhere we seem in greater darkness than before. Secrecy seems like a disease -''
''That might destroy us?''
''It seems a clear threat to the freedom we have.''
''More than half the world is under dictatorship,'' said Stephenson.
''Those people do not know what we call 'freedom'. Only sixty generations stretch back from you and me, here, to the dawn of Western history. Two world wars in this century remind us that 'civilized' Europe is the bat of an eye from the dark ages.'' (467)
What a profound thinker! Are we in the last days of this civilization?
Last page: ''Strong armies would have been useless without that deeper commitment to principles. The human race came very close to falling into a dark age. The same spirit still lives. Perhaps it survives only through struggle. It's needed now to recreate an alliance in defense of the main priorities of Westen Civilization.'' (470)
So true. Nevertheless, which principles are defended makes all the difference. Robespierre, Napoleon, Hitler and Stalin had principles. So did Cromwell, Wilberforce, Lincoln and Mandela. Which principles will survive?
Thirty two pages of black and white photographs. Thirteen page index.
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