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Peculiar Liaisons

in War, Espionage, and Terrorism in the Twentieth Century

 

Historical Essays

Algora Press - New York, New York

 

Historical Essays available from Amazon.com and Barnes and Noble

Paperback, Hardback, and Ebook

 

 

Book Overview

 

Chapter 1

 

The Black Hand that Ignited World War I

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Gavrilo Princip and Dragutin Dimitrijevic

 

 

The opening chapter traces the troubled history of the Balkans up to the assassination of the Austrian Archduke Ferdinand by linking the influences of the Greek-Trojan War, Alexander the Great’s conquest, the creation of Islam and Catholicism, conflicts with the Ottoman Empire, and the deadly and little known secret societies of Omalinida, Black Hand, Young Turks, the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization, and the Croatian Ustasha.

 

The Obrenovic and Karadjorde dynasties of Serbia are examined.  Both of these competing dynasties, created by two illiterate pig farmers in the 19th century, had profound affects in creating the political composition of the Balkans in the early twentieth century.  The assassination of King Obrenovic in 1903, which was led by the same man who created the secret society that assassinated Franz Ferdinand in 1914, is detailed along with the importance of the Balkan League and Balkan Wars on European history.

 

The Serbian terror group the Black Hand is disclosed as the force that ignited the worldwide cataclysm of World War I and the legacy that the War to End All Wars left the world.  This chapter uncovers the motives of the Black Hand and the possibility that other secret societies and political forces joined in the plot.  It investigates the legacy of the war that created the Bolshevik Revolution and themes for film, literature, and religion that have shaped Western culture.  The Bosnian Serb assassin Gavrilo Princip’s relationship and affiliation with the Serbian intelligence officer Dragutin Dimitrijevic is explored, as well as Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie, Emperor Franz Joseph, the six other conspirators against Franz Ferdinand, the Young Bosnians, the Young Turks, the failed assassin Bogdan Zerajic who inspired Princip, Dimitrijevic’s chief aide Major Vajislav Tankosic, authors Rebecca West's and Robert Kaplan's works on Balkan issues, Zionist Thomas Herzel, the visions of Fatima and how they influenced the Catholic Church's fight against the Russian Soviets, Yugoslavian President Slobodan Milosevic's contemporary Serbian war, and secret Balkan murderous organizations that continue to affect the peace of the world.

 

Chapter 2

 

The Ace and Queen of World War I Spies

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mata Hari – The Dutch Courtesan & Sydney Reilly – The Ace of Spies

 

 

The two legendary “spies” and their impact on World War I and the perception of the twentieth century spy are compared and contrasted.  The legends and truth that surround Mata Hari’s persona as the courtesan spy and Reilly’s reputation as the master spy of the twentieth century are examined in detail.  This chapter focuses on Mata Hari’s overall career as an artistic dancer and her alleged role as a German and French spy.  Mata Hari’s role as an espionage agent is compared to other women spies:  the French spy Marthe Richard, the Belgian spy Marthe McKenna (who won both an Iron Cross for Germany, a death sentence from Germany, and the highest accolades from Winston Churchill), and two who were martyred, Edith Cavell and Sarah Aaronson.  Other relationships of Mata Hari are examined that include Sidney Reilly, Admiral Canaris, her Russian lover Vadime de Masloff, Baron von Mirbach of German Intelligence, Capt. George Ledoux of French Intelligence, her abusive husband John MacLeod, the mysterious deaths of her son and daughter, and the Japanese Red Army’s Fusako Shigenobu.  Various biographers who created her false and unflattering public image are explained and exposed.

 

Sidney Reilly, the so-called ace of spies, was the Russian born British agent that created such a mystifying persona that no one is really sure what his real motives were as an espionage agent.  This chapter investigates Reilly’s reputation as an immoral megalomaniac who used intelligence agencies for various countries to help him amass a huge personal fortune that he used in trying to topple the Bolsheviks.  Additionally this chapter details his involvement in the Lockhart Plot, his possible role as a quadruple agent, his life as a model for the twentieth century super spy in film and literature, as well as his mysterious disappearance.  Reilly’s relationships and affiliations include the first head of the British Secret Intelligence Service, Sir Mansfield Cummings, financier J.P. Morgan, British agents George Hill, Paul Dukes, Augustus Agar, British occultist Aleister Crowley, Jack Philby, Lenin, Trotsky, the Czar’s secret police Ochrana and the Bolshevik’s Cheka, British writer and agent Somerset Maugham, French journalist and Bolshevik sympathizer Rene Marchand, failed Lenin assassin Fanya Kaplan, British agent Bruce Lockhart, the Bolshevik intelligence network The Trust, anti-Bolshevik leader Savinkov, Japanese intelligence, the Israeli intelligence service Mossad, Stalin, and Mata Hari.

 

Interest in Mata Hari and Sidney Reilly continue long after their death.  Their lives have been the subject of numerous books and film works.  Several Hollywood projects concerning Mata Hari's life are being planned in the near future.

 

Chapter 3

 

Tactical Deception – Lawrence of Arabia, The Haversack Trick, Operation Mincemeat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T.E. Lawrence – Lawrence of Arabia

Richard Meinertzhagen – Deception Master

Major William Martin – The Man Who Never Was

 

The British soldier T.E. Lawrence and the Arabian monarch King Feisal rallied the Arabs against the Turks and created a unique theater of war during World War I that shaped the Middle East as we know it today. The British soldiers and politicians that successfully used military and personal deception to change the course of the world wars of the twentieth century are analyzed.

 

The art of military tactical deception and the creation of false identities are as old as war itself.  A summary of this kind of deception is presented with a focus on three figures who refined the art of deception in war and their public image: T.E. Lawrence, Richard Meinertzhagen, and Major William Martin.

 

T. E. Lawrence and his many personas and relationships are probed, especially his role as a World War I hero in the Middle East and particularly his capture of the Turk-controlled port city of Aqaba, a military act that sealed his reputation as a legend.  Lawrence and his alter egos of T.E. Shaw and John Hume Ross are presented along with his relationships with Winston Churchill, King Feisal, the leader of the Abu Tayi tribe Auda, journalist Lowell Thomas, Lawrence’s female counterpart, rogue British intelligence agents and historians Jack Philby (Philby of Arabia) and Gertrude Bell (The Queen of the Desert), General Allenby, filmmaker David Lean, biographers John Aldington and Dr. John Mack, George Bernard Shaw, and Richard Meinertzhagen.

 

Another fellow British officer Richard Meinterzhagen is spotlighted along with his role as a master of military deception illustrated in his famous Haversack Trick during World War I.  Declared by Prime Minister David Lloyd George as one of the most “successful brains I had met in any army,” Meinertzhagen distinguished himself as military man, author, ornithologist, and, like his friend Lawrence, an extraordinary liar.  Meinertzhagen’s liaisons with famous and infamous characters and military operations are examined, which include, T.E. Lawrence, General Allenby, the tragic Franks Deceit, the Haversack Trick, the Zimmermann Telegram and the real reason behind the Balfour Declaration, Hitler, his obsession with Zionism, and proclivity to exaggerate his accomplishments.

Ewen Montagu’s Operation Mincemeat took the art of placing false papers in the hands of the enemy to another level during World War II in what has been called The Man Who Never Was.  A dead body packed with false information is used to deceive the Nazis into believing there was an Allied attack planned other than Sicily.  Much of this legendary operation has been documented in several sources including Montagu’s “official” book version (The Man Who Never Was) and a Hollywood film, but several facts have been left out of these versions of the story, which include the real identity of the Man Who Never Was and how he became the dead hero who told lies.

 

Chapter 4

 

Courageous Strikes Against the Axis

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

General Jimmy Doolittle – Leader of Doolittle’s Raiders

General Knut Haukelid – Norwegian Commando -- Operation Gunnerside

 

 

Euripedes wrote that a coward turns away but a brave man’s choice is danger. For Jimmy Doolittle and Knut Haukelid danger was the only choice.  These are the stories of two men honored by their countries with the highest military honors for bravery during military operations against the Triple Axis that were considered impossible but completed with exceptional courage and determination.

 

An explication of Doolittle’s Tokyo Raid is compared to Knut Haukelid’s team of Norwegian commandos who successfully crippled the Nazis effort to develop the atomic bomb by sabotaging the Nazi heavy water plant at Vemork, Norway.

 

Doolittle’s famous raid in response to the Japanese’s surprise attack at Pearl Harbor has been considered as one of the most impressive military strikes in American history.  Doolittle’s relationships with numerous men of war are examined, which include George Marshall, President Roosevelt, and all the Raiders who survived the experience.  This chapter studies the remarkable relationship between the Pearl Harbor-attack Commander Mitsui Fuchida and one of Doolittle’s men Cpl. Jacob DeShazer.  Also analyzed is the theory that the execution of three of Doolittle’s men by the Japanese deeply affected President Roosevelt and may have been a major force in his refusal in rejecting Hirohito’s offer of a conditional surrender as early as 1943.

 

Haukelid’s role in Operation Gunnerside and the role of various other operations and men are investigated, which include atomic scientists Werner Heisenberg and Niles Bohr, MI6 Director Stewart Menzies, Leif Tronstad, the disaster of Operation Freshman, the hunt for the Nazi atomic bomb (the Alsos Mission), the unlikely OSS agent and American professional baseball player Moe Berg, and the legendary Vemork Raid itself.

 

Chapter 5

 

The Dirge of the Black Orchestra

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Adolf Hitler – Nazi War Lord

 Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg – Nazi War Hero, Anti-Nazi Hero, and Failed Assassin

 

Adolf Hitler was the target of over forty assassination attempts during his political career, but none were more dramatic than the one executed by the German aristocrat and Nazi war hero, Col. Claus von Stauffenberg.  The ancestry, accomplishments, ambition, and final demise of Hitler and Stauffenberg are compared.

 

The lives of Hitler and the failed assassin Col. Stauffenberg are examined, as well as their relationship with the anti-Nazi groups of the Kreisau Circle and Black Orchestra.  Other people and issues examined are Hitler’s peculiar ancestry, The German novelist who wrote of the American genocide of Indians that inspired Hitler, Hitler’s role as a German Army spy, the English novelist and scholar J.R.R. Tolkien, OSS Chief William Donovan, the Beer Hall Putsch, Landsberg prison, The Protocols of Zion, the anti-Semitic Scotsman Thomas Carlyle who was one of Hitler’s favorite German historians, the Philby-Saud-Dulles link that supported the Nazi regime with Middle East oil, the inspiration Henry Ford gave Hitler, the mystical poet Stefan George’s influence on Stauffenberg, the probable syphilitic infection of Hitler from a Jewish prostitute in Vienna, the Jewish clairvoyant for the Third Reich Jan Hanussen, the influential occultists (Rosenberg, Eckart, and Himmler), the Third Reich's hand in the Balkan Holocaust, Hitler’s boyhood relationship with the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, and the Wolfsshanze bombing with its horrible aftermath.

 

Chapter 6

 

The Dark Secrets of Nazi Intelligence

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Admiral Wilhelm Canaris – German Military Intelligence Chief and Nazi Traitor

General Reinhard Heydrich – Final Solution Architect

 

The two most important and powerful figures in Nazi Intelligence held secrets about each other that shaped the course of the war.  While Canaris became part of the plot to end the Nazi regime, Heydrich was the ultimate Nazi iron man who was targeted for assassination by Czech resistance fighters, though the Allies knew there would be terrible reprisals.

 

Though the Little Fox (Canaris) and Hangman Heydrich were neighbors and pretended to be friends, they both worked against each other throughout their short careers as major forces in the Third Reich’s intelligence successes and failures.

 

Both Canaris and Heydrich had numerous relationships with key figures in the war.  Their lives had profound affects on the operation of the war and its eventual end, which included the The Night of the Long Knives, Kristallnacht, the SS super spy Walter Schellenberg, the downfall and phony incrimination of anti-Stalinist Marsahl Mikhail Tukhachevsky, the Nazi brothel Salon Kitty created to eavesdrop on officers, Canaris and his treasonous relationship with the Black Orchestra, the phony attack on Poland to start World War II, the atrocious decisions made at the Wannsee conference, Heydrich’s and Hitler’s Jewish ancestry, the World War I Jewish German hero imprisoned in Dachau and offered freedom if he spied for the Third Reich, Kubis’s and Gabcik assassination of Heydrich, the Lidice reprisal, the traitors Canaris and Kim Philby.

 

Chapter 7

 

The Assassination of JFK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lee H. Oswald – Alleged Presidential Assassin

David Ferrie – Mercenary Mystery Man

 

The curious relationship between JFK's alleged assassin, the supposed left-wing Lee H. Oswald, and his Civil Air Patrol teacher, the brilliant, deviant, and right-wing David Ferrie is presented with a detailed analysis of Oswald’s curious acquaintances and their affiliations with espionage, communist, and anti-communist groups.  Ferrie and his role in anti-Cuban activities, the CIA, and the mafia are compared with Oswald’s mysterious espionage legend.  This is the most complete and detailed study of Oswald and Ferrie in JFK assassination literature.

 

This chapter discloses the peculiar relationships of Franz Ferdinand and President Kennedy, Gavrilo Princip and Oswald, Oswald and his father-in-law Ilya Prusakov, Oswald and the Russian born businessman George deMohrenschildt, Oswald and CIA contract agent and alleged double agent Richard Nagell, Oswald and CIA agents and mercenaries (Jerry Patrick Hemming, and David Atlee Phillips), Ferrie and Jack Martin, Ferrie and Carlos Marcello, Ferrie and Clay Shaw, Ferrie and Sergio Archacha Smith, Perry Russo and Ferrie, Clay Shaw and Permindex, Jim Garrison and Ferrie, Jim Garrison and Perry Russo, Oswald and the Fair Play for Cuba Committee, film and fiction that may have motivated Oswald, Ferrie's alleged pre-knowledge of the assassination, Guy Banister and Oswald, right-wing racist Joseph Milteer’s pre-knowledge of the assassination, mind control and hypnosis, Jack Ruby and the mafia.

 

 

 

 

Also by John S. Craig

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