Burn After Reading

by Ladislas Farago

  It became essential to restore Zacharias’ authority. As usual, Secretary Forrestal came to our aid. He called Washington’s most influential correspondent, Arthur Krock of The New York Times, to his office and asked him to write a column which would tacitly reiterate that Zacharias was not a self-appointed apostle of peace, but an official spokesman, indeed, whose broadcast reflected the views and policies of the U.S. Government. Next morning Krock wrote: “Uneasiness has been expressed in this country over … the broadcast to Japan by Captain Zacharias … Captain Zacharias, though reiterating the requirement of unconditional surrender, told the Japanese people they can make ‘peace with honor’ at this juncture and that the benefits of the Atlantic Charter will go with it; and this has aroused fears it will persuade the Japanese we are weakening and that they can get even better terms if they hold out …”

  Then followed the crucial portion of his column, inspired by Forrestal: “Captain Zacharias was working on a twofold problem this Government faces in the Pacific war, and the line he took in the broadcast is the high official attempt to deal with it directly. He sought (a) to persuade the Japanese people that their military leaders lie when they predict pillage, enslavement, dismemberment of the home islands, rapine and the overthrow of their sacred institutions as the inevitable consequences of unconditional surrender, the hope being that, if the Japanese masses can be brought to realize this, the war will be shortened and many American lives will be spared. He sought (b) to show the American people the effort that is being made to save those lives.”

  We were still apprehensive that Truman, who was maintaining ominous silence at Potsdam, might yet disavow us. Forrestal sought to prevent this. He asked Commodore Vardaman, the President’s Naval Aide, to brief Truman on the issue. This intervention saved the day for us. While the President continued to refrain from taking a direct part in the controversy, he authorized Anthony Vaccaro, White House correspondent of the Associated Press covering him at Potsdam, to report that the President “tacitly approved the Zacharias broadcast.”

  Now we felt the time had come to invigorate the campaign by establishing direct, personal contact with the Japanese to discuss with them face to face the problems that had to be solved. One of the foremost Japanese militarists, General Oshima, had been captured in Germany, where he represented his country as ambassador to Hitler. We made arrangements to fly him to Washington and then, with him in tow, we prepared to go to an island in the Pacific to meet with emissaries of Tokyo.

  As we saw it, Zacharias would go on this secret trip, accompanied by Dennis McEvoy and maybe Commander Douglas Fairbanks, Jr., attached to Admiral King’s staff, who worked independently along lines similar to ours, trying to establish contact with personalities close to the Dowager Empress, who wielded great influence on the Emperor. We obtained permission to bring Oshima to Washington, and began making the arrangements for Zacharias’ momentous trip, hoping to assure the participation of Japanese emissaries approximately on Zacharias’ level. These were supposed to be preliminary talks, for the real negotiations would have to be conducted on a much higher level. But we expected that even these preliminary talks would produce vast areas of agreement, enabling subsequent negotiators to arrange the surrender without too much further delay.

  We again enjoyed Forrestal’s wholehearted support. The Secretary asked Zacharias to venture an opinion as to the date by which the surrender would become an accomplished fact. Zacharias answered without the slightest hesitation: “September 1.” The date was exactly one month away, but we felt confident that we could deliver the goods.

  On August 6, the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. It was followed by the dropping of a second bomb on Nagasaki on August 9. In between, the Red Army sneaked into the Far Eastern war by attacking the Japanese in Manchuria and scoring a few pro forma victories in great haste.

  Zacharias was bitterly disappointed when his efforts blew up in the poisonous mushroom of two atomic bombs. “The stunning effect of the atomic bombs on world-wide popular imagination,” he wrote in his autobiography, “caused an instant belief that the Japanese surrender was solely the result of atomic bombing. And that erroneous belief still persists very widely … Japan would have accepted our surrender terms even without the prodding which the two atomic bombs provided.

  “Aside from its stunning and horrifying impact on human imagination and its production of a spectacular war climax,” he wrote, “the atomic bombs’ effect on the Japanese war was only to hasten, by a very short time, the Japanese expression of a decision already made.”

  Japan surrendered on August 14 and her capitulation was formalized on September 2 on board the battleship Missouri.

  To save two weeks, the United States introduced history’s most savage weapon into human conflict, and thus endowed war with an unprecedented horror. The United States did this at a time when a small band of dedicated men was ready to demonstrate that conflicts could be ended in an intellectual sphere by non-military means.

  I shall be forever proud that I was privileged to belong to that small band of dedicated men.

  BIBLIOGRAPHY

  Bibliography

  As it must be obvious to the reader, part of the material in this book is based on first hand sources—personal interrogations, unpublished eyewitness accounts, documents, as well as my own experiences—and part on published sources, the accounts of men and women who shared in this grand adventure or had a ringside seat at the secret war.

  The following bibliography is prepared for those who seek information in greater detail on specific events cited above as well as on those operations not covered in this book.

  The available literature is vast. The selection had to be confined to works which I thought were objectively the best or which appealed to me subjectively, for their intrinsic value or beauty. My gratitude goes out to their authors who have thus aided me in the preparation of this volume.

  Abshagen, K. H., Canaris, Patriot und Weltbuerger, Stuttgart: Deutsche Verlags-Gesellschaft, 1949

  Activities of Soviet Secret Service, Washington: Government Printing Office, 1954

  Alsop, S. (with Braden, T.), Sub Rosa. The OSS and American Espionage, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1946

  Amé, C., Guerra segreta in Italia, 1939–1943, Roma: Casine, 1954

  Bartz, K., Die Tragoedie der deutschen Abwehr, Salzburg: Pilgram, 1955

  Bergier, J., Agents secrets contre armes secrètes, Paris: Arthaud, 1955

  Best, S. P., The Venlo Incident, London: Hutchinson, 1951

  Borchers, E., Monsieur Jean, Hannover: Sponholtz, 1951

  Boveri, M., Der Verrat im 20. Jahrhundert, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1956–57

  Buckmaster, M. J., Specially Employed. The Story of British Aid to French Patriots of the Resistance, London: Batchworth Press, 1952

  Buckmaster, M. J., They Fought Alone. The Story of the British Agents in France, London: Odhams Press, 1958

  Busch, T. (pseudonym of Arthur Schuetz), Entlarvter Geheimdienst, Zuerich: Pegasus, 1946

  Butcher, H. C., My Three Years With Eisenhower, New York: Simon and Schuster, 1946

  Garroll, W., Persuade or Perish, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948

  Carré, M., I Was the Cat, London: Souvenir, 1960

  Churchill, P., Of Their Own Choice, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1952

  Churchill, P., Duel of Wits, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1953

  Churchill, W. S., The Second World War, 6 vols., Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948–1952

  Ciano Diaries, 1939–1943, New York: Doubleday, 1946

  Collier, R., Ten-thousand Eyes, London: Collins, 1958

  Colvin, I., Chief of Intelligence, London: Kimber, 1951

  Colvin, I., The Unknown Courier, London: Kimber, 1953

  Combined Operations, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1943

  Confidential Records of the French General Staff, Berlin, 1940

  Cooper, D. A., Operation Heartbreak, New York: Viking, 1951

  Dallin, D., Soviet Esp
ionage, New Haven: Yale, 1956

  Dalton, H., The Fateful Years. Memoirs, 1931–1945, London: Muller, 1957

  Davidson, B., Partisan Picture, Bedford: 1946

  Dedijer, V., With Tito Through the War, London: Hamilton, 1951

  Derry, T. K., The Campaign in Norway, London: H. M. Stationery Office, 1952

  Dixon, C. A. (with Heilbrunn, O.), Communist Guerilla Warfare, London: Allen & Unwin, 1954

  Dourlein, P., Inside North Pole, London: Kimber, 1953

  Downes, D., The Scarlet Thread. Adventures in Wartime Espionage, New York: British Book Centre, 1953

  Duke, M., Slipstream. The Story of Anthony Duke, London: Evans, 1955

  Duke, M., No Passport. The Story of Jean Felix, London: Evans, 1957

  Dulles, A. W., Germany’s Underground, New York: Macmillan, 1947

  Eisenhower, D. D., Crusade in Europe, Garden City: Doubleday, 1949

  Eppler, J. W., Rommel ruft Kairo, Guetersloh: Bertelsman, 1959

  Farago, L. (ed.), Axis Grand Strategy, New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1942

  Farago, L., War of Wits. The Anatomy of Espionage and Intelligence, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, 1954

  Feldt, E. A., The Coast Watchers, Melbourne: Cumberlege, 1946

  Fernandez Artucio, H., The Nazi Octopus in South America, London: Hale, 1943

  Firmin, S., They Came to Spy, London: Hutchinson, 1946

  Fischer, G., Soviet Opposition to Stalin, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1952

  Flicke, W. F., Spionagegruppe Rote Kapelle, Kreuzlingen: Neptun, 1949

  Flicke, W. F., Agenten funken nach Moskau, Kreuzlingen: Neptun, 1954

  Foote, A., Handbook for Spies, Garden City: Doubleday, 1949

  Ford, C. (with McBain, A.), Cloak and Dagger. The Secret Story of the OSS, New York: Random House, 1946

  Fuller, J. O., Madeleine. The Story of Noor Inayat Khan, London: Gollancz, 1952

  Fuller, J. O., The Starr Affair, London: Gollancz, 1953

  Fuller, J. O., Double Webs, London: Putnam, 1958

  Galang, R. C., Secret Mission to the Philippines, Manila: University Publications, 1948

  Gauché, G., Le Deuxième Bureau au travail (1935-1940), Paris: Amiot-Dumont, 1954

  Gerson, L. D., Schreider und die Spione, Muenchen: Dom, 1950

  Gestapo i Norge. Mennene, Midlene og Metodene, Oslo: Gyldendal, 1946

  Gimpel, E., Spion fuer Deutschland, Muenchen: Suedd. Verl., 1956

  Gisevius, H. B., Bis zum bitteren Ende, 2 vols., Zurich: Fretz & Wasmuth, 1954

  Giskes, H. J., London Calling North Pole, London: Kimber, 1953

  Goerlitz, W., Der zweite Weltkrieg, Stuttgart: Steingraeben, 1951

  Goudsmit, S. A., Alsos, New York: H. Schuman, 1947

  Guillaume, P., La sologne au temps de l’heroism et de la trahison, Orleans: Imp. Nouevelle, 1950

  Haestrup, J., Kontakt med England, Copenhagen: Thuning & Appel, 1954

  Hagen, W. (pseudonym of Wilhelm Hoettl), Die geheime Front. Organisation, Personen und Aktionen des deutschen Geheimdienstes, Zuerich: Europa, 1950

  Hagen, W., Unternehmen Bernhard. Ein historischer Tatsachenbericht ueber die groesste Geldfaelschungsaktion aller Zeiten, Wels: Welsermuehl, 1955

  Hassell, U.v., Vom anderen Deutschland. Aus den nachgelassenen Tagebuechern, 1938–1944, Zuerich: Atlantis, 1946

  Haukelid, K., Skis Against the Atom, London: Kimber, 1954

  Hawemann, W., Achtung, Partisanen! Der Kampf hinter der Ostfront, Hannover: Sponholtz, 1953

  Hesse, F., Das Spiel um Deutschland, Muenchen: List, 1953

  Hobatsch, W., Die deutsche Besetzung von Daenemark und Norwegen, 1940, Goettingen: Musterschmidt, 1952

  Hofer, W., Die Entfesselung des zweiten Weltkrieges, Frankfurt: Fischer, 1960

  Hollingworth, C., The Three Weeks’ War in Poland, London: Dyckworth, 1940

  Howarth, D., The Shetland Bus, London: Longmans, Green, 1953

  Howarth, P. (ed.), Special Operations, London: Routledge & Paul, 1955

  Hull, C., Memoirs, 2 vols., New York: Macmillan, 1948

  Ignatov, P. K., Partisans of Kuban, London: Hutchinson, 1945

  Ind, A., Allied Intelligence Bureau. Our Secret Weapon in the War Against Japan, New York: McKay, 1958

  Jacobsen, H.-A., Der zweite Weltkrieg in Chronik und Dokumenten, Darmstadt: Wehr und Wissen, 1960

  James, C., I Was Monty’s Double, London: Rider, 1954

  Jong, L. D., Civil Resistance in the Netherlands, Amsterdam: Rijksinstituut voor Oorlogsdocumentatie, 1950

  Jong, L. D., The German Fifth Column in the Second World War, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1956

  Jowitt, Lord, Some Were Spies, London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1954

  Kompani Linge, 2 vols., Oslo: Gyldendal, 1948

  Koop, T. F., Weapon of Silence, Chicago: Chicago University Press, 1946

  Kordt, E., Wahn und Wirklichkeit, Stuttgart: DVG, 1947

  Kordt, E., Nicht aus den Akten, Stuttgart: DVG, 1950

  Kovpak, S. A., Our Partisan Course, London: Hutchinson, 1947

  Lampe, D., The Savage Canary, London: Cassell, 1957

  Leverkuehn, P., Der geheime Nachrichtendienst der deutschen Wehrmacht im Kriege, Frankfurt: Bernard & Graefe, 1957

  Lockhart, R. H. B., Comes the Reckoning, London: Putnam, 1948

  Loeff, W., Spionage. Aus den Papieren eines Abwehr-Offiziers, Stuttgart: Rigler, 1950

  Lonsdale Bryans, J., Blind Victory, London: Skeffington, 1951

  MacDonald, E. P., Undercover Girl, New York: Macmillan, 1947

  Maclean, F., Eastern Approaches, London: Cape, 1949

  Marshall, B., The White Rabbit, London: Evans, 1952

  Mashbir, S., I Was an American Spy, New York: Vantage Press, 1953

  Maskelyne, J., Magic—Top Secret, London: Stanley Paul, 1949

  Maugeri, F., From the Ashes of Disgrace, New York: Reynal & Hitchcock, 1948

  Michel, H., Histoire de la Résistance, Paris: Comité d’Histoire de la Deuxième Guerre Mondiale, 1946

  Miksche, F. O., Secret Forces, London: Faber & Faber, 1950

  Montagu, E., The Man Who Never Was, London: Evans, 1953

  Moorehead, A., The Traitors, New York: Scribner’s, 1952

  Morgan, W. J., The OSS and I, New York: Norton, 1957

  Mosley, L. O., The Cat and the Mice, London: Barker, 1958

  Moyzisch, L. C., Der Fall Cicero, Heidelberg: Palladium, 1950

  Neuhaeusler, J., Kreuz und Hakenkreuz, Muenchen: Verlag der Katholischen Kirche Bayerns, 1946

  O’Callaghan, S., The Jackboot in Ireland, London: Wingate, 1958

  Passy, Colonel (pseudonym of André Dewawrin), Souvenirs, 2 vols., Paris: Raoul Solar, 1948

  Pechel, R., Deutscher Widerstand, Erlenbach-Zuerich : Rentsch, 1947

  Picker, H. (ed.), Hitlers Tischgespraeche im Fuehrerhauptquartier, 1941–42, Bonn: Athenaeum, 1951

  Pinto, O., Spy-Catcher, New York: Harper, 1952

  Pinto, O., Friend or Foe?, New York: Putnam, 1954

  Pitt, R., The Courage of Fear, London: Jarrolds, 1957

  Polish Ministry of Information, The German Fifth Column in Poland, London: Hutchinson, 1941

  Ponomarenko, P. K., Guerilla Warfare in the Occupied Parts of the Soviet Union, Moscow, 1945

  Psychoundakis, G., The Cretan Runner, London: Murray, 1955

  Rachlis, E., They Came to Kill. The True Story of Eight Nazi Saboteurs in America, New York: Random House, 1961

  Redelis, V., Partisanenkrieg. Entstehung und Bekaempfung der Partisanen und Untergrundbewegung in Mittelabschnitt der Ostfront, 1941–43, Heidelberg: Vowinckel, 1958

  Renault-Roulier, G., Profil d’un espion, Paris: Plon, 1953

  Rendel, A. M., Appointment in Crete. The Story of a British Agent, London: Wingate, 1953

  Rothfels, H., Die deutsche Opposition gegen Hitler, Frankfurt: Fischer,1958

  Royce, H. (with Zimmermann, E., and Jacobsen, H.-A.), 20. Juli 1944, Bonn: Berto-Verlag, 1960

  Saunders, H. S. St. G.
, The Green Beret, London: Joseph, 1950

  Schellenberg, W., Memoiren, Koeln: Verlag fuer Politik und Wirtschaft, 1959

  Schlabrendorff, F. v., Offiziere gegen Hitler, Frankfurt: Fischer, 1959

  Schreider, J., Das war das Englandspiel, Muenchen: Stutz, 1950

  Schultze-Holthus, N., Fruehrot in Iran. Abenteuer im deutschen Geheimdienst, Esslingen: Bechtle, 1952

  Schwarzwalder, J., We Caught Spies, New York: Duell, Sloan & Pearce, 1946

  Seth, R., The Undaunted. The Story of Resistance in Western Europe, New York: Philosophical Library, 1956

  Seth, R., Secret Servants, New York: Farrar, Straus & Cudahy, 1957

  Sillitoe, Sir Percy, Cloak Without Dagger, New York: Abelard-Schuman, 1955

  Sinevirskii, N., Smersh, New York: Holt, 1950

  Smith, N. (with Blake Clark), Into Siam, Underground Kingdom, Indianapolis: Bobbs-Merrill, 1946

  Sturani, L., Antologia della resistenza, Torino: Centro, 1951

  Thorwald, J., Wen sie verderben wollen, Stuttgart: Steingrueben, 1952

  Thorwald, J., Die Ungeklarten Faelle, Stuttgart: Steingrueben, 1950

  Thorwald, J., Der Fall Pastorius, Stuttgart: Steingrueben, 1953

  Tickell, J., Odette. The Story of a British Agent, London: Chapman & Hall, 1949

  Tickell, J., Moon Squadron, London: Wingate, 1956

  Trabucchi, A., I vinto hanno sempre torto, Torino: DeSilva, 1947

  Vinogradskaya, Y. A., A Woman Behind the German Lines, London, 1944

  Wehner, W., Geheim. Ein Dokumentarbericht ueber die deutschen Geheimdienste, Muenchen: Suddeutscher Verlag, 1960

  Weisenborn, G., Der lautlose Aufstand, Hamburg: Rowohlt, 1953

  West, R., The Meaning of Treason, New York: Viking, 1947

  White, J. B., The Big Lie, London: Evans, 1956

  White, L., The Long Balkan Night, New York: Scribner, 1944

  Whitehead, D., The FBI Story, New York: Random House, 1956

  Wighton, C. (with Peis, G.), Hitler’s Spies and Saboteurs. Based on the German Secret Service Diary of General Lahousen, London: Odhams, 1958

  Willoughby, C. A., Shanghai Conspiracy, New York: Dutton, 1952

  Woodhouse, C. M., Apple of Discord, London: Hutchinson, 1948