The Valkyrie Option

by Markus Reichardt

  November 5th

  New York

  Another who received word of the German documents was Einstein. A friend delivered a note outlining what the Germans had done and containing some samples. Einstein never asked what motivated this friend, a fellow physicist. For weeks following the 20th of July, Einstein had agonised over his position. Over the past three years, he had become very anti-German, more so than most émigré German-Jewish scientists. But within a few weeks of studying the proclamations of the new Berlin regime and watching its actions on the military front, the pacifist in him resurged. The Goerdeler Government wanted peace and as soon as possible, clearly there were terms but critically for Einstein they had committed themselves upfront to a prosecution of those who had committed crime sunder Hitler’s rule. He had vacillated but the papers he was shown were the final piece of the puzzle. Despite his unquestionable grasp of a broad range of military technology, the Prof, had not been able to assess everything major project in the German secret weapons file. Discreet queries and notes had therefore been briefly circulated for evaluation and among these men were German émigrés who shared Einstein’s pacifist leaning and who recognized the source of such unique concepts as the Horten flying wing. A few discreet enquiries were made and very soon it had become clear just how scientifically significant the German file was. More than that, von Trott had inadvertently chanced upon the one thing scientists valued more than anything else as a yardstick of integrity – the willingness to share information. Thus were the credentials of the new regime created for Einstein.[91]

  A brief but clear private letter went to the White House – in it Einstein asserted that the time for peace had come; that through a magnanimous gesture now America could assert moral superiority in the post-war world. Hitler was gone, there was no longer a danger of a German nuclear weapon. In fact, America’s possession of one would be speeded up due to the German disclosures. Although Einstein was not privy to the American nuclear bomb development project, he knew enough to understand that it existed and was being pursued on a grand scale. The letter ended reminding Roosevelt that a leader like Hitler was evil, but an entire people were not.

  “Horseshit!” FDR crumpled the letter in his hand and sent it soaring across the room. “Put that in the bin” he hissed at Hopkins who happened to be present. The President’s back was giving him grief, he was frustrated by the uncertainties of the upcoming election and British cosying up to the new crowd in Berlin. “It’s time to remind that crazy German nut who gave him sanctuary in time of need. Now he just reverts to being a bloody German. They are a militarist nation!” The President’s tone booked no dissent.

  Harry Hopkins retrieved the letter and noticed something FDR had not: the reference to the German secret weapons designs he did not recall the British mentioning. He decided that this was something to quietly pursue through his direct link to Churchill before going any further.

  Two days later Einstein received a visit from two friendly FBI agents who told him that the President had received his letter but who also reminded him of the various laws in place to protect the security of projects critical to the war effort. The open discussion of such secrets in a letter – even to the President – was not to be encouraged. It wasn’t much but it had been the best that Hoover’s lawyers had been able to come up with on short notice. And it backfired spectacularly. A few days later Einstein’s letter to FDR – minus any comments relating to nuclear or any other weapons – ran as part of an interview in the New York Times. Meanwhile Hopkins brought the president news of the German secret weapons designs to whose existence Churchill had coyly owned up on the telephone, but which was still at least a long way away from being accessible to American experts, as someone had left the file in an attaché case at the British Embassy in Washington. Together these events brought on a genuine, though light heart attack in the White House. As news of them also seeped through the upper echelons of the US military the first seeds of serious anti-British feeling took root in Washington.

  Without knowing it the Germans had struck at the heart of some significant commercial interests in corporate America who had hoped to profit from the war and whose links reached into every aspect of the Roosevelt administration. Just as the news of the German secret weapons file being held back by the British seeped through the corridors along the Mall, the US Joint Chiefs of Staff had established a Technical Industrial Intelligence Committee to seek out anything in Germany that might be useful to the post-war US economy. The Joint Chief’s list did not just comprise military objectives. Rather the objective was to recover in the form of patents, technologies or processes anything that would give the US post-war economy commercial advantages vis-à-vis its competitors, even the right to fly certain European routes had been added to that list. For that purpose the interests of 17 of the country’s largest corporations were represented by specially trained civilians who were to have accompanied the troops into the defeated Germany. The very purpose of this effort and the potential post-war benefits were largely negated by what the Germans had handed to the British. It also laid bare the sham that CIOS, the Anglo-US reporting channel and assessment office for German high-technology had become. The real US technology plunder operation had been organised before and separately. The reality that America had never had any intention to share was irrelevant, it was the British who had withheld and been caught at it first.[92] The groundswell anger over frustrated plunder reached the Presidency within days. It was yet another one of those many smaller issues that whittled away at the special relationship both Roosevelt and Churchill claimed they shared. It was also something that influenced quite a few high-powered Americans in their voting two days later.

  There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag.

  Theodore Roosevelt, final message to the nation

  Western civilization … depends on repelling the Mongol and Persian and Moor. … on a united strength among ourselves; on a strength too great for foreign armies to challenge; on a Western Wall of race and arms which can hold back either a Genghis Khan or an infiltration of inferior blood.

  Charles A Lindbergh

  11:15 pm November 7th 1944

  The Roosevelt Mansion Hyde Park, New York State

  It was election night and FDR’s nerves were ready to snap. Henry Morgenthau and Eleanor had taken their usual places among his aides, relatives and neighbours to receive the election results in the Big House. Outwardly the President showed little emotion chatting away to various guests about banalities and taking the odd phone call while sitting at the dining table. Then guests were shunted into the long dark-panelled library while FDR and some aides, among them the ever faithful Harry Hopkins, sat down in his mother’s old dining room and began to compute election returns, leaving Eleanor busy dishing out cider and doughnuts among the guests as the results came dribbling in from across the country. The election would be close, much closer than he had thought when he decided to run again. Damn things had really gotten out of hand since August. Things had gone astray when Hitler had died in Berlin. Ever since then the new crowd in Berlin had conveniently decided to acquire a serious case of amnesia concerning their participation in what had gone before and started singing about peace and anti-Russian crusades. And Europe was falling for it. At least the British and the Poles. Churchill had not said as much but this was old fashioned European power politics, the kind the United Nations would expunge in his new world order. The French would always go their own way anyway but that even some of the smaller nations were making positive noises about making a deal with Berlin, rankled the American President. Hell, even his own people had been buying some of it, especially the recent immigrants who still emotionally too tied to their countries of origin to be true Americans. And then the damn Catholics. He still remembered LaGuardia’s carefully worded concerns. He had hated the man for it but there was no way
that he could afford to lose his home state and the man had held the keys to it in his hand. La Guardia had quietly but firmly demanded and gotten some ironclad guarantees; guarantees which FDR was not sure he could wriggle out of again. Already he had been forced to say things to Joe Stalin, in letters that he would rather have not. At least he been able to let Churchill do most of the delivery of bad news to Moscow.

  A call from Alabama broke his train of thought, on the pieces of paper he saw some numbers that were below expectations. Damn this was getting tight. More states were going to the Republicans and the reason was simple, even though they proclaimed themselves Americans more than 25 million citizens had close personal ties to countries in Eastern Europe, countries that didn’t matter a damn in the greater scheme of things as far as Roosevelt was concerned, but places that the Germans and their propaganda machine had convinced most of these recent arrivals, were in danger of falling under the Soviet yoke. Roosevelt had once joked about this issue to Stalin, now he deeply regretted the flippant comment. Hamtranck, a residential suburb of Detroit inhabited chiefly by autoworkers and their families would normally have been a Democratic stronghold. But as it also contained one of the largest Polish émigré populations outside of Warsaw, only a small minority voted Democrats this time. While the President fumed his aristocratic approach and ignorance of European history denied him the ability to see the basic forces at work among his voters. Until then he had not believed this possible. Indeed he had once dismissed the ethnicity question in the US to Stalin and Churchill with the words: ‘The five or six million Poles in America are mostly of the second generation. He therefore thought he could afford a distant view to the polish question.’ Well he had been wrong.

  What it had also done was push his stress levels up and with that the concern of his personal physician about his declining health. There had been another light heart attack – hushed up of course – on October 29th.

  What did it matter, he consoled himself, the key would be that the United Nations would be created. They would run the new world order. An order in which the big powers Russia and the USA would police the world, rid it of colonialism and eventually bring democracy of some form to every corner of the globe. The system needed to be put in place, of course there would initially be imperfections. It was his vision and he relished it. But the politician in him also realised how badly he had miscalculated. There were millions of Americans and millions of them Democratic voters to whom these places in Eastern Europe meant more than party loyalty. Their ethnic and, yes their religious links, had been stronger than he had ever imagined. If you believed in nothing but yourself then understanding the beliefs of others would always be more difficult. It was something he had to admit it he had got wrong. When La Guardia had phoned and spelt things out with regards to the Vatican’s message, rage had welled up in him. He remembered it clearly, a passion as fierce as he had not known it in a while. On his own the New York power broker could have been dealt with tried and tested methods; a few soothing words, some vague public utterances. But La Guardia’s comments had followed hot on the heels of a series of deputations from Hungarian-Americans, Finnish-Americans, and Eleanor’s pacifists who seemed to suddenly have acquired a new lease on life as the old isolationist Charles Lindbergh, the aviation hero suddenly took to touring and making speeches again. Even the damn Polish-American League had pestered him. Many of them had not couched their wishes as suggestions, most in fact had made it clear that their votes could not be taken for granted. Then there had been that miserable letter from Einstein, who had shown himself to be a German after all. The letter published in the NY Times had really hurt him in New York and some key university districts. FDR had not lost control of the Democrat party machine but he had come very close, with a few of the key party chiefs baying for his blood. Now here he was sitting powerless, waiting for the people to decide. ‘Damn I deserve better, my vision deserves better.’

  ‘I agree Mr President’ Harry Hopkins, grimaced at him. He had not realised he had spoken aloud. ‘The thing is many out there forget that we dragged them out of the misery and unemployment. Democracy has almost no memory.’ Harry Hopkins was sick and should not have been there, but ever the faithful retainer, he was.

  ‘Damn right, Harry’ the President snorted, quietly he added,’ just ethnic and religious baggage.’

  Hopkins had been instrumental in squashing the release of that miserable Polish propaganda movie about the squabbles among the Polish factions and the killing of Polish airmen in British uniforms by the Russians. But the story had made the rounds and there were, as FDR had discovered a great many Americans who could claim Polish ancestry; just as there were quite a few who claimed German ancestors. And many too many of them this suddenly seemed to matter. That and the anti-communist bandwagon that Dewey had hauled out of an old stable. It was going to be too close for comfort or for business as usual. Even before the results were finally announced Roosevelt knew he would have to make concessions on military strategy and policy to salvage the United Nations, if he was to salvage it at all. He could feel the anger poisoning his body.

  ‘But once that’s home and safe, I’ll pay those sons of bitches back.’ Roosevelt had never expected much other than opposition from organized business but what had really hurt was their financial support for the Republicans. Now frustrated by the Germans gift to the British from reaping a rich harvest of techno-plunder, they had deserted him even more overtly than anticipated. With Stalin having shown his hand in such a heavy-handed way, big business had come out clearly in favour of an anti-Soviet, capitalist Europe and openly lambasted some of FDR’s policies towards Moscow, and suddenly their anti-communist theme had struck an old American nativist nerve once more. However, no-one in the Democratic camp, least of all FDR, had imagined that companies such as Standard Oil, Sterling products, Ford, ITT, Du Pont, GM and the Davis Oil company would have dug so deeply into their pockets to unseat him. There had been rumours that not all the money that blue-chip names such as GM, Standard Oil and Ford gave to the Republicans had been their own money but no-one had been able to prove anything to the contrary. Having once taken Standard Oil’s money himself there was little the President had been able to do.[93] Calling attention to his party’s sources of funding, past and present was a hornet’s nest he had no intention of stirring.

  The final tally was close, so close that it almost was a draw; The President carried thirty-three states and received 24 041 02 votes to Dewey’s 23 665 285.[94] The next day the New York Times observed that “Franklin D Roosevelt has been re-elected because to many Americans this is still a war year and they felt we needed a war President. But an almost equal number either felt that the Republican Party either offered them a satisfactory substitute for Mr Roosevelt’s experience in foreign policy and military affairs, especially in Europe, or felt that this was no longer the kind of war the President of the United States should be pursuing. It is clear that not all believe that Mr Roosevelt’s path to a lasting peace is the best and only one. “[95] What the New York Times and other media did not dare state directly was the extent to which the anti-Bolshevik card had worked for the Republicans; subsequent research would suggest that nearly one and a quarter million Americans of Eastern European descent, Catholic denomination and general anti-communist persuasion, who had voted Democrat for at least the last 2-3 elections had not just stayed at home but voted Republican. Another quarter of a million had stayed at home. Even FDR dropping his vice – president, the rabid New Dealer, and open admirer of Stalin, Wallace, in favour of the safe Missouri senator Harry Truman had not stemmed that flow. The New York Times itself had run the story that at the Democratic Party Convention, FDR had told people to clear Truman’s nomination with labour leader Sydney Hillman who was closely linked to a pro-Soviet Earl Bowder. The President checking his running mate with a Communist created a field-day for Dewey.

  The post-election weeks were tense ones for Roosevelt as he sought to preserve the substance of
his policy in the face of the various compromises he had to agree to keep the White House. There were rumours, though never proven either way of another light heart attack in the third week of November.

  Chapter 10

  8pm, November 8th

  The Kremlin

  The last two reports had been no better but they had come to the end of their interrogation simply because the two prisoners had finally died. There was no avoiding it, the two were Russians, their identity as previous members of the Red Army captured in late 1941 and mid 1942 had been established beyond doubt. Relatives had identified them from photos, and their own story and knowledge matched up. The men were traitors and they had died as traitors screaming in agony as the life was wrung out of them in the dungeon of the Lubyanka. But they had stuck to their story about ROA. Stalin re-read the details but there was no avoiding them. An army of Russians fighting on the German side under a former member of the Party. Stalin who prided himself on his memory could not recall the face but the name was familiar: Vlasov. The numbers were the real worry, according the two prisoners about 30 000 men had already been recruited to fight for a non-Communist alternative for Russia. They claimed that another 30 000 were on their way. One of them had volunteered that Vlasov had told the troops that the Wehrmacht had authorised the establishment of up to half a million men under ROA command. Technically this was possible since still more than 3 million Russians were German prisoners of war. This was not a number that decided wars, but it was a big number a number big enough to influence politics, to present a credible alternative. If something closer to a million started donning the traitors uniform… He shuddered inwardly.