Conant - The irregulars: Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in wartime Washington

Conant, Jennet

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ROALD DAHL

AND THE BRITISH SPY RING IN WARTIME WASHINGTON

JENNETCONANT

AUTHOR OF TUXEDO PARK

U.S. $27.95

Can. $32.00

w

hen Roald Dahl, a dashing young wounded RAF pilot, took up his post at the British Embassy in Washington in

1942, his assignment was to use his good looks, wit, and considerable charm to gain access to the most powerful figures in American political life. A patriot eager to do his part to save his country from a Nazi invasion, he invaded the upper reaches of the U.S. government and Georgetown society, winning over First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and her husband, Franklin; befriending wartime leaders from Henry Wallace to Henry Morgenthau; and seducing the glamorous freshman congresswoman Clare Boothe Luce.

Dahl would soon be caught up in a complex web of deception masterminded by William Stephenson, aka Intrepid, Churchills legendary spy chief, who, with President Roosevelts tacit permission, mounted a secret campaign of propaganda and political subversion to weaken American isolationist forces, bring the country into the war against Germany, and influence U.S. policy in favor of England. Known as the British Security Coordination (BSC)though the initiated preferred to think of themselves as the Baker Street Irregulars in honor of the amateurs who aided Sherlock Holmes these audacious agents planted British propaganda in American newspapers and radio programs, covertly influenced leading journalistsincluding Drew Pearson, Walter Winchell, and Walter Lippmannharassed prominent isolationists and anti-New Dealers, and plotted against American corporations that did business with the Third Reich.

In an account better than spy fiction, Jennet Conant shows Dahl progressing from reluctant diplomat to sly man-about-town, parlaying his morale-boosting wartime propaganda work into a successful career as an author, which leads to his entree into the Roosevelt

(continued on back flap)

CEDAR MILL LIBRARY

ALSO BY JENNET CONANT

109 East Palace:

Robert Oppenheimer and the Secret City of Los Alamos

Tuxedo Park:

A Wall Street Tycoon and the Secret Palace of Science That Changed the Course of World War II

-the

Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington

SIMON & SCHUSTER

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SIMON & SCHUSTER 1230 Avenue of the Americas New York, NY 10020

Copyright 2008 by Jennet Conant

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever. For information address Simon & Schuster Subsidiary Rights Department, 1230 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020.

First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition September 2008

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For information about special discounts for bulk purchases, please contact Simon & Schuster Special Sales at 1-800-456-6798 or business@simonandschuster.com.

Designed by Dana Sloan

Manufactured in the United States of America

10 987654321

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Conant, Jennet.

The irregulars : Roald Dahl and the British spy ring in wartime Washington / Jennet Conant.

p. cm.

Includes index.

L Dahl, RoaldCareer in espionage. 2. Great Britain. British Security Coordination. 3. World War, 1939-1945Secret serviceBritain. 4. World War, 1939-1945Secret serviceUnited States 5.World War, 1939-1945Propaganda. 6. Propaganda, British United States. I. Title.

D810.S8D234 2008 940.54'86410973dc22

ISBN-13: 978-0-7432-9458-4 ISBN-10: 0-7432-9458-0

Great

2008012483

For my boys

"No, its not quite so bad as that. Its the unofficial force the Baker Street irregulars....

They can go everywhere, see everything, overhear every one.

Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sign of the Four

Say from whence you owe this strange intelligence....

Macbeth I, iii

'

Preface