THE WIDE WIDE SEA: IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, FIRST CONTACT AND THE FATEFUL FINAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK by Hampton Sides

November 3, 2024szfreiberger Biography, British History, Maritime History Leave a comment

(Captain James Cook)

One of the most important questions in evaluating the men that made up the Age of Exploration rests on their motivation. Were they driven by visions of wealth or conquest as most were or was it the desire to map the 18^th century world for future generations? For the explorer, James Cook, it is in both categories. In Hampton Sides latest work, THE WIDE WIDE SEA: IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, FIRST CONTACT AND THE FATEFUL FINAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK, the author argues that Cook was a map maker and explorer, not a conqueror or colonizer. A number of historians would dispute Side’s arguments, but it is clear that the worst elements of colonization manifested themselves after Cook’s death.

For many, Cook has become the “Columbus of the Pacific,” something Sides has difficulty accepting. The author argues in his introduction that after providing information about Cook’s earlier voyages he would focus on his third and last expedition presenting the Captain’s goals and assumptions in all their flawed complexity. Sides’ monograph is not one of hagiography as he does not attempt to lionize or demonize his subject. The goal was to describe “what transpired during his consequential, ambitious, and ultimately final voyage.”

HMS Endeavour: a replica of the research vessel on which James Cook sailed to Australia and New Zealand on his first voyage of discovery from 1768 to 1771 | Photo: Shutterstock

(HMS Resolution)

It is clear that the credit that Cook earned in discovering certain geographical areas is mistaken as lands that figured into Cook’s drama were founded or settled earlier by other explorers like the ancient Polynesian wayfarers or Spanish sailors. It is probably more accurate to argue that Cook and fellow seamen were merely visitors to the areas he is given credit for locating, not the discoverer of those regions. As with all of his books, THE WIDE WIDE SEA is heavily researched, based on logs and journals prepared by Cook and other expedition participants, in addition to oral histories similar in his approach in previous books like; HELLHOUND ON HIS TRAIL, BLOOD AND THUNDER, AND IN THE KINGDOM OF ICE and others. He has produced a fast paced adventure story that takes place on the high seas and is an important examination of the complexities and impact of the Age of Discovery.

Cook’s voyages can be described as one of cultural clashes as he and his crew came upon Polynesians, Inuit tribes, Alaskan natives, and other indigenous peoples. In coming in contact with indigenous peoples many misunderstandings occurred as the concept of private property held by Europeans conflicted with the idea of communal sharing held by native peoples. Unfortunately, what one group saw as sharing in communal fashion, the other saw as theft which at times resulted in violent punishment.

Sides begins his story with a character portrayal of Cook who is described as adopting Quaker values from his training – temperance, frugality, modesty, truthfulness, and a ferocious work ethic and a disdain for arrogance and ostentation, all features of his personality that appear throughout the book. He was very direct and always strove for simplicity. Interestingly Sides points out that we know little of his emotional world despite the many journals little of it shines through. “There were depths, but the soundings were few…. he was describes as a navigational machine.” Sides goes on to describe Cook’s approach to navigation and command allowing the reader to feel they have gotten to know him somewhat – which is useful in gaining an understanding of his decision making and behavior. He was far from being romantic, if he was anything it was as a professional map maker with little regard for sentiment as he tried to make sailing a science. Cook was an unassuming man who was “respectful of local people and kept his ear attuned to what had come before.”

Bay of Karakakooa at Owhyee Bay of Karakakooa at Owhyee, or Hawaii, where Captain James Cook was killed. 1873 james cook stock illustrations

Overall Cook’s interaction with indigenous people were peaceful, but there were exceptions. One in particular was extremely egregious as he was intolerant of theft. He easily got along with native leaders and fostered trade with any tribe or group he came in contact with, however, if stealing was involved he became a different person and unleashed extreme punishments as was the case when a sextant was stolen on one of the Tahitian islands. During Cook’s first two voyages he exhibited a high degree of tolerance of native populations and his own crew. However, he seemed to change as the third voyage evolved, shocking his men.

One of the highlights of Sides’ commentary is his anthropological summations of the areas that Cook visited. The description is a sailing itinerary that highlights the natives, their lifestyle, how they interacted with their crew, the types of flora and fauna, animals and other important items he came in contact with. The sailing part is most interesting as Sides described the hazards and difficulties that Cook, and his crew confronted. First and foremost were the many leaks that the HMS Resolution suffered. It was obvious that the construction of the ship lacked quality and there was constant need to repair leaks. Weather obviously was a challenge with high seas, extreme wind, fog, rocky coastlines, underwater obstacles, etc. But even though Cook exhibited less leniency and patience he still maintained the respect of his crew for the most part.

Of the many characters that Sides introduces perhaps the most important was Mai, a native of Raiatea, a volcanic island 130 miles northwest of Tahiti who earlier was brought to England by Captain Tobias Fornaux of the HMS Adventure. Mai had his own agenda for requesting passage to England dealing with the Bora Borans, the enemy of his people. Aside from those details, Mai’s presence allows Sides to explore the Tahitian culture and social system. Cook viewed Mai favorably but at times frowned upon his obsessions flaunting the wealth he acquired in London, and his decision making. When the Admiralty decided Mai must return home Cook was given the charge to transport him and leave him in Tahiti during his voyage. The Cook-Mai connection provides insights into the behavior of indigenous people and what motivated them. Sides employs Mai as a beacon to describe the first two years of the voyage. His language skills, planting, hunting talents, navigation mastery contribute to Cook’s early success and knowledge of native culture. Once Mai left the expedition he would not live long, dying at age twenty-seven, and in the end was known as “the gentle savage.”

(Steel engraving death of Captain James Cook on 14 February 1779 on Hawaii)

Other characters are dealt with in depth including William Bligh, who Cook respected throughout the voyage. Bligh would gain greater notoriety as the Captain of the HMS Bounty, which suffered a mutiny which became the subject of a fascinating novel written in 1932 by Charles Nordhoff and James Norman Hall. Another important character was William Anderson, a surgeon whose curiosity would benefit mankind. Captain Charles Clerke, Cook’s friend who led the HMS Resolution as part of the expedition. John Ledyard, a Connecticut American who attended Dartmouth and had previously sailed to Gibraltar and the Barbary coast before being impressed into the British navy. His written descriptions appear throughout the book and are a treasure to read as were the perceptive writings of Lieutenant John King, who would become Cook’s right hand man as they reached Hawaii after traveling down from the Arctic Circle. King’s relationship with Cook was important as he became his sounding board as he was well read and a natural diplomat.

A key theme Sides develops centers around Cook’s instructions from the Admiralty which stressed the goal of locating the Northwest Passage across the top of North America. Repeatedly Cook’s decisions were loyal to the Admiralty, though he did veer away from the overall plan periodically. A major example is his exploration of the Alaskan coast, the Bering Sea as he made his way to the Arctic. Once there he realized that the ice was so extensive at that time of year that it could not be penetrated. He decided to sail south and return during a warmer season lengthening time frame. But as he made decisions, his instructions were his foremost concern. The key to the expedition was to expand European power and would assist in laying the basis of later colonization even if that were not Cook’s personal goal. Cook was an explorer-scientist, not an imperialist.

As the monograph evolves, Sides pays particular attention to explorers who came before Cook. Credit is given to Spanish explorers and their findings, as is the work of George Vancouver who was part of Cook’s crew, who fourteen years later discovered the city and islands that bear his name, but as far as the Russians were concerned their expeditions produced inaccurate maps that Cook had to correct as he transversed the coastline of Alaska. Sides also stressed the role of the American revolution which was occurring simultaneously and its impact on Cook’s expedition.

(James Cook’s three Pacific voyages).

Cook’s personal decline leading to moral collapse by the third year of the voyage is a matter of debate among historians. But one can never discount his journals and ship logs, which dedicate hundreds of thousands of words to oceanic data as Cook was a “navigational machine.” Cook’s death is shrouded in violence as he revisited Hawaii on his return voyage. As Doug Bock Clark points out in his New York Times review entitled “Capt. Cook’s final voyage to the Pacific islands gets a close examination,” June 9, 2024, p. 22 ; “ In the end, Mai got his guns home and shot his enemies, and the Hawaiians eventually realized that Cook was not a god. After straining their resources to outfit his ships, Cook tried to kidnap the king of Hawaii to force the return of a stolen boat. A confrontation ensued and the explorer was clubbed and stabbed to death, perhaps with a dagger made of a swordfish bill.

The British massacred many Hawaiians with firearms, put heads on poles and burned homes. Once accounts of these exploits reached England, they were multiplied by printing presses and spread across their world-spanning empire. The Hawaiians committed their losses to memory. And though the newest version of Cook’s story includes theirs, it’s still Cook’s story that we are retelling with each new age.”

(Captain James Cook)

THE SIEGE: A SIX DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS AND THE DARING SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD by Ben Macintyre

October 24, 2024szfreiberger Adventure, British History Leave a comment

Getty Images A hostage scrambles to safety (On 30 April 1980 six gunmen took over the Iranian embassy in Kensington. The siege ended when the SAS stormed the building.)

If one thinks about events that took place in 1980 two hostage situations should come to mind. The first and more prominent was the seizure of the American Embassy in Tehran by Islamic radicals imprisoning 52 Americans for over a year. The second took place in London months later as Iranian Arabists seized the Iranian embassy and took 26 hostages for six days until they were freed. The first event in Tehran took place following the overthrow of the Pahlavi Dynasty as part of the Islamic Revolution that brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power who instituted an extreme Islamic regime. The hostage crisis was very impactful for the 1980 Presidential election as President Jimmy Carter’s failure to bring home the hostages, despite a valiant rescue attempt that failed, contributed greatly to his defeat by Ronald Reagan. Meanwhile across the Atlantic, the lesser known hostage situation was evolving as six heavily armed gunmen stormed the Iranian Embassy as a means of gaining support against the new Iranian government who were persecuting the Iranian Arab ethnic minority in Khuzestan, Iran.

Both crises produced rescue missions, the first by the United States, Operation Eagle Claw approved by President Carter failed as technical difficulties resulted in a disaster in the Iranian desert. The second was conducted by British Special Forces (SAS) and was deemed successful. Many accounts of the American hostage crisis and failed rescue mission have been written, but until now the accounts of events in London have remained largely negligible. The narrative description, analysis, and character studies associated with the London crisis has been filled by Ben Macintyre’s latest effort; THE SIEGE: A SIX DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS AND THE DARING SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD.

Brendan Monks/Daily Mirror/Mirrorpix/Getty Images Pc Trevor Lock (One of the 26 hostages was PC Trevor Lock, of the diplomatic protection squad, who was standing guard outside the embassy. He can be seen here talking with police negotiators from an upstairs window.)

Macintyre’s new book is his latest success after having written more than a dozen acclaimed books about war and espionage, including volumes on British Spy Kim Philby, the Nazi POW camp Colditz, the preparations for D-Day, and an account describing how Oleg Gordievsky the Russian spy helped bring the Cold War to a conclusion. As is the case with all of his books, Macintyre latest is highlighted by a taut and engrossing story that is deeply researched that will draw in the reader’s attention as it seems to flow like a novel, but in reality is a work of historical non-fiction. For Macintyre, the key to the narrative is that “no one knows how they will respond to lethal jeopardy, until they have to.”

Macintyre comes to a number of important conclusions as he develops his monograph. He sees the crisis as a turning point in the relationship between breaking news and the viewing public as he describes how media outlets responded to the hostage situation. Second he argues that this was a pivotal moment in the public history of Britain’s secretive SAS (Special Air Service). Lastly, it was an early test for the new government of Margaret Thatcher, whose response to the crisis would reaffirm her reputation as the “Iron Lady.”

The seizure of the embassy stemmed from the treatment of the Arab minority in Iran under the reign of the Shah as well as the Khomeini government. Originally when the Islamic Republic was founded it promised to recognize Arabistan’s autonomy and the rights of its people. Almost immediately it changed its approach and clamped down on its Arab population just as the Shah had as oil rich Khuzestan drove policy. Further complicating the situation was the role of Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein who saw an opportunity to exacerbate relations with the new Iranian regime and take advantage of the situation as he saw Iran’s aggressive new theocracy as a threat to his power and ambitions. Khuzestan was an easy and cheap way to undermine the Khomeini regime and destabilize Iran.

Macintyre clearly explains the demands of the hostage takers – their motivations, and how their actions had major implications for the Middle East. When Republican Guards engaged in violence and death against Arab demonstrators it spurred on a small group led by Towfiq Ibrahim al-Rashidi, also referred to as Salim whose brother was tortured and executed by Republican Guards.

PA Media SAS enter the building (The SAS went in barely 20 minutes after the command was issued – their assault relayed by TV cameras trained on the embassy. In 15 minutes it was all over.)

Throughout the narrative Macintyre integrates the ongoing American crisis in Tehran stressing the Thatcher government’s concerns after the American rescue attempt to free its hostages was a failure – she would refuse to provide victory for the Khomeini regime at any cost. There was no way she would allow the terrorists to walk free. Macintyre also stresses the mindset of the hostages. Their fears are paramount, but the author also describes how Stockholm and Lima syndrome emerge amongst the hostages as some developed a certain empathy for the terrorist’s themselves. The strategies pursued by government negotiators is on full display as is SAS planning for any eventuality during the crisis.

Interestingly Towfiq and his cohorts were not trained terrorists as improvisation best describes their behavior as their strategy did not play out as they had hoped. Their behavior during the crisis was not consistent, particularly Towfiq who was hard to read. Sometimes calm, but at the next “moment polite and apologetic, then suddenly aggressive; in one breadth threatening to kill many innocent people, and in the next describing himself as a benevolent humanitarian.”

There are many important characters that emerge throughout. Obviously Towfiq and his accomplices, but others stand out. John Albert Dillon, the chief troubleshooter for Scotland Yard; Fred Luff the main government negotiator; Chris Cramer, a BBC producer, Simeon Harris, a BBC sound engineer, and Major Hector Gullen; the Commander of B Squadron – the standing counter-terrorist force; Professor Peter Gunn, a psychiatrist at Maudsley Psychiatric Hospital and a leading authority on the terrorist mind; and a number of other government officials and personalities. Among the hostage’s Syrian journalist Mustapha Karkouti stands out as does Seyyed Abbas Lauasani, the Republican Guard spy who served in the embassy; Dr. Gholam-Ali Afrouz, the Iranian ambassador to Britain; Roya Kaghachi , the secretary to the ambassador; Trevor James Lock, the police constable who guarded the embassy; and Ron Morris, the embassy majordomo. Macintyre provides brief biographical sketches of all the main participants and the reader acquires intimate knowledge of their backgrounds which impact their behavior during the crisis.

(Elite members of Britain’s SAS abseil down the wall at the rear of the embassy on May 5, 1980, to end the six-day siege.)

In his Washington Post review Charles Arrowsmith points out that “Macintyre’s many sources include the diaries of hostages as well as interviews he conducted with SAS officers who participated in the event — the first such interviews to be sanctioned by the British Defense Ministry. He consulted other living witnesses, including Trevor Lock, the police officer who was guarding the embassy, and Maj. Hector Gullan, who coordinated the SAS raid. Fowzi Badavi Nejad, the only terrorist not killed in the raid, is alive, too — he’s still in Britain, released from prison in 2008 and living under an assumed name — though it’s not clear if he spoke to Macintyre. Regardless, the final product of Macintyre’s research is a remarkably immersive account of what happened.

THE SIEGE is brilliantly assembled. Despite the historic import of its events, it’s the humdrum details that linger: an order of 25 hamburgers for those trapped inside the embassy; armed SAS officers gathered around a TV to watch the snooker; a captive engrossed in Frederick Forsyth’s espionage classic “The Day of the Jackal.” For policeman Trevor Lock, it’s the scent of Old Spice, a bottle of which the terrorists found during their time in the embassy, that takes him right back to the scene. It contains the faint but ineradicable trace of an event whose significance persists for both him and the world, even as its particulars have faded. Macintyre’s superb reconstruction restores it to vivid, complex life.”**

**Charles Arrowsmith, “Ben Macintyre’s THE SIEGE vividly recounts a hostage crisis,” Washington Post, September 20, 2024.

F Zabci/Shutterstock SAS move in (On the sixth day of the siege, after the gunmen shot dead Iranian press attache Abbas Lavasani and dumped his body outside the building, Home Secretary William Whitelaw ordered the SAS to attack.)

AFTERMATH: LIFE IN THE FALLOUT OF THE THIRD REICH 1945-1955 by Harald Jahner

October 20, 2024October 20, 2024szfreiberger German History, Nazi Germany, World War II Leave a comment

The area extending north beyond the Brandenburg Gate was later controlled by Soviets for almost 40 year. Note the portrait of Stalin in the center.

(Berlin at the end of World War II)

Today Germany finds itself as the strongest economic power in Europe, in addition to possessing major military influence due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Its influence in Europe is strong and many of the goals of the Nazi regime during World War II have been achieved peacefully since unification following the collapse of the Soviet Union. If one thinks back to 1945 Germany was devastated as it suffered from pervasive allied bombing be it Dresden, Berlin, Cologne, Hamburg, and other German cities. Living in one of these cities in the summer of 1945 and to imagine Germany’s dominant position in Europe today as a member of the European Union would be unthinkable. The question is how did Germans face up to their Nazi past and how did they move on, for most with no sense of responsibility or guilt for the Holocaust and other atrocities committed by the Hitlerite regime domestically and across Europe? Harald Jahner a German cultural journalist and former editor of the Berliner Zeitung focuses on the immediate postwar period in trying to determine why this happened in his book AFTERMATH: LIFE IN THE FALLOUT OF THE THIRD REICH 1945-1955.

Jahner immediately asks a series of questions which he hopes to convey the answers to. For the nine million Germans who were bombed out of their homes and evacuees, the fourteen million refugees and exiles, the ten million released from forced labor and imprisonment, and the countless millions of returning prisoners of war the question was clear; “How was this horde of ragged, displaced, impoverished and leftover people broken up and reassembled? And how did former national comrades (Volksgenossen), as German nationals were known under Nazism, gradually become ordinary citizens again?” This process would lay the foundation of the “German economic miracle” of the postwar period and as a result is an important aspect of western history for historians to explore.

(The Nuremburg Trials)

Interestingly, the Holocaust had a negligible impact on the consciousness of most Germans during the period. Many were aware of the crimes that took place in the name of Aryan unity and lebensraum (living space in the east) and perhaps guilt about causing the war, but there was little guilt concerning the death of six million Jews. In fact, the whitewashing of the existence of the extermination camps was common even as the allies tried to confront the German people with evidence of Nazi crimes. This coverup in part was due to the prevalent view of many Germans that they were now the victims. As Jahner writes; “the survival instinct shuts out feelings of guilt.”

The postwar period was riddled with instances of imprisonments during the war for minor offenses who remained imprisoned after the war, some for years. Disturbingly, at the same time former Nazi elites, scientists, and spies emerged in the bureaucracy of the new Federal Republic and cooperated with former allies as the Cold War approached. At the same time ordinary people starved, lost their shelter, and tried to survive with the absence of authority.

Jahner begins his narrative by describing the plight of the German people. Examples abound during the early months of the postwar period of suffering of the survivors of the war, and the author concludes as far as any guilt was concerned; “forgetting was the utopia of the moment.” As a cultural historian Jahner’s main focus is how German culture evolved after the war as a tool to denazify the German people. The author’s focus is broadly encapsulating a broad realm of cultural issues including film, music, art, newspapers, literature, furniture design, clothing, architecture, etc. Jahner delves into the acceptance and rejection of certain cultural avenues following the war. In film, comedies rather than dramatizations were seen as more acceptable. The cultural leaders were concerned about the general public’s taste and understanding of art. The Third Reich had conditioned people in terms of aesthetic judgement, now they needed to break the intellectual chains of the past, i.e.; accepting modern abstract art which was seen as positive as it represented the denazification of culture.

(German soldiers returned home after WWII)

In an interesting comparison between the American and Soviet view of how to denazify and integrate the German people after the war, Jahner focuses on how the United States relied on art as a vehicle to promote democracy. Employing the CIA as a vehicle to transfer funds to promote western culture, US intelligence services funneled money to particular cultural leaders as a means of obtaining their ends. The Americans however were less likely to offer the Germans the chance of rehabilitation so soon after the war as the Soviets did. Americans had no communist theory of history that would have enabled them to view Germans as victims of Hitler. On the contrary Americans saw the average German as “a militaristic, authoritarian, hard hearted character for whom the Fuhrer’s state was the most representative form of government.” The Russian approach was simpler, purging who they felt threatened by, offering what became known as East Germans an off ramp to acceptability, and a culture that was much more digestible like “Socialist Realism.”

Jahner offers a window into how the German people coped economically on a daily basis exploring rationing, the black market, crime, exploitation, and the lack of housing which he argues would eventually lead to a market economy. He explores topics like sex, love, the plight of orphans, returning POWs, forced laborers, demobilized soldiers, and other wandering human beings who had been displaced by war. However, the most important insights he offers centers around the belief by Germans that the Nazis had humiliated them and the argument that they too were victims of Hitler. This rationalization made it easy to avoid discussion of the Holocaust after the war and any German responsibility. Hitler worshipers were “duped” rather than guilty for the events that led to war and what transpired during the war. The positive is Jahner’s belief that what he terms as “intolerable insolence” is the belief that to establish democracy in post war Germany this denialism was a necessary prerequisite because it created the foundation of a new beginning. The victim narrative reached its apex in April 1945 when the Germans were in fact liberated.

Jahners concludes that the majority of surviving Germans were so preoccupied with their own suffering that the dominant mood was one of self-pity. Since they were victims they “had the dubious good fortune of not having to think about the real ones.” As grim as Jahner’s discussion is concerning the amount of rubble that was left for the Germans to clear and live with, for many it is just punishment for a sophisticated people who succumbed so easily to the Nazi regime. The eventual robust economic recovery of the East and West was a boon, according to Jahner, “but such good fortune had nothing to do with historical justice.”

Excellent aerial view showing devastation and bombed out buildings over wide area.

(Berlin at the end of World War II)

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF HITLER’S PLOT TO KILL FDR, CHURCHILL, AND STALIN by Howard Blum

September 21, 2024September 21, 2024szfreiberger Nazi Germany, World War II Leave a comment

Many believe that the most important World War II conference between Winston Churchill, Joseph Stalin, and Franklin D. Roosevelt took place at Yalta. For those who despise Roosevelt it was at Yalta that the president was duped by the Soviet leader which would lead directly to the Cold War following the president’s death. Obviously, Yalta was of prime importance when one examines the post-war period, but in fact according to historian Keith Eubanks in his landmark study, SUMMIT AT TEHRAN, the agreements reached at Yalta and much of the postwar settlement were fashioned by the Tehran discussions.

Since Teheran was the first meeting of the “Big Three” coming at a time when it was becoming increasingly clear that the Germans were going to lose the war, anything the Nazis could do to prevent the allied leaders from developing plans to bring the war to a conclusion and what the post-war world would look like was imperative. For Adolf Hitler, if his commandos could disrupt the conference of perhaps kill allied leadership, new heads of state might be willing to develop more reasonable policies toward Germany other than the goal of “unconditional surrender” announced by Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference on January 24, 1943. In Howard Blum’s NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF HITLER’S PLOT TO KILL FDR, CHURCHILL, AND STALIN the author explores events and decision making surrounding the Nazi plan to assassinate allied leaders – code named Operation Long Jump. Blum’s effort is not a work of counterfactual history discussing what might have occurred had the Nazi plan been carried out, but an interesting historical monograph that unwraps how close the Nazis came to success.

(Walter Schellenberg as an SS-Oberführer in 1943)

Blum’s work reads like an engrossing spy thriller, when in fact it is a true story. It reads like a well written novel, but in reality it is a narrative history at its best. The monograph itself is presented on parallel lines. First is the competition between SS General Walter Schellenberg who headed Section 6 of the Reich Security Office (RSHA), and Michael Reilly, the Secret Service agent who was the head of President Roosevelt’s security detail. The author, having examined the pertinent documentation, delves into the mindset of both figures and the strategies they developed in order to achieve their goals. For Schellenberg it was to decapitate allied leadership, and for Reilly to thwart any assassination attempts and keep the “Big Three” safe. The second thread that Blum catalogues are the measures taken to protect Roosevelt and his allied compatriots and Nazi covert plans over a two year period to offset the fact that the war seemed lost by killing the “Big Three” and hoping that replacement leaders would be more amenable. Third, are the character studies of each of the important personages in the story. From Schellenberg and his commando operatives, allied and Nazi spies, to Reilly.

Blum’s commitment to detail is the highlight of the narrative. For example, the removal of tons of seized opium from smugglers stored in the basement of the Treasury building in Washington to create a safe space for Roosevelt after December 7, 1941, or the use of Al Capone’s automobile that was outfitted with amazing safety features for the time to protect the president. Other examples include Churchill’s capacity to ingest brandy and scotch and his lax approach for his own security. Blum delves deeply into the spy craft that was employed highlighting agents, double agents, recruitment of commandos, training for the assassination missions and other aspects of intelligence dexterity.

The author does a useful job discussing the competition within the Nazi bureaucracy exemplified by the relationship between General Schellenberg head of Section 6 of SS intelligence, and the head of Abwehr, the military espionage branch of the Wehrmacht, Admiral Wilhelm Canaris. Another example of this competition is highlighted by the Abwehr commando training program centered at Lake Quenz headed by Major Rudolph von Holten-Pflug produced jealousy on the part of Heinrich Himmler, head of the SS who ordered Captain Otto Skorzeny to create an SS version of Lake Quenz. It would be Skorzeny who had rescued Benito Mussolini from Allied control who would train the commandos and lead them into Teheran to assassinate their targets. Other key players include Franz Mayr and Roman Gamotha, German spies who had been dropped into Iran in 1940, one of which turned out to be a double agent; Julius Berthold Schilze-Holthus, a Nazi diplomat stationed in Teheran; Nasr Khan who led the Qashqai Tribe’s military arm who allied with the Germans; Lili Sanjari, Roman Gamotha’s secretary and Franz Mayr’s mistress among many other characters.

(Michael Reilly and FDR)

At various times it appears that Schellenberg’s plot would be successful. By November 1943, all the pieces he put into place had come together. Abwehr and SD agents had successfully gone undercover in Iran early in the war. Two agents remained active, one in Teheran, and the other in the tribal hill country. In previous operations commandos had parachuted into Iran and established the procedures for aerial insertion missions with the necessary equipment to carry out the plot. Further, the alliance with Nasr Khan remained firm. Lastly, Hitler had complete confidence that Otto Skorzeny, the very tactician who had supervised the training and execution for previous missions into Iran, could carry out a successful assassination mission.

It is interesting to explore how Reilly and the American secret service tried to keep the President and his entourage safe. Reilly had to deal with a stubborn president who enjoyed certain peccadillos of life that he was wanting to give up. Further, plans seemed to change almost on a dime especially as negotiations with Stalin to choose the site of the meeting constantly ran into roadblocks. Other aspects of the trip to Tehran after it was finally chosen were that Roosevelt, Churchill, and Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-Shek would first meet in Cairo which created more headaches for Reilly and company.

(Otto Skorzeny in 1943)

The role played by the Russians is consequential for a country that was occupied by both the Soviet Union and the United States. During the war, Iran became a major transshipment route for American Lend-Lease aid to the Soviets, and thousands of American, British, and Russian troops controlled the major cities and ports, particularly Tehran. Blum shows the ruthless nature of the Soviet precautions as Soviet intelligence and secret police agents of the NKVD, the forerunner of the infamous KGB, began a massive sweep of Tehran to arrest any German national or potential sympathizer when the first hint of a conspiracy is heard. For Reilly, the role of Soviet intelligence was concerning with their nest of secret agents and posers in Teheran, and how he could work with his Soviet counterparts to ensure the safety of the “Big Three.” Reilly’s concerns were also evident when Stalin offered to have the American delegation moved to the Soviet compound in the city. The rationale was clear, the American embassy was just outside the city and would require a short car ride each day for the president creating an interesting target. A move to the Soviet compound would include Russian eavesdropping devices placed throughout where the American delegation would be staying – certainly, a dilemma for the Americans. Interestingly, Roosevelt was not keen staying at the British compound located near the Russians either.

Blum uses Russian archival sources only made public in the last twenty years along with an ample collection of other primary and secondary sources as he weaves a fast-paced story of how Nazi intelligence services and special commando units tried to infiltrate an assassination team into Iran. It is a story that would make Ken Follett, Robert Ludlum, and Ian Fleming proud. In the end the Germans would come closer to a successful suicide mission that is generally believed. Except for the usual difficulties of controlling foreign intelligence operatives-greed, stupidity, and bad luck, the Nazis might have gotten their commandos within lethal proximity to the “Big Three” and conducted a successful war altering mission.

If you would like to read an updated version of the story see Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch’s THE NAZI CONSPIRACY: THE SECRET PLOT TO KILL ROOSEVELT, STALIN, AND CHURCHILL.

THE ACHILLES TRAP: SADDAM HUSSEIN, THE CIA, AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICA’S INVASION OF IRAQ by Steve Coll

September 17, 2024szfreiberger Iraq, Middle Eastern History, War in Iraq, War on Terror Leave a comment

(Saddam Hussein)

For years, the United States was involved in a complex relationship with Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein. During the Iran-Iraq War in the 1980s the Reagan administration provided Baghdad with licenses to acquire certain implements of war, provided intelligence as to Iranian positions, and at the same time engaged with Iran with weapons for hostages. The United States employed Saddam as a counterweight to Teheran from 1979 onward. Later, following the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Washington completely altered its policies and organized a coalition to remove Iraq from Kuwait. However, before the war commenced the United States gave false signals to Saddam before he invaded Kuwait which he seemingly misread. Throughout the 1990s the United States backed a series of possible scenarios to overthrow Saddam, but none was successful.

Fast forward to 2003, the second Bush administration under the influence of neoconservatives fostered policies to invade Iraq remove Saddam and achieving control of Iraqi oil and reorienting the balance of power in the Middle East. It is clear today that the result of that policy was to elevate Iran’s regional influence as the Iraq counterweight was removed. The errors fostered by the Bush administration have been a disaster for Washington’s role in the region. How this all came about is the subject of Pulitzer Prize winning author Steve Coll’s latest book, THE ACHILLES TRAP: SADDAM HUSSEIN, THE CIA, AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICA’S INVASION OF IRAQ.

What becomes clear from Coll’s account is that there was more to Saddam than American politicians and spies could understand – even when the stakes were so high in dealing with him be it trying to uncover his nuclear capabilities, the sellout of the Kurds in northern Iraq, the invasion of Kuwait, and the final cat and mouse game that led to the Second Gulf War. Coll’s research consisted of numerous interviews of the participants in this historical relationship in addition to the availability of Saddam’s secret treasure trove of over 2000 hours of tape recordings of leadership meetings – private discussions – meeting minutes- intelligence files – and other materials. It allows us to see Saddam in new ways, “what drove him in his struggle with Washington, and to understand how and why American thinking about him was often wrong, distorted, or incomplete.” The result is an incisive monograph that details events and decision making in a readable format providing a review of Iraqi American relations since the 1970s. Coll pulls no punches in his analysis, and it is an important contribution to the many works that deal with this topic.

From the outset Coll introduces Saddam’s fears of the Iranian Revolution, his hatred for the Ayatollah Khomeini, his obsession with Israel’s nuclear capability, and his need to develop atomic weapons. He introduces Jafar Dhia Jafar, a British educated physicist who would become the intellectual leader of Iraq’s atomic bomb program who plays a vital role throughout the book as Saddam’s Oppenheimer. Coll’s discussion of the Iran-Iraq war focuses on the motivations of each side and the key role played by American intelligence, weaponry, and licensing. It was clear under the Reagan administration that it wanted to work with Saddam but as we did so we misread his goals. Further Washington’s support for Baghdad fostered deep misunderstand on Saddam’s part as to what they could get away with without American opposition which is the major theme of the book. Throughout the narrative Coll explains the inability of Iraqi and American officials to understand each other from Washington’s refusal to allow Iraq to buy gun silencers to the nuclear policies of both countries.

Coll does a masterful job presenting the background information for Saddam and his family. The relationships within the family exemplified by Saddam’s erratic and murderous son Uday and his brother Qusay, or his son-in-law Kemal Hussein are very important in understanding how Saddam ruled and the impact of his relatives on Iraqi society. Each individual is the subject of important biographical information that include Tarik Aziz, Saddam’s pseudo Foreign Minister, Nizar Hamdoon, close to Saddam who was his liaison to the United States and Iraq’s UN envoy, Ali Hassan al-Majid, better known as “chemical Ali,” who carried out many of Saddam’s most despicable policies, Ahmad Chalabi, a duplicitous character who lied his way to influence CIA policies toward Saddam, and Samir Vincent, an Iraqi-American who worked on the Oils-For-Food negotiations to revive a diplomatic solution between Baghdad and Washington, among others.

US Vice President Dick Cheney (L) and US

(Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld)

The author raises the question as to why Saddam would risk an invasion when he was aware that he lacked a nuclear option. He would eventually agree to the return of UN inspectors, but it would be too late. The problem as correctly points out is that a decade of an American containment policy had conditioned Saddam to doubt the prospect of a land invasion. Further, since 1991 had threatened military action, but did little. Further he could not fathom why an invasion would take place when he suspected the CIA and other agencies knew he lacked nuclear weapons – an important miscalculation as the Bush administration was bet on war by late 2002, and the task of US intelligence was to find a causus belli to justify an invasion.

Coll is on firm grounds as he describes the many attempts to overthrow Saddam. It is clear that the first Bush administration wanted Saddam to be replaced but refused to engage in assassination. After the first Gulf War, Washington decided not to march to Baghdad and remove him for fear of upsetting the regional balance of power. During the Clinton administration there were many CIA plots involving Saddam’s overthrow from Chalabi’s conspiracies, supporting Wafiq al-Sarranai, an officer close to Saddam, Ayad Allawi, the head of the Iraqi National Accord who led the opposition to Saddam and was an enemy of Chalabi, to members of his dysfunctional family, particularly his demented son Uday.

U.S. Offers $25 Million For Saddam Hussein's Capture

(Saddam with sons, Uday and Qusay)

A major part of the narrative involves western attempts to uncover and end Saddam’s nuclear program. Coll takes the reader through the “shell game” involving United Nations and the International Atomic Agency’s inspectors to locate evidence of Saddam’s nuclear program. A number of important individuals are discussed including Swedish diplomat Hans Blix, and Rolf Ekeus, the Director-General of the IAEA, David McKay, an American inspector and a host of others. The details of the “cat and mouse” game conducted by the Iraqis is detailed as is the internal dynamic of investigators and their disagreements, including the role of the CIA and American intelligence. They would soon discover that Saddam had a sophisticated bomb program for at least five years without being discovered and Saddam’s capacity to build a bomb was also unknown during that period. It is clear that by the mid-1990s there were no nuclear weapons, but there were biological agents mounted on missiles.

Coll takes the reader through the two Gulf wars, the use of chemical weapons against his enemies, the attacks on Kurdistan, the attempts to remove him from power , all topics that have been dealt with by others, but not in the detail and the perspectives that the author presents. All of this leads to the decision to go to war in 2003 and finally remove Saddam from power and use a new Iraq, dominated by the United States to control the Middle East and its oil resources. In developing this aspect of the book as he does throughout Coll focuses on how Saddam misread American actions and policies toward him. This misreading and/or misunderstandings in the end resulted in his death and a quagmire for the United States that lasted for a decade and even today the United States has difficulties with ISIS terrorists ensconced in Iraq, and a Shia dominated government that our policies helped bring to power.

Coll pulls no punches as he discusses aspects of his topic. A useful example is the relationship between neoconservatives who served during the Reagan administration and Ahmad Chalabi. Coll describes “neocons” as “a loose network of like-minded internationalists who advocated for an assertive post-Cold War foreign policy that would advance American power by expanding democracy by challenging tyranny all around the world.” They sought to undermine the Soviet Union and Saddam advocating human and civil rights as a moral imperative. They would attract the likes of Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld and others who were men who liked ideas on questions as what to do about Iraq. The result was Saddam’s actions invigorated a domestic alliance of American hawk’s laser focused on removing the Iraqi dictator. Chalabi who saw himself as an Iraqi Charles De Gaulle had no following in Iraq and fed numerous lies and conspiracies to the CIA and others and received millions in return – this was the “neocon” darling! Men like Paul Wolfowitz, Zalmay Khalilzad, Richard Perle, and Richard Armitage pushed for war when they realized Bill Clinton would not engage in regime change. American generals thought their ideas were “crackpot.”

George W. Bush’s cabinet read like a “who’s who” of “neocons” with Cheney as Vice President, Rumsfeld as Secretary of Defense, and Wolfowitz as Deputy Secretary of Defense, all backed Chalabi’s “rolling insurgency” plan to overthrow Saddam. Secretary of State Colin Powell who opposed these ideas offered “smart sanctions” – restrict trade directly related to WMD and avoid policies that hurt children and the general Iraqi populations. He felt the military option was not in the best interest of the United States, though he did not rule it out.

(Saddam captured in Tikrit, Iraq)

The question is why did Saddam want to keep the myth of weapons alive when facing steep economic sanctions and threats of war? Coll is clear in his study of Saddam that for the Iraqi dictator a “mutually assured destruction” strategy would offset his fear of an Israeli nuclear attack, an ego which was such that it would provide him with greater security internally and externally, and his misunderstanding of Washington’s capacity to stop him.

Coll’s story presents the long and mutually confusing relationship between the United States and Iraq. It ranges from Saddam’s rise to dictatorial power in 1979, soon after which he started a covert nuclear program, to the 2003 invasion, and his execution in 2006. Along the way we experience a dark chapter in US foreign relations highlighted by the Reagan administration’s turning a blind eye to Saddam’s use of WMD against Iranian soldiers, and under the Bush administration Kurdish villagers, along with CIA policies that enhanced Saddam’s paranoia which led him to defeatist policies as he misread the United States, who at times he perceived to be an ally. All in all, it resulted in what the second Bush administration made, in hindsight across ideological lines a terrible geopolitical mistake which we are still paying for.

What sets Coll’s narrative apart from other authors is his knowledge of Iraqi planning and Saddam’s mindset as it was clear that Bush had made up his mind for “preemptive war”. Coll’s account of the Bush administration’s actions, views, and planning has been detailed by others, but it is his deep dive into Iraqi strategy and the views of Iraqi planners that distinguishes his work.

Charlie Savage in his August 29, 2024, article in the New York Review of Books entitled “A Terrible Mistake” perfectly encapsulates the importance of Coll’s work; “Beyond its value as a history and reappraisal of events, what lessons does this tale of ceaseless misconceptions and miscalculations hold for today? If Iraq was a trap, it was one that a succession of American policymakers clearly did not understand they were getting the country into until extricating it cleanly was nigh impossible. Coll gestures toward the difficulty of understanding dictatorial rulers whose regimes are hard for American intelligence agencies to penetrate and whose own pathologies may also make it hard for them to see the US clearly:

One recurring theme is the trouble American decision-makers had in assessing Saddam’s resentments and managing his inconsistencies. It is a theme that resonates in our present age of authoritarian rulers, when the world’s stressed democracies seek to grasp the often unpredictable decision-making of cloistered rulers, such as Vladimir Putin, or to influence other closed dictatorships, such as North Korea’s.”

Saddam Hussein Giving a Press Conference

DEAD SIMPLE by Peter James

September 5, 2024szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

The recently refurbished Brighton Police Station in John Street Brighton UK one of the largest in the country Stock Photo

(Brighton, UK Police Station)

Recently, my wife and I came across the television crime series GRACE on BritBox. The series is based on the crime novels written by Peter James who is a master of the crime genre. James’ work is much loved by crime and thriller fans for his fast-paced page-turners full of unexpected plot twists, sinister characters, and accurate portrayal of modern day policing, he has won over forty awards for his work including the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award and Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger. Since we enjoyed the television series so much I decided it might be interesting to explore the novels that the series is based on. James’ has written twenty-one novels in the series, the latest published about a month ago entitled, THEY THOUGHT I WAS DEAD which focuses on Roy Grace’s wife who years before disappeared without a trace. Grace immediately launched an investigation into his missing spouse, but after years of wondering what occurred as is recounted in the television series, he made little progress.

The first book in the series, DEAD SIMPLE centers on a prank that has gone wrong. At Michael Harrison’s bachelor party his friends lock him in a coffin with only a few hours of oxygen left. A few hours later, his friends who orchestrated the prank, are involved in a tragic accident, leaving Michael’s distraught fiancée, Ashley Harper desperate for answers. Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is brought in to unravel the mystery, but he soon realizes that the one man who ought to know Michael’s whereabouts is maintaining silence since Robbo, Pete, and Luke are killed in the accident with another Josh, hangs on for a few days before he will pass on. Grace can empathize with Ashley, as he is a man who is haunted by his own missing wife.

John Simm and Richie Campbell in Grace (2021)

James creates an interesting, tangled web as what appears to be a prank gone wrong turns out to be something more sinister. Mike Warren was also supposed to be part of the prank, but he was delayed and was not present. However, Warren was Michael Harrison’s partner at Double-M Properties, a real estate developer. The company was extremely successful due to Warren’s hard work with Michael living his normal lazy, womanizing life. The reason he was a partner was because he put up more money when the company was founded than Warren. The standard questions include; is it a coincidence that Warren was not present for the prank which could result in his partner’s death? Or was it because all of the participants had been victims of Harrison’s pranking in the past and this was just an innocent prank gone horribly wrong because of an accident? In following the plot line other pertinent questions emerge which the reader probably would not consider.

As James constructs his plot he leaves out no detail. His portrayal of Harrison trapped inside the coffin is searing as he is unable to communicate with the outside world and water rises in the coffin and his breathing tube disappears. In dealing with Detective Grace, James creates an interest in the paranormal which possibly could blow up in his face as the defense attorney makes fun of him in court and this carries over to Grace’s boss back at the police station. In Grace’s defense the use of a “medium” was something he turned to in the search for his wife, so he felt as a last resort in the murder case why not try it once again. Some would find integrating a “medium” into the story as overkill, but for me it is understandable.

(Peter James, author)

James’ develops his Roy Grace character carefully filling in gaps in his life and career for the reader to get to know him. Grace is a good detective who wades through a great deal of information – the Cayman Islands account Harrison shared with Warren, the false notes Grace picks up at the canceled wedding, Ashley’s relationship with Michael’s friends, among others. For Grace it is clear that the situation is more involved than a prank gone wrong.

As James develops his novel a number of characters and scenes stand out. As to the scenes, the back and forth between Harrison locked in the coffin and Davey, the son of a retired police officer, a young man who is mentally challenged is riveting. The scenes involving Ashley Harper and Vic Delany are very disturbing. The scenes involving Grace’s “team” reflect on how good policing should be approached. There are many others as James knows how to create actions and conversations which draw the reader in. As to characters Ashley Harper or Alexandra Huron or possibly Anne Hampson is fascinating as we really do not know who they are. Max Candille and John Stempe, both mediums who Grace relies upon. The relationship between Mark Warren and Michael Harrison is a key to the plot. Lastly, is Vic Delaney or Bradley Cunningham who supposedly is Ashley Harper’s uncle, lover, etc. In all cases you must read on to determine what is real and what is not.

James’ novel is rather mundane for the first one third of the story. The author then drops an explosive change to the plot which the reader would never expect, allowing the last two thirds of the book to be hard to put down. After reading DEAD SIMPLE it is obvious that James’ reputation is well deserved, and I look forward to continuing with the Grace series.

JOHN LEWIS: IN SEARCH OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY by Ray Arsenault

August 21, 2024August 21, 2024szfreiberger American Political History, American Social History, Biography Leave a comment

(John Lewis, third from left, walks with Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as they begin the Selma to Montgomery march from Brown’s Chapel Church in Selma on March 21, 1965)

If you ever wanted to know what type of man John Lewis was, all you have to do is ask someone from the other side of the political aisle what their opinion is of him. In this case I would point to someone who disagreed with Lewis about every conceivable issue – former North Carolina Congressman and Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows who would respond to questions about the Georgia Congressman and Civil Rights leader – “he was my friend,” and Lewis would reciprocate those feelings. You might ask how two such disparate characters could call themselves friends – all you have to do is read Raymond Arsenault’s new biography, JOHN LEWIS: IN SEARCH OF THE BELOVED COMMUNITY to understand the unshakable integrity and believer in man’s humanity which made up the core of the former activist and progressive legislator.

Lewis believed in forgiveness and compassion as part of achieving what referred to as “the beloved community” where racial hatred would be eradicated, and we would all live in a world of fairness and equality as he was determined to replace the horrors of the past and present with his ideals. Arsenault’s biography cannot be described as a hagiography as he delves into Lewis’ life, decisions and actions carefully offering a great deal of praise, but the author does not shy away from his subject’s mistakes and faulty decisions. At a time when racial “dog whistles” dominate a significant element of the political class it is unsettling to listen to a presidential candidate demean his opponent’s racial heritage linking it to her intelligence and background. This has led to racially motivated violent rhetoric that permeates the news making it a useful exercise exploring the life of a civil rights leader who fought valiantly against these elements in our society.

(Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., stands on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., on Feb. 14, 2015. Rep. Lewis was beaten by police on the bridge on “Bloody Sunday” on March 7, 1965, during an attempted march for voting rights from Selma to Montgomery)

Arsenault’s monograph begins by exploring Lewis’ rural upbringing in Pike County, Alabama. Sharecropping was the main source of income in a white dominated economic system designed to keep tenant farmers under the thumb of their landlords. Any progress his parents might have achieved was never enough to escape poverty. For Lewis, growing up in this racial and economic system formed a social and intellectual laboratory as he hated working in the cotton fields and soon became intoxicated with education where the inequality of white and black opportunities was glaring. The structure of Jim Crow society dominated. Lewis had high hopes with the Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas but the “massive resistance” the southern white supremacists responded with disabused Lewis that the decision would ameliorate the situation blacks found themselves locked into.

The development of Lewis’ approach to achieving change is explored in detail and we learn the impact of Martin Luther King, Jr. on Lewis at an early age. Arsenault spends a great deal of time delving into the King-Lewis relationship from the mid-1950s civil rights struggles through King’s assassination in April 1968. The development of the Student Non-Violent Coordinating Committee (SNCC) which Lewis would come to lead, and King’s Southern Christian Leadership Council (SCLC) is important as it shows the dichotomy that existed in the Civil Rights movement particularly as they split from each other in the early 1960s as Black nationalists like Stokley Carmichael and H. Rap Brown advocated violence against white supremacists took over SNCC.

No matter what aspect of Lewis’ career Arsenault discusses he presents a balanced account offering intimate details whether delving into Lewis remarkable rise within the Civil Rights movements from the late 1950s to 1970; his exceptional organizational skills, the schism that developed and seemed to dominate the movement, his four years on the Atlanta City Council through his congressional career. In recounting Lewis’ decision-making, he relates how each judgement was reached and how it affected his social gospel of the beloved community ideology.

(Martin Luther King, Jr.)

Make no mistake the book is more than an intellectual approach to Lewis’ role in the Civil Rights movement. Arsenault seems to cover all the major aspects of the Civil Rights movement from sit ins, stand ins to boycotts challenging the White supremacist governors, sheriffs and other officials in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, and Tennessee. Places like Selma, Jackson, Montgomery, Memphis come to dominate the narrative as does the impact of peaceful and violent events on Lewis’ belief system and planning.

For Lewis it was a battle to maintain his belief in nonviolent protest as a tool to uplift his community. At times he would become frustrated after he was physically beaten or arrested, but he would always seem to veer away from anything which would contradict his core ideas, even when close friends and other leaders moved away from a total non-violent approach. He grew angry when the younger generation turned to black power and confrontation, but he always remained loyal to his core principles.

Arsenault’s portrayal does reveal a confrontational and antagonistic strain in Lewis’ personality on rare occasions. One that comes to mind is the nastiness of his Georgia congressional campaign against his friend Julian Bond and fellow activist which cost both men a deep friendship when Lewis was victorious.

(Rosa Parks on a Montgomery bus in 1955)

Perhaps Arsenault’s most interesting chapters include Lewis’ evaluation of the Kennedy brothers who came late to the game of protecting civil rights workers. At the outset, Lewis had great hopes for John F. Kennedy, however he would be disappointed as the politics of Southern Democrats got in the way. With the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, which the Supreme Court would undermine in 2013, Lewis felt more optimistic, particularly with the metamorphosis of Robert Kennedy, especially after Dr. King was assassinated. There are chapters dealing with the Freedom Riders, important historical figures like Medgar Evers, Emmett Till, Rosa Parks, James Lawson, Andrew Young, Martin Luther King, Jr., James Farmer, Bayard Rustin, along with the Bull Conners, Sheriff Clark, Governors John Patterson and Lester Maddox among many that lend a sense of what it was like to deal with and live through such a tumultuous period in American history.

In the last third of the book, Arsenault describes the Republican resurgence under Gingrich, Reagan and the Bushes which made it difficult for Lewis to navigate the House of Representatives as any liberal agenda was dead on arrival on the House floor. At times he grew upset for the lack of progress that resulted in few if any legislative victories. He had high hopes for the election of Barack Obama, but it was not to be due to Republican obstructionism and in many cases outright racism. The arrival of Donald Trump took his frustration to new levels as events in Charlottesville, Va, a Muslim ban, hideous commentary concerning immigrants, and the actions of Mitch McConnell in the Senate made the achievement of a “beloved community” impossible. Before his death, Lewis would witness a Republican party taking America backwards trying successfully in many cases to undo fifty years of progress made under Democratic leadership – something against which he had repeatedly warned. What separated Lewis from most of his Congressional colleagues was his historical perspective. He could not accept the racism of the Trump administration which returned him to the dark days of the 1960s culminating in the deaths of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy.

(Robert Kennedy’s speech in Indianapolis, IN following the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr.)

In light of Donald Trump’s racial attacks against Kamala Harris, Lewis’ life story seems apropos in light of where we are as a society and how far, or perhaps not as far we have come after the Civil Rights movement. If there is one area that Arsenault could have explored more was learning about the people who knew Lewis the longest and what these relationships actually meant to him. However, Arsenault’s book is well written, researched based on documents and interviews, and has produced a thoughtful and measured account of Lewis’ life and work which continued even as he contracted pancreatic cancer and worked until ten days before his death in 2020 as he visited Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, DC.

(Tear gas fills the air as state troopers, on orders from Gov. George Wallace, break up a march in Selma on March 7, 1965, on what is known as “Bloody Sunday”)

SOUTHERN MAN by Greg Iles

August 7, 2024August 8, 2024szfreiberger Mystery/Thrillers Leave a comment

(1320 John A Quitman Blvd, Natchez, MS 39120, USA)

A 963 page novel that weighs quite a bit is a tall task for any reader. Can it maintain your interest? Is it worth the time and effort involved in digesting it? Apart from the fact that the publisher, William Morrow, Inc. has employed the cheapest paper possible in the production process leading to torn pages and other issues the answer is a resounding yes. The book I am alluding to is Greg Iles’ latest Cage Penn novel, SOUTHERN MAN. The effort continues the story of Mr. Penn that cemented his character portrait in Iles’ NATCHEZ BURNING trilogy and CEMETERY ROAD. Once again set in what Phil Ochs used to sing about in “Here’s to the state of Mississippi” in the 1960s, the cities of Natchez and Bienville emerge as the dominant localities for another Iles’ epic.

Iles’ casts a wide net in his story. We renewed our acquaintance with Penn fifteen years following the conclusion of the previous novel. The author does a marvelous job of bringing the reader up to speed and filling in the gaps of what occurred during the previous decade or two. This allows the book to be read as a standard–alone; but it is more satisfying if you have read the previous stories. We find Penn with a prosthetic leg as his mother is dying of cancer, and his daughter Annie, a civil rights attorney, wounded at a concert that was a demonstration against police violence after a 12 year old black boy is killed by police in Memphis. Further, Penn is obsessed with learning how his father died in the infamous Parchman Prison and how he had hoped to rescue him from the gang violence and corruption that existed all the way to Jackson, the state capital.

The storyline is very timely as issues of third party candidates, dissatisfaction with Donald Trump, racial hatred and violence fostered by white supremacists, and the fears for the loss of democracy are all present. A civil war is a possibility as a “supposed” radical black group refuses to accept the murders, illegal police actions, and the “good old boy network” that seems to still dominate the south decides to fight back. Another storyline centers on a former Army Special Operations Sergeant, Robert E. Lee White who gained notoriety as part of the team that captured and killed Abu Nasir, an al-Qaeda leader in a 2008 raid in Afghanistan. Lee, dubbed the “TikTok candidate” has energized the youth of America and other age groups and hopes to be elected president over the Democratic and Republican candidates.

(Mississippi lynching)

The story pits black vs. white, states rights vs. federal power, and the survival of democracy pitted against a fascist threat. As Iles proceeds his historical knowledge from 1960s rock n’ roll, the civil rights movement, to political crusades is impeccable. Ile’s inventive mind has placed America on the eve of a possible civil war and anarchy and contains many of the elements of our current political and racial state of affairs.

Iles offers an alternative scenario for the 2024 election relying on white anger and white panic. The story begins with a rock concert serving as the basis for a demonstration against police violence. The venue is Missionary Hill and after a noise complaint Tenisaw County Sheriff deputies mishandle the situation resulting in the killing of close to thirty people, women and children among them, all black. Known as the Mission Hill Massacre, Iles set the stage for the violence, paranoia, and political opportunity that follows.

At this point we learn that at age 38 Penn was diagnosed with myeloma, an obscure blood disorder that his mother, Peggy Cage has just passed from which impacts his behavior throughout the novel. Though Penn dominates the novel, other characters play important roles. One of the key actors is Robert E. Lee White, a man who on the surface is a war hero, successful podcast radio host, and an aspiring politician who hopes to use the massacre at Mission Hill as the starting point of his political campaign. Iles carefully teases the reader as to what White’s plans are to enhance his candidacy, however his true colors emerge as the story progresses. High on his list of tactics include assassination, befriending Penn and his daughter Annie. Further, he manipulates Charles Dufort, probably the richest man in Mississippi, Donny Kilmer, an extremely violent redneck, Sheriff Buck Tarleton, militia leader Shotwell Barlow, Martyn Black, a gamer and drone operator who happens to be White’s cousin, and most importantly the racial situation in southwest Mississippi.

White has an important personal problem he must overcome. First, he is gay and his former lover Charlot Dufort, the son of a wealthy father who refuses to help him out of drug and gambling induced debt. Second, Tommy Russo, the leading organized crime figure in Bienville and Natchez is also a loan shark that has Charlot in his crosshairs. Three, Corey Evers, his right hand man and lover who witnesses White’s sexual liaison with Sophie Dufort, the daughter of Charles Dufort. If the public learns of White’s past sexual proclivities his campaign is finished.

(Author, Greg Iles)

A number of characters stand in White’s way apart from Penn. His daughter, Annie Penn, a civil rights lawyer at first trusts White then she witnesses his true colors. Marshall McEwan, the owner and editor of the Natchez Daily newspaper, the Watchmen. Andrew McKinny, a black historian who wants to restore Penn’s home, Pencarrow, as a monument to slavery and how it affected blacks during the 19^th century. Dan Kelly, a former Delta Special Forces operative and close friend of Penn. Kenrick Washington, a black veteran, town guide, and college student who emerges as a hero at Mission Hill.. Nadine Sullivan, bookstore owner, former attorney who might be in a relationship with Penn. All play important roles in the novel.

Iles’ uses White’s strategy as one story line. The second rests upon the violence that has been taking over Bienville since the massacre. Third, the attempts of the Poker Club and white supremacists to take over county government and strip Bienville, run by blacks of their governmental powers. Former southern plantation mansions are being burnt to the ground including Pencarrow, the home Penn purchased for his dying mother. The question is who was responsible. Was it black radicals bent on revenge calling themselves “the Bastard Sons of the Confederacy,” or was it a false flag operation by white supremacists supported by the Sheriff’s office or the members of the Poker Club, made up of the political elite in the area. Third, Iles constructs a mini novel within the larger story. He successfully integrates the background history of southwest Mississippi during the pre-Civil War era. Applying the research conducted by Peggy Cage the last years of her life as she tries to determine the truth of her family’s lineage. She is able to link Barlow’s and Pencarrow with her family through diary entries, interviews and other primary materials which will result in undercutting what Penn and his mother believed their entire lives. Penn always wondered about the 1861 lynchings that killed 50 slaves and tortured many more only a few miles from his childhood home-was he in some way related to the men who committed these murders? Iles creates numerous twists and turns and is able to expertly tie all of these threads together in creating an amazing tale.

Fear and rage dominate the novel similarly to today’s political and racial occurrences. The murder of Mayor “Doc” Berry, seen as Bienville’s reincarnation of Martin Luther King by a redneck sheriff contributes to the emotional undercurrents of rage. The popularity of another hero, Kendrick Washington provides White with a literal target to boost his popularity. The actions of Ray Ransom, a Vietnam veteran who did time as a convict at Parchman but reformed his life by working with disadvantaged children, and friend of Penn are further characters enveloped in the racial storm throughout the novel.

The racial unrest and violence and political machinations that Iles portrays will keep the reader on the edge of their seats as he manipulates your emotions as you react to the story line with nothing getting lost in the shuffle. The book is terrifying because of its plausibility as Iles captures the tinderbox that is America today. It is an expertly crafted political and racial thriller which reverberates with our current world, and you should not let the book’s length deter you – it is quite a ride and worth getting aboard.

(Natchez, MS Plantation)

SKIES OF THUNDER: THE DEADLY WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Caroline Alexander

July 23, 2024July 23, 2024szfreiberger World War II Leave a comment

(Flying “the Hump” in World War II. The Curtiss C-46 Commando was a mainstay for those operations, conducted over the Himalayan foothills where there was no emergency landing strip.)

The term “Over the Hump” is a concept that seems lost to history. When applied properly it embodies the American effort to supply the Nationalist Chinese weapons and supplies to combat the Japanese army which by 1942 invaded Burma and captured and cut off the only ground route into China. The only way to offset Japanese progress was to supply the Nationalist Chinese by air flying over the Himalayas from India.

In her latest book, Caroline Alexander the bestselling author of THE ENDURANCE: SHACKELTON’S LEGENDARY ATLANTIC EXPEDITION and THE BOUNTY: THE TRUE STORY OF THE MUTINY ON THE BOUNTY among other works has written an exceptionally detailed narrative and analysis of the American effort to thwart the Japanese describing the dangerous flights by inexperienced pilots over the Himalayas, discussing the diplomatic agenda of the United States, England, and China, along with insightful personality studies of men like General “Vinegar” Joe Stilwell, the American officer in charge of aid to China, General Chiang Kai-Shek the leader of Nationalist China, and Claire Lee Chennault, the American officer who commanded the “Flying Tigers.” The book entitled, SKIES OF THUNDER: THE DEADLY WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD focuses on the newly created infrastructure for the mission, training of pilots, and the hazardous flights they engaged in. Further, Alexander delves into the allied strategy of the China-Burma Theater (C.B.I.) which was complicated by the conflicting political and military interests of Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill, and their unreliable ally, Chiang Kai-Shek.

(Lieutenant General Joseph Stilwell (1883-1946) eating field rations on Christmas morning, 1943)

For Alexander, the C.B.I. was the war’s “most complicated theater” and was driven by competing interests and contradictions that exposed the fault line between the allies. For many, C.B.I. translated to “confusion, beyond imagination.”

Alexander’s riveting new work begins with the allied defeat in Burma in April 1942 sealing off the ground corridor linking India and China. This would an “ariel Burma road” to supply Chiang’s troops and allied forces. According to Alexander’s research some 600 planes and 1700 American airmen would be lost flying over Burmese jungles and mountains.

Although the supply effort was deemed a military operation, its primary goal was political, not military, a result of President Roosevelt’s desire to retain the support and boost the moral of Chiang Kai-Shek and his government and ensure a close relationship between the United States and China as Washington wanted the Nationalists to become a major player in the post-war world. The British as Alexander develops throughout the monograph were not as supportive of FDR’s raison detre and actively worked to undermine the American approach. The tension “between the practical and symbolic purpose of the Hump operation was to persist throughout the war” – a dominant theme of Alexander’s work.

(Stilwell with Chiang Kai-shek and Chiang’s wife, Soong Mei-ling, in 1942)

Early on Alexander introduces her argument that a united front to defeat Japan would be difficult to achieve. First, Chiang hated the Chinese Communist Party because they were the only group he was unable “to buy off, absorb, liquidate, or suppress…” Second, they were the only party that was gaining popular support. Third, Chiang believed the Chinese people were incapable of governing themselves. Lastly, and most importantly the Chinese army’s military strength was not applied against Japan despite American aid and encouragement and was held back due to Chiang’s belief of the coming civil war against the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong. In all areas, negotiation, his relationship with Stilwell, and his belief in his own destiny Chiang was the major impediment to try and defeat Japan.

Alexander’s book is well sourced and researched. She carefully explains the Japanese seizure of Burma entering Rangoon in March 1942. The chaos that resulted was due to British General Archibald Wavell’s belief that the Japanese would never invade Burma through Rangoon. Alexander carefully recounts the horrors Burmese refugees suffered trying to escape the Japanese invasion through monsoons that fostered torrential rains and muddy roads.

A strength of the author is her focus on the major players in the conflict, exploring the pilot’s experiences, and the results of American efforts. Prominent figures like General “Vinegar Joe” Stillwell are examined carefully. His relationship with Chiang Kai-Shek was terrible which impacted US policy, Stilwell’s relationship with General George C. Marshall, and President Roosevelt are keys to Alexander’s analysis. In the end Stilwell’s off-putting personality, ego, and strong beliefs would lead to his recall from China in 1944 due to Chiang’s request. Marshall’s description of Stilwell as being “his own worst enemy….his pathological tactlessness and rudeness was a major factor in the troubles he had in China.” The role of Claire Lee Chennault is also vital to the story of who would contribute to the conflict and the confusion that vexed the C.B.I. theater. Over the course of the war, Chennault’s own propaganda machine increased his reputation and the air assets he commanded. He would gain great notoriety in the United States, but in the end according to the author his contribution to the success of the Burma theater is debatable. Alexander’s criticism of Roosevelt is warranted as his view of Chiang was unrealistic. His belief in his own powers of persuasion were misguided as was his evaluation and ignorance of the key logistical facts of supplying Chiang’s forces. His approach would be very detrimental to the men who built the facilities and the pilots who carried out the Burma mission. Roosevelt’s belief and promises in the amount of tonnage of supplies that could be delivered were impracticable.

(Claire Lee Chennault)

Other prominent figures that are discussed include Vice Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten, the British commander in Burma who did not get along with Stilwell and also demanded his replacement. General Henery “Hap” Arnold, the commander of the US Air Force, British General Orde Charles Wingate, 1^st Air Commander Philip Cochran, General William Slim, General Frank Merrill, among others who receive extensive coverage.

To Alexander’s credit her focus is not only on influential figures. Her descriptions of the many pilots and the weather, topography, equipment failures are exceptional. Descriptions of the environmental hazards faced by pilots are fully warranted. Weather was the most onerous aspect of flying over the Himalayas. Monsoons, ice formations, thunderstorms, jungles, mountain peaks, deserts, sandstorms all had to be overcome. Further, training could be spotty. Many pilots lacked the experience needed to confront and overcome all of the obstacles in flying and delivering their cargo. With Chiang threatening to leave the war many pilots were rushed into situations for which they were unprepared. Many of the pilots lacked any combat experience and were psychologically and mentally ill equipped to deal with the dangers they faced. The result was misreading instrument failures, the situation they found themselves confronted with, the performance of their aircraft etc. resulting in bailing out when not necessary, crashing their planes when conditions did not fully explain what had occurred. Alexander’s account puts the reader in the cockpit with pilots as they had to cope with balancing their own survival and completing their missions.

To sum up Alexander does a wonderful job telling the story of the men who risked their lives dealing with brutal terrain and horrific weather conditions to keep China in World War II. While Alexander devotes a great deal of time explaining strategic and political issues, her interest lies primarily on the variations of individual human personalities. The author tells, through clear and engaging narrative, the story of the pilots in the planes to the level of campaign overview, sometimes really from 30,000 feet.

(Aerial reconnaissance photograph of the Sittang Bridge in southern Burma, which was destroyed in the face of the advancing Japanese on 23 February 1942)

Perhaps historian Elizabth D. Samet describes Alexander’s effort the best; “Ultimately, and rightly, the pilots — intrepid as “sailors of old” crossing “unknown oceans” — are the core of the book. Demeaned as “Hump drivers,” ostensible noncombatants at the bottom of the aviation hierarchy, they flew an inadequately charted route over baffling terrain, its surreality intensified by their frequent refusal to wear oxygen masks.

Alexander adroitly explicates technical concepts — flight mechanics, de-icing, night vision — but is at her best rendering pilots’ fear. Besides terrain, its sources included weather, enemy aircraft, insufficient training, night missions and “short rations of fuel” on the return leg. At least a pilot could depend on his plane, the beloved Douglas C-47 Skytrain, until the introduction of unreliable or unsound higher-capacity models turned the machines themselves into another source of terror.

Readers thrilled by sagas of flight will marvel at the logistics required to transport a stunning 650,000 tons of cargo by air, the audacity required to fly the Hump, the search-and-rescue operations necessitated by its hazards and the experimental use of aviation involved in the Allied recapture of Burma in 1944.

A Chindit column crossing a river in Burma, 1943.

(A Chindit unit forging a Burmese River, 1943)

They will also have to reckon with Alexander’s hard-nosed conclusions about the C.B.I. Others who have chronicled its history concentrated on the strategic merits of this deeply imperfect theater or celebrated its pioneering use of air power.

The image that dominates the end of Alexander’s epic is “the aluminum trail” of wreckage — “the hundreds of crashed aircraft that still lie undiscovered in the jungles, valleys and fractured ranges beneath the Hump’s old route.”*

*Elisabeth D. Samet. ”The Scrappy World War II Pilots Who Took Flight for a Perilous Mission.” New York Times, May 14, 2024.

Photo Credit: PhotoQuest / Getty Images (Colorized by Palette.fm)

THE ASCENT by Stefan Hertmans

July 8, 2024July 8, 2024szfreiberger Historical Fiction Leave a comment

12la iglesia de San Nicolás (Sint-Niklaaskerk), el Campanario (Belfort) y en ultimo término la Catedral de San Bavón (Sint-Baafskathedraal) gante belgica church nicholas belfry cathedral ghent belgium

(The city of Ghent, Belgium during WWII)

Internationally acclaimed Dutch author Stefan Hertmans has written two powerful historical novels that have achieved extraordinary recognition. The first, WAR AND TURPENTINE was long listed for the Man Booker International Prize in 2017 and the second, THE CONVERT was a 2020 National Jewish Book Award finalist. His latest effort, THE ASCENT is a captivating story about family and evil that alludes to the problems that face society today.

It is a story that originated with Hertman’s own life experiences. In 1979, the author purchased a town house in the Belgium city of Ghent. It was in poor condition that dated back to the end of World War II. Though a neglected structure, Hertman was enamored with it. The house forms the basis of the novel which fits the mold of a technique known as auto fiction, a combination of autobiography and fiction that describes the author’s quest to learn about Willem Verhulst, a Flemish nationalist who during World War II was a member of the SS and sought to link Flanders and Nazi Germany. Hertmans was unaware of the checkered history of the house when he purchased it and the interaction between the real estate agent and the author lends itself to the condition of the house and why it attracted him. Years later when he sold the house he came across a memoir of the previous owner’s son, Adriaan Verhulst, a renowned professor of history and coincidentally, the author’s former teacher. Hertmans would learn that Adriaan’s father, Willem had served in the SS during World War II and committed unspeakable crimes.

The Year of Silence: Belgium’s darkest moments during WWII

(Pro-Nazi rally with speech by VNV strongman Hendrik Elias (Vlaams Nationaal Verbondat) at Grote Markt, Antwerp, on 26 September 1943)

Hertman would become obsessed with the Verhulst family resulting in an exploratory mission to tell the story of Adriaan’s father, the story of the house in which he lived, and the people who he came in contact with. Hertman’s relies on memoirs, diaries, official documents, and interviews with Willem’s three children to recreate the lives of one family as they navigated the tumultuous events of World war II under the aegis of Nazi collaboration in their midst. The result is an amazing novel that reimagines the life of a family surviving a world war that destroyed a significant part of Europe. It is a testament to the author who successfully blends history and fiction to reach its readers about the past, the role of human nature during conflict, and providing lessons for the future.

Hermans carefully lays out the national and ethnic conflict that existed in Belgium before and during the war. It centers on Flemish nationalists who wanted schools to reflect Dutch culture and those who favored the French. Willem loathes the Belgium state and hitches his wagon to Flemish nationalism. Willem was blind in one eye from childhood, and it greatly affected his socialization process while growing up and provides clues for his later behavior. Willem’s first wife, Lisa, will die of cervical cancer in 1925 in her late twenties. Two years later he will remarry Harmina Margaretha Wijers who had been Lisa’s nurse during her illness when she lived with her pastor who never accepted the “one eyed” Belgium.

Harmina who went by the name Mientje and Willem had a son Adriaan, and two daughters, Aletta, and Suzanne. Mientje was a very pious Protestant and grew suspicious of her husband’s activities and his interest in Nazism. Willem was a womanizer who had a long running affair with a woman nine years his junior named Griert Latomme. For Mientje her children were her life and she overlooked “pappi’s” faults for years. Willem would force the family to move from a comfortable middle class home in Ghent to a house provided by the Nazis in Oudburg after he had ingratiates himself with the SS and often traveled to Germany. Needless to say, Mientje despised the house.

(German soldiers parade past the Royal Palace in Brussels, 1940)

Hertmans does an excellent job describing the German occupation of Belgium and its impact on its citizens. He follows the course of the war carefully and has a firm knowledge of historical events and battles. The author intersperses chapters describing his purchase of the house and his interactions with the children and other decades after the war.

(‘Confidential agent’ Willem Verhulst and his wife Mientje in 1930)

Under the German occupation Willem is made Director of the Ghent Rediffusion Service to be used as a vehicle for Nazi propaganda. From this position Willem rose in the Nazi hierarchy to become a reliable collaborator and achieved SS rank as he cobbled together thorough lists of resistance fighters and anyone who opposed or even spoke words that the Nazis deemed treasonous. Countless people were rounded up, beaten, tortured and many would die in the extermination camps.

The marriage of Willem and Mientje made little sense. He possessed a dual personality; on the one hand he was very sweet toward his wife, but he was a womanizer and a Nazi collaborator. He did his best to keep his wife and family in the dark when it came to his activities. She was very religious and cannot fathom why their lives have taken such a drastic turn. Once he started wearing his SS uniform at home, she forbade the children to enter certain rooms that were used for Nazi visitors and held Nazi memorabilia referring to them as “the death rooms.” The issue of spousal loyalty reverberates throughout the novel. No matter how abusive he acted at times or as she learned of his Nazi activities she always tried to smooth over their relationship and keep him calm, standing by him. However, by July 1944 when Willem contemplates fleeing with the family to Hanover, Germany, she refuses to allow herself and the children to accompany him.

(Stefan Hertmans)

Hertmans does a masterful job weaving the post war history of how collaborators fled Belgium and how they were treated by the Germans and Belgians upon their return. Roughly 15,000 Flemish citizens fled with another 6,000 Walloons joining them. By integrating so much factual information into the novel it reflects the authenticity of the story as the author fictionalized certain aspects of his work.

The book is segmented into two parts. The first half surrounds Willem’s rise in the Nazi hierarchy and the deeds that would result in his arrest and imprisonment. The second half of the book focuses on the post war period as Willem languishes in prison unrepentant, writing untruths and fantasies in his diaries, while outside, Europe lies in ruins. Hermans describes the boarders who Mientje housed and their futures, and what became of Mientje and her children and the final years of their father. David McKay provides a lucid translation from the Dutch which is illustrated with photographs and other information. Hertmans combination of history and fiction is a powerful reminder that the horrors of World War II are inexhaustibly fascinating and how events that seem beyond our control can result in disaster.

WW2 - WWII German luftwaffe soldiers training with a MG 34 machine gun - probably near Ghent, Belgium Stock Photo

(WWII German Luftwaffe soldiers training with a MG 34 machine gun – probably near Ghent, Belgium)

Doc's Books

A window into Doc Freiberger's library

Author: szfreiberger

THE WIDE WIDE SEA: IMPERIAL AMBITIONS, FIRST CONTACT AND THE FATEFUL FINAL VOYAGE OF CAPTAIN JAMES COOK by Hampton Sides

(Captain James Cook)

(Steel engraving death of Captain James Cook on 14 February 1779 on Hawaii)

THE SIEGE: A SIX DAY HOSTAGE CRISIS AND THE DARING SPECIAL FORCES OPERATION THAT SHOCKED THE WORLD by Ben Macintyre

AFTERMATH: LIFE IN THE FALLOUT OF THE THIRD REICH 1945-1955 by Harald Jahner

NIGHT OF THE ASSASSINS: THE UNTOLD STORY OF HITLER’S PLOT TO KILL FDR, CHURCHILL, AND STALIN by Howard Blum

THE ACHILLES TRAP: SADDAM HUSSEIN, THE CIA, AND THE ORIGINS OF AMERICA’S INVASION OF IRAQ by Steve Coll

DEAD SIMPLE by Peter James

SOUTHERN MAN by Greg Iles

SKIES OF THUNDER: THE DEADLY WORLD WAR II MISSION OVER THE ROOF OF THE WORLD by Caroline Alexander

THE ASCENT by Stefan Hertmans