The Unseen War in Europe; Espionage and Conspiracy in the Second World War

New York, N.Y.: Random House, 1996. First Edition [stated]. Hardcover. Very good/Good. [12], 475, [7] pages. Illustrations. Footnotes. Source notes. Bibliography. Index. DJ has some wear and soiling. John Henry Waller (May 8, 1923 - November 4, 2004) was an American historian and author, as well as the Inspector General of the Central Intelligence Agency from 1976 to 1980. In 1943, Waller began serving in the Office of Strategic Services, working in counterespionage. From 1947 to 1953, Waller served as vice-consul with the United States Foreign Service in Iran. He was a special assistant to the ambassador in New Delhi, India from 1955 to 1957 and from 1968 to 1971. Waller served in Khartoum, Sudan from 1960 to 1960, then as an analyst in the United States Department of State from 1962 to 1968. Waller was Chief of the CIA's Near East Division from 1971 to 1975, then Inspector General of the Agency from 1976 to 1980. During his career he was awarded the Distinguished Intelligence Medal and the National Civil Service Award. During his tenure as Inspector General, Waller led the CIA's internal investigation of the arms for Libya case involving CIA agents Edwin P. Wilson and Frank E. Terpil. His report exonerated senior intelligence officials Theodore Shackley, deputy to the director of clandestine operations, and Thomas Clines, director of training in the clandestine services. In retirement, he became a full-time writer. Among the books he authored were Gordon of Khartoum, Beyond the Khyber Pass: The Road to British Disaster in the First Afghan War, The Unseen War in Europe, and The Devil's Doctor: Felix Kersten and the Secret Plot to Turn Himmler Against Hitler. Derived from a Kirkus review: Outdoing the best spy fiction, former CIA inspector general Waller tells a series of riveting stories about the hidden war between the Germans and the Allies in WW II. From the beginning, the intelligence war was a central element of the conflict. Waller relates some well-known stories, like the breaking of the British naval fleet codes by the Germans, which contributed to the great success of the Nazi U-boat effort, and the similar breaking of the German Enigma enciphering machine by Allied intelligence, which allowed the British to anticipate German strategy on the continent. He offers speculations on the intelligence background of WW II riddles like the Hess flight to Scotland and the assassination of Reinhold Heydrich, one of the most violent and ambitious members of Himmler's inner circle. Waller also travels some less familiar ground, particularly in his detailed profile of Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the brilliant, enigmatic head of the Abwehr, the military intelligence unit of the German Ministry of War. Canaris despised Nazism, secretly assisted the Allied war effort, and ultimately participated in the doomed 1944 attempt to assassinate Hitler. Waller also describes Operation X, which used Pius XII, an old friend of Canaris's, to help relay messages from the German Resistance movement to British intelligence; the ``Venlo incident'' in 1939, which cost Britain virtually its entire intelligence network on the continent; Allen Dulles's secret work as a ``special representative'' of FDR in Switzerland; and the intelligence intrigues surrounding the implementation of Hitler's invasion of France and his plan to invade the Soviet Union. More than a deft account of some some intriguing spy stories, Waller's history reminds us how crucial intelligence operations were to the war in Europe and to the Allies' ultimate success.