Thomas F. (hardtack) -
A very interesting account of a too-close-to-even-think-about attempt to assassinate three major Allied leaders during World War II. For years, I've read short allusions to this plot in other books on WW II, and now I know the real story.
Right up until almost the last day of the Tehran conference there was still one team of German soldiers who were loose and dedicated to the attempt.
There are also so many other stories interwoven in the book, such as the Russian who had assumed the identity of a German soldier and was serving in German counterintelligence on the Eastern front.
It was also interesting to read the author's final chapters in which he speculates how the world would have changed if the attempt to kill the three leaders, or even one of them, has succeeded. The author also follows many of the participants in this drama into their later lives.
For example, I knew Henry Wallace, the U.S. vice-president at the time, was very left-leaning and probably would not have opposed the communist threat after WWII as Harry Truman did. If FDR had been killed then, the world today would be a very different place.
Right up until almost the last day of the Tehran conference there was still one team of German soldiers who were loose and dedicated to the attempt.
There are also so many other stories interwoven in the book, such as the Russian who had assumed the identity of a German soldier and was serving in German counterintelligence on the Eastern front.
It was also interesting to read the author's final chapters in which he speculates how the world would have changed if the attempt to kill the three leaders, or even one of them, has succeeded. The author also follows many of the participants in this drama into their later lives.
For example, I knew Henry Wallace, the U.S. vice-president at the time, was very left-leaning and probably would not have opposed the communist threat after WWII as Harry Truman did. If FDR had been killed then, the world today would be a very different place.
