"SHE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT" is a fantastic story of a most remarkable woman, Pearl Witherington, an Englishwoman born in Paris of English parents, who carried a deep love and devotion for her adopted country France as great as her love for Britain.   

During the Second World War, Witherington managed to spirit herself, her mother, and two of her sisters out of France to Britain following France's capitulation to Nazi Germany in June 1940.   Three years later, Witherington joined the Special Operations Executive (SOE), trained as an agent and was parachuted into German-occupied France in September 1943.    The book goes on to describe Witherington's achievements in the field over the following year against heavy odds.    Indeed, at one point, the Germans had learned of her identity after the leader of the spy network of which she was a part had been captured by the Gestapo in May 1944.    As a result, a ƒ1,000,000 bounty was put on Witherington's head.    Undeterred, Witherington took on a new code name ('Pauline') and led the SOE Wrestler network in operations against German forces in the Valencay–Issoudun–Châteauroux triangle of central France.     The 4,000 marquisards she organized, armed, and trained would play a significant role in tying down thousands of German soldiers after the Allies had landed in Normandy in June 1944.       

This is a story that seems too incredible to be true.  But it was all too real.    Witherington survived the war, married the man she had long loved (who had also fought with her as a member of the Resistance in 1944), and went on to live a long life.     

"SHE LANDED BY MOONLIGHT" also provides an interesting overview of SOE, how it came to be in July 1940, the opposition it faced from Britain's Secret Intelligence Service (i.e., MI-6), its organizational structure, and the contributions made by SOE's F Section (of which Pearl Witherington was a part) in France towards defeating Nazi Germany.    I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to learn about a true 'Warrior Queen.'

SOE. The Special Operations Executive. Its remit upon its establishment in Britain during the dark days of the summer of 1940 when the Third Reich bestrode the continent of Western Europe from Norway to the Bay of Biscay: to establish an effective resistance against the Nazis in German-occupied Europe. The author of "UNDERCOVER", Patrick Howarth, was himself a member of this unique organization. With considerable skill, he shares with the reader the stories of many of the courageous men and women of SOE who risked their lives across Europe from Norway to France, the Netherlands, Poland (there the Polish resistance had an autonomy and control over operations against the Germans unlike any resistance network elsewhere), the Balkans, and Italy. Later, SOE would establish itself in the Far East and the Southwest Pacific in the war against Japan. 

Anyone who enjoys reading human interest stories and tales of espionage will gain a deep understanding and appreciation for the people who made SOE such a uniquely effective organization, despite the antagonisms it faced from older, more established intelligence agencies in Britain (e.g. the Secret Intelligence Service [SIS] or MI-6), as well as from elements of the British military. 

In essence, "[t]he history of SOE's active service in the Second World War may be deemed to have begun when members of a British military mission were retreating hastily from Poland to Romania in September 1939. It may be thought to have ended when the first white man to be parachuted into Sarawak, and future curator of Sarawak's ethnological museum, accepted the surrender of Japanese forces on 31 October 1945."

"THE GOOD SPY: The Life and Death of Robert Ames" is a book with a dual character which tells a history of U.S. diplomatic and espionage activities in the Middle East during the Cold War. First, it is a story about a most remarkable CIA officer, Robert Ames, who devoted the whole of his 23 year career in the Middle East to helping develop and secure peace in that troubled region through engaging with the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) at a time when the U.S. disavowed any contacts with it. And it is also a story of the evolution of U.S. Middle East policy between the 1960s and the early 1980s. 

Reading "THE GOOD SPY" rekindled some of my earliest memories of the Middle East from the 1970s. And for that reason, it was both refreshing and a much appreciated learning experience to receive from Kai Bird fuller accounts and analyses of events as diverse as the Black September murders in Munich during the 1972 Summer Olympics; the outbreak of the Lebanese Civil War in 1975; the courage Egyptian President Anwar Sadat displayed in his attempts to make peace with Egypt's erstwhile enemy, Israel, which culminated in the Camp David Accords of 1979; and the 2 tragic events of 1983 in Lebanon which profoundly altered the U.S. approach in dealing with what is now (as was then) a seemingly intractable conundrum in the Middle East. 

"THE GOOD SPY" is a book I recommend to anyone who wants to understand why efforts to obtain peace in the Middle East have proved illusory since 1948. It also gives the reader insight into the sincere efforts of Bob Ames (he was one of the CIA's premiere Arabists who spoke fluent Arabic and loved the people of the Middle East and its varied cultures) to help provide a platform from which Israelis and Palestinians could establish ways of peaceful coexistence and reconciliation - and the realization of the 2-state solution and a lasting peace. 

Prior to reading "CHURCH OF SPIES: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler", the opinion I had formed of Pope Pius XII vis-a-vis the Nazis was that he was strongly pro-German (from the time he had served in Germany as Apostolic Nuncio during the 1920s) and was largely indifferent to the fate of the Jews during the Second World War. In spite of his intelligence and long experience in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church, Pius XII (he was Eugenio Pacelli prior to being named Pope in March 1939) had struck me as a 'cold fish.'

But after reading this book, I am beginning to realize that, perhaps, there was much more to Pius XII than met the eye. "CHURCH OF SPIES" lays out, in considerable detail, the history of the resistance movement against Hitler, which began before the war among a number of the German Catholic bishops and lay authorities (along with some members of the German military - e.g., the leadership of the Abwehr or military intelligence) and was given added (albeit indirect) impetus by Pius XII from the earliest days of his pontificate.

Besides Pope Pius XII, the book brings to the fore a number of courageous, resourceful and highly astute individuals from the ranks of the German Catholic hierarchy (as well as the Protestant theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer) and Wehrmacht (German armed forces) who formed the bulwark of a true German anti-Nazi resistance. One of them who most stands out in my mind for his amazing bravery and uncompromising commitment to humane principles, is Josef Müller.

Müller, a First World War veteran and lawyer, had his first brush with the Nazis in 1934. He had been arrested by the Gestapo in February of that year and charged with "a treasonable conspiracy ... punishable by death." Facing his accusers, Müller asserted that there could be no compromise between the Church and the Reich because "each demanded 'the soul of the man.' " Heinrich Himmler, the head of the Schutzstaffel (later to be better known as the SS) was present at Müller's interrogation and asked him if it were true that Müller had suggested to his friend Heinrich Held (the prime minister of Bavaria, where Müller was active in the Bavarian People's Party) during the Nazi takeover of Bavaria that Himmler be shot. Müller said that was so, much to Himmler's surprise! Himmler hadn't seen that coming. He was very much taken aback by Müller's candor. He then offered him a place in the SS. Müller refused, stating that "I am philosophically opposed to you. I am a practicing Catholic, and my brother is a Catholic priest. Where could I find the possibility of compromise there?" Himmler was flummoxed and awed by Müller. He congratulated Müller on his "manly defense" and let him go.

Müller would later become a part of the resistance within Germany and serve as a go-between to Pius XII.

This book, which often read like an espionage thriller, gave me so much to think about concerning the anti-Hitler resistance that, hitherto, I couldn't have imagined existed in Germany to the extent that it did. After all, once Hitler assumed full control of Germany following the death of President Paul von Hindenburg in August 1934, I had long thought after having previously read in years past many other books about the Third Reich, that the Nazis had established a binding, absolute hold over the country. Well, that hold wasn't airtight.

And now that I've read "CHURCH OF SPIES", I would like to know more about the role of Pius XII and the Church in fighting Nazism during the Second World War. My curiosity has been piqued. [As an aside, I am still troubled by the fact that a number of Catholic priests after the War helped Nazi war criminals escape justice in Europe and find sanctuary in South America. Did Pius XII know about or condone their activities? I would like to know the answer to that question. ]

I can't rate this book with 5 stars, however, because the author neglected to include any photos of the principal members of the anti-Hitler resistance. (I would've loved to have been able to place faces with the names of all the resisters that Mark Riebling mentioned throughout the book.) For that reason, I can only rate "CHURCH OF SPIES" with 4 stars.

Of all the works of non-fiction I've read thus far this year, "THE DEVIL'S CHESSBOARD: Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Rise of America's Secret Government" is one of the most profound, sobering, well-researched, and revelatory books I've ever read. At 640 pages, this is a book that demands of the reader a full and earnest commitment. But one should not be deterred by the scope of this book. It has lots of substance to it, is highly readable, and will provide the reader with invaluable insights into how the CIA - and by extension the national security shadowy structure which is undergirded by Wall Street and a coterie of academics, civilian, political & military officials, and conservative-minded monied elites - have exerted for decades a pervasive, coercive power and influence over the U.S. government.

Allen Dulles (1893-1969) stands out in this book as the exemplar of the master power broker, and untiring promoter of "America's Secret Government." Born the second son of a Protestant minister boasting of ancestors who had had distinguished careers in the law, military, and politics (an uncle served as Secretary of State under Woodrow Wilson), Dulles, a Princeton graduate, went on to become a diplomat during the First World War, serving in the U.S. embassy in Bern, Switzerland. After the war, he served (along with his older brother John Foster Dulles) with the American delegation at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, earned a law degree from George Washington University in 1926, and (with John Foster Dulles) built a lucrative career in New York with Sullivan & Cromwell, one of the most powerful law firms in the country. He also ingratiated himself with many social, economic, and political interests in the U.S. and Europe during the interwar years. Both he and John Foster were staunch Republicans who were vigorously anti-New Deal.

With America's entry into the Second World War, Allen Dulles managed to get an appointment with the country's wartime spy agency, the OSS (Office of Strategic Services) as head of the OSS office in Bern from 1942 to war's end. He proceeded to establish his own fiefdom, concerned himself with re-establishing contacts in former business associates in Occupied France and Germany, and even defied FDR's official policy of unconditional surrender through helping to quietly arrange - with the help of high ranking SS officers Karl Wolff and Eugen Dollmann (both of them war criminals that Dulles protected postwar from prosecution) - a separate peace in Italy on May 2, 1945 (six days before the unconditional surrender of all German forces in Europe). Dulles certainly should have been relieved of his OSS position or reprimanded. But he had his protectors in different areas of the federal government who shared Dulles' political beliefs and uncompromising anti-Communism. So, he was well-protected through most of his public service career, which reached its height during the Eisenhower years, when he was made CIA Director.

Much of the nefarious and shady activities for which the CIA became known were developed and encouraged by Allen Dulles. Examples: the 1953 coup in Iran (the CIA overthrew a popularly elected nationalist government and put Shah Reza Pahlavi back on the throne), the 1954 coup in Guatemala (another "success" with the ouster of the freely elected Jacobo Arbenz leftist progressive government and replacing it with a military junta supportive of U.S. interests), the MKULTRA program (a top secret mind control research project that often used ordinary citizens as unwitting guinea pigs), and Operation Mockingbird - a program through which the CIA poured millions of dollars to influence the output and distribution of news by media organizations throughout the U.S. and the West. At the same time, John Foster Dulles served as Secretary of State, exerting an uncompromising anti-Soviet, iron-fisted grip over U.S. foreign policy til his death from stomach cancer in 1959.

Eisenhower pretty much gave Allen Dulles a free hand in running the CIA. So long as broad policy goals and objectives as developed in Washington were met, that is what mattered most. The U.S. developed during the 1950s an informal empire on the cheap, which was "a product of Ike's desire to avoid another large-scale shooting war as well as the imperial burdens that had bankrupted Great Britain."

With the election of John F. Kennedy as President in 1960 and the coming of the New Frontier a year later, a sea change took hold in Washington. Allen Dulles didn't think much of Kennedy's capacity for leadership, dismissing him as too young and inexperienced to run his Administration. Following the failure of the Bay of Pigs undertaking (which was created during the waning days of the Eisenhower Administration and enlisted support from anti-Castro Cuban exiles and elements of the Mafia, which had lost its gambling monopoly in Cuba once Castro had closed down all the gambling casinos and nationalized mob-owned property; from the book, I learned how badly planned the operation was - that surprised me!; Dulles had anticipated Kennedy using the U.S. military to mount a full-scale invasion of the island and thus ensure the success of the CIA plan) --- for which President Kennedy assumed full responsibility (as a result, his approval ratings shot upward to 83%) --- JFK "took ... steps [by early 1962] to signal that the Dulles era was over and that the CIA would no longer be allowed to run wild; he placed overseas agents under the control of U.S. ambassadors and shifted responsibility for future paramilitary operations like the Bay of Pigs to the Pentagon. It was the Kennedy brothers, not the Dulles brothers, who now ran Washington."

President Kennedy would remove Dulles from his post at the CIA in November 1961. But Allen Dulles did not go quietly into that good night. As always, he "saw himself as above the nation's laws and elected leaders, manipulating and subverting American presidents in the pursuit of his personal interests and those of the wealthy elite he counted as his friends and clients."

President Kennedy would make a lot of enemies among the Wall Street cliques and business interests who came to see him as a national security threat. His handling of the Cuban Missile Crisis and his "Peace Speech" at American University (June 10th, 1963) proved to be the last straw. Within the secret state, a clear consensus emerged: "For the good of the country, [President Kennedy] must be removed. And Dulles was the only man with the stature, connections, and decisive will to make something of this enormity happen. He had already assembled a killing machine to operate overseas. Now he prepared to bring it home to Dallas. All that his establishment colleagues had to do was to look the other way - as they always did when Dulles took executive action."

Should the reader of this critique opt to read "The Devil's Chessboard", I leave it to him/her to reach their own conclusions about Allen Dulles, the CIA, and the Secret Government that is with us still.