Meḿoires de guerre

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Larry Loftis

A biography of Dusko Popov, who, as "an operative for the Abwehr, SD, MI5, MI6, and FBI during World War II ... seduced countless women--including agents on both sides--spoke five languages, and was a crack shot, all while maintaining his cover as a Yugoslav diplomat"--Amazon.com. August 1941. Serbian playboy Dusko Popov created a stir at Casino Estoril in Portugal by throwing down an outrageously large baccarat bet to humiliate his opponent. The Serbian was a British double agent, and the money-- which he had just stolen from the Germans-- belonged to the British. Watching at the sideline was none other than Ian Fleming. An operative for the Abwehr, SD, MI5, MI6, and FBI during World War II, Popov seduced countless women, spoke five languages, and was a crack shot. While MI5 desperately needed Popov to deceive the Abwehr about the D-Day invasion, they assured him that a return to the German Secret Service Headquarters in Lisbon would result in torture and execution. He went anyway....

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John Christgau

"They were called aliens and enemies. But the World War II internees John Christgau writes about are shown to be ordinary people victimized by the politics of a global war. The Enemy Alien Internment Program in America was born with the United States' declaration of war on Japan, Germany, and Italy, and lasted until 1946. In all, 31,275 enemy aliens were imprisoned in camps like the one described in this book--Ft. Lincoln, just south of Bismarck, North Dakota. In animated and suspenseful prose, Christgau tells the stories of several individuals who were representative of the internee experience at Ft. Lincoln. The subjects' lives before and after capture--presented in case studies-- tell of encroaching bitterness and sorrow"--Book jacket.

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Sebastian Faulks

A worthy successor to Birdsong' Alain de BottonIn 1942, Charlotte Gray, a young scottish woman, goes to Occupied France on a dual mission: to run an apparently simple errand for a British special oeprations group and to search for her lover, an English airman who has gone missing in action. In the small town of Lavaurette, Sebastian Faulks presents a microcosm of France and its agony in 'the black years'. Here is the full range of collaboration, from the tacit to the enthusistic, as well as examples of extraordinary courage and altruism. Through the local resistance chief Julien, Charlotte meets his father, a Jewish painter whose inspiration has failed him.In a series of shocking narrative climaxes in which the full extent of French collusion in the Nazi holocaust is delineated, Faulks brings the story to a resolution of redemptive love. In the delicacy of its writing, the intimacy of its characterisation and its powerful narrative scenes of harrowing public events, Charlotte Gray is a worthy successor to Birdsong.

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Robert Hopkins Miller

"Robert Hopkins Miller spent nearly one-third of his forty-year Foreign Service career on America's unsuccessful Vietnam venture - from 1962 to the end of the war. This memoir of his career emphasizes his Vietnam years but also covers his postings in Europe and assignments as ambassador to Malaysia, 1977-80, and to Cote d'Ivoire, 1983-86.". "During the war Miller was a member of the mission to Saigon and to the Paris peace negotiations. As one involved in the events of those years, he provides us with fascinating and informative observations of such luminaries as Maxwell Taylor, Henry Cabot Lodge, Philip Habib, William Bundy, David Bruce, Robert Komer, and the South Vietnamese leadership and offers new insights into the conduct of diplomacy during the war. He describes the internal debates and frequent arguments, the tensions and the anguish that went on below the top policy levels in Washington." "Miller supplements personal recollections with documentation from published accounts and official files to give a full picture of life in the Foreign Service during peace and war. He reveals how one diplomat's thinking on Vietnam evolved as America's frustrations grew, and he conveys a sense of how we became entangled in a major conflict."--BOOK JACKET.