Our Man in New York: The British Plot to Bring America into the Second World War

by Henry Hemming

'A revelatory and wholly fascinating work of history. Superbly researched and written with gripping fluency, this lost secret of World War II espionage finally has its expert chronicler.' - WILLIAM BOYD

'Gripping and intoxicating, it unfolds like the best screenplay.' - NICHOLAS SHAKESPEARE

'This is excellent, surprising and timely. Henry is a proper talent.' - DAN SNOW

'This is a fascinating and gripping book, and deserves to be a big hit on both sides of the Atlantic.' - JOHN O'FARRELL

'In Hemming's sure hands, America's uncertain progress towards direct engagement in the second world war becomes riveting history.' - SPECTATOR

'A galloping story that Henry Hemming tells with clarity and aplomb.' - NEW STATESMAN

The gripping story of a propaganda campaign like no other: the covert British operation to manipulate American public opinion and bring the US into the Second World War.

When William Stephenson - "our man in New York" - arrived in the United States towards the end of June 1940 with instructions from the head of MI6 to 'organise' American public opinion, Britain was on the verge of defeat. Surveys showed that just 14% of the US population wanted to go to war against Nazi Germany. But soon that began to change...

Those campaigning against America's entry into the war, such as legendary aviator Charles Lindbergh, talked of a British-led plot to drag the US into the conflict. They feared that the British were somehow flooding the American media with 'fake news', infiltrating pressure groups, rigging opinion polls and meddling in US politics.

These claims were shocking and wild: they were also true.

That truth is revealed here for the first time by bestselling author Henry Hemming, using hitherto private and classified documents, including the diaries of his own grandparents, who were briefly part of Stephenson's extraordinary influence campaign that was later described in the Washington Post as 'arguably the most effective in history'. Stephenson - who saved the life of Hemming's father - was a flawed maverick, full of contradictions, but one whose work changed the course of the war, and whose story can now be told in full.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Espionage, World War II, War, Politics, Biography

384 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 30, 2019

About the author

Henry Hemming is the author of 7 works of non-fiction including the New York Times bestseller 'The Ingenious Mr Pyke', and the Sunday Times bestseller 'M'. He has written for publications including The Washington Post, The Sunday Times, The Economist and The Times, and lives in London with his wife and children.

Reviews

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

A book that tells the story of British attempts to get the United States involved in WW2, presented largely through the actions of three characters. Bill Stephenson was born into poverty in Winnipeg in 1897. During WW1 he became a fighter pilot “ace” and was commissioned as an officer. He was one of those people for whom war offered opportunities that would not have arisen otherwise. After a chequered but ultimately successful business career between the wars, he became head of the M.I.6 operation in New York, tasked with influencing U.S. public opinion in favour of intervention. In the opposite corner was of course Charles Lindbergh, the leading spokesman in favour of isolationism. Playing a supporting role in this drama was William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a U.S. military hero and convinced interventionist.

It’s the author’s contention that, between May 1940 and November 1941, American public opinion shifted from being overwhelmingly opposed to intervention, to having a majority in favour of joining the war at some point, even if not immediately. He also argues that this shift came about via unscrupulous propaganda tactics used by Stephenson and his team, and draws parallels between these and the “Russian interference” tactics during the 2016 US presidential election.

I must say that the book was revelatory for me, in its description of the high-risk tactics used by Stephenson. During 1940 his team were largely passive, as his superiors in London were terrified that any hint of interference in the presidential election that year would cause a major backlash in the U.S. Once Roosevelt was re-elected though, Stephenson “went rogue”, and carried out activities that his London superiors were unaware of. Some of the most remarkable included preparing expertly forged documents suggesting that Nazi Germany was trying to organise a coup in Bolivia, and later on a forged map that suggested Germany planned to take over Latin America after the conclusion of the European War. Stephenson also supplied funding to U.S. interventionist groups, and engaged in wire-tapping and other illegal activities on American soil.

The author didn’t convince me though, that the shift to a pro-war stance in America was down to the activities of the British. Stephenson’s work was part of the picture, no doubt, but I think Roosevelt’s own opinions and actions played a bigger part. During the 1940 election Roosevelt promised American voters he would not send their sons to a foreign war. Following his re-election he did everything just short of that, with a gradually escalating series of measures, which, by the autumn of 1941, meant that America was anything but a neutral power. Hemming makes the point, correctly I think, that Roosevelt’s breaches of US neutrality laws would probably have justified his impeachment. I think his actions came from his own personal convictions though, and it was those actions which had the biggest effect on American attitudes.

There’s an interesting last section in which the author looks at Japan’s attack on America. He dismisses conspiracy theories that Roosevelt knew in advance of the Pearl Harbor attack, but argues that, in a more general sense, Roosevelt made no serious attempt to reduce tensions with Japan, and this was because he saw a Japanese Declaration of War as a likely means by which the USA could also participate in the war against Nazi Germany, something he saw as a necessary evil. He therefore argues against the commonly held view that America was “dragged” into the war.

Overall I thought this book was a bit tendentious, but it was entertainingly written and opened my eyes to a lot of new information. For those reasons I'm going with a four-star rating.

[Faith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book describes the propaganda campaign by the British (sometimes with the cooperation of Americans) to influence American public opinion about pursuing a war with Germany. Bill Stephenson was a Canadian who went to work for MI6 and was sent to New York to become part of an influence and misinformation campaign. At times he worked with both J. Edgar Hoover and Bill Donovan, with the knowledge of President Roosevelt. Roosevelt knew that America had to get into the war, he just needed more public support for the inevitable. Part of Stephenson’s work involved countering the influence of Charles Lindbergh and other isolationists. The Nazis had their own influence campaign. Germans passed misinformation to Lindbergh. Also, German propaganda was inserted into the Congressional record with the cooperation of a congressman and then sent out to US citizens chosen by the German embassy as an official government record. However, the British influence was much more involved.

There were fake horoscopes predicting Hitler’s death. Counterfeit letters and maps were created “proving” that Germany was threatening Latin America. Fake news was disseminated. The epilogue draws parallels between the Russian influence during the 2016 election and the British influence campaign during WWII. The author somewhat disingenuously differentiates the two operations, but it all depends upon whose side you are on. In each case, US public opinion was manipulated. The book was interesting and well written. The author’s narration of the audio book was very good. I found the whole “end justifies the means” thing very disturbing though. “Heroism” is truly in the eye of the beholder. You really can’t believe anything.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Having enjoyed Henry Hemmin’s previous book, “Agent M: The Lives and Spies of MI5’s Maxwell Knight,” I was keen to read his latest, about British attempts to bring America into WWII.

‘Our Man in New York,’ was William (Bill) Stephenson, who was sent to the US in June 1940, with instructions from MI6 to ‘organise’ American public opinion. Hemming has personal history with Stephenson, who saved his father, when he was three years old, from drowning and, subsequently, became his Godfather. However, it is Stephenson’s time in New York that interests the reader.

In 1940, when Stephenson headed for the States, Britain stood alone. Public opinion was very much against entering the war, with American hero, Charles Lindbergh, heading the America First, isolationist, camp. However, Stephenson was a man with money and, having put a rather difficult childhood behind him – after being adopted, when his mother could no longer afford to care for him – he took MI6 as his new family. An elite, powerful family, where he felt that he belonged.

With the Blitz, many people in America, respected Britain and felt they could ‘take it,’ but, presumably without American help. Churchill, though, was desperate for America to enter the war and, although Roosevelt was unwilling to declare war without provocation, he was desperate for an excuse to do so.

This, then, is the story of Britain’s attempts to gain the support, and financial help, of America. It involves spying, dirty tricks and fraud. It also involves familiar names, such as Ian Fleming, David Mackenzie Ogilvy (the father of advertising, who sneakily inserted the odd extra question into Gallup polls), and Roald Dahl. With Churchill like a ‘naughty schoolboy,’ who had seen the exam papers before a test, and willing to approve almost any scheme, the spymasters did all they could to sway public opinion and encourage a country to fight for freedom.

At times, this book is very funny. There are moments when the British fake documents which have the Germany High Command almost incandescent with rage, as they are unveiled as factual. Other times, this is poignant and moving. Lindbergh, once an American hero, misjudges his audience completely and the ugly spectre of Anti-Semitism rears its ugly, and all too familiar, head. However, having read this, it is certainly obvious that Stephenson not only saved the life of one small boy, but helped save freedom in Europe. He, and his team, were tireless in their efforts to bring America on side and to make them appreciate that, not only Britain, but Russia, was worth fighting for. A fascinating, well written and inspiring book.

[Morgan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Much of the content in this book (such as Charles Lindbergh’s Nazi sympathies) is well known and has been widely written about previously. Lindbergh is almost the star of this book in some ways.

The author affirms copious research, however, it appears to me that a great deal still depends on the author’s speculation(s) and supposition(s).

Page 4 – Preface – “By 1940, the term ‘fake news’ was being used in the press……”
If anyone on GR can confirm &/or corroborate this for me I would greatly appreciate it.

The best part of the book is the Afterword where the author discusses the comparisons between 1940 and 2016’s use of ‘fake news’.


Note to Terence – because you mentioned “One of my very favourite books is "A Man Called Intrepid" - (5 Stars!). I thought I’d share this with you: According to Henry Hemming: Pg.319 – “A Man Called Intrepid”, came out in 1976 and sold more than two million copies. It was popular, pacey and so inaccurate that allegedly its US publisher later had it reissued as a work of fiction.” Pg.320: “Stephenson was never codenamed ‘Intrepid’.

[Gram · Rating 5 out of 5]

In 1940 and 1941, British spies resorted to forgery, fake news and outright lies to sway US opinion in favour of supporting the British against Nazi Germany and bringing the US into the war.
At the beginning of hostilities, opinion polls showed that only 14% of Americans were in favour of war against Germany, but in June 1940 William "Bill" Stephenson arrived in the USA with instructions from the head of MI6 to "organise" American public opinion.
Americans were divided into two camps - the isolationists and the interventionists. The former were opposed to American involvement in a war in Europe.
The legendary aviator, Charles Lindbergh and several US Senators, supported America First, a small group which grew to have 800,000 members dedicated to preventing America going to war.
Using recently declassified files and private papers, including those of his own grandparents, author Henry Hemming details how Bill Stephenson - "Our Man In New York" - helped change American attitudes. Stephenson, a man with a chequered past, started out with only a handful of staff in an organisation called the British Security Coordination (BSC). He began by establishing contact with J Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI and went on to influence William "Wild Bill" Donovan - who would become Coordinator of Information (COI), in charge of an intelligence and propaganda agency of the United States Government. Before too long, Britain was directing the work of Donovan and his organisation which, to all intents and purposes, was "an Anglo-American enterprise".
The extent of this influence was probably illegal. One person who realised what was happening was a US State Department official, Adolf Berle. He compiled a dossier on Stephenson and the BSC, using it at a meeting with President Roosevelt in September 1941. Roosevelt's reaction to Berle's complaints was "curiously flat" and it was only towards the end of their meeting that he told Berle "to make the British Intelligence calm down here". However, Roosevelt's next move was to prioritise aid to Russia and in this he was guided by Bill Donovan with Bill Stephenson pulling the strings. For example, Stephenson had the Polish Government In Exile, then based in London, to lie about Russia's religious persecution in their country and soon afterwards, planes, tanks and war materials were being sent to the Soviet Union on a monthly basis.
The British had already planted scores of fake news stories in the US media and throughout the world, using bribery as well as employing sympathetic journalists. They encouraged American interventionist groups to disrupt America First rallies and provoke confrontation with the isolationists. Stephenson also enabled the rigging of public opinion polls, including those of the much respected Gallup organisation. The BSC had a forgery section which faked documents “revealing” plans for a Nazi coup in Bolivia and Germany's plans for the whole of Latin America in the event of war. One of those who worked on forged documents was the world famous entertainer, Eric Maschwitz, who wrote "A Nightingale Sang In Berkely Square". Before he became a famous author, Roald Dahl also worked for the BSC. However, the author makes clear that, although this was a British spying operation, it was one in which large parts of the US administration participated, including the President of the United States. Indeed, it could be argued that Roosevelt's knowledge of Stephenson and Donovan's efforts could have led to his impeachment. The world famous author Ian Fleming, who was also involved in intelligence work during World War II, once wrote: “James Bond is a highly romanticised version of a true story. The real thing is . . . William Stephenson.”
Meanwhile, Charles Lindbergh had some sort of paranoid breakdown and in a speech at an America First rally, he identified the forces pulling America into the war as the British, the Roosevelt administration, and American Jews. Lindbergh went on to suggest that American Jews should be opposed to intervention as they would be "among the first to feel its consequences". He added: "Their greatest danger to this country lies in their large ownership and influence in our motion pictures, our press, our radio, and our government." As a result of his speech, Lindbergh and America First were heavily criticised in the American media and their numbers began to decline.
In the final months of 1941, US public opinion was firmly on the side of a war against Nazi Germany and 4 days after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, Hitler declared war on the United States.
Hemming ends the book with a warning from history, pointing to the current US president's use of the "America First" slogan and his isolationist policies along with the involvement of Putin's Russia in trying to influence the outcome of the US presidential election. William Donovan, who became the chief of the Office of Strategic Service (OSS) has called the British Security Coordination (BSC) "the greatest integrated secret intelligence and operations organization that has ever existed anywhere" - a fitting tribute to Bill Stephenson and his staff.
My thanks to the publisher Quercus and NetGalley for a copy of this book in return for an unbiased review.

[Ian Beardsell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemming brings us into the early months of WWII, a time when Britain is bending under the terrific strain of impending invasion, and President Roosevelt is cautiously talking with Prime Minister Churchill on the seeds of the Lend-Lease agreement to help Britain's war resources shortage, whilst he treads carefully around public opinion. Americans are thinking of America First and reluctant to enter another European conflict.

Then a mysterious, low-key Canadian by the name of William Stephenson is sent to New York in the summer of 1940 by MI6. He is tasked with finding means to shift public and government opinion in the US so that their sometime ally comes once more into a war with Britain, this time to defeat Hitler, before it's too late.

Hemming has gift for storytelling and a bit of a flair for the dramatic, and he also has a unique insight into Bill Stephenson, as the latter was a friend of his British grandparents. He leads us through the machinations of this quiet character, who at first doesn't have much experience with spycraft, but given a great number of resources and a fair amount of leeway, Stephenson learns to quietly pull the right levers in American public opinion, eventually drowning out protests of the America First crowd of Charles Lindbergh with enthusiastic interventionists.

If you are interested in WWII history, and the characters who helped bring the USA in as a British ally, much of it is here from a slightly different perspective. We see the familiar events unfold: Lend-Lease, the North Atlantic meeting in Newfoundland, all the way up to Pearl Harbor, while we meet the familiar characters: Roosevelt, Wendell Wilkie, Bill Donovan, Lords Lothian and Halifax and more. Sometimes we may think that the overall WWII timeline was somewhat inevitable, but we can start to imagine that, especially for a very worried British public and Prime Minister Churchill in June-July 1940, it might have gone quite a different way.

[Henri · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a brilliant book that i couldn't put down for the short duration that i was reading it.

It's a superb story of a British attempt to drag the USA into the WW2 by influencing its government and changing the popular belief of the time from strongly isolationist to a heavily interventionist one in the space of 12 months. The book mainly revolves around the key Briton and his far-reaching network although quite brilliantly Hemming manages to steer away from this becoming a biography. It is also very timely as parallels can be made (and indeed are made by the author in the conclusion) to the Russian infuence campaign on the US elections in 2016. We are living in the time when information can be and is faked and manipulated by foreign powers for their own advantage. It also finally provides a concrete argument against those claiming that Russia post 2011 is the first time we really moved into the age of post-truth.

This is written in the style of Ben Macintyre and maybe has something Max Hastingy about it too. An unputdownable non-fiction story of this nature always pleases me. Only read M from this author and expected a lot from this book, was glad to see that the expectations were justified and the wait for the book was worth it.

I spent a few nights without sleeping going through this and it is definitely going in my top 5 history books of 2019 list unless i read 5 groundbreaking history books in the next few months or so.

5 fat stars.

[Ell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Riveting book! Agents of Influence: A British Campaign, A Canadian Spy, and the Secret Plot to Bring America into World War II had me at page one! Author Henry Hemming begins this tale with memories of hearing about the Canadian born man that saved his father’s life in a pond in Britain. Depending on who recounted the story, the small details would change but the big details, the meat and bones of the story, never wavered. The fate of his father’s life was determined in one moment by one single man who chose to save him. Years later, during WW II, this very man would be working for Britain’s foreign intelligence agency, crossing a much bigger pond to North America in a covert effort to save more lives in the war effort. Once again, depending on who told the story, the details would change, but never the meat and bones of what took place. Newly declassified British records tell the true story of his undercover operation. If you are interested in WW II history or learning more about the man Ian Fleming credited as an inspiration for his James Bond character, this book is for you!

[Steven Z. · Rating 5 out of 5]

At a time when many Americans fear the impact of foreign interference in our elections, be it what the Russians did in 2016, or what may be in store for 2020 there is an excellent historical example of such a campaign on foreign soil that tried to sway Americans and help make entrance into World War II against Nazi Germany palatable. The example I am alluding to is the subject of Henry Hemming’s new book, AGENTS OF INFLUENCE: A BRITISH CAMPAIGN, A CANADIAN SPY, AND THE SECRET PLOT TO BRING AMERICA INTO WORLD WAR II.

By June 11, 1940 a week after the British evacuation from Dunkirk allied shipping losses in the Atlantic had reached over 1,135,263 tons. At the same time the German army outnumbered the British army 4.3 to 1.6 million. In another month the Germans would launch the Luftwaffe against London in a “blitz” that would last almost a year. The Churchill government faced long odds in overcoming the Nazi onslaught and the only hope to offset a disaster would be American entrance into the war, but in May 1940 only 7% of Americans favored doing so. The British proceeded to send 700 crates of gold bullion along with a spy named William Stephenson to the United States. Interestingly, the author’s grandfather, Harold Hemming, a major in the Royal Artillery was a friend of the newly minted British spy, and along with his wife Alice would carry out a number of missions which included visiting American military bases and presenting a series of demonstrations revealing the intricacies of flash-spotting, a technique designed to locate German artillery, and lecturing soldiers what it was like to live in Nazi Germany.

Hemming does an excellent job recounting the business career that led Stephenson to be recruited by MI6 and chosen as Chief of Station with his main office in New York. His task was to foster a climate that would allow Washington to declare war on Nazi Germany. Hemming writes with an easy flair that allows the reader to become engrossed in how the British went about trying to surreptitiously convince the American people to favor entering the European war and pressuring their government to do so. Stephenson’s task was not an easy one due to isolationist sentiment created by the Nye Commission which delved into the profits of munitions companies and other corporations from W.W.I., Neutrality legislation that hamstrung President Roosevelt, and a growing belief flamed by Charles Lindbergh that the British could not defeat Germany so it would be a waste for the US to enter the war.*

The British were not the only ones who were trying to manipulate American opinion. Hans Thomsen, the German Charge d’affair in Washington was developing his own propaganda machine to keep the US out of the war, in addition to convincing a Montana Congressman and Senator to read pro-German material into the Congressional Record and using their congressional franking privilege to disseminate these views by mail to their constituents. He was also able to bribe 50 Republican congressman, including New York’s influential legislator Hamilton Fish who attended the Republican National Convention to oppose entrance into the war. “At the time the most extensive foreign intervention – direct intervention – ever in an American election campaign.” Until Trump!

Hemmings examines Lindbergh’s role in speaking out in favor of Nazi Germany very carefully tracing his views from the time of his son’s kidnapping and death. Lindbergh would testify before Congress numerous times against legislation like the Destroyer-Base Deal and Lend-Lease both designed to assist the British navy whose merchant shipping was being shredded by Nazi submarines and the fact they were slowly going bankrupt. The German embassy would mail Lindbergh’s speeches all across America to gain US domestic support. Lindbergh would become the leading “isolationist” spokesperson in the country and a central figure in the “America First Committee” movement.

After describing what Stephenson was up against, including his own government who did not want to interfere in American politics as the 1940 election approached, the man in charge of British propaganda operations and returning refugees back to Europe as agents was ordered to hold back and not institute any radical plans. Stephenson did have an ally, the British ambassador to the US, Lord Lothian who worked assiduously and ignored Foreign Office instructions to try and lobby Washington. When Lothian died suddenly, Stephenson was left with Lord Halifax, a former Foreign Secretary and appeaser who Churchill sent to America to get him out of his cabinet. Hemmings has unearthed a number of interesting commentaries presented throughout the book, for example, referring to Halifax as a “foxhunting aristocrat” who would not be well received in administration circles.

Once FDR is reelected in 1940 and he was able to get Lend-Lease passed it was clear that the president wanted to get the US into the war against Hitler’s forces. He went so far as to have the US Navy patrol the North Atlantic hoping to create a casus belli to enter the war. It was at this time that Stephenson, who had been put in charge of all MI6 activities in the western hemisphere, head the Special Operations Executive (SOE) nicknamed the “Ministry of Gentlemanly Warfare,” run MI5, British Passport Control and any propaganda dealing with the war effort, to take off the gloves and disregard his own Foreign Office.

An aspect that Hemming develops in full is the relationship of General William J. Donovan and Stephenson. Donovan was a close friend of FDR and had the president’s ear. Stephenson felt his relationship with the FBI did not deal with Nazi penetration enough and he sought to help develop a partner in the United States for MI6 in dealing with joint intelligence. Stephenson worked to convince Donovan, who at first was skeptical, to pitch the idea to FDR. Soon Donovan became Stephenson’s conduit to FDR leaving out J. Edgar Hoover.

One of the most fascinating aspects of the narrative is the role played by Wendell Willkie who ran for president against FDR in 1940. Willkie spent most of the campaign as an “interventionist,” but under pressure from Republican isolationists he switched his position. However, once he was defeated, he once again switched positions and became one of the administrations most important spokespersons favoring intervention. Some have questioned why he changed positions. Hemming points out that that FDR might have threatened to expose his long affair with Irita van Doren, but no matter the motivation he became what Secretary of State Cordell Hull characterized as a strategic weapon used by the administration to help the British.

Adolph Berle, a long-time ally of FDR and in charge of US intelligence operations did not want to intervene to help the British and conducted a series of investigations into Stephenson’s growing spy network and he wanted to shut it down. This provoked Stephenson into launching an all-out attack on American isolationists. Hemming delineates Stephenson’s new strategy aside from spreading pro-British propaganda. Agents were dispatched to infiltrate America First organizations as well as those in favor of intervention to create support for the British. The best of his agents was Joseph Hirschberg who escaped Belgium before the Nazis arrived. An orthodox Jew who lost most of his family in the death camps he was involved with assassinations and worked to subsidize “Non-Sectarian Anti-Nazi League to Champion Human Rights.” This was not the only organization Stephenson funded along with creating violent showdowns between protesters on both sides to drown out coverage of Lindbergh’s speeches in daily newspapers. Another tactic employed was called “sibs,” meaning rumors from the Latin sibillare, to whisper. The approach was simple, make up events, mostly anti-Nazi and have them investigated by newsmen and plant them in the media, for example, photos of Nazi atrocities, stories about the capture of German pilots behind enemy lines, convince shipping companies executives concerning German saboteurs, etc. This became quite effective as agents would tell people things in “strictest confidence, that’s the best way to start a rumor.” Another effective tactic was the creation, in conjunction with Donovan of a forgery unit under the auspices of a Hollywood screen writer, Eric Mashwitz outside Toronto designed to produce as many faked documents and news as possible.

A key for Stephenson and the Roosevelt administration was to directly link Berlin with spying on the United States. Henry Hoke, a direct mail specialist stumbled on Thomsen’s franking scheme. For Stephenson this was a direct link between the Nazis and isolationists. Another hopeful episode was conjuring up a scheme that linked Berlin to a coup in Columbia involving forgeries and other strategies.
One of the most interesting aspects of the book is Hemmings discussion of Stephenson’s role in trying to create a mirror MI6 in the United States. A number of interesting characters emerge, including Ian Fleming. Stephenson did not give up on Donovan as the head of an American spy organization until he finally agreed to become the new Coordinator of Intelligence (COI). The result is that the British had a tremendous impact on the creation of the OSS during the war, which would morph into the CIA in 1947. Another fascinating component to the narrative is how Hemming lays out step by step how Stephenson developed his own organization that created the right atmosphere for Washington to enter the war in Europe; facilitated American aid to Great Britain; helped beat back and unearth the isolationists; and developing a conduit to FDR.

Perhaps the greatest error made by isolationists was a speech given by Lindbergh on September 11, 1941. Lindbergh followed a speech given by FDR the same day involving the USS Greer which had engaged a Nazi submarine in the North Atlantic signaling the onset of a shooting war between Washington and Berlin. Lindbergh’s address in Des Moines, IA where he blamed the real “war agitators” as being the British, the Jews, and the Roosevelt administration. He continued with a number of anti-Semitic remarks focusing on the price Jews would pay should a civil war break out in the United States over entrance into the war, as well as a number of anti-Semitic tropes. This led to a backlash against Lindbergh that his movement never recovered from. Hemmings conclusion that Lindbergh was correct that there was someone or something behind the scenes was agitating for war, but it was Stephenson, not the Jews.

Hemmings picture of FDR’s actions is quite interesting. Like Lincoln during the Civil War, the president can be accused of committing impeachable offenses. In Hemmings view that conclusion fits FDR’s actions in securing Lend-Lease, the Destroyer-Base Deal, the American intelligence relationship with the British, instructing Donovan to setup public opinion polls to ascertain what the public thought of certain policies before they were instituted, and trying to foment incidents with the Germans that would make her declare war against the United States. If these were not impeachable, at a minimum FDR was pushing the envelope.

Hemming has written a crisp and easily read description of how the British successfully influenced American policy leading up to WWII. Stephenson’s work was the key as was his working relationship with Donovan and indirectly with FDR. In addition, by December, 1941 polls reflected what Churchill and Roosevelt had hoped for, the American people were ready for war. If you are interested in the onerous debate and how public opinion was transformed by a foreign power this book is very timely.

*See Philip Roth’s novel THE PLOT AGAINST AMERICA whose counterfactual story centers on the defeat of FDR in the 1940 election by Charles Lindbergh.

[Mal Warwick · Rating 5 out of 5]

In The Splendid and the Vile, a moving and revealing account of Winston Churchill’s leadership during the Blitz, Erik Larson makes much of the Prime Minister’s dogged campaign to persuade Franklin Roosevelt to drag the United States into the defense of Britain. Historians concur that Churchill’s influence on the President played a major role in bringing about American intervention in the European war. But few observers and analysts remark about another factor that may well have been more decisive: British interference in American politics in 1940 and 41 that helped shift public opinion from isolationism to engagement. Because FDR had perfected to a fine art the practice of “leading from behind.” And that’s central to the story so ably told by Henry Hemming in Agents of Influence.

In 1976, a sensational bestseller titled A Man Called Intrepid hit bookshelves. Written by a Canadian writer named William Stevenson (1924-2013), the book purported to tell the story of William Stephenson (1897-1989), who had run Britain’s MI6 station in New York City during the crucial years 1940-41. (The spy and the author were not related.) Unfortunately, as Hemming reveals in his much more recent book about Stephenson, Intrepid was riddled with inaccuracies, omissions, and exaggerations. Apparently, the writer relied heavily on Stephenson’s own questionable account of his work, which Agents of Influence seeks to dispel. But the real story may be even more dramatic, as recently declassified documents have shown.

The real story of British interference in American politics

Working out of New York, Bill Stephenson led a team of undercover agents, sympathetic Americans, and support staff that eventually topped 1,000 in number. Together, they spread fake news, propagated rumors through whispering campaigns, forged documents that undermined America First and vilified Nazi Germany, picketed and disrupted isolationist events, and marshaled public support for FDR to send fifty aged destroyers to Britain and later for Lend-Lease and the Selective Service Act of 1940.

As Hemming writes, “Bill Stephenson had now set up an office dedicated to spreading fake, distorted or inaccurate stories, a rumour factory that was so big, so busy, and was putting out so many stories—on average twenty a day—that he had recently registered it with the State Department under a cover name. . . . Behind this facade was the pre-internet equivalent of a troll farm.” In fact, the British effort was so extensive that its scope would surely dwarf Russian interference in the 2016 Presidential election.

Hemming sums up the result: “When this British influence campaign came to life, shortly after the evacuation from Dunkirk in June 1940, one poll suggested that just 8 per cent of the American population wanted to go to war. Eighteen months later, just weeks before Pearl Harbor, another poll showed that more than two-thirds of Americans had decided it was time to go to war against Nazi Germany.” But this bare-bones summary doesn’t come close to capturing the sheer audacity of British interference in American politics. Hemming terms it “the largest state-sponsored influence campaign ever run on American soil.”

A blue-ribbon cast of characters

To understand the scope of Bill Stephenson’s campaign, consider the cast of leading characters who figure in Agents of Influence:

Bill Stephenson himself, of course, a millionaire Canadian businessman with a cloudy past recruited as a spy for MI6
Charles Lindbergh (1902-74), world-famous for his solo flight across the Atlantic in 1927 and the leading figure in the America First isolationist movement in 1940-41; Hemming treats Lindbergh as Stephenson’s principal antagonist
Wendell Willkie (1892-1944), the maverick Republican candidate for President in 1940 and later a leader in the interventionist forces
William J. (“Wild Bill”) Donovan, a close friend of FDR and the director of the US Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
Lord Lothian (1882-1940), the able and well-liked British Ambassador to the United States in 1939-40
Lord Halifax (1881-1959), Winston Churchill’s “cadaverous” rival in the Cabinet, exiled to America as Lothian’s replacement on his death, serving from December 1940 to May 1946
New Deal prodigy Adolf Berle (1895-1971), Stephenson’s nemesis in the State Department (“Adolf Berle did not like spies. . . Another of Berle’s pet hates was the British.”)
Hans Thomsen (1891-1968), Nazi chargé d’affaires in Washington from 1938 until December 11, 1941

This is high drama, indeed. FDR and Churchill themselves as well as Col. Stewart Menzies, “C” in MI6, all figure in the story too, although less prominently.

The biggest surprise in this book

Wild Bill Donovan’s role as director of the OSS is widely known and celebrated. What many fewer people know is that Donovan took on the job of creating the agency with great reluctance. Bill Stephenson recruited him and repeatedly talked him down from running for office (again) or taking some other job. And even when Donovan finally acquiesced to FDR’s invitation and pressure from Stephenson, he took his direction from the Briton. “The most carefully guarded secret inside Donovan’s political warfare section,” Hemming writes, “was that the British were now supplying weekly ‘directives’ telling them roughly what to say and when.” Later—much later, really—the OSS and MI6 grew apart, but in the agency’s early years Donovan led his staff along lines the British traced out. British interference in American politics even extended to helping create and school the agency that became the CIA.

Agents of Influence deftly fills in the gaps of our understanding about exactly why the United States took on the fight against Nazi Germany. Any dispassionate observer looking into the matter early in 1940 would surely have concluded that was unlikely, despite Franklin Roosevelt’s pronounced desire to prevent Britain’s defeat.

[Niloofar Razi Howe · Rating 5 out of 5]

A chronicle of probably one of the most brilliant and effective misinformation campaigns carried out against the US. Amazingly by our good friends across the pond— the Brits during WWII. Well played.

[Nemo Nemo · Rating 5 out of 5]

AUTHOR

The author of Agents of Influence is Henry Hemming. You can find more information about him and his other publications here.

WHO IS THE TARGET AUDIENCE?

I recommend this monograph to those with a general interest in military history and anyone with a particular interest in the asymmetric warfare of World War II.

SYNOPSIS

Agents of Influence is the true story of a British Intelligence team tasked with swaying a reluctant United States of America (USA) to join with Great Britain against the Axis Powers in WWII.

The central character, William (Bill) Stevenson is drawn into the murky world of undercover intelligence operations or a “war by other means.” He was assigned by the British Military Intelligence Agency (MI6) with the task of organizing a hand picked elite team of operatives to work behind the scenes influencing the U.S. populations opinions surrounding their role in the war. To this day His operation is considered to have been the most successful covert action ever to have taken place on U.S. soil. Spectacular in its scope, eye waveringly expensive in terms of cost and promethean in its use of an intelligence campaign, William’s enterprise is one of the greatest examples of mass population influence in modern history.

Hemming has us accompany Stevenson during the dark days of the 1940s following the tragedy of the evacuation from the beaches of Dunkirk. In June of 1940 the U.S. population had no interest in becoming embroiled in the war across the “pond.” Through William and his teams influence, the national opinion slowly changed. Within a year and half, the attack on Pearl Harbor propelled the U.S. into World War II.

Hemming’s Agents of Influence unrolls the characters and the methods, including “fake news,” that changed the history of the world and the ultimate outcome of the war. He explains the British motivation behind the occult actions employed. He takes us on the ship with Stephenson and the wealth of a nation from across the Atlantic. From there he describes how Bill Stephenson uses his considerable talents to assemble an effective team, integrates them into U.S. society and begins his influence operations behind the scenes. That is just the beginning.

CONCLUSION

Agents of Influence is so outrageous that it seems too unbelievable to be true, and yet it happened. Put simply, it is one of those manuscripts that you find yourself carrying around so that you don’t miss an opportunity to read what happens next. I have just discovered a new favorite author. The next step is to get my hands on one or two of the five other works that Hemming has written. This is a superb read; but don’t take my word for it, go out and get a copy and discover for yourself the pleasure of a Henry Hemming volume. This is the first 5 star review of the year.

Written with academic prowess, scholarly skill, intensively researched, extensively referenced and reads as a compelling novel, Hemming has created a genuine winner

[Lilisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fascinating and intriguing account of Britain’s successful efforts to infiltrate and influence the U.S. in the years leading up to the U.S. entering World War II. The majority of the American public was not in favor of getting involved and President Roosevelt, despite his conviction that it was the right course of action, was loathe to go against the popular tide, knowing he couldn’t make the case. But the war was not going the way of the Allies and Britain was getting desperate but to no avail. Then came Bill Stephenson to the rescue. Canadian by birth, Stephenson emerges in the U.K. at MI6, and is tasked with heading to the U.S. to change the hearts and minds of the American population. So begins the web of conspiracy, secrecy, planted information, and daring - all the trappings of a spy novel - but in this case nonfiction. And, the rest is history. This is an amazing, well researched, and sobering book - it’s a world that is very real and we would be kidding ourselves if we think that this type of espionage, intrigue, and deliberate strategies has not existed from time immemorial, is happening today, and will continue well into the future. Superbly written, Henry Hemming does a brilliant job keeping the reader engaged with historical details, twists and turns, and a cast of characters that could fill the world’s stage. Yet, I didn’t get lost or mired but was engaged throughout the book due to the author’s flow of language, clarity of style, and the impressive ability to tell a great true story. I highly recommend this amazing read. I hope many will enjoy and learn much from it. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for the opportunity to read and review this book.

[Brian · Rating 5 out of 5]

Agents of Influence follows the life of William Stephenson who ran the MI6 operations in the United States for Great Britian in the lead up to the US Entry into the war. In modern parlance he conducted one of the most extensive fake news campaigns ever seen swaying public opinion towards entering the war at a time when it was at a low. This Canadian turned English gentleman improvised, excelled and created a world class operation in the United States with the help of the Century Club and eventually the White House with Wild Bill Donovan (before his days at OSS) to dupe the American public into supporting war with Nazi Germany. Their main enemy was Charles Lindbergh and the America first movement whom they engaged in a kind of shadow boxing match against. This book is expertly written and flies like a fictional spy novel through the various ways Stephenson worked his operation. Both Ian Fleming and Dhal would work under his command and Fleming patterned some of his stories for James Bond off of Stephenson. This is truly an incredible look at the way that the Brits were determined to shape public opinion. This is a side of World War II we don’t often hear about and if you are looking for the other side of the story from Anne Olsen’s Those Angry Days this is an excellent addition to the historiography.

[Mr Stan Berger · Rating 3 out of 5]

I initially said I thought the book was well researched . It raised interesting parallels between a foreign power attempting to influence American foreign policy towards intervening on the side of the British in the Second World War and the Russian efforts to influence the 2016 American election to relieve economic sanctions for their invasion of Crimea . The main difference between the two was that the British influence campaign was laudable while the Russian one was not. At the end of the book the question of the ends justifying the means still looms large but the author’s response is not to distinguish between the two but to advocate that consumers of news be more informed , critical of sources and polls . He rejects regulation on the basis that information exchange is a hallmark of democracy though admittedly a vulnerability. I give it a 3 though because to me the influence campaign may have changed America’s appetite for fighting Germany but ultimately what changed American minds much more were external factors I. E. Pearl Harbour and Hitler’s declaration of war on the U.S. soon afterwards. The influence campaign had only a modest impact though it did lay the groundwork for emergence of the C.I.A.

[Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fake news is not new and propaganda went much deeper and was more widespread, apparently, than I had thought in the 18 months leading up into America’s entry into WWII. Hemming uses his personal connection to Bill Stephenson, the shadowing figure secretly tasked by Britain’s MI6 with nudging the very isolationist U.S, into the war with GB against Nazi Germany, the inspiration for the book “A Man Called Intrepid,” and rumored to be the inspiration for ‘M’ of Ian Fleming’s James Bond series. Hemming separates fact and fiction about this legend in the intelligence community making use of many recently declassified documents. He also includes some fascinating insights into the man himself making use of personal accounts told to him from some (like his own grandparents) who were close to him - stories that were related to him after Stephenson’s death - including some of what he has since pieced together about some of the activities of those grandparents at the time.

[Myles · Rating 5 out of 5]

A gripping read about how Britain used MI6, fake news and propaganda to influence US public opinion about Hitler and the Nazis. As Hemming talks about in the afterword, there are many similarities to the campaigns Russia have made in recent elections. The story moves fast and turns what could be quite a dry topic into a constantly engaging read.

[Alice · Rating 5 out of 5]

Spotted in the library and snagged because I enjoyed his book on Maxwell Knight so much. I was glued to this fascinating story of undercover propaganda, only pausing my page-turning to mutter rude things about Charles Lindbergh.

[Joan · Rating 4 out of 5]

As new information becomes declassified some very interesting material surfaces. This is primarily the story of (Canadian) Bill Stevenson ( The Man Called Intrepid) and Bill Donovan and their efforts spawned by President Roosevelt to bring the US into WWII. I found it fascinating especially comparing it to the disinformation tactics coming from Russia since 2016 US election. Could have taken lessons from 1940.

[Abby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I didn't know any of this!

[Amanda Blake · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well researched. Compelling. Human. Just as the British influence campaign inflamed feelings that already existed among the American people, this book confirms what everyone, deep down, already knows: Trust no one completely, and always check your sources.

[Rama Rao · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fake news, disinformation and World War II

Disinformation is as old as humanity. Although the rise of social media has made disinformation even more pervasive and pernicious, but news-outlets and diplomatic channels have always used the system to manipulate the political outcome. In this decade terrorist organization like ISIS and Russian government used the same playbook: ISIS sought to globalize Islam and Putin wanted to influence the outcome of 2016 presidential elections in the United States.

During WW II it was imperative for German and British to serenade the support of United States. With Britain enduring intense German bombing, its only hope for survival was getting the United States to enter the war with only 7% in favor in 1940. For British spy agency MI6 operative William Stephenson, it was crucial to get U.S involved. President Franklin Roosevelt’s sent Ambassador Bill Donovan to communicate with British government. The American political atmosphere was not conducive for British. American leaders like Charles Lindbergh was one of the main obstacles. Lindbergh, who addressed huge crowds at anti-war rallies and justified Nazi aggression due to economic imbalance. He was fed wrong information by German spy machinery. But William Stephenson managed to get full confidence of Bill Donovan who together built an extensive propaganda drive ever directed by one sovereign state at another. They also used forgeries, organized protests, and wiretaps and hacked into private communications. Similar strategies were used by CRP, the Committee to Reelect the President during Nixon administration.

On Oct. 27, 1941, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt took the stage at The Mayflower Hotel in Washington, DC, to speak in honor of Navy Day. With Britain under Nazi siege, Roosevelt wanted the United States to join the fight. The American public was not convinced. “I have in my possession a secret map made by Hitler’s government. It is a map of South America and part of Central America, as Hitler proposes to reorganize it,” Roosevelt told the shocked assemblage. The president then revealed another German document that pledged to eliminate the world’s religions. The reaction was explosive, but the facts were not.

Hans Thomsen, the senior diplomat at the German Embassy in the U.S. was also active in keeping Americans out of WWII. He fed pro-German material to sitting members of Congress, and bribed newspapers to publish false material.

The book is well researched and referenced; it is engaging for readers interested in the history of WWII. The story flows well but the role played by German spy agency in creating their own misinformation has not been well documented.

[Nancy Kennedy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Recently, I read "The Darkest Year: The American Home Front 1941-1942," which is about the year 1941 and how Americans for the most part were either apathetic or actively opposed to entering the war then raging in Europe. They came up with ingenious ways to circumvent rationing and other ways they considered the government as interfering in their lives.

That was an eye-opening thought to me. We always got "The Greatest Generation" speech when talking about World War II in school. Everyone was onboard and gung-ho in that version of the war. Turns out, there's a lot more to the American entrance into World War II than Pearl Harbor. Henry Hemming's book explores how governments and individuals worked behind the scenes to bring the U.S. into the war.

Mr. Hemming's book tells the story primarily through a Canadian-born British MI6 agent, William Stephenson, whose networks enabled him to apply influence to the task. Secondarily, the author follows William Donovan, an unofficial White House representative working in Britain whom Stephenson drew into his underground scheme. As the need for information about enemy positions and planned grew, Donovan subsequently became the head of the newly created OSS -- the Office of Strategic Services, the first unified American intelligence gathering agency.

The problem for me was that these two "Bills" come across as fairly colorless. The author spends an equal amount of time with outsized personalities like Charles Lindbergh, a front man for the isolationists who wanted to stay out of the war. Ian Fleming, the author of the James Bond books, also arrives on the scene. The author quotes him praising Stephenson's martini recipe -- shaken not stirred! After that, I resisted returning to the drab scenes of meetings, speeches and conferences. So many names got threaded through my eyes that I couldn't keep everyone straight. A student of World War II might have an easier time than I did getting through the labyrinth.

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book compelling and enlightening. It details the way in which a Canadian, William Stephenson who as an MI6 agent carried out his assignment to change American public opinion away from its traditional isolationist stance to supporting Britain in the war against the Nazi.

Special Operations Executive (SOE) or Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare waged a clandestine war against Germany, principally in Europe, but the head office in the Americas was in New York city and headed by Wm Stephenson. He also ran the American offices of MI6, MI5, SOE, BPC and BIC in Bermuda.

Stephenson became a master a manipulating the media of the day to encourage the American public away from it’s traditional isolationist position toward joining Britain in the war against the Nazi. Not only misinformation, but outright fictions were given adequate cover that they were taken as facts. This is included a forged map purportedly made by the Germans showing how the Nazi intended to divide up South America after the war. Initially the majority of Americans were not in favor of becoming involved, but this gradually changed. By November 1941, Stephenson and Donovan had people working for them in the two major polling firms (Gallup and Roper) as public opinion moved from predominately isolationist to interventionist.

Stephenson worked to convince “Wild Bill’ Donovan an American first world war hero, that the U.S. needed an intelligence agency that was structured along the lines of the British MI6. Although the FBI objected to this idea, seeing it as an encroachment on its turf, Roosevelt eventually approved and the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the forerunner of the CIA, was formed with Donovan as its head.

There are many interesting ‘revelations’ in the book. One that I had never given thought to was that it was Japan who attacked the U.S. base at Pearl Harbor, but Roosevelt wanted to enter the war in Europe. He was uncertain he would have the necessary support in Congress to declare war on Germany so he wanted to create the conditions for Germany to attack U.S. ships making a declaration unnecessary. For his part Hitler did not want to declare war on the U.S. as he was preoccupied with defeating the Soviet Union. Lacking the desired provocation from Germany, it was agued by the Fight for Freedom group that Germany was actually the one behind the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. By December 11, 4 days after Pearl Harbor, Hitler finally declared war on the U.S. resolving Roosevelt’s ‘dilemma’. Roosevelt made clear that most of the resources and war material would be devoted to the war in Europe and only the minimum necessary to the war in the Pacific, this despite the fact that it was Japan who had attacked the U.S. not Germany.

There is lots of material here to fuel conspiracy theorists. The Century Group, well to do members meeting at the Century Club in New York, described as “…enormously wealthy, highly educated and well-connected East Coasters.” P55 were active interventionists who wanted the U.S. to enter the war in Europe. It eventually become a front for the Fight for Freedom group a pro-interventionist, British backed group that countered the isolationist America First crowd led by the national aviation hero Charles Lindbergh.

One interesting mark of the success of Stephenson’s efforts to change American opinion on the war was the emergence of a new comic book hero, Captain America, who busily smashed Nazi’s. Of course the Captain is still with us, now waging secret wars and, we are told coming in 2023, establishing a new world order. Propaganda takes many forms.

[John_g · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining and thought-provoking but controversial history of British MI6 influence on FDR to get into WWII after manipulating the US public with disinformation.

The controversy is his unjustified criticism. He says politicians like FDR shouldn't have participated in the dirty tricks by MI6, Germany, CIA. He unfairly treats Hamilton Fish and isolationists like villains because they promoted peace, implying many were anti-semitic as well. H.Fish actually helped Jews escape, more than FDR did. His criticism of C.Lindbergh is more damning and fairly deserved.

Deception was a fact of political life before Trump. Lobbyists influence government and it's no surprise that British MI6 in 1940 or Russians in 2016 would try influence, although it's illegal. More interesting than the foreigners is how US politicians cooperated in the deceptions.

He unfairly considers FDR's deceptions to be illegal and impeachable. FDR's executive orders bypassed Congress and deceived the public. Lying is not an impeachable offense, FDR did not even obviously lie. Yes US was waging war without declaring war. Yes the president took that action, as have many presidents.

FDR's executive orders were motivated by doing right, unlike Trump's self-serving orders, catering to his anti-government base. But Trump was not impeached on account of his abuse of power in executive orders. He was impeached for
abuse of power - solicited interference of a foreign govt
obstruction of congress - defying subpoenas

FDR never did that. His actions were less dictatorial than most recent presidents, although he wasn't often honest, and manipulated us into war as best he could, for our own sake.

FDR's 1940 activities which Hemming objects to:
3 sept 1940 destroyer-for-bases-deal, FDR won rights to use UK islands as military bases. This executive order advantaged the US, which considered the destroyers obsolete.
The agreement violated the Neutrality Acts, but that was soon moot considering German U-boat attacks, and finally ended with the passing of Lend-Lease.
October 31 1940 German U-boat sunk the U.S. destroyer Reuben James
November 17 1940 provisions of the Neutrality Acts were repealed.
March 1941 Lend-Lease Act was passed in Congress not by executive order.
September 11, 1941, FDR ordered the U.S. Navy to attack German and Italian war vessels in the "waters which we deem necessary for our defense".
10/1/1941 First Moscow Protocol, used distinctly presidential power and colluded with a foreign nation to mislead the American people.
10/27/1941 Navy Day speech citing a fake German map. Donovan of CIA gave the fake map to FDR, who may not have known what Donovan knew, that it was a fake and came from MI6. "Did he know these were British forgeries? Put another way, had he collaborated with one foreign nation to provoke another, a clear abuse of the public trust in his office (and, if it ever got out, another article of impeachment)? Or had he simply been fed bad intelligence?" Hemming concludes that FDR probably knew they were forgeries, and he shouldn't have deceived us. I call that naive.
Dec 7 1941 Pearl Harbor: He admits FDR did not know about this in advance, lacking specific intelligence although he did expect some Japanese aggression. in a Real-politick way, WSC may have been happy about 2000 deaths at Pearl Harbor but FDR was not.

These are legitimate actions by a leader who understood the threat to his country and worked politically by convincing people of that threat.

[Stephen Meyers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hemming has written a highly readable account of the efforts of the U.K. to get the U.S. to enter WWII as its ally, and of Germany to keep the U.S. out of the war. The book focusses on Bill Stephenson, the Canadian businessman who became MI6's Head of Station in the U.S., his relationships with top U.S. business and political leaders, and his somewhat unorthodox but highly important efforts to secure U.S. assistance for the UK during the early day of WWII up to and including the U.S.'s entry into the war. The Stephenson angle is tied to a relationship between the author's ancestors and Stephenson.

Hemming also describes the corresponding efforts of Germany to work with isolationists within the U.S., including Charles Lindbergh, to keep us out of the war. The focus on personal relationships between Stephenson and FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover, the British Ambassadors to the U.S., "Wild" Bill Donovan, the American businessman and first head of the OSS (precursor to the CIA), Stephenson's superiors in London, and many notable American business and media leaders who supported U.S. action against Hitler, make the book particularly compelling. And his chronological approach to the information presented makes it easier to follow. The book is well footnoted and the footnotes indicate the wide range of sources used by the author.

The heart of the story is really how what the British and Germans did to influence U.S. public opinion during WWII was not very different, other than technologically, from what the Russians did to meddle in the 2016 U.S. Presidential election. Hemming makes this point.

Having read other accounts of the founding of the OSS, and the key players, I found Agents of Influence very objective, displaying foreign activity in the U.S. during the period 1940-1941 with the clear indication that President Roosevelt was acting beyond the scope of Presidential authority, potentially in a manner that could expose him to impeachment, yet with what the President and his closest advisors viewed as the best of intentions. We are left with the need to reach our own conclusions as to whether some of the things done by the Roosevelt Administration during this period were inappropriate. And as is perhaps usual we are also left with the impression that politics is a dirty business.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the early days of WWII from an American or British perspective, the role of foreign spies in efforts to affect American public opinion about WWII, the founding of the U.S. intelligence agency, FDR and the other key players during this period. Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers, Perseus Books and Public Affairs, for providing a review copy.

[John Purvis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Author Henry Hemming (http://henryhemming.com) published the book “Agents of Influence: A British Campaign, a Canadian Spy, and the Secret Plot to Bring America into World War II” in 2019. Mr. Hemming has published seven books.

I received an ARC of this book through https://www.netgalley.com in return for a fair and honest review. I categorize this book as ‘G’. The story begins as WWII breaks out in Europe.

In the late 30s, there were strong antiwar and isolationist sentiments in the US. This persisted well after the Nazis invaded Poland. One of the most vocal in these feelings was the air hero and personality, Charles Lindberg. Both Germany and the UK began propaganda efforts to sway the US.

This book is the story of Canadian William ‘Bill’ Stephenson. Germany was pressing its attack on the UK. Churchill and the government came to believe that their only hope was to bring the US into the war as an ally. MI6 recruited Stephenson and sent him to New York. He became head of the station there. His mission was to sway US public opinion in favor of joining the British.

Stephenson built up a large organization in New York. He brought in workers from both Canada and the UK. An early mission was to sway the 1940 election. They took extreme measures to see President Roosevelt reelected for a third term. There was also a lot of behind-the-scenes work to expedite the Lend-Lease Act. The MI6 office worked to see William J. ‘Bill’ Donovan named as the US Coordinator of Information (COI) in 1941. This agency evolved during the war into the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and after the war into the CIA.

The US had no centralized intelligence organization. The British believed that one was needed and helped to organize the young agency. The Stephenson organization spent most of its efforts towards changing American opinions. This involved overcoming the isolationist attitude. Promoting an interventionist policy was critical to the survival of the UK.

I enjoyed the 8.5+ hours I spent reading this 401-page WWII era history. Until I read this book I had no idea the extent that the British and Germans had gone to in WWII to sway US public opinion. Recent allegations of foreign government involvement in elections are nothing new. The author also brings up a few very interesting but unsubstantiated conspiracy theories. While the book is full of detail, it remains very readable. I like the selected cover art. I give this book a 4.4 (rounded down to a 4) out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sure, most Americans are aware that prior to Pearl Harbor and America’s entry into WWII, the nation was divided by isolationists and interventionists. And while it is also well known that Charles Lindbergh was at the helm of the isolationist ship, few were aware that a man named Bill Stephenson, an agent of MI6, was manipulating the country towards more interventionist attitudes. Through what we would now call “fake news,” whispering campaigns, polls, and even forgeries and briberies, Stephenson and his department’s goal was to get Americans to support England against the Nazi threat.

It is the author’s personal connection to Stephenson that drives the book, but despite that, it’s not a particularly exciting narrative. Yes, I learned quite a bit about how Roosevelt cut congressional corners and really ticked a lot of people off. Of course, Lindy wasn’t painted in a flattering light, and for a good portion of the book, it’s basically Lindbergh versus Stephenson. The following quotes clearly define the defining characteristics of the two men.

“Like most anti-Semites, Lindbergh had convinced himself, first, that a hidden network of wealthy and powerful Jews existed, and that its members were advancing a secret agenda. Once the idea had taken root, he was able to see ‘Jewish influence’ in almost anything that went wrong.”

“Much like the people he was fighting against, Bill Stephenson’s political ethics were by then grounded in the singular belief that the end justified the means. He had decided long ago that the threat of Hitler warranted mass deception on a national scale…”

While America’s entry into the war was inevitable, there is no denying that Stephenson greatly influenced American attitudes. He even helped form the agency that would eventually become the CIA, based on the how MI6 operated. But for all his achievements, it wasn’t through cut-throat espionage that he achieved his goals, but the connections he made to politicians and wealthy interventionists. Like I said previously, it wasn’t the most thrilling book, but it was a decent depiction of a tumultuous time in American history.

I received a complimentary copy of this book via the Amazon Vine program.

[Dan Trefethen · Rating 5 out of 5]

A foreign power's intelligence service works to influence American public opinion through media shenanigans. Sound familiar?

It happened 80 years ago, when the British desperately wanted America to enter WWII in 1940, and sent William Stephenson to America to form a unit of British intelligence (MI6) to convince America (ultimately, Pres. Roosevelt) to enter the war. While Pearl Harbor proved the trigger that did it, the activity by Stephenson's unit worked to sway American opinion towards a favorable view to enter the war against Nazi Germany even before Pearl Harbor. His actions probably also contributed to Hitler's declaring war on the USA shortly after Pearl Harbor, taking the pressure off Roosevelt to declare war on Germany.

While some similar activity by German agents in America is profiled, the main story is about Stephenson and his activities. Also, Charles Lindbergh is prominently featured as the point man for the isolationists. Much of Stephenson's work was to counteract and sabotage the work of the isolationists.

If you're familiar with Stephenson as “A Man Called Intrepid”, you are way out of date. That book was apparently full of hyberbole and error, as historians have ascertained. Recently declassifed documents in Britain led to the development of this book that straightens out the story somewhat. While it reduces Stephenson's role as a master global spy, it burnishes his reputation as the man who convinced America to fight the Nazis and save Britain.

Media manipulation is nothing new, says the author in an afterword, and will continue. The only thing the average person can do is remain alert and skeptical of provocative information that serves a political purpose.

[RJ · Rating 5 out of 5]

So many students find history boring.All they are taught, and history is not taught very much anymore 😥, are the generalities of info about dates, principle wars, men to remember. Yawn ! The devil is in the detail, and to get this, teachers must read relevant , well researched books for interesting, exciting facts that make history come alive. Agents of Influence is such a book. The theme is persuading the US to enter the war against Hitler and come to the aid of Britain,desperate by 1941 for help.The main responsibility for this falls to a Canadian named William Stephenson, who with an American with FDR's ear, William Donovan, invent and spread pro intervention propaganda throughout the country. Roosevelt, himself, aids in this activity spreading false information in his speeches, believing the means justify the end. He did, in fact, collude with Britain, an impeachable act. Their nemesis is Charles Lindbergh, leader of America First, a widespread group against entering the war and favoring Germany.
If this sounds familiar, it is because it compares in many ways to the present day impeachment of Trump and his collusion with Ukraine (and Russia) to get reelected to a second term, again thinking the means justify the end. In the first case, they did. In the latter one, they don't.
Everything was of interest, but two stick in my mind: the foundation of the CIA was British, and the fact that Lindbergh sired 7 children with 3 foreign women, a regular womanizer "player." Some hero ! (The latter of course, is not relevant to the book's theme. Just interesting. )
Must reread to take it all in.