Invisible, silent fighters often win battles and wars more decisively than generals. In infinitely more difficult conditions, with huge dilemmas, with successes but also with failures that lead to the executive detachment.
In the 100-page book of HotDoc.History, which is re-released with Documento on Sunday, August 18, a thorough reference is made to the phenomenon of espionage. Starting with the “Trojan Horse”, Xenophon, the Chinese Sun Tzu and the Byzantine “Strategikon” of Kekamenos. Next are the “guarantor of the French Revolution” Joseph Fouchet and the Washington informant, the British James Rivington. Mata Hari who was executed by the French as a double agent and Sidney Riley who was killed in post-revolutionary Russia.
Our interest is focused on the Second World War. Here Richard Georg, the German communist who informed Stalin from Tokyo about Hitler’s impending attack, stands out. And of the demonic Polish Jew Leopold Trepper whose “Red Orchestra” had spread across occupied Europe. Both were not believed by the Soviet leader. Jorge was executed in Japan and Trepper was imprisoned in the Soviet Union until proven “clean”.
The action of Kim Philby and Klaus Fuchs begins in World War II but extends to the Cold War. Philby, along with four other children of the British aristocracy, make up the famous “Cambridge Group” who enlisted ideologically and helped provide information to the USSR. Fuchs, a social democratic anti-fascist and gifted physicist, joins Communism in the nightmarish climate of the interwar period. When Britain sends him to help the Americans build the atomic and hydrogen bomb, he passes the plans to the Soviets because he wanted the balance of power.
We also shine a light on the problem of digital espionage that takes place today through our computers and mobile phones. It is a must-have book for your library as well as a good holiday companion.
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