Roosevelt's Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage

by Joseph E. Persico

Book Overview

Despite all that has already been written on Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Joseph Persico has uncovered a hitherto overlooked dimension of FDR's wartime leadership: his involvement in intelligence and espionage operations.

Roosevelt's Secret War is crowded with remarkable revelations:
-FDR wanted to bomb Tokyo before Pearl Harbor
-A defector from Hitler's inner circle reported directly to the Oval Office
-Roosevelt knew before...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0375761268
• ISBN13: 9780375761263
• Release Date: October 2002
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Length: 608 Pages
• Weight: 1.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 6.1" x 9.2"

Customer Reviews

Awesome achievement

Sometimes a work of history is so thoroughly researched, so rich in detail, so comprehensive and so lucidly presented as to be considered art. Such is Joseph Perisco's, "Roosevelt's Secret War." For anyone interested in FDR, World War II or wartime espionage this book is a must. Perisco is an unabashed fan of FDR. Some readers will doubtless take issue with the author's interpretations of a few of the more controversial aspects of the war as handled by FDR. But while generally lauding Roosevelt, Perisco always gives voice to the president's critics. Perisco is most forceful in his refuting the claims that FDR had foreknowledge of the Pearl Harbor attacks successfully attacking both the reasoning and assertions of revisionists. One tends to be persuaded by Perisco simply because he brings so much information to his arguments. The author also fleshes out all manner of other significant supporting players. The scandalized Sumner Welles, pal Vincent Astor, ally Winston Churchill, FBI director J. Edgar Hoover, controversial OSS director Bill Donovan to name but a few. One of Perisco's greatest achievements is to present all the incidents, events and characters (replete with anecdotes) in all their complexity in such an entertaining read. Indeed therein may lay the secret: all the complexity, the maneuvering, the machinations are spiced by the entertaining characters who carried them out, whether dashing or bumbling whether through ingenuity or sheer luck. Most of all this is the story of an extraordinary man who found himself president of a country during its worse economic/social crisis and the world's biggest war. Perisco reveals everything from how "that man" (as he was sometimes called) handled foreign heads of states to what he liked for breakfast. FDR was intrigued by espionage and the attendant spies and secrets but his uses and interests in this area quickly changed from a hobby played at with Astor, to an operational necessity worked at with Donovan. This book gives much for historians and the casual reader to contemplate and debate. This includes such issues as what FDR knew and could have done about the Holocaust; the Japanese internment; FDR-Stalin relations and dealings and how they might have contributed to the Cold War. But there can be no debate about this: "Roosevelt's Secret War" will enhance any readers knowledge of FDR and broaden their understanding of the United States in World War II. Also unarguable is that this is a fascinating, entertaining read.

Would give it ten stars if I could.

What a read! This book has it all over even the most well crafted spy thriller. Intrigue, Spy rings, Spy masters, Intelligence blunders and break throughs. Nonfiction should always be this fun to read. In "Roosevelts Secret War", we are given insight into a crucial time in American history. Mr. Persico has shown all angles of a diverse and complicated situation. The country is strongly isolationist, the Nazi regime is slowly crushing Europe under its boot heel, and Britain is tied up in skulldugery, decreasing moral and a war that is looking more bleak by the day. This is the maelstrom FDR is thrust into. The States lag behind The U.K. in terms of intelligence capabilities and world view. Churchill informs FDR of the realities of the war, and thus the U.S. has its die cast. Mr.Persico sends us on a journey of burgeoning intelligence offices, agency squabbling, jealous department heads, code breaking, conspirices and much more. During this ride the author debunks long bandied rumors, such as the supposed prior knowledge FDR had of the Pearl Harbor tragedy. The answer is surprisingly complicated. Hindsight offers a pretty clear view of a pending attack, yet all the intel that pointed towards that travesty was divested in so many small nuggets, bungled through many channels and ciphers, that not even a room of Nobel winners in physics could have pieced together an obvious plot. FDR is shown as a very shrewd, intelligent and devious man. Though generally moral, he will bend rules, cast aides against one another and down right lie if the greater good will be advanced by his many prevarications. Churchill is of a similar character, and the two spark up a healthy working partnership. The book is peppered with so many gold nuggets, that a list of all its finds would be to long to list here. Rich, complex and very well crafted, this may be the best work of Nonfiction published this year.

A MUST READ FOR ALL AMERICANS!

Joe Persico has discovered what many of us World War Two historians never knew: Franklin Delano Roosevelt PERSONALLY ran the war against Hitler and his state sponsored terrorism! Many of the details in this book I was aware of, but what I did not know was FDR's intense and intellectual direction of the war and all of its participants to include Churchill.The only error I found here was Persico's declaration that the US breaking of the JN 25 Japanese Naval codes was never discovered. Fact is that when the German Raider Thor intercepted the Australian cargo/passenger ship the SS Nakin, the Germans captured several mail sacks with secret documents reveling the fact the we had broken the Japanese codes on 10 May 1942. The Germans did not tell the Japanese until 29 August of that year, which allowed us to win the Battle of Midway. However, the Japanese changed their codes and we did not re-break them until 5 May 1943. Because of this fact we sustained serious naval losses during the naval battles off Guadalcanal. For those of you who are not students of intelligence matters concerning the WW-II, I suggest you buy "Encyclopedia of the Second World War" by Bryan Perrett & Ian Hogg as a reference when you are reading Persico's book! Another work I recommend is: "The Encyclopedia of Espionage" by Norman Polmar and Thomas B. Allen (which contains a number of details of George Washington's intelligence network that won the Revolutionary War!There has only been one other person in American history that did what FDR did: George Washington, whose statue is in the entrance of the Headquarters of the CIA. I think they might consider putting FDR's Statue there as well: AFTER ALL HE DID SAVE WESTERN CIVILIZATION. This book is a MUST READ for all Americans!