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

by Joseph E. Persico

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

Roosevelt's Secret War is crowded with remarkable
-FDR wanted to bomb Tokyo before Pearl Harbor
-A defector from Hitler's inner circle reported directly to the Oval Office
-Roosevelt knew before any other world leader of Hitler's plan to invade Russia
-Roosevelt and Churchill concealed a disaster costing hundreds of British soldiers' lives in order to protect Ultra, the British codebreaking secret
-An unwitting Japanese diplomat provided the President with a direct pipeline into Hitler's councils


Roosevelt's Secret War also describes how much FDR had been told--before the Holocaust--about the coming fate of Europe's Jews. And Persico also provides a definitive answer to the perennial question Did FDR know in advance about the attack on Pearl Harbor?

By temperament and character, no American president was better suited for secret warfare than FDR. He manipulated, compartmentalized, dissembled, and misled, demonstrating a spymaster's talent for intrigue. He once remarked, "I never let my right hand know what my left hand does." Not only did Roosevelt create America's first central intelligence agency, the OSS, under "Wild Bill" Donovan, but he ran spy rings directly from the Oval Office, enlisting well-placed socialite friends.

FDR was also spied against . Roosevelt's Secret War presents evidence that the Soviet Union had a source inside the Roosevelt White House; that British agents fed FDR total fabrications to draw the United States into war; and that Roosevelt, by yielding to Churchill's demand that British scientists be allowed to work on the Manhattan Project, enabled the secrets of the bomb to be stolen. And these are only a few of the scores of revelations in this constantly surprising story of Roosevelt's hidden role in World War II.

Genres: History, World War II, Nonfiction, Espionage, Military Fiction, Military History, Biography

564 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Joseph E. Persico was the author of Roosevelt’s Secret War: FDR and World War II Espionage; Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour: Armistice Day, 1918–World War I and Its Violent Climax; Piercing the Reich; and Nuremberg: Infamy on Trial, which was made into a television docudrama. He also collaborated with Colin Powell on his autobiography, My American Journey. He lives in Guilderland, New York.

Reviews

[Doug Tabner · Rating 5 out of 5]

If Joseph Persico ever wrote a book that was less than stellar, I haven't found it yet. Other authors have alluded to what Persico details here, that Roosevelt was a very compartmentalized president who held his cards close to his chest. For a time, he had three different espionage services that were unaware of the others' existence. Eventually, they all came to resent and submarine each other, as bureaucracies are wont to do.

There were as many failures as successes, perhaps even more. But the successes were crucial to the allied victory. We would have won eventually, but code breaking and espionage saved countless allied lives along the way and shortened the war significantly.

While Persico clearly admired Roosevelt, it's a very even-handed account. We learn, for example, that he knew all along that Japanese Americans posed no threat to the west coast or anywhere else on American soil, but he had thousands of them interned anyhow because of a paranoid public that demanded it.

No surprise here, but we also see what a weasel J. Edgar Hoover was. When a Croatian spy in the service of the British came to America he checked in with Hoover, who interviewed him. The spy told him specifically that he was ordered to get information about Pearl Harbor, but Hoover was more interested in the fact that the Germans were using microdots to transport information. In his report to FDR, Hoover never mentioned Pearl Harbor but was proud that he discovered the Nazi used of microdots, even though he didn't discover it, the spy told him without any prompting. Similar episodes of Hoover's arrogance getting in the way of cases abound here.

I highly recommend this to any history buff, presidential buff, and espionage buff.

[Steve Cooper · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whether you find them tedious or fascinating the details of this book (relating to scene setups or filling out tangential characters) provide a fully-realized picture of the subject. Ancient historians would kill for this kind of material, and it makes me appreciate the book all the more.

However there is a strong whiff of the apologist here, especially regarding the decision to drop the atomic bomb. This hint of an agenda made me always wonder whether some inconvenient fact was being displaced by one of these fascinating details.

Overall, though, the book is very informative and paints a clear picture of how the CIA's prototype emerged from the fog of FDR's administrative chaos.

[Maggie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book could have been better written. Most annoying were the instances of repetition of material, sometimes word-for-word, which pulled me out of the "moment in time" in which Persico had me immersed, to sit for a minute or two casting my memory back to examine whether I was right that this had already been covered. For it to happen once is forgiveable, to happen 4-5 times is not. Where were the editor and proofreader?

Further, Persico often covered unnecessary and unimportant things in minute detail when a more detached rendering would have been sufficient and, frankly, welcomed by this reader.

From other readings, I knew much of what is reported here, but Persico did an excellent job of explaining what FDR was like as an administrator and how carefully he managed the thousands of balls he had in the air at any one time. He was a true master of illusion, never letting anyone know what he or anyone else was doing.

I was surprised to learn that the Army and Navy were competing in espionage collection and that they had a screwy system for giving the information they gleaned from the Japanese encryptions to the President (on some kind of 'need to know basis' which only they decided [and which had a very big effect on Pearl Harbor]), how very early the Manhattan Project began, how very underprepared the U. S. was for the war, that England was both spying on the U. S. and not reporting important information to us even though we were supposedly equal partners in the quest to crush Germany, that even though Japan has clear proof that their codes had been broken by the U. S. they never changed them, giving us an open line not only into their workings, but through one of their spies, into the German plans as well, that Churchill and Roosevelt both turned a blind eye to Stalin's massacre of thousands Polish officers, and how excellent and effective the Russian spies were in the U. S.

[Craig Adamson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not sure why I bought this book. I suppose because I found it at Goodwill for 88 cents and it appeared to have not been read.

I would not say I'm a Roosevelt fan per se. But the author did a very good job of being fair in his review of Roosevelt and his attempts to use espionage to win WWII. So I have a much more favorable opinion of FDR now than previous (I will elaborate more in a minute). I am not a student of WWII so many of the main characters in this book were either brand new to me or only known in a very cursory way. The author did the thankless and tedious job introducing each person and their role in the war, the Franklin Administration, OSS, FBI, MI5, Abwehr, NKVD, etc, etc, etc. The story line was a bit difficult to follow at times as there is so much to keep track of -not only the double-crossing and various personal battles going on but also keeping track of the actual historical significance, impact on previous and future events and the actual timeline of events from the perspective of each of the Allies and the Axis.

Personally, I cannot imagine writing this book. You'd really have to love history, Roosevelt, WWII, etc to even want to attempt this. The author could not be blamed for throwing up his hands in tryiing to piece it all together. Especially as detailed in the book that FDR forbid people from recording or taking notes on conversations. Apparently he kept very few notes himself thus keeping everyone off kilter as to what he might do next.

I hesitate not to give this book 5 stars as I truly enjoyed the book. I am looking forward to reading some of the books in the bibliography that contributed to the sources of various parts of the book.

My new found admiration for FDR is strange. The more I read history, the more I appreciate his leadership despite is abhorant liberal programs which created the groundwork for the modern day social welfare programs that are bankrupting our country at the present time. That political bias aside, FDR was a Christian and this belief seems to have shaped many of the things he did (although cheating on his wife is not something I condone).

While this is a serious subject -WWII is nothing to joke about- i couldn't help but laugh at the irony of what FDR did during WWII and what George W Bush did during his 2 terms as president related to the "War on Terror." Apparently Liberals and Democrats are just as poor as me when it comes to being students of history. So for all the cries of foul that Republicans had about FDR during WWII, the Democrats vilified Bush much the same way. It is comical because it is so identical.

Here's an exerpt from the Foreward: "You know i am a juggler, and i never let my right hand know what my left hand does," he once confessed. "I may be entirely inconsistent, and furthermore I am perfectly willing to mislead and tell untruths if it will help me win the war."

Further on in the Foreward: ... per his son James, "I had a conversation with father," the young marine officer writes, "In which i discussed the dishonesty of his stand on war." "Jimmy," FDR explained, "I knew we were going to war.... But I couldn't come out and say a war was coming, because the people would have panicked and turned from me... if I don't say I hate war, then people are going to think I don't hate war. If I say we're going to get into this war, people will think I want us in it. If I don't say I won't send out sons to fight on foreign battlefields, then people will think I want to send them.... I couldn't take every congressman into my confidence because he'd have run off the Hill hollering that FDR is a war monger.... So you play the game the way it has been played over the years, and you play to win."

There are numerous other ironies sprinkled throughout the book that show what a President must do not only day to day but also in a time of war. The fact remains we are also in a country with a Free Press. As much as it pained me to read what the Chicago Tribune was doing to uncover secrets the OSS, FBI and others were keeping, where is that line of letting the Public know what is going on? Is it really any different than the need to expose Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton and their abuses of power? I applaud the author for just laying out the facts of his investigation, pointing out the various biases of the main characters and framing them in a time of great fear, turmoil, etc.

I am certain to read this book again in the near future as i enjoyed it very much. It has certainly spurred me to read more history on WWII. It is too bad these types of books are not part of required reading when you are in HS or Jr. High vs. memorizing battles and dates and all that to pass a test. I have to think that students would be more engaged in reading about the lying and cheating and bickering that go on behind the scenes. People are people even during the worst war our world has ever seen. And human egos as much as intelligence dicatate the outcomes. This book certainly opened my eyes to the fact that some things never change even though the times they are a changin'.

[Chris White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Delicious. I still don't like FDR and most of what and how he did things, but this is a book about how the enigma of FDR fit into the full spectrum of all that the 1930's and 40's were. It's better than fiction.

[Ayde · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book contains lots of information and in some cases is not good enough to make an accurate timeline of those events. There is information about the Japanese concentration camps in the US, and the condescending attitude towards Stalin, which some other authors talked about. But, for me there were new names added to the list of interest to look for more information about them. One of them was Tyler Kent, who worked as code clerk. He was arrested in London, and sentenced to seven years in prison. He wrote a detailed account about why he wanted to uncover the messages between FDR & Churchill. He knew that Americans didn’t want involvement in the war. He was a very accomplished individual, who had been well aware of the atrocities committed by the Communists in the Soviet Union.

Some other names in the list of people I was not aware of their role in the US affairs at the time are better listed by quoting the author. It's more Illustrative.

“What prompted privileged and sophisticated Americans, a Lee, a Hiss, a Dodd, a Straight, a White, to become servants of communism? The answer lies in an amalgam of their beliefs—capitalism as demonstrated by the Great Depression, had failed; an American democracy that accommodated racism displayed rank hypocrisy; and a brighter future for mankind could be glimpsed in the example of the Soviet Union. They found little to forgive in their own country and everything to admire in a romanticized vision of Russia. And, doubtless, they savored the adrenaline rush of playing spy, of living double lives and taking risks in a presumably noble cause. If, as has been said, religion was the opiate of the masses, communism was the opiate of these intellectuals.”

If those intellectuals were not so “well connected" politically and socially, I might have thought they were victims of the misinformation carried out by Walter Duranty and his 1932 Pulitzer prize, but that was not the case, since there were journalists like Gareth Jones telling the truth at the time, and more importantly, they were in the closest circle of FDR. Those intellectuals were not the ones who experienced the charade of "racial harmony" of the Communists, and it is unlikely they ignored the atrocities committed in the Soviet Union. It seems that they, as many people today, felt entitled to tell everyone else what they needed to accept for their own good, and that anyone should trust them they way you would, if you had a spiritual belief and hence behaved as if they were the equivalent of that "superior being" that you had in the the highest regard. It's exactly like you are being told how they expected you to be, not like the individual you were. They were the kind of people that think they are the only ones with brain. My opinion is that in order to reject to the full extent the totalitarian regimes, as it should be, the atrocities that the Nazis or the communist committed must be equally recognized, there is no better between the two of them..

[Earl Grey Tea · Rating 3 out of 5]

There were a lot of different people and organizations conducting espionage for the United States during World War II. Franklin Roosevelt as the common denominator is an obvious choice to tie this topic together. However, this theme led to a jumbled arrangement of information leads to the reader jumping around between events, groups, and people both between and within each chapter.

Instead of trying to cover everything related to American espionage during this time period at a high level, I would have preferred if the author had focused on one topic. Learning about the lifespan of OSS in a chronological order would have been more enjoyable. Instead, this book talks about what William Donovan, the head of the OSS, would try in order to do to stay in Roosevelt's good graces as other spy agencies and governmental officials tried to get him removed.

This book does highlight how Franklin Roosevelt compartmentalized different topics, avoided documenting his directives when possible, delegated the details of execution, and played different groups off of each other. I appreciated what I learned but feel that I got a smattering of lots of little things instead of a good understanding of one or two topics.

[Frank · Rating 4 out of 5]

For history buffs, the invents covered in the book will be very familiar. Persico takes a broad and chronological approach, covering each event through the framework of intelligence. He has a tendency to go on tangents that appear only somewhat related to the subject.

For the more controversial aspects of World War 2, Persico tends to give FDR the benefit of the doubt. Specific examples include the discussions on Japanese-American internment camps and the USA's lack of action regarding persecuted Jews.

The most interesting aspects of Secret War are the discussions on the MAGIC, Purple, and ULTRA intercepts and the internal politics regarding intelligence.

Despite these criticisms, the book is very enjoyable to read and left me wanted more (in a good way!).

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

His Eleventh Month, Eleventh Day, Eleventh Hour on WWI worked much better for me. It was an excellent way to tell in brief the history of WWI and the tragic and unnecessary waste of the Armistice in lives that needn’t have been lost.

This book provides lots of facts as to how FDR used many different irons in the fire to prosecute WWII and get enemy secrets. Many of the sources were imperfect, but most delivered the needed information. Ultimately the Allies won the war, but Americans were naive and had a lot to learn. The exposition was not smooth in my opinion. What worked well in the WWI book did not work as well here. Comes off as a disjointed narrative.

[Phil Bayly · Rating 5 out of 5]

Joe Persico deserves a higher perch among American writers of history. His stories are brilliant.
This book is about President Franklin Roosevelt's obsession with espionage and his frustration that the Germans, the Russians and the British were all better at it than the United States as World War II unfolded. Persico explains the events that followed and it is spellbinding.
I had a chance to interview Persico once, and perhaps exchange 'hellos' once or twice after that. He was as nice as he was supremely intelligent. He encouraged my writing. I am in awe of his.

[Mitch · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very detailed story concerning the creation of various FDR spy networks, including the creation of the OSS, which was the feeder of the CIA. Details concerning what FDR did or did not know about the attack on a Pearl Harbor was quite interesting, as well as the information known throughout the war on the military moves made by Germany.

[Joe Bax · Rating 5 out of 5]

I purchase the book to learn something of FDR’s program of espionage during the War. I learned that but, to my surprise, I gained a better insight into the character and personality of the President than I had ever gained from any of his biographies.

[Donna Herrick · Rating 4 out of 5]

WW II and FDRs efforts at espionage.

[Gwyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this quite some time back and forgot to update here. I found the look into FDR's personality, as well as the early years of what eventually became the CIA to be very interesting.

[Eric Michels · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book; Very well researched - the beginning especially give one the sense of 'being in the room'; Manages to distill a wide ranging topic into an pleasant to read compendium.

[Jared Nabel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Long, dense at times, but well-researched and fascinating for history buffs.

[Keoki]

Interesting read. Gave me an insight to the man l hadn't known. How he directed this country through one of the darkest periods in its history.

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating read of FDR's wartime leadership style.

[Seth Voorhees · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you're a lover of history and spy genera, this is up your alley

[Lis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Corposo, interessante e pieno di dettagli. A volte però si perde troppo nei dettagli e manca un quadro più generale della situazione.

[Ben Rocky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyable, full of interesting anecdotes, but lacking an overall narrative that made sense

[Donn Lorber · Rating 3 out of 5]

Roosevelt was way ahead of his country in the process of understanding the world situation.

[Baden Wackerle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting book, and talks a lot about how Roosevelt managed domestic spying operations.

[John D'Elia · Rating 3 out of 5]

While not an unenjoyable read, this book should be recommended only to true history buffs. The sheer magnitude of information being presented to the reader felt suffocating at times, and the flow of the story would have benefitted from trimming down the number of topics that it discusses. Readers without a deep previous interest in Roosevelt or the CIA will have trouble making it to the finish line.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Many things have been written about Franklin Roosevelt and his shepherding of the United States through World War II, but one aspect that has not garnered much attention is how he handled espionage during the war. Roosevelt was a novice spy master (as indeed were most of the world leaders at that point) and in fact in some circles espionage code breaking, and spying were considered to be ungentlemanly. But the climate the climate of the times dictated that the U.S. enter the sphere of the secret war and Roosevelt dove in with gusto. Joseph Persico shows us the inner workings of FDR's White House and the inscrutability of the man himself. Roosevelt was a delegator, but often, intentionally or otherwise, he would duplicate responsibilities to different agencies or even individuals within the same agency. This was true of his intelligence corps than with any of his other government offices. Roosevelt established at least 3 different intelligence agencies, including the OSS, forerunner of the CIA, all of which were in competition with each other and all of them stepping on the toes of the various, already established military intelligence offices and J. Edgar Hoover's FBI. Persico delves into how these various services operated. He shows us their accomplishments - primarily the cracking of German and Japanese codes used for diplomatic communication - and failures. He also shows us the back biting, jealousies, and in some cases outright farce that was intelligence during World War II. There are also some huge personalities - Roosevelt of course is the main focus, but we also meet Churchill, Stalin, J. Edgar Hoover, Wild Bill Donovan, Ambassador to Germany from Japan Hiroshi Oshima as well as minor figures up to and including movie stars like Errol Flynn. Persico writes in a very readable style, almost at times, sounding like he is writing fiction. He is very thorough with his notes, however. This is a great book for those looking for an aspect of World War II not covered as fully as it should.

[Kay · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author maintains that "Few leaders were better adapted temperamentally to espionage than Franklin Roosevelt." Indeed, it seems that Roosevelt was incredibly deft at a sort of high-stakes chess game, playing off aides, rivals, other world leaders, and the general public as he worked toward the ultimate goal of bringing the U.S. into the war. He was an adept spymaster -- creating the Office of Strategic Services under "Wild Bill" Donovan, a loosely structured organization which later evolved (some might say ossified) into the CIA.

Part presidential history and part intelligence history, Persico's book paints a portrait of a very complex man. At times Roosevelt comes across as almost amateurish, while at other times he seemed incredibly crafty, almost Machiavellian. It's clear that the author has a great deal of admiration for Roosevelt, but at the same time he doesn't shy away from airing his shortcomings. While the President liked to get his intelligence first-hand, and not filtered up the food chain (so to speak), he also had a distrust of certain kinds of intelligence (such as that gained from code-breaking efforts), which proved shortsighted in the long run.

One of the major sections of the book dealt with the often-debated question of whether Roosevelt knew in advance of the attack on Pearl Habor. Persico makes a convincing case that he didn't know, and points to intelligence failures that led to the catastrophe. The establishment of Japanese internment camps and the race to build the bomb are other major decisions that Persico sheds light on in this compelling book.

I couldn't help be struck, though, at how personal all this plotting and spying was --- in some ways, this took place in a distant, almost innocent age. One of Roosevelt's cabinet members, for example, considered it "ungentlemanly" to read other people's mail. Boy, talk about a sea change that had to take place!

[Colette · Rating 4 out of 5]

I think I started this book four years ago and despaired of ever finishing it once I had kids. Even considered returning it to the friend who lent it to me, when I ran across it yet again in my nightstand a few months ago. I'm glad I didn't give up. Once I reoriented myself and reread a few chapters, I was once again immersed in this book. With lots of recently unclassified documents, Persico fills in many of the critical questions and controversies that previous historians upon which previous historians were left to speculate, or worse, exercise their personal prejudices regarding Roosevelt. He definitely puts to rest any idea that Roosevelt knowingly sacrificed American lives at Pearl Harbor in order to overcome American society's isolationist bent. That alone makes it worth reading, but he also paints a fascinating portrait of Roosevelt's personality, tailor-made for secrecy, espionage, and subterfuge. The book has rekindled my longstanding fascination for the Second World War and its major players, and I marked at least a dozen books in the bibliography for further reading. It is long, and I believe the average reader might find it fairly dry without my aforementioned fascination.

[Bridget · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even though it took me a whole month to read this book, I really liked it. It was heavy at times but always interesting. Persico is one of my favorite authors - his book about the Nuremberg Trials (Nuremberg : Infamy on Trial) is fantastic.

This book read like a specialized, alternate version of Legacy of Ashes: the History of the CIA, in that it dealt very much with the beginnings of the CIA as seen through FDR's eyes. While reading this book, I learned a lot of interesting things about WWII, code-breaking, the OSS (pre-CIA), military strategy, Communism, and FDR himself.

[Chris Morrow · Rating 4 out of 5]

I had, when I started this book, only a vague understanding of who FDR really was, what the gov't of the US was like at the time in question and how what today is the CIA came into being.

This book outlined the players, the field of play and the results of the game in a really interesting and thorough manner. There were some frightening (to me) parallels to modern govt's actions with respect to prisoners of conflicts and dealing with 'laws' which seemed at the time 'inconvenient' to those in power.

Additionally, the outlining of the extent to which the 'old boys club' was used to run and build gov't agencies is just frightening, and that sort of thing still goes on today, which is even MORE frightening.

A great read though.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an engaging book about Roosevelt and the various espionage systems and spy rings he set in motion, with forays into other countries' spy rings as well, during World War II. Very readable and accessible while at the same time knowledgeable. My only complaints were that he kept recycling the same quotations (usually not famous ones), and that he organized his book thematically more than chronologically, so he kept jumping back and forth. Life isn't like that, life is more linear and I prefer my histories to proceed in the same fashion.

But I recommend this all the same, if you are interested in WWII, spies, Roosevelt, or any combination thereof.