BOOK REVIEW

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP70-00058R000100050084-3
• Release Decision: RIFPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 21, 1998
• Sequence Number: 84
• Publication Date: January 25, 1956
• Content Type: NSPR

JAN 25 1956
V yO. ,1,
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP70-00058R0001
OOK REVIEW By JOHN K.HUTCHENS
s 3-1
050084-3
CPYRGHT
i ther, future tyrant
o the top. In fail-
ng, it certainly de-
troyed an a n t i -
azi German elite
hose post-war
ervice to their
ountry would have
e e n incalculable.
ust as certainly,
r. FitzGibbon be-
ieves, here was one
of the great moral
acts of our time-
'and, even now, one
f the most under-
alued and least
nderstood.
0 UV Aiv A..,
FitzQibbpn grants, against the attempt that
as made on Adolf Hitler's life at 12:42 p. in
my 20, 1944. If successful, it might have spawnec
nother. stab-in-the-back legend to carry an
20 JU&. By Constantine FitzGibbon. Norton, tau en erg, ie x oca ,
285 pages. $3.75. was denouncing Hitler in remarkably unguarded
ouices, an rom Constantine FitzGibbon
is own r.e4eargh as
n inteJJigence officer in the United States Arm
r. FitzGibbon's is the most comprehensiv
ccount yet to appear in English of the da
tself, the years that went into preparing for i
nd its ghastly aftermath. There is little her
hat will be new to the expert, the chronicle
etfcently observes. But how many experts ca
here be who know their way around this in
redible maze of personality, motive and event
The fact is, Mr. FitzGibbon declares th
he whole Story
Drawn chiefly
rom German
d f
terms and rounding up persons interested in
killing him. Henning von Tresckow, one of his
chief assistants, the son of a World War I Ger-
man Chief of Staff, was a determined anti-Nazi
by" 1938. In that same year Gen. Ludwig Beck
was prepared to lead a coup d'etat in the event
Hitler declared war. The West obligingly pre-
sented Hitler with the Munich Pact instead.
By how much did the conspiracy fail? Four
persons in the room with. Hitler. at his East
Prussian headquarters were killed. A. stout table.
shielded him just enough. If it had not, the,
war might have ended in Europe ten months
before it did. Even as it was, the plot had a,
chance until it was lost in.bad luck and bun-,
gling-or so this version seems to suggest.
Time Ran Out
For reasons riot yet entirely clear, the con-
spirators in Berlin did not goo into action until
3:45 p. m:, when Stauffenberg, still certain he
had killed Hitler, arrived by plane from East.
Prussia. Through some fatal carelessness the
Berlin radio stations were not seized and Joseph
Goebbels was not taken in hand. In Paris Field
Marshal.von Kluge, who might have saved the
day by turning the. Army of the West against.
the regime, hesitated until it was too late. By
midnight the revolt had ground to a halt, and
the first of some 5,000 executions were under
way - a terrible toll-taking among a mere
"clique."
Mr. FitzGibbon speculates with some bitter,
ness on how much better the 'German anti-Nall
opposition might have fared had it received
help and recognition from the Western Allies.
If the unconditional surrender. policy was wrong,
he is right. Allen Welsh Dulles, head of the
,
on at, ',if it ever arrives at one, we have here
a finely organized and written story of, brave
men who acted out of conscience, died- for prin-
ciple, and deserve to be remembered with utmost
nlisted ministers, wealthy landowners, righ
wing politicians, socialists. Nor did they 014
heir desperate move only when and beta
German defeat seemed certain.
As early as 1940 Col. Count Claus Schenk vo
----- .. W -
itler's original propaganda line endures to th Office of Strategic Services m SwtzerlancT at thei
ay-i. e:, that this was the work of "a sma Mme, and atltlicr c ,"GezmanY's Underground"
lique of ambitious officers." ItRis clear enoug : o lli ll. 1yI . FitzGibbon draws extensively),
ow, or should be, that the truth was elsewher beved that the unconditional- surrender slogan
mistake: 'ending history's verdict
esides the :professional sokdies, the conspirac was indeed a
310
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-RDP70-00058R000100050084-3