BOOKS OF THE TIMES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000700350014-5
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 16, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 10, 2004
• Sequence Number: 14
• Publication Date: April 30, 1963
• Content Type: NSPR

A GOOD book about real espionage
must do two things. First' It must
tell us that spying is a matter of
iniini'.e drudgery seldom adorned by beauti-
f.:,iy landscaped Mata Haris. Then it must
reveal a fair quantity of astounding actual
sleuthery involving the fates of nations.
It's got to do both things simultaneously
if its going to have many customers outside
the trade-school ranks. Otherwise the in-
constant reader will turn toward livelier
avenues of crime and punishment.
Such as? Well, to be specific, he-and
she-will turn from the Ian Fleming who
wrc e the introduction to 11. Montgomery
Hyde= "Room 3603,"? our book for today,
to the Ian Fleming who writes the admira-
bly lurid thrillers starring James Bond, the
toughest and blandest of crime-busters
drilled on the playing fields of Eton, or there-
abouts.
Now a book about an important subject,
as we say from time to time, is not necessari-
ly an important book. But "Room 3603" is
an important book about an important sub-
ject: the tremendous British security opera-
tion in America during World War II. Mr.
Hyde is the author of many books on Brit-
ish politics and history.
The operation called British Security Co-
ordination--or B.S.C.-was nun by a brilliant
Canadian millionaire, Sir William Stephen-
son. aal "Room 3603," his wartime address
in Rockefeller Center, is essentially Sir Wil-
liam's st>ry. ,
.Glory Shared by Cynthia
At L'#e end of the war President Harry S.
Tr+mit. decorated Sir William with the
Mrdaliof Merit, King George VI made him
a I_ 'I(it and he received fine commendations
fpm; I. Edgar Hoover, Mai. Gen. Wild Bill
Lt raf rcn, Robert E. Sherwood and other high
culok;I;ues in keeping the Free Word free--
in',/' ding Hugh Dalton, who was by then
( /d ceilor of the Exchequer.
t'`l there a Mata Hari In the story? No.
'A r; there is a remarkable ag'nt named Cyn-
i i t i --need I add that was not her real name?
- 1ti , charmed sus.,eptible men famously.
;'it :,;c r stir d our side with the texts of just
t.rrlr all the telegrams that went into and
cac cf the Vichy Embassy In Washington and
l+.f fed to crack the Virhyae and Italian
+', d codes.
* F 41 , 7' 3603. Vy7 if. .Vontgotnery Hyde. Fare-
-,' by Ian Fl nmy. 357 papv.e. Farrar. $1.50.
"As her story"unfolds," Mr. Ryde classic
cally remarks, "It will become, apparent that
her peculiar feminine charms were the real
instrument of her success. And yet,.remark-
ably enough, she had no very obvious sex-
ual allure."
Oh, didn't she! Let the reader judge as he
reads gratefully about Cynthia in respite
from many a page proving to the hilt that
International rivalry never quite ceases even
when the nations concerned are allies striv-
ing for survival.
Or even within nations at war, for that
matter. For example, Sir William was per-
haps more surprised than pleased when in
the summer of 1942 a Political Warfare
Mission from London, headed by Sir David
Bowes-hyon, a brother of the Queen, arrived
in America to take over some of Sir WQ-
liam's operations. Organizational empire
building within the :Empire did not seem
cricket to Sir William and he used his right
of appeal strenuously.
He carried on and confounded the enemy's
knavish tricks and confused the enemy's pol-
itics. Considerable use was made of infor-
mation obtained by opening Axis mail in
Bermuda. When the United States, after
a longish interval, entered the war. Sir Wil-
liam's organization helped to train opera-
tives for the Office of Strategic Services
and other unusual warriors.
Other Potent Influences
A Hungarian astrologer who had defected
from Hitler's court was brought to the Unit-
ed States "to shake American public confi-
dence in the invincibility cf Adolf Hitler,"
according to Mr. Hyde.
This arcane maneuver nua;r have been sug-
gested by the immense popularity in war-
time Britain of the astrological prophecies
of Michel Nostradamus (15)3-66) that per-
haps helped to dispel the, l?rgering vapors
of Munich.
Sir William played an It Nod part in
ordering full steam aheaL "t t the investiga-
tion-toward the end of Nid War II-of
the Soviet spy apparatus J.'11 'ered by Igor
Gouzenko that led to thn -~.li. ,ite 1946 con-
viction at the Old Bailey U ?. Alan Nunn
May.
One of Sir William's #rn':rlret weapons
is recslled by Ian I ??mlrt
-,At reveals that
the nta t In Ror,t+,
r .c. b nalce the
most powerfe:'
m:,:1 1R
f ,kar r!ca and
sea%e thorn In
,:.lr' .ts#1.c
25X1
Approved For Release 2004/12/15: CIA-RDP75-00 1149R000700350014-5