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Betrayal: The True Story of J. Edgar Hoover and the Nazi Saboteurs Captured During WWII

2007

Synopsis

The true story behind the Nazi saboteurs captured on Long Island in 1942, their betrayal by J. Edgar Hoover, and the shameful secret behind the case the established the reputation of the FBI.

At 4 AM on a foggy morning in 1942, Nazi submarines discharged eight men along the coasts of Long Island and Florida. A few days later, J. Edgar Hoover further burnished his reputation by announcing the swift capture of Nazi soldiers found prowling our shores, intent on sabotage.

Omitted from the record (and still denied by the FBI) is the true story behind Hoover's greatest publicity coup: the saboteurs' leader, George Dasch, betrayed his own country by turning himself in first to a disbelieving FBI. Hoover promised Dasch clemency and assurances that the jerry-rigged "military tribunal" created to try the men as "unlawful combatants" was merely a formality to protect loved ones from Nazi retribution.

Using documentation from the FBI archives, interviews and memoirs, David Alan Johnson carefully recounts the mounting betrayals in this utterly engrossing saga.

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