The night of the assassins remember it seems a lot longer than a year ago but i wont digress. Last year when i was working on a night of the assassins, i spent a lot of time reading about world war ii and tried to put myself into the shoes of the people i was reading about. I wondered if i had made the choices they made to protect the families and protect myself. But i have found the fortitude, courage. Its where i am now where i wrote my book with a few annoyances in the background and frogs croaking in the pond college hilltop in connecticut. Hopefully there wont be a thunderstorm and it will stay nice. But when i visit here i think i would spend a good deal of my time wishing i could understand what it was like to live through world war ii and find an understanding to convey on the page what its like to live with a constant sense of uncertainty and not knowing whats going to have been mac, what its like to live through a great unknown. But now it is a previously unimagined and all i can say is be careful what you wish for. I am not saying the battle is the same as fighting world war ii. Theres not another nation trying to conquer us or replace our philosophy with its own but they are in a fight for our lives and our countrys future and its covered with the fact. Central to both world war ii and today we turn to our leaders and talk to them to ensure we can manage today we still have jobs and paychecks to ensure america will persevere and the challenges we will face in the years ahead. Today more than ever we can understand how important the leadership is to the time of crisis. The story i want to tell tonight, the story of world war ii previously widely unknown about how the allied leaders fdr, churchill and stalin were suddenly put in harms way. Its a story about the realization to come up with a secret plot to speak of and came up with a secret plan, a secret mission, the mission to target the allied leaders fdr, churchill and stalin and the allies identified as the most dangerous men in europe and one man ahead of the secret service had to find the ingenuity and courage to prevent the assassination that could have changed the course of history. Theres a story in january, 1943 at the casablanca conference here in north africa if they are and churchill were leaving and on the final day of the conference, january 24, 1943, fdr made a statement to the press at the casablanca conference that despite churchill, taken totally by surprise. Fdr announced the allies would fight until Unconditional Surrender of the nazis, japan. Once this condition, the statement about Unconditional Surrender was made, the nazis realized the previous plans. At this point in the war, they had come to the realization that it couldnt be won on the battlefield. The allies invaded north africa, america was coming into the war with troops and airplanes however they were now going to engage in a strategy with a stalemate from the defeat of and negotiated peace with that would bthe peopleto keep the territort they had one and that they would be able to survive. But now that he had announced the Unconditional Surrender, they realized that was not possible and ultimately they would have to answer to an ally to stand before the court. They would find him guilty and spea[inaudible] the Unconditional Surrender had been given a and it was destroyed. Thats what they realized what happened unless something could be done. So july, 1943, two men walked into the hotel in berlin they walked past the bar and went into a private room. They have what are called taxi dancers to get paid a couple to dance with those whose husbands were boyfriends were away fighting. That evening in july, two of the nazi top spymasters, the two men went ahead of the ss cloak and dagger operations. He was 33yearsold, pragmatic man and the man he met with was old enough to be his father. He was the head of the traditional military intelligence in germany and they wanted to talk Boston Office is officially but to discuss how they could target the allies leaders. Immediately as the discussion began, they realized the problems they face. One, while they said they wanted to meet together, no location has been set and the allies were not revealing this. Its one of the greatest sea routes of the war and the spymasters wondered if they would be up to get this information. The second problem they demanded between the three of them the greatest Standing Army in the world heavily guarded wherever they decided to meet and the third problem, they need a plan to [inaudible] how could they sneak up on them and make a strategic plan. So these problems were unresolved, yet at the same time they would see if they could move forward with the plot of the leaders. Then september 12, 1943 something happened that gave them hope. On this afternoon told reuters down out of the sky. She was a fascinating figure, he had achieved that he was very proud of and he headed a special Operations School outside of the concentration camp and he was totally dedicated. They came to him and said i want you to lead a mission to two get him out of the hands of the italian for imprisoned. He had been sent by the Italian Government with a picture and they put it in this mountain top mattress and kept it there until they knew the decision what to do with them. He looked a at this photo that d been given by hitler and was very daunting. The only way of the mountain was a cable car surrounded by a battalion of other troops. You couldnt storm it. You could drop paratroopers out of the sky because at 7,000 feet. There was no field, you couldnt land the plane. So he came up with this idea of coming in with lighters. Five made it into the other seven were blown off or crashed. The five came in on a mountaintop, he leaves his men to the fortress where mussolini is hidden and the italians give up without much of a fight and three nights later theres scorsese, mussolini to hitler and hitler is overjoyed to. I want you to head to the occupation thats another Impossible Mission to target a. That he takes this challenge he assembles his team and there is a major problem she doesnt know where or when or if it is going to take place. Oddly enough in the fall of 1943 its the same problem facing if they are and on november 2, fdr calls into the oval office the head of the secret Service Detail and gets a special mention to to find out if a meeting is going to take place. At 31yearsold, former college star in montana, takes a job after pearl harbor and is immediately overwhelmed and assigned himself an irish cop which is a little selfdeprecating but if this was the first for where the enemy could fly the bombers across the ocean and the bomb washington, d. C. And they could drop out of the sky on the white house lawn and theres Something Else that makes it such a challenge. Fdr was quite literally a sitting target. Why is from the waist down she couldnt move and he knew he would rather get in the crosshairs of an assassin. The key was willing to do this. He would have to take the bullet. He called fdr and the two were pretty close. The morning of november 2, fdr says i want you to go to the airport in morocco and you are going to meet somebody and they will give you the information on whether or not there is a meeting and where it is going to take place and if it is to take place then you better go check it out. He was sort of the spymasters in chief, he likes these. Later, mike from this town in montana is standing beneath a palm tree at the airport in morocco, a car pulls up and theres two soldiers and as prearranged, the soldiers get out, mike walks slowly so he doesnt attract attention to the car, gets in fact, the back door is open and there he finds ph and hes supposed to meet with information and its the secretary of state. It seems the secretary of state had been in moscow for the past five days and was meeting with stalin to see if they could work out a plan. He turns and says its going to be in tehran. Stalin has agreed to tehran. There are two thoughts. First he has to get to tehran right away and scope out the place and the second he has to go looking for a map. He has no idea what country it is even in. Meanwhile, as he is finding out in this meeting taking place, they are finding out approximately the same time. The sky is a walk in, and interesting operative in intelligence circles. Everyone dislikes him. He comes to you bearing gifts you didnt ask for and you dont know why hes bringing you this information. Is it ego, money, or hes the most suspicious. Is he a double agent, did he bring this information to send you on the wrong path . Then a man comes about 5foot three. Each night when he goes to sleep there is a key and he can get code and diplomatic traffic. He wants 20,000 british pounds worth about a Million Dollars today. They cant quite make up their mind what to do. Hes asking for a lot of money. Finally the head of the special cloak and dagger operations decides this is counterfeit money and they have been together 20,000 pounds a. They are quite breathtaking. The documents are so good that he gets a code name cicero because the documents were so eloquent. In the documents they find out what mike found out. They know that the big three are meeting in tehran last week of november. When the nazi high command are in the south south, they now hao pieces of the puzzle they can use. They know when and where they are meeting. But the joy is even greater because of Something Else. They pick the one city, tehran since 1940 german intelligence has been sending agents into tehran with a network established. They have a communication system, and theres even more than that. Over the past three months they have been sending teams to to take off on a secret german base to fly over tehran, jump out of the sky and try to sabotage. Even better than that, the man in charge of this area and the missions is the very man heading obligation on the job. The german high command, the operational [inaudible] they will succeed. Meanwhile, mike has gone to tehran to check it out. They arrived at the airport and the first thing he sees at the airport is a big red star controlled by Russian Troops and they are Walking Around with machine guns and h cases they my bhe says theymay be our allies e not our friends. He doesnt like the idea of fdr [inaudible] and he goes to visit the American Embassy in and you can put troops surrounded the end and he goes to visit the british and Russian Embassy 4 miles away they share a compound. Mike realizes fdr would be having to travel back and forth over the twisting streets of tehran. As he tours the city, Something Else that strikes him, something i think we can all identify with these days. Theres an invisible enemy. Tehran is in a hot zone. On the streets thereve been carveout and a [inaudible] is a mess waging everywhere. Mike gets quite fearful that he later learns there are three places where you can get fresh water. The American Embassy, the British Embassy and the washington embassy. The American Engineers came into the country underneath and they bring fresh water daily. And mike greaves a sigh of relief. Only later he realizes how dangerous it can be. So, ten days later the allies come to tehran. Churchill arrives first. Theres no press involved. Its supposed to be a topsecret meeting. As soon as churchill gets there, there is a ceremony and then on the way to the British Embassy, the route is lined with iranian uniform sitting on top of their mounts and churchill later says they were showing the assassins can come and get me. Hes in an open top car and its caught in traffic. Hes just sitting there looking at his watch and scared. He thinks this had all been planned. They couldnt have been more successful, of course he was being sarcastic. The operation to get fdr to the city goes without a hitch. He arrives at 3 p. M. , he is taken to the American Embassy, he settled in on the second floor of the american see in his bedroom with mike and mike is feeling pretty good about this. Someone comes to tell them theres a russian general downstairs waiting to see in. Mike was downstairs. The general, the head of the precursor to the kgb of the secret intelligence service. Mike assumes the gentleman is there just one stalin has arrived at the Russian Embassy, but he takes one look at and realizes something is very wro wrong. [inaudible] commanders fell down out of the sky on a mission to kill the big three and mike, his heart stops and the first thing they can say as he asks a silly question are you sure there were 38 and he says yes we caught them all and interrogated them quite thoroughly. Mike has a vision in his mind what it must have been like to be interrogated quite thoroughly but this is wartime and his responsibility is to protect the loss. Then the general sense there is Something Else. These men we interrogated six commanders came in on a separate plane. They are in the city and they have a mission to kill fdr, churchill and stalin. His blood ran cold. The next four days of the conference, it is a cat and mouse game between mike overcoming his animosity trying to get the six commanders, well trained, well armed in a city of 1 Million People they go from house to house looking for them. It comes down to the ninth of november 30, churchills 69th birthday party. Theres a photograph in my book you can see fdr, churchill and stalin sitting shoulder to shoulder at this dinner at the British Embassy that night in tehran. You can almost hear their voices singing happy birthday and at that moment six nazi assassins are trying to make their way to sneak into the embassy grounds, break into the dining room and change history. What happens . , it all works out, its in the book. They are not killed in the allies when the war. But they take you back to the conference. December 17, 1943. Fdr had just come back from overseas and is making his First Press Conference to tell the press what happened at tehran. Theyd been talking about this in 20 minutes into the conference you could hear a reporters into the president ial library in hyde park he says we have a bit of a security problem. I had to move from the American Embassy to the Russian Embassy because there were six nazi commanders on the roof. It gets a laugh, and he says it would have been a pretty good hold if they could have gotten all three of us and he continues laughing and the press joins in and what is most amazing and you can see fdr then says let me tell you about china into bigger one with no followup questions. Its like it was just a big rumor. There were some interviews of people using pseudonyms. After 2003 the secret Intelligence Agency released a treasure trove of classified documents about what happened in tehran and they even threw a young man barely 20yearsold but played a role in stopping the attack. I was able to get ahold o a holf those documents, get them translated and then i went to newspapers and american archives, british archives, german archives to put all the pieces together to tell the true story of what happened that week in tehran and tell the true story of operation long jump. Let me circle back to what i said at the beginning. We are living now in a time of crisis where we understand how important this is to prepare for the future and where a lack of leadership can be problematic. We are also in a time where we have experienced how life can change just like that and these experiences make us understand what was at stake that night in tehran when they tried to make their way in to his 69th birthday. Thank you. The Magic School Bus also died earlier this month. Ms. Cole created the series in 1986 that followed a group of schoolchildren on a fantastical trips led by their teacher, ms. Frizzle. It was developed into a program that aired on pbs for 18 years. She died at the age of 75. In other news, lisa lucas has been named the new publisher of pantheon, part of the Penguin Random house publishing group. She had been the director of the National Book foundation for the past four years. Also in the news, mtv books can provide a list of the bestselling print books for the first half of the year. Six of the top ten are nonfiction titles, including john boltons memoir of his time in the trump administration. Robyn deangelo and prospective books on race in america, and erik larsons recount of Winston Churchills leadership during the london blitz. Barnes and noble renovated 350 of their stores during the time they were closed due to the corona virus pandemic. The bookstore chain focused on reorganizing departments, providing greater selection and making the stores later. Booktv will continue to bring new programs and publishing news. You can also watch all of our archived programs any time at booktv. Org. Booktv recently spoke with republican senator johnny ernst of iowa about her life and career. Here is a portion of the interview. I live in a very rural part of the state and the perseverance and dedication and hard work that my parents taught me really has carried me through so many different challenges in my lifetime, opportunities in my lifetime, and i wanted to tell a story that could be uplifting certainly. People will face challenges throughout their lifetime, but we all should understand that those challenges dont necessarily have to define us. New book entitled daughter of the heartland. You can watch the rest of the interview by visiting the website booktv. Org and searching her name in the box at the top of the page. Hello, everyone. Im sara maher publishing manager at western park association. Id like to welcome you to todays authors and conversation series