Americans i suspect you know, left it to the japanese to announce yamamotos death. The americans announced that a couple of japanese aircraft had chopped down and were given away by a whimper that they knew yamamoto was in one of them. They waited until the japanese had the big funeral in tokyo and so on and so forth whereas conversely there could have been a disit isary after midway where clever newspapers were tipping off, reporting the midway success was the result of codebreaking successes, and it is scary what that sort of stuff can do. I mean, we interest to say, if the guys on the other side were paying attention, the west was the western allied nations were fantastically lucky to get away with what they did with the codebreaking. Time for one quick question and quick answer. Alex, could you please stand. A few months ago i went to college park to the Smithsonian Institution to hear james bond, i went over there, 165 people in the museum were there, sold out. I dont like so i listened for 80minute seminar two gentleman about james bond and about 007, double agents. My question is yes, i was wondering what the question is. Every 15 minutes they have drinks. They didnt mention his fighter and not doing it for the money and doing it for the transaction. I think you better come and ask me afterwards when im not still not quite sure what the question was. Referencing james bond, ian flemming and popov as well. Oh, that, yes. Im still not sure what the question is. May be a longer conversation. I cant tell you. Its always such a pleasure. You are the nicest audience in the whole world and even though im an ignorant foreign visitor youre so nice for me and im so grateful to the opportunity to speak with you again and meet with you again. Thank you very much indeed. While congress is on break this week, we are taking the opportunity to show you American History tv programs. Normally seen only on weekends. We continue thursday night with a look at what happened after the end of world war ii. Starting at 8 00 even with the fate of nazi and japanese war criminals after the war. Thats followed by hour the war changed the u. S. And the rest of the world. American historytv primetime all this week at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Sunday indepth will feature a live discussion on the presidency of barack obama. Were taking your phone calls, tweets, emails and facebook questions during the program. Our Panel Includes april ryan, White House Correspondent for American Urban Radio Networks and author of the presidency in black and white, my up close view of three president s and race in america. Princeton University Professor eddie glaude, author of why the democracy in black, how race still enslaves the american soul and Pulitzer Prize winning journalist and associate editor of the washington david maranis, author of barack obama, the story. Watch indepot go the live sunday noon to 3 00 p. M. Eastern on booktv on cspan 2. New years night on q a while people were starving van burren, he was having financing parties in the white house. It was part of the imagemaking where harrison was the candidate, poor man for the poor people and here was this rich man in washington sneering at the poor people. Harrison had thousands of acres and an estate and he was actually a very wealthy man, but he was portrayed as the champion of the poor. When it came to the parades and they waved hand chiefs, some gave speeches, some wrote pamphlets, and it was very shocking. They were criticized by the democrats who said that these women should be home making pudding. Ronald schaefer, author of the book the carnival campaign, how the rollicking of 1848 and tippy canoe changed president ial elections forever. Cspan, where history unfields daily. In 1979 cspan was creed as a Public Service by americas Cable Television companies and is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Author pete duffy describes the story of an fbi double agent who helped unveal it a nazi spy ring. He talked about how the mission originated and how it pioneered the use of a hidden camera to gather evidence this. Hour long talk is part of a multiday conference at the National WorldWar Ii Museum in new orleans. Our next presenter is peter duffy. Many of you are probably aware of peters old world war ii book the bielsky brothers featured in the recent film defiance about a group of jewish partisans who fought the gnat nazis, but peter is here today to discuss another individual who combatted the nazis, an american citizen who became a mole to expose nazi spies who had infiltrated the United States to. Present on his book double agent, the first hero of world war ii and how the fbi outwitted and destroyed a nazi spy ring. Please join me in welcoming peter duffy. Thank you very much. This is quite an stroosextraord facility with some amazing equipment in front of us. I hope it holds while im up here and in fact one of our b 17 will be an issue that ill touch on because the german spies were interested in a famous piece from that great airplane. Im here to tell an interesting and unforgotten hero, the american character of world war ii, a quizzical character named wilhelm gotlieb segal and ill note by saying that in early 1939 before this war war started mr. Sebold living in new york boarded the ss deutchland on the west side piers of manhattan, and he sailed for nazi germany which was preparing for war. He was carrying a single suitcase and a package and left his wife behind in their east 84th street apartment and the plan was to visit his mother in mulheim in aurora valley and recover from ulcer surgery and when he arrived in passport control in hamburg he was taken aside by nazi officials in plain clothes who questioned him about his life in the United States, and after learning that he had worked briefly at the consolidated Aircraft Corporation of san diego, which made those sea planes, those u. S. Navy pby sea planes, the men promised ominously that siebold would hear from him again. Up to that point siebold had lived a wayward existence, a mechanical draftsman apprentice as a teenager in germany, and he served from age 17 to age 19 in the german army, spending eight months in the trenches during world war i and turned off by the unrest of the postwar years he decided to leave germany and he became a Junior Engineer on an oil Company Vessel that landed in galveston, texas, which was the first stop, and he jumped ship. An illegal immigrant, he worked for a year in rural texas, including for a time as a mule tenlder on a ranch before returning back to germany to mulheim to help hits parents through the economic difficulties of the hyperinflation period. And a year later he returned back to the sea, and he spent this time he jumped ship in south america where he spent two years working as a bartender and later as a diesel engineer in chile and peru. On february 13th, 1929, he entered the United States legally under the old quota system for german immigrants, and over the next two years he traveled the country, basically a tramp as he would later be code named by the germans. He worked for various industrial outfits in oakland and fairbanks, alaska and San Francisco and in milwaukee, erie. He was probably riding the rails like a lot of people were doing the depression year and finally he arrived in new york city and went straight to the german enclave of yorkville which is on the Upper East Side of manhattan, and there is only theres the bare traces of the German Community that once was once thrived there. I think theres one restaurant, the heidelberg which i recommend on second avenue, and a few butcher shops, but beyond that it was a very thriving, particularly in the 20s and 30s, very, very thriving German Community, and after hitlers ascension to power in 1933, many open supporters of the hitler regime. The most open were members of what became known as the germanamerican bund who would march down 86th street which was the main stretch there in yorkville in full uniform with nazi flags and american flags, and they were a constant source of media fascination, constant tabloid presence was fritts kuehne, the bundes leader of the germanamerican bund. Siebold took the oath that he made on february 10th, 1936, very seriously. He became an american citizen, and he pledged that i absolutely an entirely announce and be a dewer all allegiance to any prints, potentates, prince or sovereignty. He said i had nothing to do with hitler anymore. I was an american citizen. Sorry, not used to talking so much so ill have to water myself occasionally. So after he arrived in germany, he was contacted by the regime as promised several months after arriving in his mothers home. Siebold initially refused the startling office to go to the german espionage service. Go there yourself, he told the man the man who approached him, identified himself as dr dr. Gasner, appropriately spy worthy fame, but when siebold refused dr. Gasner threatened him and he described the clothes he would be wearing when he was laid out in his casket. In fear for his life, siebold asked for the month of august, the month of august 1939 to think over the plan, as you can as im sure you know perhaps, the most momentous in 20th century history. On august 23rd the hitlerstalin pact was announced which gave hitler the opportunity to invade pole land without great worry from the power to the east and on the same day that hitler launched the blitzkreig against poland commencing world war ii siebolg fled germany. He went to the american cons lieutenant in cologn seeking help but a mad scene at the consulate in cologne and the consulate clerk said run for the border, we cant help you. Flagged down two motorists with northern license plates and fearful he was being followed by the gestapo and he was fearful they were following him, whether they were or not, who knows, and mindful he lacked proper papers to get past the checkpoints he gave in. He wrote to dr. Gasner and said he accepted his proposition 100 n. Time this dr. Gasner introduced him to dr. Rankin which was one of the many aliases for Nicholas Fritts ritter who was an english officer based in hamburg who was looking for had a man he could send to new york as a messenger and a contact man for his small ring of spies there. Siebold was nominated for the job, and Nicholas Ritter is a very interesting character, and he lived in the United States in the 20s where he became fluent in english. He married an alabama schoolteacher who he met in new york. They had two children. At this point he had brought them to germany. His american family. Had an affair with his secretary and began Divorce Proceedings with his alabama wife who remained who has her own story and the two children, the spys daughter, american born doubt their currently lives in mclean, virginia. Shirley the only daughter of a nazi spy with a syrup thick virginia accent. Great lady. Was a wonderful help for this book. She has an amazing war experience which we could spend all day speaking about. I think theres a tv movie being made of it. But Nicholas Ritters great mistake, the strategic blunder that would lead to the spectacular downfall of his american spy ring occurred on the very day he met his newest agent. Under ritters orders siebolds u. S. Passport was stolen. This is as genuine u. S. Passport, likely so that an agent who doesnt have the travel advantages of legitimate u. S. Citizenship could use it. Ritter then instructed siebold to go to the u. S. Consulate in cologn, the same place where siebold already attempted to tell his story and apply for a new passport through legitimate channels which it doesnt seem like had a smart idea. The passport reapplication process required siebold to visit the consulate several times over the coming weeks, a period when the excitement of the early days of the war had subsided and siebold was eventually able to tell his story providing letters from ritter as backup to the consul general himself, alfred w. Clyforth and in a cable to washington clyforth said siebold was being coerced into the german spy service and that he, quote, requests that he be met upon his arrival in new york by representatives of the state department in order to convey his story to them by word of mouth. Really before he had ever done anything for the german spy service he already informed the United States government and suggested he wouldnt be cooperating. Siebold went back to the germans and underwent a total of ten days of training in hamburg in preparation for going it new york. He was lonld with other trainee spies and taught how to use a radio key to tap out messages in morse code and instructed in the use of a special camera to reproduce blueprints or documents on to a postage stamp sized microphotograph. Schooled in a cipher system based on the letter arrangements of a particular page which would change each day in the british edition of rachel fields best selling historical romance all this and heaven, too which was made into a movie. The book is was unreadable. I couldnt get through two or three pages. The cipher system which i explained in a page and a half was probably the hardest thing for me to figure out since this is not my specialty. Many of you would probably pick it up very easily. Siebold was provided with addresses of mail drops in shanghai, sao paulo and portugal and was christened with the code fame tramp, a clear acknowledgement of his footloose life up until then and he was told to conduct business in new york as harry sawyer who was my supposition is that he was related to tom sawyer and mr. Ritter had read his mark twain when he lived in the United States. Finally siebold was given 1,000 in American Cash which when adjusted is about 16,000 and several microfilmled documents of instructions were hidden in the gears of his watch. Unaccompanied and unsure if he was being followed he took the freezing rain from hamburg to munich and changed for the overnight to milan and continued the next northern for genoa. On january 29th, 1940, the ss washington pushed off from the northern italian port bound for new york city. Now, the ship was met at quarantine in the narrows in new york by a coast guard cutter which was carrying a state Department Officer and an fbi special agent who spoke briefly with siebold and asked if hed be willing to come to the fbis new york office and knolly square for further discussions. Now siebold thought once i get to new york this will be over very quickly, ill give them everything i have and ill be on my way and wont be involved in all of this anymore and all of this unpleasantness will go away. After two days of telling his story at foley square, he was asked if he was willing to become the fbis first counterspy. Now, the phrase double agent was not yet in common parlance when this case went to trial in 1941. All the new york tabloid and new york newspapers did not once use the phrase double agent or the compound double agent. It was always counterspy and in fact was introduced during opening arguments what a counterspy was to the jury. It was such a foreign concept. Assigned to be siebolds handler was an fbi agent names james c. Ellsworth who was a mormon and gain fluency in german during the weimar period in germany. He happened to be an inveterate diarist and letter writer, and i contacted and found his son still alive out in california, and they had all his diaries from his entire scope of his life and he after this case closed, after this 16month, 18month case he began a diary describing all that they had gone through which is an extraordinary research. Any writer would give, you know, his left hand for Something Like that, and and he and in his diery, his first meeting of siebold, they met at a hotel in new york and he said as i was coming out of the shower in the hotel room, siebold came in. I found siebold to be a tall, 63, thin, 160pound german, bigboned and browneyed and had brown hair. Spoke english brokenly but as time went on he spoke english very well. But the fbi, as you can imagine, was really not sure what this was all about, whether they could truly trust this character with this extraordinary story, and the idea that the germans would would send someone who wasnt entirely on board to be the center of such an operation really had them wondering, and siebold himself, they were sibold demanded a special meeting with the new york office because he wasnt entirely comfortable with what he was supposed to do and Percy Sam Foxworth was the head of the fbi new york office and mr. Foxworth sent a memo to j. Edgar hoover after meeting with siebold and this is how he was described. He has han hon hefty complex and in fact hes so honest that im afraid some day hell give himself away because of his inability to do his part. He has a mania for doing what is right. If the German Government would really knew him they never would have entrusted him with the assignment they gave him and he took his assignment knowing hed never going through it but knew he had to do something in order to get out of germany alive. He states that an oath is a sacred thing and when he swore to be loyal to the United States and a loyal United States citizen at the time he was naturalized he considered that a sacred oath and he considers he renewed that oath at the time he was given a passport. Hes of the opinion if a man breaks faith with him in any respect that man is not worthy of any further consideration with him. It is, therefore, apparent that if sy ebold feels the bureau does not trust him or would fail to carry out any part of what he thinks is the contract with him, he would blow up and probably ruin the case. You can imagine what they felt as they began trailing him as he conducted his way into this new york spy ring. He was given four names. Four extraordinary characters, and this