Honey Trap

Click the highlighted item below to go to the text for the conference referred to in “The Honey Trap: The True Story of Madame Elizabeth Brousse, A/K/A “Cynthia” — Part One: Historic Interference”

The Second Washington Conference

PREFACE
This volume of documents on the conferences at Washington (1941-1942) and Casablanca (1943) is published in continuation of the special series of Foreign Relations volumes on the World War II conferences attended by President Roosevelt or President Truman, along with Prime Minister Churchill or Marshal Stalin, or both of the latter. Volumes previously published in this series were entitled The Conferences at Cairo and Tehran, 1943; The Conferences at Malta and Yalta, 1945; and The Conference of Berlin (The Potsdam Conference), 1945. COnferences till to be covered in this series are those at Washington in 1943 and Quebec in 1943 and 1944.

The principal compilers and editors of the present volume were Fredrick Aandahl, William M. Franklin, and William Slany. Substantial work was done on the initial collecting of documents for this volume by Edwin S. Costrell, S. Everett Gleason, and Isaac A. Stone. The volume was reviewed by the undersigned.

The technical editing of the volume was the responsibility of the Publishing and Reproduction Services Division, Jerome H. Perlmutter, Chief.

“In order to make this volume as complete and accurate as possible, the editors supplemented the data available in the Department of State by obtaining source material and information on these conferences from a number of individuals and agencies outside the Department. The Historical Office would like to express its sincere appreciation for this assistance. particular acknowledgment is made of the extensive help received form the Historical Division of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and form the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library at Hyde Park, New York. Quotations from certain of the books and manuscript collections listed in the Introduction to the volume have been made with the kind permission of the respective publishers and archival authorities. The photographs were supplied through the courtesy of the British Central Office of Information, the Library of Congress, the National Archives, the Franklin D. Roosevelt Library, and the U.S. Army Photographic Agency. ”

Downes, Donald. 1953. Scarlet Thread: Adventures in Wartime Espionage. 1st ed. Verschoyle, 87-93

Naftali, Timothy J. “Intrepid’s Last Deception: Documenting the Career of Sir William Stephenson.” Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 8, Number 3 (July 1993): 72-99.

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The hyperlinks appearing on the History News Network’s, The Honey Trap: The True Story of Madame Elizabeth Brousse, AKA “Cynthia” appear here, and link back to HNN as well as to other cites/sites on this page and the WWW. This site is to be viewed as a kind of “super repository” for notes, cites, bibliography and  references. Eventually, these pages will contain exhibits of primary works, where copyright allows: interviews, photos, documents, video, etc. This site is covered by a Creative Commons “copyright,” allowing anyone to use materials I have secured if they properly cite my work and observe international copyright laws. The Honey Trap is a continuous, cumulative, ongoing project.

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From an email written by Naftali to the author on 24 May 2007 – “The BSC in 1942 was fighting for its existence, as was the OSS. The acquisition of codes/cipher material would have been very useful in the struggle for resources in both intelligence communities. Sigint was then, as now I guess, the coin of the Realm. This was the era, I think, when the OSS was trying to steal sgnals intelligence from the Japanese embassy in Lisbon. Asking why Churchill would risk a back op on a certain date presupposes a great deal of topdown control from London. I find it hard to believe that WSS was on a tight a leash as that. Moreover I think it unlikely that Cynthia’s joint US/UK handlers would have felt they needed a green light from Whitehall. As so often is the case collection decisions involve lags and sometimes the actions prove embarrassing later on.”

Mark A. Stoler, Allies and Adversaries: The Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Grand Alliance, and U.s. Strategy in World War II (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2003), 67-83

Author’s note: Stoler writes — “In January (Allies and Adversaries, pg. 71) Eisenhower included North Africa as one of the political “side shows” that should not be allowed to interfere with Pacific reinforcement; joined by other planners, he argued that the British should retire in Libya so as to release forces for the Far East. Simultaneously, Embrick [Lt. General Stanley Dunbar Embrick, was an outspoken, one-time isolationist, considered to be among the Army's top strategic thinkers] warned Marshall that London’s entire Mediterranean approach was motivated ‘more largely by political than by sound strategic purposes.’ Invading North Africa, he insisted, would be ‘a mistake of the first magnitude,’ and any belief that the Alies could later invade Europe from this area was so ‘irrational’ as to be fantastic.’”

Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College Cambridge

Fioretta, A Tale of Italy, is a romantic first-person narrative about a little girl growing up in Naples, a tale in which inspiration and fortitude triumph over misfortune and poverty. In the story, a little girl, Fioretta, uses her magical singing voice to save her impoverished father. Betty dedicated the book to her grandparents on her mother’s side. “Dada and Nana, with all the love in the world I dedicate this, my first book.” Her inscription was hopeful and implied that more books will follow.
Fioretta may be borrowed from bits and parts of a half-dozen children’s tales Betty had read, but, at the same time, it represents a precocious display of talent. Nine chapters long, with a glossary of Italian words, it is a sustained creation, which is no small achievement for a child. Betty was able to create characters who evolved through predicaments designed to tug at the emotions, fusing into a tried-and-true plotline. Fioretta’s mother came from a wealthy family that disowned her when she married Giotto, a man beneath her socially. When Fioretta was born, her mother died. Fioretta’s father suffers the life of an unsuccessful artist and a widower. Fioretta yearns to save him from sadness and poverty, to erase his misfortune. Now, as Fioretta approaches her maturity, she develops an enchanting singing voice, which she vows to use to save her father. Each day, she sneaks away to the big city, to Naples, where she sings for pennies to augment Giotto’s income. One day, a beautiful woman, who turns out to be the sister of Fioretta’s late mother, overhears her. What is more, her grandfather, whom she has never met, is still alive. But ill and bitter, the old man refuses to believe that she is his granddaughter. Of course, fate steps in and a great singer known throughout the country also becomes enchanted with Fioretta’s talents. His name is Scarlatti, and he offers to give young Fioretta voice lessons. In a brief few years, when she turns 17, Fioretta is ready for her debut, to sing in the great opera houses of Milan. For her first performance, she wears her mother’s gown and jewelry. Her grandfather takes the opportunity to spy, to have a look at the young girl who has rattled his conscience. The results are no surprise, the old man is captivated. But the way Betty develops the moment has magic. When the grandfather sees Fioretta, it is as if he is seeing his own daughter born again. Can there be stronger proof of identity? In the end, Fioretta pulls the family back together and saves her father. The little book ends seamlessly. Never does the young author give the reader any difficulties. Her writing presents no hard to imagine twists or turns, no gaffes in the action, no lapses. Fioretta, A Tale of Italy is a finished product.

As books go, Fioretta is dated, although in its time it would have appealed to teenagers. The book includes a half dozen original drawings and cover art. The illustrator, the handsome, 27-year-old Don Blanding, would go on to some fame as Hawaii’s “Vagabond Poet.” For Fioretta, he adopted a style that is romantic and sentimental. The drawings are Gibbsoneque, though his personal work lies closer to the intersection between Paul Gauguin and Aubrey Beardsley, a kind of jungle deco.

Betty’s book is reported to have aroused some interest among Hawaii’s wealthy white population, causing the youngster to enjoy a measure of celebrity. The territorial Governor of Hawaii, W.R. Farrington wrote an introduction to the book, expressing his admiration. “The juvenelia (sic) that this interesting child author has given the Hawaiian public during her sojourn in these islands of the Pacific,” he wrote, “have elicited no little interest as to her personality.” Governor Farrington’s introduction goes on to describe the young author as a regular kid.  “She plays with her puppy Eno-san with childish glee… and dashes through the surf of Waikiki with the easy grace of a Polynesian sea urchin.”[1]

Besides the high praise, the governor’s words imply that the Fioretta may have had more than one edition, although there is no record. However, the governor’s comment that Betty’s “juvenelia” had already attracted interest and attention raises the question. How did people know about the book, even the small circle that made up Hawaii’s controlling white population of the era? Another oddity is the indecision apparent in the making and manufacture of Fioretta. On the cover, the book is entitled, Fioretta, A Tale of Italy. Inside, the book is entitled, Fioretta or O Cessate di Piagarmi. The alternative title, O Cessate di Piagarmi (O, Stop Wounding Me), comes from an aria in the Allessandro Scarlatti opera “Pompeo.” It is a love song, a lamentation on rejection and ingratitude,[2] a reflection on the book’s themes.

[2] http://digital.library.upenn.edu/webbin/freedman/lookupwork?hr=&what=O%20Cessate%20Di%20Piagarmi. Also,

http://www.recmusic.org/lieder/get_text.html?TextId=11454

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David Brinkley, Washington Goes to War: Random House Value Publishing, 1999), 54

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http://is.gd/1eQPD

Not only was Brinkley sued by Lais, but so was H. Montgomery Hyde, who got the worst of it.

Sins of The Father? Sons Say Brinkley War Book Is Wrong on Liaison With Spy
[FINAL Edition]

The Washington Post (pre-1997 Fulltext) – Washington, D.C.
Author: Charles Trueheart
Date: Jun 20, 1989
Start Page: c.01
Section:STYLE
Text Word Count: 952

Follow the link to the site: http://is.gd/1eSWp

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Winston, Sir Churchill, The Hinge of Fate: The Second World War, Volume 4: Bantam Books (Mm), 1950), 317

Author’s note: Earlier that spring, the issue before the Allies was a cross-channel invasion planned for 1943. WSC’s comment quoted above regarding the plan of attack came ahead of the Second Washington Conference, in talks with General Marshall and Harry Hopkins in London. In Chapter 22 of The Hinge of Fate, Churchill appears to give a secondary role to the “American authorities” and their (Stimson and Marshall) demands that a decision be reached on war plans. “Another matter lay heavy on my mind,” WSC writes. That was “Tube Alloys,” the British euphemism for atomic weapons. In retrospect this appears a logical concern for the Prime Minister. In historical terms, however, “Tube Alloys” completely glosses the larger concerns looming over the summit:  a massive German summer offensive against Russia, secretary Molotov’s recent visits to London and Washington, the potential for Stalin to reach a separate peace (recall the Molotov-Rippentrop pact), and the catastrophe looming for Britain just days away in the deserts of North Africa, the imminent fall of Tobruk. Later entries will dissect the time line of events leading up to what may be viewed as Churchill’s dissembling at the summer summit.

American Export Lines

Hyde, H. Montgomery. Cynthia. New York: FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 1965.
and
S, Lovell Mary . Cast No Shadow the Life of the American Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II. New York: Pantheon, 1992.

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“A shipboard romance with a man whom she names in her memoirs only as ‘Norma W.’ helped to while away the tedious Atlantic crossing.” Lovell Mary S, Cast No Shadow the Life of the American Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II (New York: Pantheon, 1992), 133

See comments at 15 October 1940

Passenger and Crew List of SS “Excalibur,” arriving at New York, New York, October 30, 1940, page 147; Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York, New York, 1897-1957 (National Archives Microfilm Publication T715, roll 6506); Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85; National Archives Building, Washington, DC.

Finding Fairly’s name on this manifest came as a great surprise. His presence this early in Brousse’s story has until now gone undiscovered. The finding is significant, because it reveals Brousse to be disingenuous, uninformed or doling disinformation about events that fall, as the Cordinator of Information (predecessor to OSS) was taking cues from the British. Fairly, an operative ostensibly working for ONI, raises question about British intentions in the early days of American and British intelligence cooperation. More important, the meeting between Fairly and Brousse comes at a time when relations between British intelligence and U.S. intelligence were developing rapidly and under intense stress. Paul Fairly, it seems, threads through the knit of incipient U.S.-British espionage networks.

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S, Lovell Mary . Cast No Shadow the Life of the American Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II. New York: PANTHEON, 1992, 133-135

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Hyde, H. Montgomery. Cynthia. New York: FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 1965, 138

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Hyde, H. Montgomery. Cynthia. New York: FARRAR, STRAUS AND GIROUX, 1965, 138

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S, Lovell Mary . Cast No Shadow the Life of the American Spy Who Changed the Course of World War II. New York: PANTHEON, 1992, 133

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David Laurence Aaron is an American diplomat and former Deputy National Security Advisor to President Carter, who wrote a fictional biography of Madame Brousse: David Aaron, Crossing by Night: Avon Books (Mm), 1994). In the course of his research, Dr. Aaron met and interview H.M. Hyde and Count Michael Lubienski.

http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Thebes/6517/bagrationart.html

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Thomas F. TROY, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson, and the Origin of CIA (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1996)

Source for both views of the address book: Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge
Harford Montgomery Hyde Papers, “Cynthia” File number 2

There is something especially interesting and odd about Madame Brousse’s address book. Curiously, virtually every name entered into her “little black book” is written (it was actually brown and wallet-sized) — in the same pen, the same green ink and the same hand, suggesting that all the names and addresses were compiled at once. That is unusual. No one uses an address book in that way. Because of its uniformity and because Brousse was working at the time (circa 1961) with British intelligence agent and author H. Montgomery Hyde to produce articles, books and movies, it must be assumed that she compiled the book for the purposes of her memoir. Certainly, no spy would carry such a book. That would be unthinkable. If he or she were captured, a little book like that could become a killing machine, a tool to hunt down and eradicate an entire network of accomplices. The little book contains virtually every social and political contact she met in the course of a career that began during the Spanish Civil War and migrated across pre-War Europe and finally concluded in the United States, around 1943, seven years of conspiracies.

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This letter was either retained by Madame Brousse or by her mother, most likely her mother. Obviously no operative would want to be caught with any evidence suggesting that they were leading a double life. The letter was signed, J. Howard, a name commonly used by British intelligence as a generic cover, much as the British Passport Office was the cover for SIS operations at foreign embassies.

Here is the envelope as addressed to Cynthia’s mother. Note the postmark, 26 November 1940.

Source: Churchill Archives Center, Churchill College, Cambridge
Harford Montgomery Hyde Papers, “Cynthia” File number 2/5-6

The search for Paul Fairly began like this:

Mr. Shear,

I have no information pertaining to a LT Paul Fairly. You may be able to track him down in the Register Commissioned Officers the U.S. Navy.  [Author's note: Efforts to find Fairly's name in the Register, which is on deposit at Davis Libarary at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, were unsucessful.] The Naval Historical Center and Nimitz Library at USNA have the registers dating all the way back to the 18th century.

The amount information available from the Register (if any) will be contingent upon when he was first commissioned. Prior to World War IIthe Registers gave a considerable amount information including place birth dates promotions and shore duty and current duty assignment. After the United States became actively involved in World War II and the ranks the navy expanded exponentially the amount data on individual officers was limited due to the sheer volume people coming into the ranks. I would recommend the Register as the starting point for your research on this individual.

If you do establish him as a real person I recommend you check the USNA clippings files in the Special Collections Division if the Naval Academy was the source his commission. If he is deceased you may be able to get information from NARA – you will have to check their website for the specifics obtaining records. I know they recently opened considerably more records to the public but I don’t recall the exact requirements for access. Their website is very user friendly and you should be able to find that information without much trouble.

Another potential source information if you can get access to itis an ancestry database like Proquest where you can query census birth death and directory records.

Hope this helps.

Sincerely,
Randy Balano

Randy Carol Balano.D.
Command Historian
Office Naval Intelligence (ONI-ODE)
4251 Suitland Road
WashingtonDC 20395-5720
(301)-669-2975

What developed should have been obvious: Fairly was not an officer. Instead, a search of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis revealed this crucial document:

The document shows Fairly to be a lowly Yeoman and, more, not even a member of USN at the time of his encounter with Cynthia/Betty Pack/Madame Brousse.

From an email:

Subject: Re: Research questions
Date: Tuesday, November 20, 2007 10:42 AM
From: Karen Jania
To: Jeff Shear
Cc:
Conversation: Research questions

Dear Mr. Shear:
According to the necrology file on Ms. Wells, (a file of information collected by the Office of Alumni Records on deceased University alumni), her father was H.H.Wells, a Banker and Merchant in Morris, Minnesota. She was born in Morris, MN on August 5, 1899, graduated from the University of Michigan in 1903 and was a graduate student at Columbia.Wells married George Cyrus Thorpe, an officer in the Marine Corps, on April 8, 1908.

According to a biography that appeared in the April 1935 Michigan Alumnus, “…she published her book on Hawaii, entitled In the Path of the Tradewinds. During the World War her talents as a speaker and organizer came to the fore and made her services valuable to the Red Cross. Since then they have found frequent opportunity in civic and political expression. She was a member, in 1932, of the Republican National Committee and Chairman of Speakers for the League of Republican Women of the District of Columbia in 1933. Her three children, she declares are the best of her ‘accomplishments.’ One, Betty Thorpe Pack, who is married to a diplomat in the British Embassy, was a literary prodigy at twelve. Another daughter is studying voice in Paris and her young son is a collegian at Yale.”

Women were first admitted to the university for the 1870/1871 academic school year, 37 women registered that year, out of a total of 422 registered students. The following year 64 women registered and in 1878/79 there were 134 registered women . In 1903 when Wells graduated, there were 714 women registered out of a total or 3,659.

The University of Michigan is a state college.

Sincerely,

Karen L. Jania
Reference Archivist

Jeffrey M. Dorwart, Conflict of Duty: U.S. Navy’s Intelligence Dilemma, 1919-1945: Naval Inst Pr, Annapolis, Maryland, U.S.A., 1983), 126 [Graf Spee], and 131-132 [naval observers]

At that time, reserve officers were designated “naval observers,” to mitigate the neutrality issue.

Thomas F. Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson, and the Origin of CIA, 1st ed. (Yale University Press, 1996), 63

Thomas F. Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson, and the Origin of CIA, 1st ed. (Yale University Press, 1996), 93

Thomas F. Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson, and the Origin of CIA, 1st ed. (Yale University Press, 1996), 95

Nigel, ed West, British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940-1945 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), 5

This document is also often referred to as “The BSC Papers,” particularly before their initial publication by St. Ermin’s Press.

A history of the document, according to Tim Naftali, and Nigel West, the publication’s editor: H. Montgomery Hyde (whom West identifies in the “Introduction” to the  book British Security Coordination as Madame Brousse’s case worker, and who would later go on to write a biography of her life) wrote the first 200-page Report on British Security Coordination in the United States of America, on the order of William S. Stephenson, BDS’s director. Subsequently, the Hyde document was developed  – on Stephenson’s orders — by Gilbert Highet as the official record of BSC. Highet’s effort was rejected by Stephenson as too dry and academic, according to West. Subsequently, author Roald Dahl and trade journalist Tom Hill worked together at Camp X on the Highet draft, but Dahl soon left the project. According to Nigel West, Hill completed the project in summer of 1945 and Giles Playfair was brought in to do editing. It was this final Playfair version that became the “BSC Papers” and subsequently the book, British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940-1945 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998),

Athan G. Theoharis, The FBI: A Comprehensive Reference Guide, ed. Athan G. Theoharis, Tony G. Poveda, Susan Rosenfeld, and Richard Gid Powers: Checkmark Books, 2000), 161

The British are emphatic about Hoover’s role in coming up with the name for William S. Stephenson’s organization: The British Security Coordination. They make constant reference to it:

Hyde, H. Montgomery (foreword by Ian Fleming). 1964. Room 3603. Dell Books, New York,  3, 58.

Hyde, H. Montgomery. 1982. Secret Intelligence Agent British Espionage in America and the Creation of the O. New York, NY St. Martin’s Press, 82

West, Nigel. 1998. British Security Co-ordination: British Intelligence in the Americas, 1940-45. Little, Brown, xxx

source: Thomas F. Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid: Donovan, Stephenson, and the Origin of CIA, 1st ed. (Yale University Press, 1996), 35

Robert E Sherwood, Roosevelt and Hopkins: An Intimate History: Enigma Books, 2008), 270

The quasi official history of BSC (Nigel, ed West, British Security Coordination: The Secret History of British Intelligence in the Americas 1940-1945 (Boston: Little, Brown, 1998), 16), which will be discussed later in some detail, dances neatly around the subject of Stephenson’s relationship with FDR: “…for WS kept in close touch with the White House and as time went on the President gave clear indication of her personal concern …” In his two books involving Stephenson, Secret Intelligence Agent and Cynthia, H. Montgomery hide leaves a trail of direct and indirect references to Stephenson’s close access to the president. Indeed, his use of the phrase, which he attributes to the President, “the closest possible marriage between the FBI and British Intelligence,” has its public origins with Hyde (H.Montgomery Hyde, Secret Intelligence Agent (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1982, 81). Stephenson himself told CIA historian, Thomas Troy, that  FDR’s now famous “marriage line” was reported by Ernest L Cuneo, the Office of Strategic Services liaison to BSC. Asked by Troy about the comment, Cuneo denied it: “No. The President did not say that to me.” (Troy, Wild Bill and Intrepid, 39) Cuneo suggested the line may have originated with Vincent Astor, the éminence grise, of Roosevelt’s off-the-shelf spy operations.