An authoritative account of the long secret postwar relationship between General Reinhard, Hitler's chief of eastern front intelligence, and American intelligence.

So startling and dramatic are these memoirs, the entire history of World War II will have to be rewritten because of them. Gehlen's revelations cannot fail to embarrass governments, cast doubts on famous leaders and causes, frighteningly underscore the fantastic power of espionage in world affairs. The Service is the memoir of General Reinhard Gehlen, legendary spymaster-in-chief, Hitler's head of military espionage in Russia who, as the war ended, transferred his mammoth files and network of spies to the service of the United States, ultimately to become chief of the official West German intelligence agency.

"World War II combat veteran and longtime CIA officer James Critchfield tells the incredible story of how a handful of former members of the German Army General Staff, under the watchful eye of American intelligence, planned a postwar, national security system. At the heart of the activities he describes, Critchfield recounts details of the twin developments of a German intelligence service headed by Hitler's former chief of intelligence on the Eastern Front Reinhard Gehlen, and a German defense force headed by Hitler's former chief of operations Adolf Heusinger. These behind-the-scenes revelations will attract readers who enjoy good spy stories as well as historians of the period, for it has not been fully known until now the role played by the CIA or by Chancellor Konrad Adenauer, who secretly sponsored the men and their work. Known only as "Mr Marshall," Critchfield was the CIA officer in charge of the secret compound in Bavaria where Gehlen and Heusinger worked with their staffs to put the new intelligence and defense systems in place."

Shrouded in government secrecy, clouded by myths and propaganda, the enigmatic tale of Nazi fugitives in the early Cold War has never been properly told—until now. In the aftermath of WWII, the victorious Allies vowed to hunt Nazi war criminals “to the ends of the earth.” Yet many slipped away to the four corners of the world or were shielded by the Western Allies in exchange for cooperation. Most prominently, Reinhard Gehlen, the founder of West Germany's foreign intelligence service, welcomed SS operatives into the fold. This shortsighted decision nearly brought his cherished service down, as the KGB found his Nazi operatives easy to turn, while judiciously exposing them to threaten the very legitimacy of the Bonn Government. However, Gehlen was hardly alone in the excessive importance he placed on the supposed capabilities of former Nazi agents; his American sponsors did much the same in the early years of the Cold War. Other Nazi fugitives became freelance arms traffickers, spies, and covert operators, playing a crucial role in the clandestine struggle between the superpowers. From posh German restaurants, smuggler-infested Yugoslav ports, Damascene safehouses, Egyptian country clubs, and fascist holdouts in Franco's Spain, Nazi spies created a chaotic network of influence and information. This network was tapped by both America and the USSR, as well as by the West German, French, and Israeli secret services. Indeed, just as Gehlen and his U.S sponsors attached excessive importance to Nazi agents, so too did almost all other state and non-state actors, adding a combustible ingredient to the Cold War covert struggle. Shrouded in government secrecy, clouded by myths and propaganda, the tangled and often paradoxical tale of these Nazi fugitives and operatives has never been properly told—until now.

This book is based on the unprecedented declassification of thousands of US intelligence files.

A searing account of a dark “chapter in U.S. Cold War history . . . to help the anti-Soviet aims of American intelligence and national security agencies” (Library Journal). Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To this end, senior officials at the CIA, National Security Council, and other elements of the emerging US national security state turned to thousands of former Nazis, Waffen Secret Service, and Nazi collaborators for propaganda, psychological warfare, and military operations. Many new recruits were clearly responsible for the deaths of countless innocents as part of Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution,” yet were whitewashed and claimed to be valuable intelligence assets. Unrepentant mass murderers were secretly accepted into the American fold, their crimes forgotten and forgiven with the willing complicity of the US government. Blowback is the first thorough, scholarly study of the US government’s extensive recruitment of Nazis and fascist collaborators right after the war. Although others have approached the topic since, Simpson’s book remains the essential starting point. The author demonstrates how this secret policy of collaboration only served to intensify the Cold War and has had lasting detrimental effects on the American government and society that endure to this day.