The Secret Alliance; The Extraordinary Story of the Rescue of the Jews Since World War II

New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1991. First Edition [stated], presumed first printing. Hardcover. Very good/Very good. xvii, [1], 327, [3] pages. Illustrations. Bibliography. Index. DJ is price clipped. Inscribed by the author on the fep. Inscription reads: To Winifred Koss, Best, Tad Szulc. Tadeusz Witold Szulc (July 25, 1926 - May 21, 2001) was an author and foreign correspondent for The New York Times from 1953 to 1972. Szulc is credited with breaking the story of the Bay of Pigs invasion. From 1953 to 1972, Szulc was a foreign correspondent for The New York Times. On April 6, 1961, nine days before the CIA-supported Bay of Pigs invasion, Szulc wrote a Times article stating that an invasion of Cuba was "imminent." W Joseph Campell has disproved the legend that the Times killed the story after President John F. Kennedy personally telephoned publisher Orvil Dryfoos, asking him to do so. The Times actually reduced the coverage in prominence and detail, but the article was still on the front page. Szulc's interest in Cuba continued over time, and he published an in-depth biography of Fidel Castro. In 1968, Szulc was a reporter in Czechoslovakia during the Soviet invasion against the Prague Spring. Szulc has also written articles regarding Latin America for several other publications, including The New Yorker, Esquire, Penthouse, National Geographic, and The Progressive. The story of the secret intelligence network set up to organize illegal immigration operations, which made possible, argues Szulc, the birth of Israel. Based on previously confidential archives, extensive interviews, and private correspondence, The Secret Alliance uncovers the blood-for-money deals with Eichmann, Ceaucescu and Saddam Hussein; secret arms purchases; and the heroic efforts of heroic underground operatives who rescued more than two million Jews after World War II. Derived from a Kirkus review: A well-researched, well-written account of the extensive covert activities that allowed two million Jews to get home. Szulc provides ample atonement for an American Jewish community that stands self-accused of not doing enough for their European brethren during WW II. Between 1943 and 1991, American Jews and the relief organizations they formed helped rescue nearly two million Jews from Eastern and Western Europe, the Middle East and North Africa. This narrowly focused study spotlights obscure heroes like Joe Schwartz of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and Shaul Avigur of Mandate Palestine's Mossad. While Jews flooded allied displaced-person camps after the war to loudly press their humanitarian case before the world, agents of rescue performed the improbable in clandestine operations in Hungary, Egypt, and, most recently, Albania and Ethiopia. It is shocking to discover that thousands of dollars a head had to go from the Israeli secret service to the likes of Ceaucescu and Saddam Hussein before Jews were allowed to be smuggled out to freedom. The reporter who broke the Bay of Pigs story has broken much new ground here ... Szulc has certainly succeeded in assembling the most readable book on the topic.