like to welcome you as well as our big friends from c-span here at the national archives building in washington d.c. and the services manager for the national archives museum and the producer of the lecture series.

bridges like to remind you of the few programs coming up in your future. a lecture on the forgotten irish the immigrant experience in america u.s. book launch and a book signing following. on march 22nd a full screening and discussion presented a partnership with the d.c. environmental film festival find out more about these and our programs from the monthly calendar of events or visit our web site . the topic today is "agent 110" by scott miller. and author and former foreign correspondent for "the wall street journal" his first book the president

and the assassin was ae "newsweek" magazine must read as a journalist spending two decades in asia and europe reporting from more than a gaithersburg book festival countries including germany he has appeared on us a "daily show" with john stuart the holes degrees in economics and education please join me to welcome scott miller to the national archives. [applause] >> i thought what i would do is talk about the background behind this book and

introduce you to some of the characters and describe the final product then we will have time for questions or comments i will readily confess i did not set out to write this book originally i was very interested in the early days of america's involvement in the vietnam war. holding an interest for me the french involvement in indochina but i began to do a little bit of research and i came across these two characters. those are the dulles brothers director of a the

cia during the '50s and the period i was interested in it than the gentleman in the dark suit is his olderracters. brother john foster dulles secretary of state. when i found these to i said there has to be an interesting story. then i thought there has to be a good relationship to tell the story then i discovered pretty quickly was in switzerland duringar world war two where he was the station chief for the office of strategic services given the code number 110. i have always been a world war two geek and more importantly we live did

germany with newspaper correspondents we would head to switzerland and the thought of doing a book that captured my imagination inki switzerland.e i was also becoming an interestingth figure born into the attrition american family with two relatives that secretary of state, serving in the state department earlier in his career and quit that job to make moreu money and got interested in the idea of the gentleman's by. with that the espionage experience he was sent off for a big job in switzerland. that is when my focus began to shift.

but i still needed a lot more information and i was concerned to find out what subordinate characters could help ground out the story. very quickly i discovered there is a picture that is accompanied by a number to. now very came from the family that dulles did. her father was publisher of "the wall street journal" in buried in american figure skating championship in - - champion from the 1928 olympics that was a physical

attraction to another maner and it turned out she had a real eye for the gentleman and sheep and the that the new swiss fellow they move to switzerland and sheov admitted she didn't really love him but she liked the personal story that he told her he claimed he was part turkish which was entirely a why. she liked that sense of danger and adventure so they got married and move two's switzerland she had a very outgoing and extroverted personality that sometimes would spark with her neighbors that were reserved but she met a lot of notable

people including the famed psychiatrist that she developed a weird reflection should start sneezing in socially awkward situations. said she was very much impressed by him and also she developed a crush that she felt she was one hell of an attractive guy. and then began to study his work and became pretty well known and they've recruited her pretty early when they saw the war would come with state department jobs than looking at the german speeches and newspaper

articles but when dulles arrived they introduced her to dallas and immediately he asked her to join his team and she came to assume a fairly important role. then she became his mistresst ri so i thought here is a good character bringing to thntion to the story. i kept looking and i came across this guy. con is is a german 6-foot 4 inches the betty described him to be arrogant and difficult to deal with. security and was a gestapo

and the very early days. he decided he could be in his career by studying -- spreading a rumor that he was a communist that did not go over very well he isco lucky he was not thrown in jail but could land a job from the german intelligence services to do intelligence for the german military. and in the gestapo he saw how nasty the nazis couldin beat and he would never admit it i get the feeling naziw

he was to stop his career did not go as well as he hoped then in switzerland he reached out immediately to the british who were very skeptical of him and he tried to establish contact with the americans. he was not very trustworthy. at best he was a double agent you don't want to put a lot of confidence into somebody like that butut dallas was the meeting and they developed a good relationship. this was perfect both of them survived the war and wrote about their experiences. barry wrote an autobiographyhat. published in the '80s with unpublished versions at

radcliffe university and a cbs wrote an autobiography. and it turns out very helped him write it he wanted to learn as much as he could so working with mary piaster to help him translate the book and work on bits and pieces so it wasn't entirely accurate but what it was like to work with the hellas. it is good characters come a good story and a good time so i need to figure out the narrative for the plot. there were anecdotes' and spy stories but they did not link up so i tried to look

at dulles antipathy toward the soviets. the united states was an allied of the soviet union and suppose to be our friend but it still listed not buy that and he was warning they were not to be trusted. so i wrote the book among some of those lines and showed it to my editor who said that is a good idea but it may be there is a better a one looking at the activities of the resistance i did what any good author would you and i thought that is untrue or i would have thought of it. but my editor was dead right . there was a really goodr story and the resistance

dovetailed very closely with what dullest did and he worked with them so that led us to the book we have now. here's the picture of dulles about this time he always had a pipe with him and everybody talks about that. so his covered everybody had some sort of cover but his official explanation is he was a special assistant to the america head of mission and he claimed he was the last american to enter switzerland and ruined there

during the war and couldn't recede much help few agents could see through italy so it was difficult. so they had to be selected on the first floor and chose this particular locationlived on 1933 on the street specifically because there was of busy shopping street so there was a lot of foot traffic going back and forth. s the was good cover for those coming to move visit him. he saw the german agents across the street monitoring o the comings and goings. to visi

the backyard slopes to a river and a vineyard and then day could end meet without being monitored from the front. with with the american diplomatic corps he knew some people and found outf interesting things but it would be slow to build up the network he wanted to achieve. he and played a couple of techniques. one was to buy intelligence and he bragged to everybody

how well-planned he was the word got around town the british agent once remarked that dulles plus on the front door intelligence here. another technique was to simply meet everybody who comes along. with the station chief that will show some discretion to feel the amount or if they were even dangerous but this is from a lesson he learned in world war i and then the phone rang somebody called up to sarah really need to

talk to american diplomat. he loved tennis and young ladies met with an attractive one and said afllback ottman day. later they learned that with vladimir lenin. he never learned what he had to say but it was a lesson he took to heart and the importance of not prejudging anybody. so with that rapidly he could get to know people and applying that principle he meets this guy a the picture has imperfections and his family gave it to me with some wear and tear over the

years. a german member of the foreign ministry he was a clerk he was probably america's most important asset during the entire war. a dedicated anti-not see and bolshevik and the idea to be a spy so the oppositionure. allowed him to see the top-secret german document of three bridges of the of military and they could read the documents so he started to come into the foreign ministry on sunday when it was quiet and take notes on

the top-secret documents in almost unreadable handwriting. he started to collect the documents but had nobody to give them to. so he reached out to a the brits who were not interested the british were fooled by a similar operative and this looked similar and they would not fall for that.milar shirley after dallas arrived they had a meeting angeles was skeptical but they produced 180 documents

talking about a german agent and was cool was a map of hitler's headquarters of the eastern front.in he sketched that out for dollars of a piece of paper here the railroad tracks and you can see the little piece of paper in the national archives he supplied united states with 2,000 documents undertaking tremendous risk and despite having zero training and intelligence going back and forth from berlin he made copies and wood tied around his leg and dewine. he ended up surviving.

it was an amazing accomplishment. really what got his interest was the german resistance for graf first dulles was very suspicious of xavius but meeting together one afternoon a couple of red leather chairs and xavius reached into his pocket pulling out a little black book that top secret cable that was sent from switzerland to washington. there was no way they could get their hands on this.

and dulles could not believe that.rink. this was very revealing information with this knowledge to said bogus information from their realec correspondents saw of thebl fact you could read any code is this something that you gave away. so day learned there were two distinct resistance movements operating in germany. this sour expression and

those were over those ambitious plans, he represented some senior junior officers and also this character and as head the eternal optimist with that cold realism but that did not serve him well in the and. also working into the head of that military

intelligence he had started the war and those of people wore in the year the days because hitler was trying to make up that is one in begin to use to plot. he but even if they try to put of plots against him but and a little nest of people trying to overthrow him. it is a remarkable story. that was led by their are

any hard-core military historians setting up the group this organization was different but there were members of the foreign ministry, academics and but then to have what sort of discussions germany could

have after the of war were is day tried to for a ratings down but.ea but those learned something but they really wanted helping to do those who live but they wanted their promise of the mayor here in favor both men will eggheaded we placed we know how horrible was after world war i as the allies had been to new germany and they were

not going to risk their neck all over again. he could not offer those assurances so the resistance did everything they could to convince the americans to play to will loan hatred so they begin to supply a dulles with the information and it was legitimate but did not serve their needs. despite the u.s. would not help them they continued with their war to avoid a

coup or assassination it is amazing how many times he could escape. moving toward:00 hatched in this 1944 this is the same operation led by a relative newcomer to the resistance on the of far side of the light colored jacket standing at attention very much she had always opposed it decided the leeway to get rid of it was to murder it. i will go into it is in great depth it is reasonably well known there was a movie with tom cruise that bore a quite marco hillers said he

was injured in that attack. hite it was bad for the resistance and for hillary. and he wasn't quite sure where he was headed live life but by late 1944 he waswa receiving offers from and they all loved self-serving

for them to save their neck. dulles happen and what would happen? in the very first part from the swiss intelligence that said and he was on his way to see dallas. that was shocking news he had with him a small entourage because they've reserved cars said ned told the plants down so nobodyhe could see them. that did not go that well an

avalanche swept down the profs and he had to shoot it out with the of their rebars and get. but he did succeed but he was willing to surrender and that was tantalizing but it was also a the field marshal who was in charge of the german army this is explosive stuff talking about the surrender of 1 million men.surren

but even more important what it meant for friday in the alps so with those closing stages that the germansngly tha would take out last final stand there was lots of intelligence that suggested the germans were buildingui factories or hollowing out titles. >> and the americans fell for a the puerto rico schemes and then the

vintages you would have enjoyed are nullified in the mountain?.?. >> so to capture these troops were something they have to jump on. the only problem is the soviets found out pretty quickly dulles was talking to senior german officers and it is fair to say stolid blew a gasket spending the

entire war worrying there be a secret deal in the three of them would getting up it looked like the exact thing we fear along followed a were better transmissions between stalin and roosevelt where he accused the americans of operating behind their back the roosevelt got irritated and historians look to the beginning of the cold war. and then to grossly oversold of position to not be interesting and surrendering to italy.f the ss then they found out he was talking to dallas officially

took the family hostage back in germany and said get back here if we will have a chat.up . so with considerable in trepidation he was chewed out by hitler and that is a very interesting account, the w and that is the bomb shelter that the attendees said i a meeting with dulles i figured the germans had figured that out. claimed

so hitler calms down and thought maybe that was they could idea? then to take place on may 2nd but then

the entire german army in europe surrendered parco but still but then he was selling his are weak -- artwork to a the factories hit their head at after the war was a station chief in

than keeping them from participating in the operational government but tried to get germany back on their feast the billet so don't spend a lot of tied assige room off of my intention when and to be sure what they were after would hold of some brave was a share in the analysts given day,

nobody had a car right after the war. but eventually he left germany in the fall of 45 and return to to his law practice in new york and pretty much still living in the past other lawyers say he remains fixated daub of your id will richmond -- tremendous.

that concludes my prepared remarks but you need to make your grey hadn't a microphone. >> what happened to mary bancroft?. >> five lead the boston because i have a slide. [laughter] and she was sitting with the wife of months but she bent

married the cave impels but to look across and barry wrote about the loan after the war he ruth and net -- some

and then writing the autobiography of a spy, but i felt it in any one else?. >> the station chief?. >> get his said could

question the didn't take long because there was a newspaper article assured the after dallas arrived that said he is here as a well-known diplomat and it said he was the special emissary from roosevelt which society invade had a lengthy report but then with switzerland and roosevelts

behalf and is most but then they mention those who has been working about what he was about a and certainly they were lacking a lot. >>

>> how did he get the information he was gathering back to the united states they could take advantage of it? >> that was a constant problem. originally because switzerland was surrounded by the germans and the occupied territory they originally experimented by giving documents to diplomats of neutral countries who would smuggle it out of the country thro and spain but then they go missing from time to time and day experimented and they knew the swiss intelligence service was of a telephone line. look th and they're rolling to look the other way but those were

those who were pro german door pro-american. we could not transmitted very much secret information so he used day simple code but maybe they crashed along the border and snack into switzerland cleaning mechanical trouble.ligence. so they worked with each other for a lot of the

codeine those secret documents from germany convinced a real road and engineer to build a special compartment with his close and then with the but then

on to washington.

but he was speaking in the desert worry genius. he got a judge here but to be accurate if but the date it had an his and to be a support but there was that of sugar end the eucalyptus

speech ended with a tremendous but to find out. >> soldan and there is unaware question. had >> yes. i am richer. because the people of have

one but this is the -- the foot of history but to the new german government said.

thinks tour coming everybody. [applause]