This is CBS Eye on the World. Here's John Batchelor.

Coffee with Hitler. To continue the story in the tragedy of 1938 and afterwards, with Charles Spicer.

The subtitle tells a piece of the scale, the untold story of the amateur spies who tried

to civilize the Nazis.

It is 1938, our protagonists, Mr. Christie, Mr. Conwell Evans, and Mr. Tenant are moving

back and forth between Germany and their colleagues in

Britain and their control, a man by the name of Robert Van Sittart, who was until 1938, the senior

public servant in the British government, and a lordly title. And now he has not moved his office. He's just

been moved aside from the prime minister, Mr. Chamberlain, the new prime minister. But Van Cicarty is

very much the M of the James Bond world. You can think of him that way. And Tenet and Christy

and a C.E. Con Evans, act as his agents.

Charles, wonderful to continue the story. First of all, then Sittart, we need to establish his

credentials and how he will lead part of the anti-appeasers in these next years.

What do we need to know about him?

What was his strength in the government?

Good evening, too.

Good evening.

Vantytax is a fascinating character because he appears and behaves like a politician

when in fact he's a civil servant. The civil servants of

that era were typically somewhat in the background, although they may well have been knighted

for their services. They were discreet and often very low key, and their profile was relatively

low.

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