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Warfare

William Stephenson: Declaring War on the Nazis

Warfare

History Hit

History

4.5943 Ratings

🗓️ 19 February 2021

⏱️ 26 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Henry Hemming talks to Dan Snow about the life of William Stephenson, a British operative who worked hard to pressure Roosevelt into declaring war on Nazi Germany, and ensuring that American troops were directed against German forces in mainland Europe. The tactics adopted were akin to those used today by troll farms in St Petersburg, and involved duplicitous and aggressive use of misinformation.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello everyone welcome back to the history hit World Wars podcast I'm your host James Rogers and we are dedicated to that turbulent period in history between 1914 and 1945. In this episode we're digging back through the Dan Snow's history hit archive and we're pulling out a brilliant

0:14.7

podcast, one on the secret British operation to get America into World War II.

0:20.9

Dan hears about the life of William Stevenson, a British operative who worked hard to pressure

0:26.1

Roosevelt into declaring war on Nazi Germany. It turns out he was a duplicitous and a tricky kind of guy who aggressively used misinformation

0:35.6

to ensure he achieved his aims and got American troops in the war directed

0:39.9

against German forces in mainland Europe. He reached deep into the inner workings of the US

0:46.0

political system, manipulating the President and US politicians. This is an amazing episode.

0:52.0

It has Henry Hemming, the brilliant author and historian,

0:56.0

who's written the new book, Our Man in New York.

0:58.5

I know you're gonna love it.

0:59.6

Enjoy. Thank you very much coming back on the show.

1:15.0

Dan is a pleasure.

1:17.0

No, the pleasure is all mine because you are one of the best storytellers out there.

1:20.0

Your new book, I mean it couldn't be more timely foreign interference in US domestic

1:25.0

politics you couldn't make it up it's a story which I think will remain timely I

1:29.7

think for years to come I mean we live in an age of influence campaigns as I increasingly

1:34.7

am realizing and this is a book about the original influence campaign. It was run by the

1:39.3

British during the Second World War but we're also I think today more vulnerable than ever before

1:44.5

to influence campaigns usually when we hear about these things we don't get to

1:49.0

hear what it's like to be inside one the stories told from the outside

1:51.8

looking in there's no insider account of, let's say, the

1:56.2

St. Petersburg Troll Farm. And I hope what this book, Our Man in New York, will do is allow people

...

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