Legerdemain: The President's Secret Plan, The Bomb and What The French Never Knew by James Heaphey

Legerdemain: The President's Secret Plan, The Bomb and What The French Never Knew by James Heaphey is the memoir of the author's time in French Morocco. He was sent by the American Air Force to attempt to foster anti-French feeling while at the same time make sure that the Americans would continue their basing rights within the independent country.

There are several revelations contained within this book. Perhaps most stunning is that without telling the French the Americans had nuclear weapons stationed within their base. There was also coordination between the Moroccan terrorists, the Americans and the Israelis. The Israelis providing guns. The CIA was also responsible for torturing a French agent.

Heaphey's cover as a newspaper reporter on the US base allowed him to meet with various individuals including a very young Anwar Sadat and Otto Skorzeny the famous German paratrooper. It also gave him the ability to move around Casablanca with more freedom than would be the case without his journalist cover.

The book is particularly good at describing the various factions within the country as well as the often conflicted loyalties of various people. With nearly 60 years of hindsight there is also quite a bit of reflection here. Be actual intelligence work takes up a relatively small portion of the book. This does provide a nice perspective on what intelligence agents really do. There are some fictional flourishes there's a lot of dialogue and the author freely admits to being vague on certain points. This is understandable considering the circumstances.

Recommended!

Is available through AbeBooks.



Note: this book was provided by the publisher for review purposes.