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Double Crossed: The Missionaries Who Spied for the United States During the Second World War Hardcover – Illustrated, September 24, 2019
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What makes a good missionary makes a good spy. Or so thought "Wild" Bill Donovan when he secretly recruited a team of religious activists for the Office of Strategic Services. They entered into a world of lies, deception, and murder, confident that their nefarious deeds would eventually help them expand the kingdom of God.
In Double Crossed, historian Matthew Avery Sutton tells the extraordinary story of the entwined roles of spy-craft and faith in a world at war. Missionaries, priests, and rabbis, acutely aware of how their actions seemingly conflicted with their spiritual calling, carried out covert operations, bombings, and assassinations within the centers of global religious power, including Mecca, the Vatican, and Palestine. Working for eternal rewards rather than temporal spoils, these loyal secret soldiers proved willing to sacrifice and even to die for Franklin Roosevelt's crusade for global freedom of religion. Chosen for their intelligence, powers of persuasion, and ability to seamlessly blend into different environments, Donovan's recruits included people like John Birch, who led guerilla attacks against the Japanese, William Eddy, who laid the groundwork for the Allied invasion of North Africa, and Stewart Herman, who dropped lone-wolf agents into Nazi Germany. After securing victory, those who survived helped establish the CIA, ensuring that religion continued to influence American foreign policy.
Surprising and absorbing at every turn, Double Crossed is the untold story of World War II espionage and a profound account of the compromises and doubts that war forces on those who wage it.
- Print length416 pages
- LanguageEnglish
- PublisherBasic Books
- Publication dateSeptember 24, 2019
- Dimensions6.45 x 1.55 x 9.65 inches
- ISBN-100465052665
- ISBN-13978-0465052660
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"Arresting and informative.... Double Crossed is a great read and a fresh, archive-intensive contribution to our understanding of American intelligence during World War II."―Washington Post
"Not only a profound history of American Christian missions but also one of the most original and interesting histories of World War II in several decades."―Christianity Today
"Sutton covers new territory in his interesting endeavor, as the work of the four has largely been secret until now. Readers will be fascinated by his revelations."―Booklist
"Recommended for scholars of World War II and religious history, and the history of espionage, as well as general readers interested in the intersection of American history and Christianity."―Library Journal
"Sutton's research is impressive, his writing is clear, and his account is exhaustive.... Sutton rescues a crucially important story that raises profound questions regarding the relationship between God and country."―Kirkus
"This provocative book illuminates little-discussed history and raises larger philosophical questions. It is an unusually fresh and intelligent addition to WWII literature."―Publishers Weekly
"A marvelous book about the holy spooks of World War II: the missionaries who toiled in secret and to considerable effect in the U.S. intelligence effort, convinced they were advancing both God's and America's cause. Matthew Sutton is a generous, discerning historian, and he succeeds splendidly in bringing this little-known story to life."―Fredrik Logevall, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam
"Deeply-researched and engagingly written, Matthew Sutton's Double Crossed fills a gap in the literatures on 20th century secret-intelligence and the Second World War. Shinning a light on the cross-and-dagger intrigues of Protestant missionaries who spied against the Axis, Sutton shows how they helped lay some of the moral and even diplomatic foundations for what we now call globalization. This is both an adventure story and an important contribution to the emerging study of religion as a handmaiden of 20th-century secular power."―Mark Riebling, author of Church of Spies: The Pope's Secret War Against Hitler
"In this absorbing book, Matthew Sutton skillfully and effortlessly guides his reader through the life-and-death clandestine operations of the United States' missionary-spies: bible-believing spooks who, during WWII, grappled internally with the contradictions of faith and violence, deep love of family, and patriotic duty but who never shied away from advancing the Allied cause -- no matter the cost. Double Crossed is an authoritative and highly revealing account of a (purposely) hidden facet of church-state collusion in modern America."―Darren Dochuk, author of Anointed With Oil: How Christianity and Crude Made Modern America
"Double Crossed tells an astonishing and heretofore unknown story of the Christian missionaries and religious activists who doubled as American spies during World War II. Although their wartime scheming often conflicted with their religious principles, the work of the four men profiled here -- whose covert operations ranged from Europe to China and across the Middle East -- was absolutely critical to the success of U.S. military strategy and diplomacy, and it built the edifice for religious collaboration with espionage that, for better or worse, persists in the CIA to this day. Matthew Sutton has written a deeply researched, captivating, and indispensable contribution to our understanding of the role of religion in the history of American spycraft."―Marie Griffith, author of Moral Combat: How Sex Divided American Christians and Fractured American Politics
"In a thrilling and remarkably original narrative, Matthew Avery Sutton explains the critical part missionaries played in American espionage during what was, for them, a holy war to save Christian civilization. For anyone who cares about the history of religion or the Second World War, this fine book will be a revelation."―Michael Kazin, author of War Against War: The American Fight for Peace, 1914-1918
"In this brilliant book, Matthew Avery Sutton has recovered the long-hidden history of Americans who blurred the line between religious missions and secret missions in the Second World War. Rooted in painstaking research and written with powerful prose, Double Crossed is a must-read."―Kevin M. Kruse, author of One Nation Under God: How Corporate America Invented Christian America
About the Author
Product details
- Publisher : Basic Books; Illustrated edition (September 24, 2019)
- Language : English
- Hardcover : 416 pages
- ISBN-10 : 0465052665
- ISBN-13 : 978-0465052660
- Item Weight : 1.41 pounds
- Dimensions : 6.45 x 1.55 x 9.65 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #645,344 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #406 in Espionage True Accounts
- #808 in Political Intelligence
- #875 in Christian Missions & Missionary Work (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
About the author
Matthew Avery Sutton is the Edward R. Meyer Distinguished Chair of history at Washington State University, in Pullman, WA.
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Took off a star because very high (9 1/2 inch high) hard bound only fit on special shelf.
Birch was a Baptist missionary in Japanese-occupied China when the Second World War erupted, and when America entered the war, he volunteered for service and became an intellignce officer in the US Army. He served through the end of the war, using his contacts and familiarity with China and the Chinese people to not only gather intelligence but to help rescue downed airmen. When the war ended he wanted to return to missionary work and leave war behind, but he was asked to take one final mission to gather Japanese papers before they were destroyed; on this mission, his team crossed paths with a group of Chinese People’s Liberation Army soldiers, and Birch was tortured and killed.
Birch was far from the only missionary to join the war effort in a role that went beyond ministering to the troops. “Wild Bill” Donovan, founder and chief of the wartime Office of Strategic Services, saw in missionaries a group that was ideal for intelligence gathering and guerrilla work behind enemy lines. They were already embedded in the enemy’s back yard, well versed in the culture, and fluent in the language, and he could appeal to their faith and sense of purpose in getting them to join the armed struggle. He was able to enlist a great many to spy and fight in Europe,the Pacific Theater, and Palestine, where a great many religious Jews joined the struggle despite antisemitism within the OSS leadership. One especially effective agent was a Belgian priest at the Vatican, who was able to report to the OSS (with the approval of Belgian authorities in exile) the activities of German agents in Rome and attempts to influence the Pope. The OSS recruited plenty of non-missionaries, of course, like anthropologist Carlton Coon, whose work in the Mideast also made him intimately familiar with the people, culture, and languages of the region. But there were far more missionaries than anthropologists.
Some of these missionaries rose to places of authority in the wartime OSS, and after the war became members of the State Department. One was influential in the creation of the new peacetime intelligence that replaced the OSS: The Central Intelligence Agency. Many returned to preaching, and at least one, who had watched the plight of the Jews under Hitler first hand, and felt guilt over his and global Christianity’s failure to act, became a full time campaigner for civil rights.
Double Crossed is the very well written, well researched, extensively documented story of these missionaries, priests, ministers, and their leaders. It’s also fascinating reading for anyone interested in World War II, intelligence, missionaries, or the emergence of the intelligence state in the post-war era. Highly recommended.
William "Wild Bill" Donovan, an Attorney turned Government worker ran the Operation of Strategic Services. He had different ideas (dangerous for a Government job) that FDR actually liked-to recruit people from all walks of life, in all areas of expertise to become spies for the United States. He felt religious activities could help him in his mission. In doing this he recruited some people who might not have had a Government job at the time otherwise: He was going to recruit a Priest who turned out to be accused of being a spy for the Nazis (!) but settled on some other people who worked well: Stewart Herman Jr, a Lutheran Pastor who wanted to build the Protestant faith in other countries, William Eddy (Marine and missionary) whose knowledge of Arabic and English made him ideal to serve in the Middle East and whose parents were missionaries, Fundamentalist missionary John Birch who was already in China who saw the destruction of Chinese culture and knew what future war with the Japanese would bring so he volunteered for the military and Stephen Penrose; whose knowledge of French, German and Arabic and religious convictions(he had previously worked as a missionary and in administration for a college) made him perfect for building networks OSS could use. Their individual stories are alternated chapter by chapter. The author Matthew Avery Sutton has a personal approach to this work and despite each sentence being packed with information, the book is very readable and likable.
There are some people I wish Sutton had paid a little more attention to, such as the Priest accused of being a Nazi spy, Rabbi Nelson Glueck was an Archeologist and a Spy also working for OSS who had a full spread on his work in the Middle East in Time magazine at the time. Father Felix Morgan, who was a Dominican Priest who was the OSS's eyes and ears in the Vatican. Virginia Hall, one of the few female OSS spies who mastered several languages, had several degrees and also had a disability. Perhaps Sutton will devote other books to these people. The information he provides on Herman, Birch, Eddy and Penrose is fascinating. Once you think you'e read everything you can read on WW II, a new book or documentary comes out and you become fascinated again.
This is excellently written and was reminiscent of the book "The Lost City of Z" in some ways by David Grann. Fans of the author Eric Larson will be pleased with this work. This book is excellent, and will appeal to both history buffs, spy stories, people who like real life accounts and people who enjoy spiritual history. I highly recommend. You won't be able to put this one down.