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Mystery Man: William Rhodes Davis, Nazi Agent of Influence

Average customer rating:

An Excellent Examination of a Nazi Opportunist

Mystery Man: William Rhodes Davis, Nazi Agent of Influence
Dale Harrington
Manufacturer: Brassey's Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

William Rhodes Davis was Adolf Hitler's main agent of influence in the United States. Among Davis's many nefarious deeds was his acquisition of much of the oil Hitler needed to start World War II and the delivery of five million dollars to the Republican Party for the presidential campaign of 1940. Davis was a superb manipulator who could beguile the Nazis while simultaneously receiving the assistance of labor leader John L. Lewis and President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Thought to be the model for the American Nazi in the motion picture Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, Davis was an enigmatic, larger-than-life villain whose story is told here for the first time.

This revealing book tells how powerful American, British and Mexican business and political leaders helped a talented and complex man serve Hitler while he made and lost and made again millions of dollars. It also looks into the Establishment's attempts to cover up the part that prominent American leaders played in Davis's activities and maybe his mysterious death. Mystery Man is a fascinating story of espionage, political intrigue, and corporate skullduggery that will add an exciting new element to our understanding of the war years.

Customer Reviews:

An Excellent Examination of a Nazi Opportunist.......2000-06-27

America has always been cursed with opportunists willing to do business with dictators. The current crop of people willing to profit from China - from President Clinton's apparent cash payments from the Chinese secret police to Republican businessmens' use of near slave labor to boost their profits - have their antecedents in William Rhodes Davis, who made a fortune supplying Hitler with the oil to launch World War II. There were many mysterious things about Davis - his relationship to FDR, his role as a Nazi agent, even his death. Mr. Harrington doesn't, can't give us the answers to everything, but he does a brilliant job laying out the facts that are known. The author is both an investment banker and a sensible man. Both are necessary skills to bring to a book like this. As an investment banker, he is anexcellent guide through the thickets of financial manueverings. As a sensible man, he weighs the information carefully and allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. I have only one quibble: he mentions that Sir Harry Oakes became associated with Davis shortly before Davis' strange death. Oakes himself of course figured in a strange murder case in the Bahamas shortly thereafter. I would have liked the author to see if there was any connection between the cases. That is the minorest of quibbles, however, and readers of this book will be able to reflect on just how many facets history has.

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