Ladislas Farago
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Ladislas Faragó (1906–1980) was a military historian and journalist who published a number of best-selling books on history and espionage, especially concerning the World War II era.
He was the author of "Patton: Ordeal and Triumph", the acclaimed biography of George Patton that formed the basis for the film "Patton" and wrote "The Broken Seal", one of the books that formed the basis for the movie Tora! Tora! Tora!.
He was born in Csurgó, Hungary in 1906, the son of Artúr and Irma Faragó (née Láng); the family moved to Budapest when he was ten years old. He attended a business-oriented high school, but harbored an interest in journalism and theater, and on graduation became a writer initially for the tabloid Az Ember. He went on to become a war correspondent for a variety of newspapers and his byline appeared in papers from Germany to the UK to the US, including the New York Times. His coverage of the Ethiopian-Italian War was wildly successful around the world and resulted in best-selling books in many languages. His subsequent coverage of Palestine in the 1930s was comparably successful and also led to a book - "Palestine at the Crossroads" - which is mentioned by Anne Frank as the next book she must read, in an entry just before her family was discovered and she was sent to a concentration camp.
Moving between Budapest, Berlin, London, and the war zones that he covered, he wrote cabaret sketches in Berlin and it was there that he met and married his wife Liesel (Elizabeth Mroz). They lived briefly in England before emigrating through Canada to the US in 1937, where they lived initially in New York City and Washington, DC. In the US he worked with the Committee for National Morale, a private organization of scholars who sought to engage the United States in the burgeoning war in Europe. He edited the book published by the Committee, German Psychological Warfare, which included contributions by many of the nation's leading social scientists. It introduced for the first time a detailed study of the term it coined in its title, "psychological warfare," making him a leading expert on propaganda and other pro-active clandestine psychological forms of espionage. As the US entered World War II, the Committee came to be associated with the OSS, and Farago went to work as a civilian for Naval Intelligence (his status as an 'enemy alien' - Hungary was at least nominally at war with the US - rendered it impossible for him to join the military or, for that matter, to be involved as a civilian with the European Front; as a result, he was assigned to a unit engaging in psychological warfare against the Japanese). Among other things he wrote a book-length classified analysis of the enemy: "The Japanese: Their Character and Morale."
The British historian Stephen Dorril, in his MI6 Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service asserts that Faragó was the 'most successful disinformer or dupe' concerning the presence of Nazis in South America.[1] However, Faragó's book "Aftermath: The Search for Martin Bormann" which details the Nazi presence in South America was based on both Faragó's own personal investigation and interviews in South America, and Argentinian intelligence documents (some of which are provided in the book) whose veracity was attested to by attorney Joel Weinberg.[2] Moreover, French intelligence operative (during WWII - on the 'Resistance' side -,and later) and right-wing polemist Pierre de Villemarest justified [3] part of Farago's statements. Villemarest disagreed on the details of Bormann's survival, but agreed he did survive the escape from Hitler's Bunker. Villemarest states that Bormann was not a mere Soviet agent (like Heinrich 'Gestapo' Müller) but was smart enough to get free (after a few months or years) from the Soviets' 'protection'. The main point of agreement between Farago and Villemarest being the resolute assertion of a several-year survival of Bormann after the fall of Hitler's regime. Faragó's book 'Aftermath' contains several reproductions of genuine Argentinian secret police documents related to the life of Bormann after 1945.
Faragó died in 1980. His son, John M. Faragó, is a Professor of Law at the City University of New York.
[edit] Selected bibliography
- Abyssinia On the Eve (1935)
- Abyssinian Stop Press (ed.) (1936)
- The Riddle of Arabia (1939)
- Burn After Reading (1961)
- Strictly from Hungary (1962/2004)
- The Tenth Fleet (1962)
- War of Wits (1962)
- Patton: Ordeal and Triumph (1963)
- The Broken Seal: "Operation Magic" and the secret road to Pearl Harbor (1967)
- The Game Of The Foxes (1971)
- Spymaster (1972)
- Aftermath: The Search for Martin Bormann (1974)
- The Last Days Of Patton (1981)
His book "Abyssinia On The Eve" based on his trip to Ethiopia in 1935, is widely used by historians and is one of the most important sources about Ethiopia in this era.
[edit] References
- ^ Original text is as follows:
Investigating 'The Nazi Menace in Argentina', author Ronald Newton found that the historic record had been left 'booby-trapped with an extraordinary number of hoaxes, forgeries, unanswered propaganda ploys and assorted dirty tricks'. The most successful disinformer or dupe was the American Ladislas Faragó, 'a somewhat Hemingway-esque figure with a strong Hungarian accent and a confidential manner', whose 'good connections with the CIA and secret services of several European countries enabled him to investigate and publish on a non-attributable basis' a series of half correct tales.
Stephen Dorril, MI6 Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service, Tochstone 2002 ISBN 978-0-7432-1778-1 p.95 - ^ The Bormann documents Weinberg states: "I personally interrogated several of the special agents whose names were mentioned in or whose signatures appeared on the documents, including Inspector Hector Rodriguez Morguado of Coordination Federal and Commissioner Alejandro Rafaelo of Policia Federal, and ascertained that the documents in Mr. Farago's possession bearing on the Bormann case were, indeed, genuine, and originated as claimed at the Seguridad Federal, formerly known as Coordination Federal, the central archives of the Argentine Secret Service Establishment. Based upon my investigation and my questioning of the parties concerned in the acquisition of the documents, I have no hesitation to state that the classifed documents on which the Bormann part of "Aftermath" is based are genuine and authentic, true copies of the originals on file at the agency until recently called Seguridad Federal in Buenos Aires."
- ^ "Untouchable: Who protected Bormann & Gestapo Müller after 1945", Aquilion (2005), ISBN 1-904997-02-3
