A US intelligence chief inadvertently helped the Nazis push disinformation during World War II after he continued using a cipher that had been compromised by the Germans, according to classified records discussed in a new book.
In his new book, ‘Covert Legions: US Army Intelligence in Germany 1944-1949’, historian and author Thomas Boghardt claims that mistakes by an American spy could have helped the Nazis spread false information about Adolf Hitler’s Alpine redoubt.
In one of the most successful disinformation campaigns of World War II, the Nazis convinced Western powers they were amassing weapons and 100,000 soldiers in the Austro-Bavarian Alps to stage a last stand for survival.
Boghardt told The Guardian it wasn’t the Nazis who were responsible for the myth’s success, but actually a mistake by Allen Dulles, who later became head of the CIA and oversaw the Bay of Pigs disaster.