https://strategic-culture.org/news/2023/07/17/a-bonfire-of-the-vanities/
A comment:
The story is told in two books, published 51 years apart. The first is “Tokyo, Moscow, London” by Herbert Von Dirksen, University of Oklahoma Press, 1952. Von Dirksen had been German Ambassador in London in 1939.
He relates his negotiations with British cabinet members & other senior British officials on the issue of Poland, but when he returned to Berlin to report on these talks, German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop refused to see him, and he was eventually told “…that my services were no longer required.” He retired to his estate in East Prussia & started writing his memoirs.
Fifty one years later, Zachary Shore, Professor of History at the Naval Postgraduate School picked up the story in “What Hitler Knew” Oxford University Press, 2003. Though Von Dirksen was in London negotiating for a second Munich, Von Ribbentrop wanted to be the second “Bismarck” to bring home “…a good treaty with Russia.” Ribbentrop was blocking information on how far the Brits were still willing to go on appeasement getting to Adolf. Eventually, Adolf allowed von Ribbentrop to go to Moscow.
Shore also relates that the Soviets had broken the communications security of German Embassy Moscow, so when von Dirksen’s cables on his talks with the Brits circulated to German Embassy Moscow, the Soviet government were able to compare the cordial & accommodating attitude the Brits were taking with the Germans with the grudging & miserly attitude the Brits were taking with them. It was obvious that the Brit’s were intent on agreement with Adolf, so when von Ribbentrop knocked on the Kremlin door, the Soviets opened it.
A comment:
The story is told in two books, published 51 years apart. The first is “Tokyo, Moscow, London” by Herbert Von Dirksen, University of Oklahoma Press, 1952. Von Dirksen had been German Ambassador in London in 1939.
He relates his negotiations with British cabinet members & other senior British officials on the issue of Poland, but when he returned to Berlin to report on these talks, German Foreign Minister Von Ribbentrop refused to see him, and he was eventually told “…that my services were no longer required.” He retired to his estate in East Prussia & started writing his memoirs.
Fifty one years later, Zachary Shore, Professor of History at the Naval Postgraduate School picked up the story in “What Hitler Knew” Oxford University Press, 2003. Though Von Dirksen was in London negotiating for a second Munich, Von Ribbentrop wanted to be the second “Bismarck” to bring home “…a good treaty with Russia.” Ribbentrop was blocking information on how far the Brits were still willing to go on appeasement getting to Adolf. Eventually, Adolf allowed von Ribbentrop to go to Moscow.
Shore also relates that the Soviets had broken the communications security of German Embassy Moscow, so when von Dirksen’s cables on his talks with the Brits circulated to German Embassy Moscow, the Soviet government were able to compare the cordial & accommodating attitude the Brits were taking with the Germans with the grudging & miserly attitude the Brits were taking with them. It was obvious that the Brit’s were intent on agreement with Adolf, so when von Ribbentrop knocked on the Kremlin door, the Soviets opened it.
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