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If you asked most knowledgeable Americans when the United States entered World War I, they would answer “1917”. As “The Secret War On The United States In 1915” makes clear, the War entered the United States by 1915. In addition to being fascinating history, NATO’s current indirect involvement in the Ukrainian War gives this tome contemporary relevance. America’s early involvement in World War I took two forms. While American companies profited from the manufacture and sale of war materials to the Entente, Germany conducted a counter-campaign to prevent the delivery of those materials. Germany’s Secret War Council attempted to sway public opinion through propaganda and its agents plotted cornering the market on strategic materials, labor unrest and sabotage.

Though officially neutral and willing to sell to anyone, Britannia’s rule of the waves effectively converted the United States into a de facto Entente workshop. When the Council’s propaganda proved ineffective, it turned to more direct action.

Similar to contemporary western support of Ukraine, the root of German efforts was money. Economic schemes included the setting up manufacturing plants to justify the purchase of machine tools, raw materials and the hiring skilled workers, thereby limiting their availability to other businesses. Controlled resources were inefficiently used so as to delay production with ultimate sales made to neutrals or Mexican civil war belligerents. To the extent that these schemes were successful, deliveries to the Entente were interrupted. Phenol is a chemical compound with many industrial uses, including as a keen ingredient in TNT. The purchase of a year’s supply for Bayer Chemical Company (think aspirin) provided a cover to divert phenol from the production of high explosives. Offers to purchase main stream and ethnic newspapers met with mixed results. The Secret War Councils’ influence in peace movements and labor disputes remains difficult to discern. Although one might have expected Germany to have discouraged of the U. S. preparedness movement, the Council supported it for its potential to divert military production from export to domestic demand.

When monetary incentives filed to yield the desired results, the Council turned to violent sabotage. Delay-action cigar bombs that started fires were planted aboard ships, particularly in sugar shipments, methylene dye was injected into grain to create blue dough, plots were hatched to attack Canada’s Welland Canal and exportable horses and mules were infected with anthrax and glanders. The most spectacular success was the Black Tom explosion that measured 5.5 of the Richter scale.

This narrative presents the War Council as an instigator of Mexican rebel attacks on American towns and interests. The resulting response distracted attention and military supplies away from the Western Front and toward the Mexican border.

This volume is part of a trilogy penned by author Heribert von Feiltzsch in which he makes a strong case for the conclusion that World War I came to the United States long before the 1917 Declaration. Perhaps heedful of Deep Throat’s advice “to follow the money”, Von Feiltzsch’s investigation into bank records and financial transactions has uncovered a web of espionage rarely unearthed by other historians. He compares the effect of the Secret War Council’s actions to the 9-11 Al Qaeda attacks. Though typically dismissed as a massive failure with negligible physical damage, the author posits that the added costs of heightened inspection and security, delays in shipments and increased insurance rates added to the expense of the Entente War effort while focusing American attention on more localized needs. His contentions are supported with voluminous footnotes and the test is supplemented with many photos that put faces to names.

I recommend The Secret War On The United States In 1915 along the others in the von Feiltzsch’s trilogy, The Mexican Front In The Great War and The Secret War Council (see my reviews of each) to readers seeking a thorough investigation into the role of the German Secret War Council in bringing the Great War to the United States.

I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
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JmGallen | May 14, 2022 |
“The Secret War Council: The German Fight Against the Entente in America in 1914” is an introduction to German activities in the early stages of World War I while America remained neutral.

Neutrals in name are not necessarily so in thought or deed. With a change of a sole word, one could truthfully convert Clausewitz’ axion to “Neutrality is a mere continuation of policy by other means”. Though neutral in 1914, the United States became a venue for belligerent rivalries.

The small American armaments industry was set to grow to fill belligerents’ orders. Though the United States was free to sell arms to anyone, Britannia’s Rule of the waves limited delivery to the Entente War Machine, although not without a contest from Germany. Assembling in in New York to coordinate German interest in America, Germany’s Secret War Council Included Imperial German Ambassador, Johann Heinrich Count von Bernstorff, former German Secretary of State for Colonial Affairs, Dr. Bernhard Dernburg, Military attaché, Franz von Papen and naval attaché, Karl Boy-Ed. It undertook a series projects aimed to increase American support for Germany’s position. Dr. Hugo Schweitzer, U. S. Chief executive of Bayer Chemical Company was prominent among the strategically placed German industrialists in American businesses on whom it could call for intelligence and financial support. In 1914 the large German-American population, particularly in the heartland, gave hope that German propaganda could nudge American public opinion toward Germany. As the propaganda battle bore little fruit, the Council tried economic pressure. Germany began the war as a creditor of the United States. War materials were for sale to the highest bidder. While delivery to Germany was blocked, purchase could prevent their use by the Entente. Their diversion to Mexico, torn by Civil War, might even create distracting mischief for the United States.

Many German immigrants were regarded as reservists of the German Army. They and the naval reservists among the fifty-four German merchant ships tied up in U. S. ports to avoid Royal Navy patrols presented manpower for the Council to either repatriate to Germany or employ in some other way. Fraudulent passports did enable some to return to Germany.

As propaganda, diplomatic and monetary efforts ran their course, the Council turned to more direct action. Regarding the United States, for all practical respects, at war with Germany, Council agents turned to other projects, both legal and illegal. One plan was to attack British Honduras (present day Belize) but more effort was directed to the closer and more significant Dominion of Canada. I found the accounts of plans for attacks on the Welland Canal and the Canadian Pacific Railway make for particularly interesting reading. A twenty-six-mile water link between Lakes Ontario and Erie, the disruption of the Welland. would have interrupted transport between the western Great Lakes and the Atlantic. The planned destruction of the St. Croix River Bridge between Maine and New Brunswick would have disrupted rail travel between the U.S. and Canada. Those, plus attacks on the harbor of Quebec, the Canadian army assembly camp at Valcartier, Quebec, scattered grain elevators and other targets were planned to impair both Canadian morale and ability to contribute to the Entente cause. Although the materials could be purchased in the U.S., their use on Canadian soil was prevented.

World War I buffs owe thanks to Author Heribert von Feilitzsch. His trilogy (see my review of “Felix A. Summerfield and the Mexican Front in the Great War”), of which “The Secret War Councill “is the first, has uncovered the extent of Germany’s clandestine schemes in neutral America. von Feilitzsch has delved into voluminous financial records to identify the individuals involved and the scope of their operations. Although many of the names are unfamiliar the author intersperses enough references to places and events to recapture readers’ interest if ever it starts to wane. “The Secret War Council” is an excellent choice for readers seeking a deeper understanding of the Great War in neutral America.

I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
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Gemarkeerd
JmGallen | Dec 30, 2021 |
“Felix A. Sommerfeld And The Mexican Front In The Great War” focuses on a little known phase in relations between the United States and Mexico during which a second Mexican War came close to occurring. Between 1913 and 1916 Mexico was in the throes of a three-sided civil war. The United States was deeply involved in choosing and assisting the sides while German agents sought to exploit the unrest to distract the United States from the Great War in Europe and to divert American arms shipments from the Allied powers.

Felix A. Summerfield was a German naval intelligence agent who had the trust of American and Mexican interests which facilitated his operations as chief weapons and munitions buyer for Pancho Villa and Villa’s diplomatic envoy to the United States and undercover German operative.

Author Heribert von Feilitzsch has done extensive research into the activities of Summerfield and his accomplices in transferring money and munitions among the parties and the interactions among the various Mexican factions. He has found and compared bank records, sales accounts, government archives, newspaper reports, court documents, correspondence, among other sources to unearth an extensive German conspiracy to further entangle the United States in Mexican affairs.

For most Americans the characters of this book are either familiar, Woodrow Wilson and John J. Pershing, but their association with Mexico not within our ken, known by name only, Pancho Villa, or unheard of, Venustiano Carranza, Felix A. Summerfield, et al. The author helps by providing a Cast of Characters before commencing the text. Keep a bookmark by it for easy reference as you advance through the volume.

This work is attractive to readers with a variety of interests. It reveals much about political and military conditions in Mexico in 1913-1916 and its tumultuous relations with the United States. It provides insights into Woodrow Wilson’s policy-making process with regard to Mexico. Many readers will find names of familiar institutions, Olin Industries and Mississippi Valley Bank, in my case and personalities, J. P. Morgan for most, on these pages.

“Felix A. Sommerfeld And The Mexican Front In The Great War” has changed my view of the role of Mexico on America’s road to the Great War. I knew about Villa’s Columbus, New Mexico raid and the resulting Punitive Expedition in pursuit of him. I had read of the Zimmerman telegram offering German support to Mexico in a war with the United States and the peace to follow but regarded it as an absurd suggestion that the Mexicans recognized to be of no value. I now know that the situation was much more complex, that German initiatives went far beyond a telegram and that, although not a belligerent, there truly was a Mexican Front in the Great War.

I did receive a free copy of this book without an obligation to post a review.
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Gemarkeerd
JmGallen | May 2, 2021 |
For years I have hoped that someone would disentangle Sommerfeld’s role in the Mexican Revolution. You have done that and much more – utilizing a most impressive range of archival sources. “In Plain Sight” is a splendid work.

Charles H. Harris III
Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University



You have a winner!

Louis R. Sadler
Professor Emeritus, New Mexico State University



This current work is not only a must-read for people interested in history but also highly recommended for those who like to get a glimpse into the causes and motives of human activity and historical events. Rarely has it been possible to document the motivation of secret agents in such detail and so accurately. This fact alone pays tribute to the author and makes this work so significant.

Günter Köhler
Professor Emeritus, Humboldt Universität Berlin
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Gemarkeerd
feilitzsch | Sep 6, 2012 |

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