Imagine a military leader who dares protest the actions of his twisted, mendacious, even murderous commander in chief, knowing he risked his career and ultimately his life.
Such a man was Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, the chief of the Abwehr, Nazi military intelligence, from 1935 to—spoiler alert—his death by hanging in 1945. A new biography, Admiral Canaris, by prolific military historian David Alan Johnson, hearkens to timely questions about the role of military leaders anywhere who, dedicated to serving their country, may face moral choices when confronted with illegality and a dangerous commander in chief.
A new docudrama, War Game, imagines a similar situation right here in America come Jan. 6, 2025, when a key general startles the White House and Pentagon by defecting to a MAGA-like rebel movement determined to unseat the government with turncoat troops in the National Guard. It’s up to Constitution-bound senior leaders to stop them. Will they? We’ll find out for real when the Electoral College votes are tabulated three months from now amid threats of pro-Trump violence.
Johnson’s subtitle is, “How Hitler’s Chief of Intelligence Betrayed the Nazis,” and the author seems determined to illuminate the better angels of Canaris, who was executed by the Nazis only weeks before the end of the war under suspicion that he’d plotted to overthrow Der Führer.
The post Timely Biography of a Duplicitous Nazi Super Spy first appeared on JOSSICA – The Journal of the Open Source Strategic Intelligence and Counterintelligence Analysis.