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dark grey cloth hardbound 8vo. ~ 8º (octavo). dustwrapper in protective plastic book jacket cover. fine cond. binding square & tight. covers clean with bit of rubbing at corners, spine top&bottom. edges have tiny faint age spots. contents free of all markings. dustwrapper in near fine cond. with minor chipping & wrinkling along top edge, tiny piece missing (see photos). not price clipped. nice clean copy. no library markings, store stamps, stickers, bookplates, no names, inking , underlining, remainder markings etc ~ first edition . first printing ( nap). color illustrated endpapers. ix+310p. b&w illustrations. appendix. bibiography. index. world history. american history. espionage. conspiracy theory. psychological warfare. biography. world war ii. Century Club. CFR. Colonel William Donovan. Rockefeller Center. British Information Service. Allen Dulles. James Warburg. Dean Acheson. Joseph Alsop. James Conant. Robert Sherwood.~ On June 10, 1940, one week after Dunkirk, thirty American civic leaders published a nationwide newspaper statement that urged the United States to declare war immediately on Germany. This "Summons to Speak Out" was the first clear call for war by reputable persons. The Hawks of World War II, written with penetrating directness for the thoughtful general reader as well as for historians and political scientists, is the first book~length study of the "Century Group," as these private citizens were initially known, and of the later "Fight For Freedom Committee." The book shows how pressure groups in this country work, and explains the vital nature of such pressure groups in time of global war. It gives reasons why these particular "warhawks" risked public condemnation and personal attack to agitate for intervention. It describes their struggles with the America Firsters, their relationship with the Roosevelt administration, and the changing tactics they employed in seeking American belligerency. While he concludes that these "warhawks" did not bring about intervention, Mr. Chadwin demonstrates that their leaders were prominent men in our society who eventually occupied high government positions involving foreign policy decisions that influenced the lives of millions of Americans. During the summer of 1940, the Century Group worked closely with administration officials, the British ambassador, and the William Allen White Committee to facilitate the transfer of American destroyers to the British Navy. After the congressional debate over lend~lease, the Fight For Freedom Committee presented the case for war through radio speeches and graphic advertisements. Its leaders remained in close contact with the White House and on occasion served as an informal channel for the administration's views. As an organized and outspoken advocate of interventionism, the Fight For Freedom Committee helped to counterbalance the efforts of isolationist and pacifist groups and may well have provided the administration with the freedom it needed to decide foreign policy issues on merit rather than on the basis of external pressures.
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