In-Store Book Signing: G.I. G-Men

Join us in the Spy Museum Store for a special book signing event for G.I. G-Men: The Untold Story of the FBI’s Search for American Traitors, Collaborators and Spies in World War II Europe with author Stephen Harding.

G.I. G-MEN is an enthralling, meticulously researched military history book that reads like a thriller in the vein of A Fever in the Heartland and Bridge of Spies, written by a world-class military journalist and New York Times bestselling author Stephen Harding. His deep and wide-ranging research draws on archived FBI, OSS, and U.S. Army documents, family records, and historical records in the UK, France, and Germany, and thrillingly reconstructs how the FBI played a vital role in routing out American conspirators during World War II.

They were tasked with finding Americans actively opposing democracy. Before World War II, the FBI already had a covert operation in Latin America and the Caribbean that President Roosevelt had authorized. Now J. Edgar Hoover and Roosevelt would partner on an initiative to locate Americans working with foreign spies selling out The United States - including the noted poet Ezra Pound.

The Army Liaison Unit was formed, a group that would eventually comprise twenty-one special agents and support personnel drawn from throughout the Bureau. Given courtesy officer ranks and embedded with advancing American forces, the FBI men were each fluent in at least one European language, and most had either lived or traveled extensively on the Continent. As outlined by Hoover himself, these agents would work with U.S. and Allied military counterintelligence organizations, and the newly reestablished civilian police forces, to locate and investigate American citizens who had spent the war in Axis-occupied Europe and were suspected of having collaborated with the Nazis or Italian Fascists. Should the agents’ investigations substantiate the charges, the persons in question would be returned to the United States to stand trial for treason.

Over the following months, these G.I. G-Men—posing as U.S. Army personnel—would find Americans wearing German uniforms, soldiers voluntarily working for the Third Reich, and even naturalized citizens who would actively work in Nazi spy rings. They nabbed associates and lovers of top U.S. figures, from a Roosevelt confidant to a millionaire’s wife who had literally slept with the enemy. They confirmed guilt in some cases, cleared others, uncovered Axis espionage in the Americas, and began shaping U.S. understanding of the emerging Soviet threat.

Featuring detailed notes, a bibliography, and a photo insert, Harding’s engaging history of the G.I. G-Men is a tale of betrayal in plain sight - war and crime, treason and retribution. It is also a timely illustration of fascism’s continuing allure—and the lengths to which U.S. citizens have always been willing to go to aid in the subversion of American democracy.

About the Author

Stephen Harding served in the U.S. Army from 1971 to 1974, initially as an infantryman and then as a radio, television, and print journalist. After leaving the service, he attended the University of California, earning both BA and MA degrees in history. Harding has spent most of his working life as a journalist specializing in military affairs. During 18 years on the civilian staff of Soldiers—the official magazine of the U.S. Army—he reported from throughout the United States and Europe, and from Northern Ireland, Israel, Egypt, New Zealand, Bosnia, Kuwait, and Iraq. After retiring as Soldiers’ managing editor, he spent 14 years as editor of Military History magazine. His New York Times bestselling World War II history The Last Battle is currently in production as a major motion picture.

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