Winston Churchill vetoed Coward knighthood – Telegraph

dietrich coward grant

Coward’s handler was Cary Grant, the British born Hollywood star, known to have close links to intelligence services on both sides of the Atlantic.

1939-bolger-grant-deitrich-coward-warwicke

The 43 year old playwright, who worked in the strictest secrecy, was vilified by a furious British press who assumed he was staying in America as a ruse to avoid the war.

Ironically, he was also being monitored by the FBI which disapproved of British agents operating in a still neutral country.

In a letter to a Vansittart dated August 21th, 1940, a very frustrated but rather naive Coward writes: “Would it be possible to tell the state department the truth, which is that I was sent over by the Ministry of Information to work, with your approval, at gauging various cross sections of American opinion and reporting on it? I think I should be only too delighted to register as a Government agent and I think it would do away with a lot of the false rumour and wild surmise. I am most definitely not over here on personal business.

via Winston Churchill vetoed Coward knighthood – Telegraph.

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2 Comments

  1. October 20, 2014

    Can anyone find Bogie in that top photo? I did!

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