At the end of World War II, Allen Dulles was a member of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the United States’ covert intelligence agency. As a part of his Operation Splinter Factor, he created rumors that certain educators, medical professionals, and relief workers who had gone to Eastern Europe to help in post-war recovery were actually spies. These innocents were captured, tortured, and sometimes murdered. Dulles felt no regret for this, saying these people who thought they could remain loyal to their own country and still assist those under Soviet rule were useful victims and little mice whose necks would be snapped by the forces surrounding them.
Eric Von Brandenburg was a member of the Nazi Gestapo whose talents Dulles would find useful: his specialty was the recruitment or abduction of women and children: and when they were no longer useful, murdered. Dulles arranged for him to be spared from hanging for war crimes and brought to the United States.
Born five years after the end of the war, Till Hardy loved the characters played by John Wayne in the movies, thought the protests of the Vietnam War only prolonged the conflict, believed that instead of abolishing the draft, the United States should institute a universal draft. His dream was to compete on the United States Olympic team. Von Brandenburg succeeded in recruiting him to spy on his college classmates.
What Hardy never comprehended in his youth was that he had signed up for a life sentence – only not just for himself.
Ron De Torre - DTdesertrat's blog 