Book Review
| Published date | 01 June 2008 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-6478.2008.00439.x |
| Date | 01 June 2008 |
Book Review
NAZI WAR CRIMES, US INTELLIGENCE AND SELECTIVE PROSECU-
TION AT NUREMBERG: CONTROVERSIES REGARDING THE ROLE OF
THE OFFICE OF STRATEGIC SERVICES by MICHAEL SALTER
(Abingdon and New York: Routledge-Cavendish, 2007, 458 pp., £28.99)
In the last days of December 2007, political and journalistic controversy
briefly erupted when it was revealed that British intelligence operatives from
MI6 has entered into discussions or negotiations with representatives of the
Taliban in Musa Qala, a town in Helmand province, Afghanistan. We,
whoever we might be, do not negotiate with `terrorists' or indeed according
to Dr Liam Fox, speaking for Her Majesty's Opposition, with `people who
are killing our troops'. Of course, in the real world of conflict situations,
ceasefires and peace settlements can only take place, absent absolute military
victory and unconditional surrender, if we do in fact talk with people who are
killing our troops.
The controversy which arises in cases such as the Musa Qala discussions
flows directly from the contradiction between the quotidian and tragic reality
of war on the one hand and on the other, the necessary justificatory ideo-
logical rhetoric which requires our leaders to characterize our enemies in
terms of absolute moral evil. The bestial enemy must be eradicated if
civilization is to survive. The battle, if it is to be politically and indeed
legally justified and legitimated, must occur against an enemy who embodies
everything we abhor. When subsequent Realpolitik intervenes and negotia-
tion becomes a practical strategic or tactical option, one side or the other, or
both, may become hoist by their own rhetorical petard. Suddenly, our
previously evil, animalized opponents are transformed into rational
interlocutors.
If ever there was an evil enemy, the Nazis must be considered the
paradigm case. Micha el Salter offers a deta iled examination of t he
phenomenon of dealing with evil and its consequences in his study of the
role played by the United States Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the
precursor of today's CIA, in the pursuit of Nazi war criminals. A central
figure in Salter's exhaustive investigation, grounded in extensive and
impressive archival research, is SS General Karl Wolff. From 1936 to 1943
Wolff was Himmler's Chief of Staff; from 1943 to 1945 he was Highest
Police Chief and SS Leader in Northern Italy and a General in the Waffen-
SS. During his extensive SS career, Wolff was directly involved in the
establishment and running of the SS concentration camp system and in the
implementation of the programme for the Aryanization of Jewish property.
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ß2008 The Author. Journal Compilation ß2008 Cardiff University Law School. Published by Blackwell Publishing Ltd,
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