Mystery Man: William Rhodes Davis, American Nazi Agent of Influence

America has always been cursed with opportunists willing to do business with dictators. The current crop of people willing to profit from China - from President Clinton's apparent cash payments from the Chinese secret police to Republican businessmens' use of near slave labor to boost their profits - have their antecedents in William Rhodes Davis, who made a fortune supplying Hitler with the oil to launch World War II. There were many mysterious things about Davis - his relationship to FDR, his role as a Nazi agent, even his death. Mr. Harrington doesn't, can't give us the answers to everything, but he does a brilliant job laying out the facts that are known. The author is both an investment banker and a sensible man. Both are necessary skills to bring to a book like this. As an investment banker, he is anexcellent guide through the thickets of financial manueverings. As a sensible man, he weighs the information carefully and allows the reader to draw his own conclusions. I have only one quibble: he mentions that Sir Harry Oakes became associated with Davis shortly before Davis' strange death. Oakes himself of course figured in a strange murder case in the Bahamas shortly thereafter. I would have liked the author to see if there was any connection between the cases. That is the minorest of quibbles, however, and readers of this book will be able to reflect on just how many facets history has.