5. Dusko Popov’s Party in the USA
J. Edgar Hoover failed to pass on Dusko Popov’s Abwehr questions to American military authorities – particularly the ones that sought information about Pearl Harbor’s defenses. After the Japanese attack wrecked the US fleet there a few months later, Hoover’s oversight should have wrecked his career. However, he buried it so deep that it did not come out until after his death. In the meantime, the prissy FBI Director, whose private life was even more scandalous than the Serb spy, got moralistic about Popov’s promiscuous lifestyle, nightlife escapades, and playboy antics. Hoover even threatened to have Popov arrested under the Mann Act for traveling with a woman across state lines “for immoral purposes”.
The British assigned a naval intelligence officer named Ian Fleming to watch Popov’s every move in the US. The future author of James of Bond followed Popov around as he made the rounds of American night clubs and casinos, womanized, splurged the cash furnished him by the Abwehr, and made a killing on the roulette tables. The style and panache left an impression that found expression years later in Agent 007. Indeed, some famous scenes from Casino Royale were based on Fleming’s observations of Popov in American casinos.
