Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, The Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart by James Crossland

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Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, The Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart by James Crossland

'Rogue Agent: From Secret Plots to Psychological Warfare, The Untold Story of Robert Bruce Lockhart' by James Crossland

Diplomat and spy, journalist and psych warfare operative, Robert Bruce Lockhart was an interesting figure on the periphery of world events in the first half of the last century. As a British agent in Russia, he failed to overthrown Lenin after the Bolsheviks seized power. As a member of the Secret Operations Executive, where he crossed paths with James Bond author Ian Fleming, Lockhart did his bit to thwart Hitler’s plans to conquer Europe.

British historian James Crossland tells Lockhart’s story in Rogue Agent. The title fits not only for Lockhart’s penchant for exceeding authority. He was an adventurer, personally as well as professionally, and like American adventurers who went West, he let out to Britain’s empire seeking thrills as much as fortune. Working for a rubber plantation in Malaya, he learned the language and shocked Brits and Malays alike by marrying a local woman and converting to Islam.

It didn’t last. Lockhart’s roving eye led to many relationships, and he was, as Crossland puts it, a spiritual and political agnostic. In his later careers in Britain’s foreign service and on Fleet Street, he enjoyed the company of Russian Bolshevik leader Leon Trotsky and British fascist leader Oswald Mosely. Despite his ability to get on with almost anyone, the through-line of his career was a distaste for thuggery under any banner. He took the same pleasure in trying to monkey-wrench Communism as he did in sabotaging Nazism. The Soviet Union sentenced him to death in absentia and his name was on the Nazi execution list.

Lockhart managed to evade all tyrants and live to old age, telling sometimes contradictory stories of his exploits. Crossland sifts fact from rumor, memoir from archival evidence to piece together a Hollywood-worthy life story.

Buy Rogue Agent on Amazon here.

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