FDR's 12 apostles.

• Author: Bullington, J.R.
• Position: FDR's 12 Apostles: The Spies Who Paved the Way for the Invasion of North Africa - Book review

Sixty-five years ago, in November 1942, U.S. and British forces landed in French North Africa to launch Operation Torch, the first major Allied offensive of World War II. But since late 1940, well before America's entry into the war, a senior U.S. Foreign Service Officer and a dozen newly-minted vice consuls had been working to prepare the way for this invasion and assure its success.

This book tells their story, a complex tale of intrigue, daring, skill, bravery, and blunders.

Robert Murphy began his diplomatic career in 1917 as a 23-year-old code clerk in Bern, where one of his colleagues at the legation was future CIA Director Allen Dulles. By the outbreak of World War II, he was serving as political counselor in Paris, and he became charge when the embassy relocated to Vichy in 1940 following the French surrender.

Murphy's reports from Paris and Vichy were noted by President Roosevelt, who in September 1940 called him to Washington for a personal meeting. FDR sent Murphy to French North Africa as his personal representative, instructing him to report directly to the White House, bypassing the State Department and Secretary Cordell Hull.

On reaching Algiers, Murphy quickly negotiated an agreement with the Vichy French leader, General Maxime Weygand, for the delivery of much-needed American consumer goods to North Africa, with the deliveries to be monitored by a dozen U.S. vice consuls serving under Murphy's direction.

This was the first step in planning Operation Torch.

It was decided that the career Foreign Service could not supply these new officers, whose primary duty was to be gathering intelligence. Instead, the War and Navy Departments were tasked to recruit them. This was done, and by June 1941 all 12 of the new vice consuls were assembled in Algiers and Casablanca under Murphy's command. They were upper-class, Ivy League gentry, mostly with service in World War I, the French Foreign Legion, or the American Field Service (ambulance drivers), and they were "itching to be involved in a war America had yet to join." The staff of the U.S. diplomatic and consular posts in North Africa were not informed of their real mission, and tended to resent their presence.

Murphy and the 12 vice consuls immediately began collecting political, economic, and military intelligence. Soon, after U.S. entry into the war, they also took on a more operational role, seeking to arrange French support, or at least acquiescence, for the North Africa invasion.

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