22 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
22 lines
1.7 KiB
Markdown
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aliases:
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- William Stephenson
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- Sir William Stephenson
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- Intrepid
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category: "World War II & Nazi Era"
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tags:
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- Person
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- WW2
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- Nazi
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- Occult
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summary: "Sir William Stephenson (1896–1989), famously known as 'Intrepid' by Winston Churchill, was a Canadian intelligence officer who headed British Intelligence's operational arm in America, the British Security Coordination Office."
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---
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Sir William Stephenson (1896–1989), famously known as "Intrepid" by [[Winston Churchill]], was a Canadian intelligence officer who headed [[British Intelligence]]'s operational arm in America, the [[British Security Coordination Office]]. This office was disguised as part of the British Passport Control Office in Rockefeller Center, [[New York City]][^1].
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Stephenson played a crucial role in influencing American public opinion to support Britain's entry into [[World War II]]. He orchestrated an elaborate black propaganda campaign involving astrologer [[Louis de Wohl]]. Stephenson's agency would feed information to de Wohl for his column, "Stars Foretell," and then disseminate this information to the U.S. press, which, unable to fact-check with [[Nazi Germany]], would report it as real[^1].
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Stephenson's efforts were highly effective, with one declassified memo noting that "An ever-growing audience [is] becoming convinced of his supernatural powers"[^1]. He coordinated with [[William Donovan]], who would later head the [[Office of Strategic Services]], the precursor to the [[Central Intelligence Agency]][^1].
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### Footnotes
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[^1]: Jacobsen, Annie. *Phenomena: The Secret History of the U.S. Government's Investigations into Extrasensory Perception and Psychokinesis*. Little, Brown and Company, 2017.
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