WEBVTT - Let's Learn Simple Sabotage! 0:00:00.240 --> 0:00:04.680 From UFOs to psychic powers and government conspiracies. History is 0:00:04.760 --> 0:00:09.080 riddled with unexplained events. You can turn back now or 0:00:09.160 --> 0:00:12.119 learn this stuff they don't want you to know. A 0:00:12.200 --> 0:00:19.520 production of iHeartRadio. 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.920 Hello, welcome back to the show. My name is Matt, 0:00:28.160 --> 0:00:28.880 my name is Noel. 0:00:29.360 --> 0:00:32.120 They call me Ben. We're joined as always with our 0:00:32.240 --> 0:00:36.760 super producer Andrew the try Force Howard. Most importantly, you 0:00:36.840 --> 0:00:40.519 are you. You are here. That makes this the stuff 0:00:40.560 --> 0:00:44.600 they don't want you to know. Friends and neighbors, conspiracy 0:00:44.680 --> 0:00:49.199 realist workers of the world unite. We can all agree 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.200 on this at some point in your life. Good question. 0:00:53.520 --> 0:00:57.240 Have you ever met someone who seems almost purposely bad 0:00:57.280 --> 0:01:01.320 at their job, like not just over their head, but 0:01:02.440 --> 0:01:05.200 like beyond the point of incompetence. 0:01:05.280 --> 0:01:07.680 I mean, I guess the old cliche is associated with 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:11.240 like government jobs and people that are like unfirable, but 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:13.240 that seems to no longer be the case. 0:01:14.400 --> 0:01:16.360 Just running the clock on the pension. 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.600 One percent or you know, there's a certain level of 0:01:20.480 --> 0:01:23.400 potentially entitlement that comes along with people who have been 0:01:23.720 --> 0:01:25.760 in a job for a really, really long time and 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:27.800 they just start to kind of get bitter and resentful 0:01:27.840 --> 0:01:30.560 and maybe kind of just give up. 0:01:30.920 --> 0:01:35.000 You know, I've been in some restaurants where I'm pretty 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.720 sure there's at least someone in the managerial level that 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:44.319 is specifically attempting to sabotage their own business. The way 0:01:44.360 --> 0:01:47.840 the restrooms look, because of how unclean everything is. Sure, 0:01:48.040 --> 0:01:50.880 you're just going who is run this place? 0:01:51.040 --> 0:01:53.480 Not even phoning it in, right, just like not even 0:01:53.520 --> 0:01:54.280 making the call. 0:01:54.760 --> 0:01:58.560 I also love to that point the this happens at 0:01:58.560 --> 0:02:01.559 a few restaurants in Atlanta, I'm sure it's throughout the world. 0:02:01.840 --> 0:02:04.920 Where you look at a menu. Menus, by the way, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:07.560 one of my favorite forms of literature. You look at 0:02:07.600 --> 0:02:12.440 a menu and instead of you know, immediately the pricing 0:02:12.800 --> 0:02:17.200 or the list of dishes available, or like a cutesy 0:02:17.320 --> 0:02:20.480 little paragraph about the origin story, you see a full 0:02:20.560 --> 0:02:24.760 half page of the menu dedicated to rules and warnings 0:02:24.800 --> 0:02:26.400 and regulations. 0:02:26.560 --> 0:02:29.640 You're talking about what I've been in there? What is 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:30.160 that place? 0:02:30.280 --> 0:02:32.440 There are a couple places. I'm thinking of the Vortex 0:02:33.480 --> 0:02:34.080 that's one. 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:37.440 But there are a bar no children allowed. 0:02:38.000 --> 0:02:40.120 It's like a giant It looks like a ride at 0:02:40.120 --> 0:02:42.280 an amusement park, carnival or something. 0:02:42.600 --> 0:02:45.320 They're very very strict about. No kids allowed. 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:47.560 It's a bar, but they could let kids in if 0:02:47.560 --> 0:02:48.519 they wanted to, because. 0:02:48.320 --> 0:02:49.080 They serve food. 0:02:49.120 --> 0:02:51.359 It's a restaurant there though. 0:02:51.680 --> 0:02:53.800 That yeah, there is, and they do have a comedy 0:02:53.840 --> 0:02:56.160 brand that actually I think just got bought out. Laughing 0:02:56.240 --> 0:02:58.839 skull skull no longer associated with that. 0:02:58.919 --> 0:03:00.000 I think that makes sense. 0:03:00.320 --> 0:03:02.200 I think it was bought by This is sorry too 0:03:02.240 --> 0:03:03.080 much inside baseball. 0:03:03.080 --> 0:03:06.120 But Taco Mac, which is like a regional chain. 0:03:05.919 --> 0:03:10.320 Of like their Decatur locations, don't particularly care for there Mac. 0:03:10.800 --> 0:03:13.880 They're moving their stuff around. Yeah. Also that that's a 0:03:13.919 --> 0:03:18.800 great observation I would agree with it. Don't have a giant, cartoonish, 0:03:19.080 --> 0:03:22.960 super fascinating looking skull that seems like it belongs on 0:03:23.000 --> 0:03:26.760 a Putt putt course and then make people disappoint their 0:03:26.840 --> 0:03:30.720 children driving by. Anyway, So if you are if you 0:03:30.800 --> 0:03:35.240 have had the dubious experience of meeting someone, perhaps in 0:03:35.280 --> 0:03:40.200 a position of authority, who seems almost like almost purposely 0:03:40.360 --> 0:03:45.280 purpusly bad at their job, then you will be interested 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.080 in tonight's episode. This is a long waited fun when 0:03:49.120 --> 0:03:53.400 for us folks, tonight's episode is about an instruction manual, 0:03:53.520 --> 0:03:57.920 a short book, a novelette. Unlike other manuals or self 0:03:57.920 --> 0:03:59.880 help guides. I don't know if you guys read self 0:04:00.040 --> 0:04:03.800 help books. Wait, let's posit there the secret, right, do 0:04:03.840 --> 0:04:04.720 you read the secret? 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:07.760 I'm always your people referencing the secret. I guess I 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:09.600 don't know the secret, and no one shared it with. 0:04:10.280 --> 0:04:15.040 The secret argues popularized by talk show host in billionaire 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:22.080 Oprah Winfrey. The Secret argues that one must adjust one's 0:04:22.200 --> 0:04:26.599 thoughts to manifest real world results. 0:04:26.920 --> 0:04:27.120 Ah. 0:04:27.240 --> 0:04:32.600 Yes, diplomatically put The issue with that is it essentially, 0:04:32.680 --> 0:04:37.479 on some level, argues that people just aren't praying hard enough. 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.520 Oh okay, But it also is like sort of like 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:41.960 a self actualization power of positive thinking. 0:04:42.000 --> 0:04:43.840 If you wanted to keep it secular. 0:04:43.560 --> 0:04:46.520 Right, there's some validity to that. Yeah, I think so. 0:04:47.480 --> 0:04:52.440 But you know this, look, self help guides, instruction manuals. 0:04:52.680 --> 0:04:55.880 We've all dealt with, at least the manuals. The manual 0:04:55.960 --> 0:04:58.920 we're talking about tonight is not about how to do 0:04:59.040 --> 0:05:03.560 something well. It's got great instructions, for sure, about how 0:05:03.600 --> 0:05:08.080 to assemble certain devices, and there's real mcguiver to it. 0:05:08.080 --> 0:05:11.640 It has phenomenal hacks for the workplace and social dynamics 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:15.640 that all well, most of which still work and are 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:19.320 applicable in the modern day. But each and every piece 0:05:19.360 --> 0:05:23.360 of this guide is meant to break a thing. It's 0:05:23.560 --> 0:05:26.800 it's a SITH instruction manual. Back in the day, the 0:05:26.920 --> 0:05:31.919 US government made a literal instruction book on sabotage, and folks, 0:05:32.080 --> 0:05:36.920 we read it spoiler, it is an absolute banger. Like 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:41.160 it's not just well written, but for the time, it's 0:05:41.240 --> 0:05:46.400 accurate and there's there's unexpected poetic snark throughout it. 0:05:46.480 --> 0:05:47.120 Oh for sure. 0:05:47.240 --> 0:05:51.240 Yeah, it's super useful if you're trying to be useless. 0:05:51.040 --> 0:05:57.480 Well yeah, or destroy something from within by coercing pieces 0:05:57.520 --> 0:06:00.440 of like cogs in that machine sometimes use act. 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:02.839 Against its own long game, right, Like, it's like its 0:06:02.839 --> 0:06:03.680 own sabotage. 0:06:03.720 --> 0:06:04.839 It's crazy. 0:06:05.839 --> 0:06:18.680 So listen, all of you all, it's a sabotage. Here 0:06:18.760 --> 0:06:22.359 are the facts, all right. This is called the Simple 0:06:22.520 --> 0:06:26.520 Sabotage Manual, or we'll use that phrase here. To understand 0:06:26.520 --> 0:06:29.200 what it is, we have to understand the folks who 0:06:29.240 --> 0:06:33.480 created it, the OSS, or the Office of Strategic Services. 0:06:33.920 --> 0:06:40.120 The OSS is the direct antecedent or predecessor of the CIA, 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:42.560 and it was formed. We talked about this in our 0:06:42.720 --> 0:06:46.240 two part episode on the CIA hiring magicians. It was 0:06:46.360 --> 0:06:51.839 formed as a reaction to the disastrous Japanese attacks on 0:06:51.960 --> 0:06:56.880 Pearl Harbor, because before then, all of what we would 0:06:56.880 --> 0:07:02.200 consider US intelligence apparatus it was kind of ad hoc. 0:07:03.200 --> 0:07:05.000 You know, you might have some guys in the navies, 0:07:05.040 --> 0:07:08.080 some guys in the army, you might have a loose 0:07:08.440 --> 0:07:15.080 confederation of professors and diplomats. But when the US absolutely 0:07:15.120 --> 0:07:18.880 got waxed at Pearl Harbor, they said, this is a 0:07:18.920 --> 0:07:23.880 massive intelligence failure. Other catastrophes are on the horizon. We 0:07:24.120 --> 0:07:28.520 have to create an organization that just does intelligence. 0:07:28.920 --> 0:07:31.200 Would you say that maybe, prior to Pearl Harbor there 0:07:31.240 --> 0:07:33.920 was sort of a sense of this gentlemanly understanding of 0:07:34.000 --> 0:07:36.840 war and rules of engagement, and then that event sort 0:07:36.840 --> 0:07:39.440 of just tossed that all out the window, and it's like, nah, 0:07:39.480 --> 0:07:40.880 we got to play really dirty. 0:07:41.040 --> 0:07:42.680 Moving forward to. 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:51.160 A degree, yeah, I would say in that historically intelligence 0:07:51.280 --> 0:07:57.680 and trade craft was going to be largely or significantly 0:07:58.440 --> 0:08:01.280 orbiting the upper end shalons of society. 0:08:01.440 --> 0:08:01.640 Right. 0:08:01.680 --> 0:08:04.000 You need people who can travel, you need people who 0:08:04.000 --> 0:08:07.600 can speak multiple languages. You need people who can go 0:08:07.720 --> 0:08:10.120 into any room and seem as though they belong in 0:08:10.160 --> 0:08:13.680 that room, So the demographic is pretty limited. 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:17.080 Yeah, we're going to talk about this a little more, 0:08:17.080 --> 0:08:18.480 but I just want to put out there that a 0:08:18.520 --> 0:08:21.000 lot of the intelligence that we're talking about here is 0:08:21.080 --> 0:08:24.880 stuff that we've discussed in many other episodes on many 0:08:24.920 --> 0:08:29.880 other topics when it comes to counter what counter propaganda 0:08:30.360 --> 0:08:33.720 is what they would call it, and disinformation campaigns and 0:08:33.800 --> 0:08:38.160 all kinds of stuff that is undermining the enemy without 0:08:38.760 --> 0:08:42.120 weapons or even explosives. And then what we're talking about 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.440 today is where you bring in the explosives and you know, 0:08:46.559 --> 0:08:49.120 other things like rickety machines. 0:08:50.040 --> 0:08:55.280 Right listen, and sabotage. Yeah. So after Pearl Harbor, all right, 0:08:55.280 --> 0:08:59.000 it's nineteen forty one, there's a president of the US. 0:08:59.160 --> 0:09:03.640 His name's Rosa Belt, and he appoints a absolute larger 0:09:03.679 --> 0:09:07.800 than life cartoonish pill, a very clever man named William 0:09:07.920 --> 0:09:12.400 Donovan wild Bill to his friends. And wild Bill is 0:09:12.400 --> 0:09:15.240 originally helming this thing we talked about in our CI episode. 0:09:15.880 --> 0:09:20.360 They originally call it the Coordinator of Information and this 0:09:20.840 --> 0:09:26.160 becomes the OSS Office of Strategic Services goes It goes 0:09:26.160 --> 0:09:30.120 a fish on June thirteenth, nineteen forty two, and it's 0:09:30.160 --> 0:09:34.920 a very short lived organization. This escapes a lot of 0:09:34.960 --> 0:09:40.240 the fiction and film about this group. Its career is 0:09:40.600 --> 0:09:45.120 very limited. It's sort of like how the historical time 0:09:45.200 --> 0:09:49.480 span of the quote unquote wild West is itself just 0:09:49.559 --> 0:09:53.200 a very brief period of American history. But during its 0:09:54.280 --> 0:09:59.120 very short existence, the OSS was powerful, it was radical, 0:09:59.520 --> 0:10:02.640 and it was is super controversial. I mean, there's no 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:07.440 arguing that the OSS was anything but instrumental to Allied 0:10:07.520 --> 0:10:11.200 victory in World War Two. But and this is the 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:14.000 fun this is the funny part about upper echelons and spying. 0:10:14.520 --> 0:10:18.720 At first, I'm sure we all saw this. Other branches 0:10:18.720 --> 0:10:21.600 of the military and the US government did not care 0:10:21.679 --> 0:10:27.080 for the OSS because wild Bill was getting the majority 0:10:27.120 --> 0:10:31.400 of his initial recruits from upper krusty silver spoon types, 0:10:31.920 --> 0:10:37.679 krusty yeah yeah, upper krusty Krembrulai krusty types, wealthy East 0:10:37.720 --> 0:10:43.719 Coast elites. And as the organization grew, that became a 0:10:43.760 --> 0:10:47.360 problem for a moment because people in those circles, the 0:10:47.400 --> 0:10:51.320 blue bloods, right, they saw joining the OSS, or at 0:10:51.360 --> 0:10:54.280 least being affiliated, as a kind of social flex It 0:10:54.320 --> 0:10:58.480 gave you social cachet. You know who, Not only am 0:10:58.520 --> 0:11:02.520 I vander Bildt, but I'm aiding in the war effort. 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.240 Yeah, well, well it seems to me maybe I'm wrong, 0:11:06.240 --> 0:11:08.080 correct me if I'm roud here, guys, but it seems 0:11:08.160 --> 0:11:11.800 like a lot of the activities the OSS was getting 0:11:11.840 --> 0:11:18.600 into required creativity, maybe a level of education that wouldn't 0:11:18.640 --> 0:11:21.200 that you wouldn't find in a lot of places, you know, 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.000 specifically in the in the types of military operations that 0:11:25.000 --> 0:11:28.040 were being carried out during World War Two. It's a 0:11:28.040 --> 0:11:31.120 different type of thinking and a different type of creativity. 0:11:31.160 --> 0:11:34.080 I think that maybe somebody who comes from those worlds, 0:11:34.160 --> 0:11:39.240 like those Ivy League schools, might flourish in at least 0:11:39.240 --> 0:11:42.560 when it comes to the planning and the conceptualization of 0:11:42.600 --> 0:11:43.880 how to undermine the enemy. 0:11:44.200 --> 0:11:45.880 Being able to move with in those circles too, is 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:48.000 a big deal to what Ben was saying earlier, Like 0:11:48.040 --> 0:11:49.920 in terms of the higher echelon circles. 0:11:50.679 --> 0:11:58.160 Yeah, like that when the Reynolds impersonate what Brian lefev 0:11:58.480 --> 0:12:01.120 and go into the box seats at that sports game 0:12:01.640 --> 0:12:04.319 and one of them start stealing batteries and the other 0:12:04.360 --> 0:12:07.960 one says, damn it, act like you belong here. That's 0:12:08.000 --> 0:12:11.720 a reference for maybe twelve people, but for this reason, 0:12:12.800 --> 0:12:20.120 for the demographic prevalence of the upper crust. Critics in 0:12:20.160 --> 0:12:23.880 the government and detractors of this plan, they started calling 0:12:23.920 --> 0:12:29.440 this organization ohso social right, because now are you really 0:12:29.520 --> 0:12:31.839 serving the war effort or do you just want to 0:12:31.880 --> 0:12:34.960 have something nice to say at the next gala. So, 0:12:36.840 --> 0:12:40.520 as with some of his other projects, your boy wild 0:12:40.600 --> 0:12:44.360 Bill Donovan does have a sort of logic here. The 0:12:44.640 --> 0:12:49.559 effective agents. They have two types, two rough categories of 0:12:49.600 --> 0:12:54.240 agents in the OSS. The first are loosely called choir boys, 0:12:54.960 --> 0:12:58.359 and these are men and women. They're your desk folks, 0:12:58.720 --> 0:13:05.640 your analysts, your linguistic experts, your intelligence coalators. The other 0:13:05.760 --> 0:13:10.000 category would be the cowboys. These are the field guys. 0:13:10.720 --> 0:13:17.000 They're predominantly young. They're predominantly from well to do families 0:13:17.040 --> 0:13:20.240 in the US, mostly the East Coast. We're talking like 0:13:20.720 --> 0:13:25.040 nineteen to twenty five years old. And all of these 0:13:25.120 --> 0:13:31.040 agents go through this process that evaluates a pretty high 0:13:31.040 --> 0:13:34.600 bar of admittance. To your earlier points, Nolan, that things 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.959 like fluency in other languages, which a lot of Americans 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.200 don't have at that point, frequent and believable excuses for 0:13:42.440 --> 0:13:46.680 international travel, which very few Americans have at that point, 0:13:46.840 --> 0:13:50.280 and then again to the point we've made earlier connections 0:13:50.320 --> 0:13:53.360 to decision makers elites around the world. You have to 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.280 be familiar with the international set. You need to move 0:13:56.520 --> 0:14:00.160 and look as though you belong in those environments. And 0:14:00.520 --> 0:14:04.120 quite simply, you know, class divides and all those problems 0:14:04.160 --> 0:14:07.760 of that time and now set aside. Those are attributes 0:14:07.800 --> 0:14:10.720 that wealthy people are just far more likely to possess. 0:14:11.240 --> 0:14:15.600 You know, you can find the smartest guy from rural Appalachia, 0:14:16.280 --> 0:14:20.120 but you're gonna have to teach him Mandarin. He's not 0:14:20.240 --> 0:14:23.040 just gonna know it from grad school, you know what 0:14:23.040 --> 0:14:23.360 I mean. 0:14:23.960 --> 0:14:26.200 And then but I mean, like you know, you've mentioned 0:14:26.320 --> 0:14:29.080 multiple times been what a tall order it is to 0:14:29.160 --> 0:14:31.400 learn that language as an adult. So who really do 0:14:31.520 --> 0:14:34.600 have to have some acumen you know, for picking up 0:14:34.640 --> 0:14:37.160 new languages already, because it's already an uphill climb for 0:14:37.240 --> 0:14:38.520 such a difficult language like that. 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.400 Yeah, yeah, And they're I think also they're looking for 0:14:42.880 --> 0:14:46.920 Japanese in this context, right, Japanese and then Central and 0:14:47.040 --> 0:14:52.520 Eastern European languages, with German of course being a clear favorite. 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:55.360 There's a ton of fascinating history out there about the 0:14:55.400 --> 0:14:59.280 oss Uh and ore pal Robert Evans over on behind 0:14:59.320 --> 0:15:02.960 the Bastards did a fantastic deep dive into the history 0:15:03.000 --> 0:15:07.360 of wild Bill. But for our purposes tonight, the main 0:15:07.400 --> 0:15:10.520 thing to remember is this, due to the skills required 0:15:10.560 --> 0:15:14.560 to be a recruit, the OSS always knew it could 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:18.640 not accomplish its mission through its own internal numbers. So 0:15:19.160 --> 0:15:23.400 first problem, to use a modern phrase, they need to outsource. 0:15:24.920 --> 0:15:28.720 Yeah, which means another really important thing that you need 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:31.920 to have in your arsenal when you become an OSS 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:35.240 recruiter someone who's going out there to outsource people, is 0:15:35.240 --> 0:15:38.239 you've got to be able to communicate in very specific 0:15:38.240 --> 0:15:43.840 ways and have phrases and concepts at the ready that 0:15:43.960 --> 0:15:48.080 can manipulate and influence other human beings on the ground level. 0:15:49.680 --> 0:15:55.160 Yeah. The OSS operatives and their allies, particularly the British, 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.280 at this point, they sought to do just what you're describing, Matt, 0:15:58.280 --> 0:16:03.200 to establish communication with people civilian and military alike behind 0:16:03.240 --> 0:16:06.920 denity lines in German occupied parts of Europe. And then 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:10.640 we could say turn them. I would say it's more 0:16:10.680 --> 0:16:15.200 diplomatic to argue they are convincing that person to help 0:16:15.280 --> 0:16:19.000 with a given task or mission, or in many cases 0:16:19.360 --> 0:16:23.400 to find someone who's already up to some hijinks and say, 0:16:24.000 --> 0:16:27.880 let's teach you out a hijinks you know exactly, Let's 0:16:27.920 --> 0:16:30.360 teach you like high level hijinks. 0:16:31.040 --> 0:16:35.760 For sure, And this was not necessarily the most straightforward 0:16:35.760 --> 0:16:36.280 of tasks. 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:36.760 There are some. 0:16:36.840 --> 0:16:42.280 Challenges involved, one being that making contact and successfully you know, 0:16:42.360 --> 0:16:45.840 flipping somebody to whatever the cause may be, in this case, 0:16:45.920 --> 0:16:50.000 the cause of the United States, that's not easy. It's 0:16:50.000 --> 0:16:52.280 a challenging thing. It requires a lot of foresight, a 0:16:52.280 --> 0:16:55.400 lot of planning, and a lot of a certain set 0:16:55.440 --> 0:16:58.120 of skills. The second challenge being that you couldn't just 0:16:58.720 --> 0:17:04.080 jump in right away with a new asset after turning them. 0:17:04.480 --> 0:17:07.600 There is a lot of training involved. Throwing them out 0:17:07.640 --> 0:17:11.000 into deep water, as you would say, ben could potentially 0:17:11.040 --> 0:17:13.840 be very very dangerous and would blow their cover and 0:17:13.880 --> 0:17:16.400 make them absolutely useless to you, and all the hard 0:17:16.440 --> 0:17:19.080 work that you put into turning them would be for not. 0:17:19.440 --> 0:17:22.080 So you'd really need to give them some way to 0:17:22.600 --> 0:17:25.280 you know, make them know kung fu, like like like 0:17:25.359 --> 0:17:28.560 Keanu in the in the Matrix, some kind of very 0:17:28.600 --> 0:17:32.320 crash course level amount of training that could get them 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:35.159 the skills they need, but then put them in the 0:17:35.160 --> 0:17:36.360 field as quickly as possible. 0:17:37.000 --> 0:17:41.280 Yeah, yeah, that's well said. You can't. You can't find 0:17:41.359 --> 0:17:45.399 the guy who makes the most important rotor in the 0:17:45.480 --> 0:17:49.160 factory and then kidnap them for a month and teach 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:51.520 them to be a spy. You know what I mean? 0:17:51.720 --> 0:17:53.520 You have to, as you were saying, you have to 0:17:53.560 --> 0:17:58.439 give them the basics vicariously indirectly. And the third issue 0:17:58.480 --> 0:18:02.040 is you want to make sure you establish reasonable limits 0:18:02.080 --> 0:18:06.520 on behavior, because otherwise the asset may get overwhelmed, frightened off, 0:18:06.600 --> 0:18:10.320 they may snitched enemy forces, they might accidentally bite off 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:12.880 more than they can chew. And what if they screw up? 0:18:13.400 --> 0:18:17.000 What if they get caught, you know, trying to sabotage 0:18:18.160 --> 0:18:21.120 some munitions factory right for sure? 0:18:21.119 --> 0:18:23.040 And and maybe just to backcheck with what I was saying, 0:18:23.080 --> 0:18:26.040 I think the biggest thing right away is not removing 0:18:26.040 --> 0:18:28.439 them from that situation where they are expected to be 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:31.439 for too long, because that in and of itself is 0:18:31.520 --> 0:18:33.520 the whole point for them to be able to use 0:18:33.720 --> 0:18:37.040 that situation to their and our advantage. 0:18:38.280 --> 0:18:40.919 Let's get into something really quickly here, and it's about 0:18:40.960 --> 0:18:44.640 why would somebody who makes machines for an access power. 0:18:44.720 --> 0:18:48.000 Let's say in Italy, decide to work with some stranger 0:18:48.280 --> 0:18:51.199 that comes up to them, right who speaks Italian, But 0:18:51.480 --> 0:18:53.359 you don't know this person, and they're just talking to you, 0:18:53.440 --> 0:18:57.280 trying to convince you of something to work against the 0:18:57.320 --> 0:19:00.600 people you're making the weapons for. Why on earth would 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:02.480 you do that? And we're going to get into the 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.920 specifics as we get into the manual, but one of 0:19:05.000 --> 0:19:09.080 the main things that these OSS people were looking for 0:19:09.200 --> 0:19:14.000 were a reason, a concrete, specific reason for an individual 0:19:14.040 --> 0:19:17.440 to fight against the powers that they're working for. So 0:19:17.480 --> 0:19:21.200 it's literally like, well, we'll talk about specifics, but if 0:19:21.200 --> 0:19:23.160 you think about it in the real world right now, 0:19:23.680 --> 0:19:26.439 and just to take it a little bit, just for 0:19:26.480 --> 0:19:30.080 a moment to California, you would have something that enough 0:19:30.119 --> 0:19:33.760 people or an individual is angry about, upset about, and 0:19:33.840 --> 0:19:38.160 have reason to fight back against something, then you can 0:19:38.400 --> 0:19:42.240 if you can use that anger, you can maybe flip 0:19:42.240 --> 0:19:45.080 them and turn them to working against the system that 0:19:45.119 --> 0:19:45.800 controls them. 0:19:45.880 --> 0:19:49.359 I mean, it's not super different than assets. 0:19:49.440 --> 0:19:52.600 Say, you know that the FBI might recruit from say 0:19:52.720 --> 0:19:54.919 organized crime, you know, if you've seen it in the 0:19:54.920 --> 0:19:57.159 movies or whatever. There usually has to be some beef 0:19:57.400 --> 0:19:59.359 that they know about and that they are able to 0:19:59.760 --> 0:20:02.119 use to their advantage and give the person a reason 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.680 or they've got some really bad dirt on them that 0:20:04.760 --> 0:20:07.640 I guess could also potentially be an option here. 0:20:08.760 --> 0:20:15.080 And so part of this again we have these three issues. 0:20:15.119 --> 0:20:19.840 We will discuss the unrest in Los Angeles, which I 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.600 think we're all tuned into as we're recording on Monday, 0:20:23.720 --> 0:20:27.800 June ninth. We'll have that coming up in our listener 0:20:27.840 --> 0:20:32.840 mail segment as well. See, we do see some parallels 0:20:33.160 --> 0:20:37.400 with the OSS here. Again we see the first issue 0:20:37.400 --> 0:20:44.080 making contact, the second issue keeping people relatively unextraordinary for 0:20:44.240 --> 0:20:49.280 management and enemy forces. And third, we want to establish 0:20:49.480 --> 0:20:53.919 reasonable limits of behavior. Someone biting off more than they 0:20:54.000 --> 0:20:57.600 can chew could spell disaster for the mission entire So 0:20:57.720 --> 0:21:02.399 how do we navigate these issues? Says the OSS, Especially 0:21:02.520 --> 0:21:06.639 with a ticking clock where every little ding against the 0:21:06.680 --> 0:21:10.199 opponent could change the course of the war, especially if 0:21:10.200 --> 0:21:15.720 they operate over time, The solution quickly became obvious. What 0:21:15.880 --> 0:21:24.960 was the solution? Will tell you after word from our sponsors. 0:21:27.960 --> 0:21:31.600 Here's where it gets crazy. They wrote a book. 0:21:32.320 --> 0:21:33.119 There's a book club. 0:21:33.320 --> 0:21:34.400 They wrote a book. 0:21:34.600 --> 0:21:38.119 Sort of the like Bizarrow evil version of how to 0:21:38.160 --> 0:21:40.000 win friends and influence people. 0:21:40.720 --> 0:21:45.359 It's definitely about influencing people, and those parts are personally 0:21:47.160 --> 0:21:49.159 just the way it's written, those are personally some of 0:21:49.240 --> 0:21:53.000 my favorite parts. That's where I could I could clearly 0:21:53.240 --> 0:21:56.560 hear a repressed stand up comic at the end of 0:21:56.600 --> 0:22:02.320 the manual, But all right, it's a forty four and 0:22:02.440 --> 0:22:07.119 the OSS distributes a literal book on sabotage to OSS 0:22:07.280 --> 0:22:14.160 officers in multiple foreign countries. Outside of a relatively brief preface, 0:22:14.640 --> 0:22:18.119 this thing, the Simple Sabotage Field Manual, which you can 0:22:18.160 --> 0:22:21.320 freely read online or hear an audiobook of it, was 0:22:21.359 --> 0:22:25.840 not solely written for the officers. Instead, it's like a 0:22:26.160 --> 0:22:30.760 teacher's textbook, and it's meant for you, as an officer 0:22:31.200 --> 0:22:36.240 to give this information to citizen saboteurs throughout areas of 0:22:36.240 --> 0:22:41.359 Europe occupied by Germany. These guys that are the intended 0:22:42.359 --> 0:22:46.719 audience of this instruction, they are not the upper crust 0:22:47.080 --> 0:22:50.240 of their society, right, These are not the landed lords 0:22:50.240 --> 0:22:54.400 and ladies. Unlike the original OSS hires. They're much more 0:22:54.520 --> 0:22:58.359 likely to be blue collar workers and middle management. You know, 0:22:58.600 --> 0:23:02.240 are guys on the production line. They're mid tier bosses 0:23:02.280 --> 0:23:06.280 who do admin and set meetings. I can't wait until 0:23:06.320 --> 0:23:11.400 we get to the art of sabotaging meetings. But it's 0:23:11.480 --> 0:23:14.479 essentially a textbook right as the title says, it's a 0:23:14.480 --> 0:23:19.600 textbook for simple sabotage, tons of weird, at times darkly 0:23:19.720 --> 0:23:23.359 hilarious stuff. The CIA will later go on to call 0:23:23.440 --> 0:23:28.200 this surprisingly relevant because get this, guys, I don't think 0:23:28.240 --> 0:23:32.199 they were certain it would work. I don't you know 0:23:32.280 --> 0:23:34.480 what I mean, Even back then, I think they were 0:23:35.160 --> 0:23:39.879 a bit skeptical about how much of this instruction could 0:23:39.920 --> 0:23:41.840 translate to real world action. 0:23:43.320 --> 0:23:46.680 Yeah, I could see that. I don't know. I honestly 0:23:46.720 --> 0:23:49.639 don't know, but it does seem like the first major 0:23:49.760 --> 0:23:52.200 foray into this stuff. Although we have talked about how 0:23:52.560 --> 0:23:55.320 the spy game goes way way way back, so there's 0:23:55.359 --> 0:23:59.000 been little versions of this, but never maybe a wide 0:23:59.040 --> 0:24:01.600 scale at least what it says in the introduction to 0:24:01.640 --> 0:24:06.680 the manual, like a wide scale attempt to proliferate sabotage 0:24:06.840 --> 0:24:11.560 amongst like civilians in I think, on three or at 0:24:11.640 --> 0:24:14.000 least three fronts throughout the Yes. 0:24:14.520 --> 0:24:17.880 Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, let's get to that. Let's dive 0:24:17.920 --> 0:24:20.760 into what it taught people to do. So the preface 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.840 of the manual, it's gonna directly let's say all of us, 0:24:25.160 --> 0:24:28.080 the three of us and try force and you listening 0:24:28.160 --> 0:24:30.440 at home, thank you for joining us. Let's say we're 0:24:30.480 --> 0:24:35.120 all oss agents. We get this book, this manual, and 0:24:35.280 --> 0:24:38.679 the front of it directly addresses us. And most of 0:24:38.720 --> 0:24:42.239 what it's trying to do is establish the context in 0:24:42.280 --> 0:24:46.960 which citizen saboteurs, as the manual calls them, reside. It's 0:24:47.000 --> 0:24:49.520 saying like, hey, look, these are not you know what 0:24:49.560 --> 0:24:52.520 I mean, These are not the James Bond types. These 0:24:52.520 --> 0:24:55.440 guys are not black block protesters, a phrase that didn't 0:24:55.480 --> 0:25:00.240 exist at the time. We want them to do simple, 0:25:00.480 --> 0:25:04.040