A Study in Duplicity and Incompetence: Britain's Assassination of Nazi RSHA Chief, Reinhard Heydrich
Here is a question. What is the rationale for assassinating a leader of your strategic adversary, when the Nation which he is leading is driven by fanaticism, Religious Fundamentalism, and actually glorifies Martyrdom? Conducting an assassination of someone whose successor is of the same ilk, whose policy is the same, commands the same loyalty, and which massively increases the willingness and desire of that enemy to fight and take reprisals, is one gigantic step into the Gates of Hell.
Very few people know their history these days. On May 27, 1942, the British SOE, (Special Operations Executive) headed by Sir William Stephenson, committed one of the most costly and reckless blunders of WWII, when he deployed his irregulars in Czechoslovakia to assassinate Reinhard Heydrich, who served under Himmler as head of the Gestapo, and Chief officer of the Nazi occupation of Czechoslovakia. Along with Adolph Eichmann, he was the main administrator of the "Final Solution" policy drafted at the infamous Wansee Conference, where the annihilation of European Jewry was planned out. There was no one in the Nazi regime worse than him, save Himmler and Hitler themselves. Czech partisans working with the British threw a grenade in his vehicle.
Heydrich died of his injuries on June 4th. What followed was one of the bloodiest reprisals of the War, in which the SS liquidated an entire town, Lidice, killing 5,000 people in one day, and arresting 13,000, many of whom were tortured until they gave the names of people in the Underground. Heydrich's assassination accomplished only massive unnecessary bloodshed, and did nothing to disrupt Nazi operations or policy. American Intelligence (OSS) had recommended against doing this, as they had Hitler profiled and knew that he had a heavy reliance and deep sexual crush on Heydrich, and that this action would backfire, with Hitler unleashing a horrific bloodbath, that would cause the death of most of the Allies assets behind enemy lines.
And of course, you look at the British in this case, and ask why they did it, given their track record. It is known that leading figures in the British Establishment backed and funded Hitler, including within the Royal family. Its known that the British closed their doors to Jewish refugees throughout Hitler's reign of terror. And, documents have shown that Churchill and the British knew about the Wansee Conference and the Final Solution at least a year or more before the US did, and they deliberately withheld this and kept it secret from the United States. And, to top it off, when asked by the German organizers of the July 20th 1944 Von Stauffenberg plot for assistance in killing Hitler, they refused, and actually betrayed them. That was an assassination which would have served the highest purpose, but the Brits said no. The reasons are for another article down the road. So, I will make the case, not in its entirety here, that British motives then, like Trump's today, were duplicitous and self-serving, as well as counterproductive, tragic, and completely ineffective.
But, draw your own conclusions. If you want to believe that Trump's provocation vs Iran may have been the right thing, and that it won't lead to a spiral of disaster, then we will take this up again after the situation plays out.
