Even after Pearl Harbor, it wasn’t a done deal that the US would have gone to war against Germany, but for the fact that Germany declared war on the US a few days later. This account points out an actual sabotage plot. Still relevant, because the case against the sabateurs is cited by the Bush administration as a legal precedent for trying War on Terror prisoners. Good story, for a lot of reasons: “After taking the train into Manhattan, the would-be saboteurs swanned about the city, using their ample cash reserves to buy new clothes, to gamble, and to enjoy New York night life… On the whole, the longer the invaders remained at large, the less zeal most of them displayed for carrying out their mission.”

PR for professors.