Foreign News: The Windsor Plot

On Aug. 2, 1940, with the Wehrmacht at the English Channel, and beleaguered Britain waiting seemingly helpless and hopeless on the other side, Germany's Minister to Portugal sent an encouraging telegram to his boss in Berlin, Foreign Minister and ex-champagne salesman Joachim von Ribbentrop. The Duke of Windsor, Britain's ex-King Edward VIII, it said, was ready and eager to return home with his American wife to reclaim the throne of Britain for both of them. To bring this about, the message went on, there were two possibilities: either England would urge him to...

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