Books: Plot That Failed

Germany's Underground (207 pp.)—Allen Welsh Dulles—Macmillan ($3).

Colonel Count Claus von Stauffenberg had fought with Rommel in Africa, lost his left arm and two fingers of his right hand there. But he could still do staff work. Above all, he could still carry a briefcase. On July 20, 1944, he carried a briefcase into a conference at the Führer's field headquarters in East Prussia. He put it down close to the Führer—with a powerful little bomb inside.

World War II's boldest plot-that-failed has been reported, but never as fully as in Germany's Underground. Its preliminaries, principals and political aims are now described by...