A searing account of a dark “chapter in U.S. Cold War history . . . to help the anti-Soviet aims of American intelligence and national security agencies” (Library Journal). Even before the final shots of World War II were fired, another war began—a cold war that pitted the United States against its former ally, the Soviet Union. As the Soviets consolidated power in Eastern Europe, the CIA scrambled to gain the upper hand against new enemies worldwide. To this end, senior officials at the CIA, National Security Council, and other elements of the emerging US national security state turned to thousands of former Nazis, Waffen Secret Service, and Nazi collaborators for propaganda, psychological warfare, and military operations. Many new recruits were clearly responsible for the deaths of countless innocents as part of Adolph Hitler’s “Final Solution,” yet were whitewashed and claimed to be valuable intelligence assets. Unrepentant mass murderers were secretly accepted into the American fold, their crimes forgotten and forgiven with the willing complicity of the US government. Blowback is the first thorough, scholarly study of the US government’s extensive recruitment of Nazis and fascist collaborators right after the war. Although others have approached the topic since, Simpson’s book remains the essential starting point. The author demonstrates how this secret policy of collaboration only served to intensify the Cold War and has had lasting detrimental effects on the American government and society that endure to this day.

This puts "in permanent form the leading facts connected with the organization of the county and accounts of the men who first cut down the forests, grubbed the cane brakes and drove out the savages who disputed its possession ..."--Author's preface.

Family of Oscar Wright Gardner (1901-1979), son of William Thomas Gardner and Katherine Cauthen. He was born in Spalding Co., Ga., and died in Fayetteville, Ga. He was married to Mary Katherine Ballard (b. 1910) in 1926 in Orchard Hill, Ga. She was the daughter of William Kimsey Ballard and Flora Daniel. She was born in Atlanta, Ga. They were parents of nine children. The Gardner ancestry has been traced to abt. 1675 in Virginia and from there to North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas, Monroe Co., Georgia and elsewhere. The Ballard family has been traced to ca. 1606 in Warwick, England and from there to Virginia, North Carolina and on to Georgia. Family members live in Georgia, Arkansas, North Carolina, South Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi and elsewhere.