Background
He was born in Csurgo, Hungary, the son of Arthur Farago and Irma Lang.
( “Rich in humor, confidence men, and charm."―New York Ti...)
“Rich in humor, confidence men, and charm."―New York Times Known for his best-selling military histories, Ladislas Farago also wrote a witty tribute to his homeland, Strictly from Hungary. Noting that Hungary has produced some of the world's most renowned artists, scientists, and financiers as well as its share of world-class con-artists, charlatans, and rakes, Farago sets out to explain just how one tiny country can be responsible for so much talent, both good and bad. Using stories from his days as a struggling writer in the bustling café scenes of Budapest and New York City, Farago demonstrates the Hungarian knack for remaining irrepressible and optimistic even in the face of catastrophe. Here we meet Zoltan, a fellow Bohemian who presents his astonished benefactor with a play "about nothing," a theme later made famous by another writer of Hungarian descent, Jerry Seinfeld. Farago also introduces us to "Baby Kiss," a vivacious Hungarian beauty queen, and the story of how she ended up in Fort Worth, Texas; Orkeny, a double agent for America at the height of the Cold War who "spiced up" his reports to keep everyone happy, and the author's own experience getting mustered into the supposedly non-existent Royal Hungarian Army. Farago's reminiscence validates what most Hungarians believe: that Hungary is the center of the world and that everyone has some connection to the land of the Magyars. In that spirit, Farago learns that George Washington himself was "strictly from Hungary." This edition is introduced by the author's son, who shows that the same vibrant spirit described by his father remains the hallmark of the Hungarian temperament.
https://www.amazon.com/Strictly-Hungary-Ladislas-Farago/dp/1594160066?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1594160066
(This non-fictional book discusses Martin Bormann and the ...)
This non-fictional book discusses Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich.
https://www.amazon.com/Aftermath-Ladislas-farago/dp/0671216767?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0671216767
( The Important Study That Evaluates the Intelligence War...)
The Important Study That Evaluates the Intelligence War Behind the Japanese Surprise Attack “In this fascinating account. . . . Mr. Farago’s investigation suggests that the real villain was the system itself.”—New York Times “In this well-written and informative account. . . Mr. Farago provides many new facts from both American and Japanese sources.”—Library Journal “A good history of Japanese and American code-breaking operations between 1921 and December 7, 1941. . . . Farago is important because in this technical study of cryptology he has arrived independently at the same general conclusion as did the non-revisionist diplomatic historians: there was no plot by Roosevelt or his advisers.”—Choice “His conclusions should act as a corrective to the enthusiasts who claim that intelligence always provides the complete answer.”—Times Literary Supplement The Broken Seal: The Story of “Operation Magic” and the Pearl Harbor Disaster explores the questions of why, if the United States knew the Japanese codes, did we not anticipate the December 7, 1941 surprise attack and how did the Japanese spy system in Hawaii operate? As a chief of research and planning in the Special Warfare Branch of the Office of Naval Intelligence, the author had access to both Japanese and American classified material to write this study. The author’s intent was to independently ascertain the validity of earlier claims that the Pearl Harbor attack could have been avoided. The result is an eminently readable and engrossing story, first published in 1968, of the relationship between America and Japan in the interwar years and the relentless cat-and-mouse intelligence game conducted by both sides. Despite more recent suppositions that there was a conspiracy among American and British officials to ignore warnings of a Japanese attack that had been gleaned from deciphered diplomatic codes in order to force America into a world war, the author confirms that human error and misjudgment and the actual state of intelligence interpretation at the time made an accurate assessment of Japanese intentions impossible.
https://www.amazon.com/Broken-Seal-Operation-Secret-Harbor/dp/1594161712?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1594161712
( "The best Patton biography."—Military Bookman He is Am...)
"The best Patton biography."—Military Bookman He is America's most famous general. He represents toughness, focus, determination, and the ideal of achievement in the face of overwhelming odds. He was the most feared and respected adversary to his enemies and an object of envy, admiration, and sometimes, scorn to his professional peers. An early proponent of tank warfare, George S. Patton moved from being a foresighted lieutenant in the First World War to commanding the Third Army in the next, leading armored divisions in the Allied offensive that broke the back of Nazi Germany. Patton was an enigmatic figure. His image among his troops and much of the press achieved legendary status through his bold and colorful comments and combat leadership, yet these same qualities nearly jeopardized his career and forced him out of the battle on several occasions. Victory was impossible without Patton, and returning to the field, his army was responsible for one of the most crushing advances in the history of warfare. In Ladislas Farago's masterpiece, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, the complete story of this fascinating personality is revealed. Born into an aristocratic California family, Patton rose in military rank quickly and was tapped to lead the Allied landings in North Africa in 1942. Under Patton's direction, American troops cut their teeth against Rommel's Afrikakorps, advanced further and more quickly than British General Montgomery's army in the conquest of Sicily, and ultimately continued their exploits by punching into Germany and checking the Russian westward advance at the end of World War II. A sweeping, absorbing biography and critically hailed, Patton: Ordeal and Triumph provides unique insights into Patton's life and leadership style and is military history at its finest.
https://www.amazon.com/Patton-Ordeal-Triumph-Ladislas-Farago/dp/1594160112?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1594160112
(Trade paperback history of the US Navy in WWII)
Trade paperback history of the US Navy in WWII
https://www.amazon.com/Tenth-Fleet-Phantom-Battling-U-Boats/dp/0931933374?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=0931933374
(Fought under the cover of elaborate deceptions and ruthle...)
Fought under the cover of elaborate deceptions and ruthless lies, the deadly intelligence operations of World War II produced victories and defeats that were often as important as any reached on the battlefield. A behind-the-scenes history of the war, this book offers an exciting picture of the whole range of clandestine activities, the various forms of intelligence, espionage and sabotage, subversion and counter-espionage--the entire secret war conducted apart from conventional warfare. The major exploits of the O.S.S., M.I.5, Abwehr, and the Deuxieme Bureau are described in colorful detail by an author considered one of the foremost civilian experts on intelligence during the war. Ladislas Farago's account of Allied and Axis spymasters at work offers compelling reading about real traitors and heroes in cloak-and-dagger-dom.
https://www.amazon.com/Burn-After-Reading-Espionage-History/dp/1591142628?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1591142628
( “It would be as hard to give up all thought of being a ...)
“It would be as hard to give up all thought of being a soldier as it would be to stop breathing,” wrote George S. Patton in October 1945; “The great tragedy of my life was that I survived the last battle.” But Patton would not see the year out: in December he would die as a result of injuries sustained in an automobile accident in Germany. His unexpected death sent shock waves through the American and Russian commands. It seemed plausible that America’s greatest general may have been a victim of foul play. In the seven months following the German surrender, Patton had openly and provocatively criticized the Soviet Union and appeared to have transformed from a staunch anti-Nazi to a Nazi sympathizer. The Last Days of Patton by Ladislas Farago, a follow-up to his bestselling Patton: Ordeal and Triumph, attempts to reconstruct the last months of Patton’s life in order to determine if the general did indeed try to provoke a war with the Soviet Union and whether he failed to sufficiently de-Nazify the area of Germany under his jurisdiction. Farago also investigates the possibility of a conspiracy to murder Patton and reveals the role other prominent men, including Eisenhower, Montgomery, Marshall, and MacArthur, had in censuring and ultimately removing Patton from active service. The Last Days of Patton, originally published in 1981, is the story of the general’s final battle—a professional soldier caught up in the changing politics of the emerging Cold War and new reality of the atomic age.
https://www.amazon.com/Last-Days-Patton-Ladislas-Farago/dp/1594161380?SubscriptionId=AKIAJRRWTH346WSPOAFQ&tag=prabook-20&linkCode=sp1&camp=2025&creative=165953&creativeASIN=1594161380
He was born in Csurgo, Hungary, the son of Arthur Farago and Irma Lang.
As a student at the Academy of Commerce and Consular Affairs in Budapest, from which he graduated in 1926, Farago developed a lifelong interest in war and international politics.
He secured a position as a journalist in Budapest, and from 1928 to 1935 lived in Berlin as a foreign correspondent for the New York Times. As a correspondent for the Associated Press, Farago covered the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in 1935 and in that same year produced his first book, Abyssinia on the Eve. He also served as foreign editor of the London Sunday Chronicle in the mid-1930's.
Farago became a naturalized United States citizen in the late 1930's, living in New York City. Travel in Germany and the Middle East in the late 1930's and early 1940's inspired Palestine at the Crossroads and The Riddle of Arabia (both 1937) and German Psychological Warfare (1941).
In 1942, Farago edited The Axis Grand Strategy: Blueprints for the Total War, a series of essays by leading German Nazis on their strategy and goals in World War II. The book was produced under the auspices of the Committee for National Morale, a voluntary organization of professionals in many fields dedicated to studying and promoting American morale during the war. Farago was research director for the committee from 1940 to 1942.
From 1942 to 1946 he served on the staff of the United States Office of Naval Intelligence as chief of research and planning. There followed a year as editor of Corps Diplomatique and three years (1947 - 1950) as senior editor of the magazine United Nations World.
From 1950 to 1953 he was a consultant to Radio Free Europe. By the early 1950's Farago had moved almost exclusively to full-time professional writing, and his output thereafter was voluminous. Behind Closed Doors (1950), coauthored with Rear Admiral Ellis M. Zacharias, was a study of the Cold War.
Much of Farago's writing focused on war, espionage, intelligence, and propaganda, including War of Wits (1954); Burn After Reading: The Espionage History of World War II (1961); The Broken Seal: The Story of Operation Magic and the Pearl Harbor Disaster (1967), on which the motion picture Tora! Tora! Tora! was partly based; and The Game of the Foxes: The Untold Story of German Espionage in the United States and Great Britain During World War II (1971).
British historian Hugh Trevor-Roper stated that this last work revealed "more about the game of espionage, on a particular front, than anything so far published. "
Other works included Farago's memoirs, Strictly from Hungary (1962), The Tenth Fleet (1962), about World War II American antisubmarine operations (growing out of his work with the Office of Naval Intelligence), and It's Your Money: Waste and Mismanagement in Government Spending (1964). Patton: Ordeal and Triumph (1964), a biography of General George S. Patton, Jr. , was Farago's magnum opus and was adapted into the 1970 film Patton.
Farago created an international stir in 1972 with his assertion in a series of newspaper articles that Martin Bormann, a top aide to Adolf Hitler, was alive and living as a businessman in Argentina.
It had been presumed until then that Bormann had died in Germany during the last days of World War II.
Farago claimed that an Argentine intelligence officer, Juan Jose Velasco, had given him a photograph of the elderly Bormann and documents proving Bormann's presence in Argentina. But in December 1972, Velasco denied ever seeing Bormann and stated that the documents in Farago's possession were forgeries.
In April 1973 the West German government announced that Bormann's remains had been unearthed in construction work in West Berlin. Farago stuck to his story, however, and published it in book form in Aftermath: Martin Bormann and the Fourth Reich (1974).
Farago died in New York City. Posthumous works included The Secret American (1981), a biography of J. Edgar Hoover, and The Last Days of Patton (1981).
(Fought under the cover of elaborate deceptions and ruthle...)
( The Important Study That Evaluates the Intelligence War...)
( “It would be as hard to give up all thought of being a ...)
(This non-fictional book discusses Martin Bormann and the ...)
(Trade paperback history of the US Navy in WWII)
( “Rich in humor, confidence men, and charm."―New York Ti...)
( "The best Patton biography."—Military Bookman He is Am...)
(Book by Farago, Ladislas)
Quotes from others about the person
The British historian Stephen Dorril, in his MI6 Inside the Covert World of Her Majesty's Secret Intelligence Service asserts that Faragó was the 'most successful disinformer or dupe' concerning the presence of Nazis in South America.