Hitler's Man in Havana: Heinz Luning and Nazi Espionage in Latin America

2. The World He Scarcely Knew

25  2  the World He scarcely Knew Despite being considered by several Allied officials the most important Nazi spy caught in Latin America during World War II, Heinz Lüning knew little about the region where he was to do his secret work and meet his end. Nor did he understand well the strategic security importance of Cuba and the greater Caribbean. He had visited New York City and Santo Domingo in 1936 and 1937 for family reasons, not out of curiosity and interest in Latin America. Even later, Heinz served the Abwehr, not out of special interest in Latin America but as an unexpected option to escape undesired military service for the Nazi state. He exhibited little interest in matters beyond his personal and family well-being. Initially, knowledge of Spanish became the vehicle for shielding the family name and escaping military service, but, in 1941, it led to his death. In this story, one ill-fated move led to another. Although Heinz generally opposed war and violence, he probably did not reflect on the deeper historical currents that led to the war that ended his life. Serious reflection would have been inconsistent with his disinterest in knowledge and his carefree search for pleasure, as the seven acquaintances from Santo Domingo, his tutor Lola Ardela, and his own testimony during the SIS interviews suggested. Once the Hamburg AST (Abwehrstelle, the major intelligence station) decided to send 26 Hitler’s Man in Havana Heinz to Havana, the events of World War II, the history of the Caribbean , U.S. relations with the Caribbean, and the value of the Gulf of Mexico–Caribbean region for the strategy and conduct of World War II shaped his future. So did a variety of influences from past New World versus Old World conflicts. The cataclysmic death, destruction, and social turmoil of World War II have burdened the explanatory capacity of historians. They do not consider World War II the product of particular short-term circumstance . To the contrary, they have rummaged through the prior decades or generations, if not centuries, to make sense of the massive destruction of human life and property. However, most of the search for causes has involved European racism and nationalism, Mediterranean affairs, or the consequences of European colonial and imperial ambitions. It seems helpful to look beyond nationalism—in its rational or irrational manifestations—and to contemplate the power of broad ideological and institutional forces (classical laissez-faire liberalism and technologicalindustrial mass production) rising first in the North Atlantic community and then spreading into the world to produce conflict. Internationally, from the mid-nineteenth century to World War I, the leaders of the North Atlantic societies nudged these young, unstable, industrializing nations toward increased international competition and risk taking (colonialism, colonial wars and revolts, imperial acquisitions, social imperialism [achieving domestic objectives through international activity], and informal empire). New international forms developed to control economic factors: land, labor, raw materials, foodstuffs, consumer markets, and investment opportunities. The incorporation of new areas and economic factors into a global arrangement would, presumably, facilitate increased economic growth, social and political stability, wellbeing , and security. The leaders of North Atlantic countries, confronting the instability from the rapid and profound technological changes, juggled risk and reward as they sought foreign policies that responded to domestic and foreign events in a competitive framework. The friction from dramatic socioeconomic change heated up internal and external tensions and conflict. The central events in the North Atlantic world during the era from the World He scarcely Knew 27 the conflict over Texas in the 1830s and 1840s until World War I outlined a mosaic of crises that spread over large chunks of time and geography . These numerous events included revolutions, wars, and a long, worldwide depression (1873–1897). The mounting social and economic discontent and disruption caused by that depression culminated in a series of armed crises, especially on the periphery of the world economy, and particularly during the depression of the 1890s and its aftermath. This era of conflict encompassed various revolutions and wars in Central America, Mexico, the Caribbean, East Asia, South Africa, the Mediterranean area, and Russia as well as the subsequent world war. The world war between 1914 and 1918 shifted, for a short time, the bulk of human and property destruction from colonial or peripheral regions to the European and North Atlantic communities. This world war had repercussions , however, almost everywhere around...