James J. Heaphey is professor
emeritus, Graduate School of Public
Affairs, State University of New
York. In addition to teaching and
writing he directed political
development programs in Brazil,
Costa Rica, Cyprus, Egypt, Lebanon
and South Korea from 1961 to 1992,
and gave seminars on the politics of
developing countries for American
military officers stationed in
Europe and the Far East from 1968 to
2003. He has a B.A., summa cum
laude, from Western Reserve
University, and a Ph.D. in political
science from the University of
California at Berkeley. He served as
an intelligence officer in the U.S.
Air Force from 1951 to 1954.
James J. Heaphey is the author of
Comparative Legislative Reforms and
Innovations; How To Survive In An
Organization; and, Legerdemain: The
President's Secret Plan, The Bomb
and What The French Never Knew.
According to the book description of
Legerdemain it, “is
the true story of a young undercover
operative for the U.S. Air Force
during the Truman-Eisenhower
Administrations who was sent on a
mission to wrest French Morocco from
the French colonial system and bring
it into the American sphere of
influence. The purpose was to insure
Moroccan air bases for the Strategic
Air Command which was vital for a
retaliatory strike against the
Soviet Union. The story underlines
President Truman's disregard for
French friendship and is willing to
risk it for the sake of U.S.
security. The disregard is further
illustrated by the secret storage of
atom bombs in French Morocco which
was completely unknown to Charles
DeGaulle, President of France. The
story unveils the working of
undercover operatives of Britains
MI6, Israel's Mossad, America's CIA,
France's Security Services, the
Soviet Union's KGB as well as the
French Foreign Legion set against
the exotic backdrop of the
alleyways, coffee houses and
bathhouses of Casablanca, the exotic
fairs of Marrakech, the settings of
privilege in Cairo and the
mountainside villages of Cypress.
The author's experience also takes
him through Berber villages in the
Atlas Mountains and Foreign Legion
outposts on the apron of the Sahara.
Through it all, the author unfolds
Islamic thinking of that period and
sets it as a prelude to the affairs
of the Twenty First Century.”