20th annual author presentation in The Foreign Service Journal of November 2021

We Americans have long taken the good will of our northern neighbors for granted. Instead, we should be thankful for having a steadfast ally along our nearly 4,000 mile border. Would an offer of military assistance from the Germans to interested parties in Canada have been a possibility in the 1930s?

A message was possibly sent from Germany to Mexico in 1917 during World War 1. It’s known as the Zimmermann cable and the German Foreign Office basically proposed that if Mexico were enter the war against the United States, Texas, Arizona and New Mexico could be taken back by Mexico with German military assistance. The message was “intercepted” and “decoded” by the British, who might have been attempting to cause American outrage and lead the U.S. to enter the war against the Germans. Whatever the truth, the Mexicans turned down the deal.

A more relevant coup effort occurred in 1933. This was of American origin and the goal was to remove Roosevelt as president. According to retired Major General Smedley Butler, he was approached by a man representing unidentified prominent American businessmen who would underwrite the recruitment of a 50,000-man army of U.S. veterans to march on the White House and remove Roosevelt. Instead, General Butler testified to Congress and that testimony was entered into the Congressional Record. No further actions were taken.

My novel, “The Maple Conspiracy”, proposes the Germans conducted secret negotiations with a select group of Canadians upset about the 1936 election of the Liberal government of PM Mackenzie King. They offer secret military assistance for building and equipping a military force capable of conducting a coup d'état in Ottawa.

I’m excited to share with you some of the research work that I did on The Maple Conspiracy, inside scoop on historical figures in the novel, and some new writing that I’m doing now. I also have book and research-related travel coming up, which I’ll share snippets of here. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below, or get in touch @billbegleybooks on Twitter or find me on Facebook or LinkedIn. Of course, if you haven’t gotten your copy of The Maple Conspiracy yet, you can find it online at Amazon or Barnes & Noble. It’s always great to read your reviews as well. More soon!