In 1905, the Great War ended in an irretrievable British débâcle, leading to occupation, reparations and the loss of several colonies. E. Phillips Oppenheim's A Maker of History records how thousands of German immigrants had been acting as pre-invasion intelligence-gatherers, ensuring that `the German Army knew almost to a bale of hay what provender lay between London and the coast'. As `Captain X', the head of German intelligence in London, explained to Oppenheim: 'There are in this country 290,000 young countrymen of yours and of mine who have served their time, and who can shoot ... Clerks, waiters and hairdressers ... each have their work assigned to them. The forts which guard this great city may be impregnable from without, but from within -- that is another matter'.

Thomas Edward Lawrence	"He [Aaronsohn] meant to make a new nation, to restore a lost influence, to give twenty millions of Semites the foundations on which to build an inspired dream-palace of their national thoughts.” ~ Colonel Thomas Edward Lawrence in Seven Pillars of Wisdom Justifying the actions of Sarah and Aaron Aaronsohn the individuals most directly responsible for the creation of the State of Israel in 1919. Both Aaronsohns had been leader organizers of NILI, a secret intelligence group pursuing unorthodox means to assist in the liberation of Palestine. NILI had provided military intelligence to the Turks that had been used to crush British forces under General Edmund H.H. Allenby. Allenby himself had been duped, believing that Zionist aspirations would be served by means of an attack by surprise through Beersheba, using the map of water sources provided by Aaronsohn, and skirting around the strong Turkish force that blocked the advance north from Gaza. The destruction of British forces created a post-war vacuum in Palestine that was very much in the Zionists favour. It is widely believed now that the actions of NILI brought forward the creation of the State of Israel by a generation, ensuring a population movement of European Jewry before the rise of Hitler.
Arabist

Kinky Friedman	In 2008, explaining that sometimes its okay to get a little kinky, Texan singer/songwriter Richard S. Friedman entered Election Day as the underdog candidate for US President. Kinky promised America that “Musicians can run this country better than politicians. We won't get a lot done in the mornings, but we'll work late and be honest."

In 1963, Vietnamese President Ngo Dinh Diem and his younger brother, Ngo Dinh Nhu are murdered, overthrowing the Government of the Republic of Vietnam. That evening at Saigon international airport, the assassins board a plane to the south-western United States. They've got a tight schedule; in just twenty days time they have an appointment with two more brothers, the Kennedys. The incredible story of this double-hit brought to the cinema in the 1981 movie Nighthawks	Nighthawks

Versailles	In 1917, British Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour proclaimed support for Palestinian self-rule in a letter to Emir Faisal, a son of Sherif Hussein of Mecca. The letter stated the position, agreed at a British Cabinet meeting on October 31, 1917, that the British government supported nationalist plans for an Arab "national home" in Palestine, with the condition that nothing should be done which might prejudice the rights of Jewish kibbutzim there. The "Balfour Declaration" was later incorporated into the Sèvres peace treaty with Turkey, Treaty of Versailles (pictured) and the Mandate for Palestine.

In 1948, in a dramatic political comeback, Harry S. Truman defeated Thomas E. Dewey for the US presidency. Truman had been nominated for the Vice Presidency in 1944, and briefed fully on the Bomb, principally to ensure the Bomb was not dropped. However, Roosevelt died unexpectedly in the fall, and it was Dewey who won the '44 election and decided to drop the Bomb to bring a speedy end to the Pacific War with minimal US casualties. The Tokyo strike was seen by Communists as a sign of weakness by the US Government, unable to stomach the casualty count necessary for Operation Downfall. No sooner had Japan capitulated, than China descended into civil war, and Dewey was trapped in the Pandora's box of his own logic.	Harry S Truman