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+infiltrating the deliberations of our enemies is a principal goal but following my discussions with
+playfair i have come to see that the classical strategy of trying to turn a senior member of the
+delegations is both risky and unnecessary any approach to such an individual risks signalling our
+intentions and undermines our ability to adapt our plans secrecy is everything as playfair points
+out those individuals often have little influence anyway they are there to present a point of view
+and the best of them atleast to listen but they have little authority the junior officials on the
+other hand have almost total control of events they set the agenda in discussion with one another
+and their seniors and more importantly they take the record of the meeting after the delegates have
+returned to their homes it is that record that becomes the reality we do not need to be there or
+even to know what was said we need only to know what has been recorded as the truth and where
+possible to shape that truth in our best interests this i believe to bean entirely new strategy in
+the world of diplomacy and i am pleased to be able to develop it with the help of such a
+distinguished friend playfair is a man of cunning and i enjoy working with him nowhere has this
+cunning been more effective than in his strategy for the management of the reich stadt meeting
+alexander franz josef g or chak ov and andrassy met to agree terms on russias involvement in the
+balkans and there was a real risk that they would unite and fight to control our trade routes with
+such high level involvement in the discussions it was clear that we would have little to no hope of
+influencing the principals and so we decided to follow the playfair strategy applying careful
+pressure to the junior members of there tinues our agents and officers persuaded them to report on
+the proceedings providing us with the intelligence we needed to prepare for the forthcoming war
+between russia and the ottoman empire but of far greater significance they were able to ensure
+maximum confusion among our enemies by the most marvellous stratagem which i will refer to as the
+playfair gambit the officials were able to persuade their leaders that it would be better not to
+take official minutes of the meeting while we received a full and accurate account of all the
+discussions the russian and austro hungarian officials were left only with informal personal notes
+of the discussions and no agreed record of the meeting or its agreed outcomes we fully intend to
+exploit this uncertainty at the forthcoming conference in constantinople
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projects / cipher-tools.git / blobdiff