2018/6b.plaintext

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