Hilaire du Berrier

In 1931, Hal decided to travel to Paris for three months with his uncle, a former congressman, who was appointed a U.S. representative to the Paris Colonial Exposition. After arriving in France, he was given the registered name of Hilaire, since Hal wasn't one of the approved French names, which he went by ever since. He was attracted to the bohemian "Lost Generation" lifestyle of Paris at the time, and entered into the social circle of members of the World War I flying aces, the Lafayette Escadrille. Hilaire's barnstorming career caught the attention of Charles Sweeny, who was impressed with his enthusiasm and skills as an aviator. He thought very highly of Sweeney and wrote in his memoirs "The standards of conduct and dress in Sweeny’s set were rigid...They were members of the personally responsible class of Gentlemen and had never abrogated the law of honor which holds that a member must be ever willing to risk his life for an abstraction. Being clean-shaven and dressed as though for inspection was a matter of discipline. If they were alive, they would say that the British Empire started going down when its officers quit dressing for dinner in the middle of the desert.”[1]

(From left to right) Hilaire du Berrier, Frederic Lord and Eddie Schneider in Paris in January 1937. Previously, the men spent six weeks on the Madrid front flying for the Second Spanish Republic.

It was also around this time when du Berrier met exiled Spanish king Alfonso XIII by chance while walking down the Rue de Rivoli one afternoon. He was impressed by the presence of Alfonso, and said he had a "lifetime follower" after that. Another episode in which representatives from Madrid had come to Paris to ask the king to abdicate the throne greatly impressed du Berrier, saying that the king responded to the delegations request by saying "You ask me to abdicate but abdicate I cannot, for I am not only the King of Spain, I am the King of all the Spaniards, and I have not only my own reign but those of my house who have gone before me, for which I must someday give a rigorous accounting." He viewed King Alfonso as a man of honor and chivalry and became an ardent monarchist.[2]

After Italy invaded Ethiopia in 1935, du Berrier, motivated by his monarchist beliefs, decided to fight for Emperor Haile Selassie. At the start of the war, the Ethiopian Air Force had only four pilots and a little over a dozen aircraft, and Selassie made the call for foreign pilots to volunteer to fight for him. Boarding a cargo ship, du Berrier sailed for the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa along with other volunteers from France, Greece, Armenia, Poland and the Middle East. He was captured by Italian forces in May 1936 and taken by truck back to the capital after the Italians had captured it. The truck du Berrier was being transported in entered and reentered the city several times for a propaganda reel that was being filmed for the Italian government, and during one of these scenes, he was able to escape the truck, and boarded a train to Djibouti.[2][3]

After arriving back in Europe, du Berrier read about the revolution in the Spanish Republic. He boarded a train for Spain to join the Air Force of the Nationalist, hoping that they would eventually restore King Alfonso to the throne, but General Franco had reached out to the Italians for air support, and with his name still on an Italian backlist from his time fighting against them in Ethiopia, du Berrier instead joined the Republican Air Force. While flying missions, he collected information on the types and number of Republican aircraft and the extent of Soviet involvement in the conflict, hoping to pass this information onto Royalist factions within the Nationalist and to later publish his findings in newspapers. He was eventually denounced by American communist volunteers, and was arrested and sentenced to be executed as a spy. While waiting for the firing squad, du Berrier was pardoned at the last second by Alberto Bayo, the general who would later train Fidel Castro and Che Guevara. The reason for his pardon was that the Republicans felt that executing an American citizen would sway popular support away from them, especially first lady Eleanor Roosevelt, who was an open supporter of their cause.[1][2][4]

• Background to Betrayal: The Tragedy of Vietnam. Belmont, Mass.: Western Islands (1965). LCCN 65--24091.

French: L'échec americain au Vietnam: vu par un Américain, with J. R. Major (Translator). Paris: La Table Ronde (1965). ISBN 978-2710319788.

• Labor's International Network. New Orleans, La.: Conservative Society of America (1962).

• A Basket of Eels (1966). Los Angeles: Key Records [KLP 1060]. OCLC 37230514.

Delivered at the New England Rally for God, Family and Country, Boston, 1966. Audio supervised by G. Edward Griffin.[10]

• "The Ethiopian Woman." New Times and Ethiopia News (Aug. 1, 1936), p. 5.
• "Sad News of Ethiopian Women." New Times and Ethiopia News (Aug. 15, 1936), p. 8.
• "Facts—Not Fiction." New Times and Ethiopia News (Feb. 14, 1937), p. 8.
• "An Adventurer Retires." Esquire, vol. 10, no. 6 (Dec. 1938), pp. 52, 220, 222, 224, 226.
  • Illustrations by William Sharp. "Outside the movies, a soldier of fortune is a military prostitute, without honor, security or friends."
• "Adventurers' Paradise." Esquire, vol. 12, no. 4 (Oct. 1939), pp. 42, 186-190.
  • Illustrations by William Sharp. "Foreigners in Shanghai worked lightly, lived well, read the papers and agreed the Japs would never dare molest them."
• "No Wild Men in Borneo." XXth Century, vol. 1, no. 1 (Oct. 1941), pp. 45-51. Full issue.
  • Shanghai: XXth Century Publishing Co.
• "We Never Noticed Carcassonne." Esquire, vol. 16, no. 6 (Dec. 1941), pp. 84-85, 223-224, 226-228.
  • "The towers were there in the South of France, while we wished for the glory of war and never bothered to see them."
• "Shanghai's Morning After." XXth Century, vol. 2, no. 2 (Feb. 1942), pp. 139-144.
  • Illustrations by Sapajou (aka George Sapojnikov, aka Georgii Avksent’ievich Sapojinikoff). Shanghai: XXth Century Publishing Co.
• "Coyotes Will Grow Up." XXth Century, vol. 2, no. 5 (May 1942), pp. 367-370.
  • Illustrations by Hilaire du Berrier. Shanghai: XXth Century Publishing Co. Full volume.
• "Rev. Ford and Satan." XXth Century, vol. 3, no. 2/3 (Aug./Sep. 1942), pp. 192-197.
  • Shanghai: XXth Century Publishing Co.
• "Tourist's Perfect Handbook." Esquire, vol. 29, no. 3 (Mar. 1948), pp. 98, 148-150. Full issue.
  • "The traveler whose goal happens to be adventure is advised to keep in mind at all times the Golden Rule that manners make the gentleman—as well as the lady."
• "The Case of a Coward." Cosmopolitan (Sep. 1950).
  • Published as Lee Clark. Ghostwritten by Hilaire du Berrier.
• "The Growth of Russian Influence in China." Intelligence Digest (Dec. 1950).
• "Americana: The Conversion of Doc Beade." American Mercury (Jul. 1952), pp. 79-86.
• "How We Helped Ho Chi Minh." Freeman, vol. 4, no. 15 (Apr. 19, 1954) pp. 516–518. Full issue.
• "The South Vietnam Americans Never Hear of." Economic Council Letter, no. 420 (Dec. 1, 1957).
• "About South Vietnam." American Opinion (Feb. 1958).
• "Report from Saigon." American Mercury (Sept. 1958), pp. 43-51.
• "FLN: Communism's Ball-Carrier in North Africa." American Mercury (Oct. 1959), pp. 140-146.
• "The Diem Myth." American Opinion (Oct. 1963), pp. 55-59.
• "Asia: Ablaze with Red Flames." American Opinion, vol. 8, no. 7 (Jul./Aug. 1965), pp. 13-46.
• "The Tragedy of Vietnam." Review of the News.
• "Asia: Consequences of a Failure of Will." American Opinion, vol. 9, no. 7 (Jul./Aug. 1966), pp. 15-46.
• "From Saigon." American Opinion, vol. 10, no. 1 (Jan. 1967), pp. 15-16.
• "Asia: We Must Win in Vietnam." American Opinion, vol. 10, no. 6 (Jul./Aug. 1967), pp. 73-104.
• "From the Continent." American Opinion, vol. 11, no. 1 (Jan. 1968), pp. 53-54.
• "From the Continent." American Opinion, vol. 11, no. 5 (May 1968), pp. 51-52.
• "Asia: A Nation by Nation Analysis." American Opinion, vol. 11, no. 7 (Jul./Aug. 1968), pp. 27-76.
• "Overseas." Review of the News (1973), pp. 49-50.
• "Notes on the 1974 Scoreboard." American Opinion (Jul.-Aug. 1974), pp. 105+.
• "The World." American Opinion, vol. 17 (Sep. 1974), pp. 107+.

du Berrier appeared as himself in a 1982 documentary published by Western Goals Foundation titled No Place to Hide: The Strategy & Tactics of Terrorism, written, produced, and hosted by G. Edward Griffin and directed by Dick Quincer.[11] He was interviewed on the attempted assassination of Pope John Paul II in 1981 by Mehmet Ali Ağca.