Adam Tucker: Diamonds and War — How De Beers Supplied Hitler, Diddled the USA, and Confounded the OSS
A must read. The strategic importance of diamonds became acutely clear to both the Allies and Axis powers with the approach of the Second World War in 1939. Only diamonds were hard enough to stamp out the millions of precision parts that were necessary for mass-producing airplane engines, torpedoes, tanks, artillery and the other weapons …