Word: spinola
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...RAIN pours down at Dusseldorf airport. Former President of Portugal General Antonio Ribeiro de Spinola emerges from his plane and is quietly ushered into a waiting car. He is met by an adviser to the President of West Germany's right-wing party; when the President arrives, the two leaders will make clandestine preparations for the coup that will return General Spinola and his conservatives to power...
Only it is not the President's adviser at all, but an imposter--West Germany's "undesirable journalist," an avowed socialist sympathizer, Gunter Wallraff. Spinola is the victim of an elaborate hoax, perpetrated over the course of many months, during which Wallraff. Spinola is the victim of an elaborate hoax, perpetrated over the course of many months, during which Wallraff has carefully recorded and photographed evidence of the General's subversive activities. And now, ignorant of his undoing, Spinola himself is about to deliver his own coup degrace, revealing the most incriminating information...
...twenty to four the President still had not arrived. General Spinola had finished his meal, and was anxious to meet the President. Wallraff could only stall for time: he had only learned of Spinola's visit the day before, and had not yet succeeded in finding a 'President' to greet him. The previous night he had approached several friends--a lawyer, a doctor, a publisher, a member of the Bundestag, a vicar and several professional actors--but none would agree to play the role. Now, despite frequent and frantic telephone calls, Wallraff could not find a suitable President. At four...
...five-thirty when the 'President' finally arrives, to Spinola's great relief. The President is terse; he cannot stay long, as an important meeting will take place that evening. But the General understands; he is familiar with the busy schedule of political leaders and is most grateful simply to have the President's acquaintance. It is a manic scene, with the 'President' nodding "Yes, your Excellency," the General unctuously urging their cooperation, and Wallraff nimbly interjecting answers to every question directed at his President...
...President checks his watch his and announces he must depart. Arrangements are made for a future meeting in Geneva, which Wallraff does not intend to keep. Soon he will emerge again into the public eye armed with enough evidence to force Spinola's expulsion from Switzerland, an investigation of the right-wing politician Franz-Josef Strauss, who had been preparing to sneak Spinola into Germany, and the failure of General Spinola's attempt to take over Portugal...