Description
Book SynopsisThomas G. Mahnken sheds light on the shadowy world of U.S. intelligence-gathering, tracing how America learned of military developments in Japan, Germany, and Great Britain in the period between the two world wars.
Trade ReviewAn important argument rendered with deftness and economy and rich in insights for those contemplating more recent failures of intelligence.
* Foreign Affairs *
Mahnken has illuminated a significant but neglected topic. His important book will interest students of interwar military history and will be required reading for intelligence historians.
* Journal of Military History *
Overall, the book is a useful, readable survey of an important aspect of the overlap of military and naval affairs, diplomacy, and intelligence.
* International History Review *
This book is an important contribution to the scholarship on intelligence and its role in determining how militaries plan for future wars.
* Virginia Quarterly Review *
This is an analytic study of American intelligence gathering about technological developments in Britain, Germany, and Japan, as well as what was—or wasn't—learned and the uses to which the information was put. In the process, the book discusses the American military attaché system, which, it appears, was the most extensive of any of the great powers, evaluates the overall effectiveness of the effort, and throws some light on a few surprising corners, such the obstacles created by the Neutrality Acts in terms of intelligence co-operation with Britain.
* NYMAS Newsletter *
