Exploring Intelligence Archives: Enquiries into the Secret State

by Hughes; R Gerald

• ISBN13: 9780415349727
• ISBN10: 0415349729
• Format: Nonspecific Binding
• Copyright: 2008-04-07
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

Scholars seeking to understand the role of secret intelligence in political affairs, and in the policy process, have sought to make use of relevant archives. Yet constraints on access to such sources have been considerable. With the end of the Cold War and other changes in official attitudes, more intelligence documents are now becoming available. This book presents documents in the public domain that illustrate themes and issues in understanding the realm of intelligence. Some of these provide potentially important insights or information in the broader understanding of national and international security, as well as illuminating the cultural environment within which security and intelligence services operate. No document speaks entirely for itself, though some may be more eloquent or assertive than others. The interpretation of the archival record (as indeed the non-archival record) is at the heart of scholarship, and challenges in interpreting texts are generic problems for anyresearcher. One question is whether the nature of intelligence poses specific challenges for the historian. If deception, deceit and manipulation are integral to the business of intelligence gathering - what are the implications for the historical record? Are indeed intelligence archives themselves officially constructed to allow only manipulated histories? This book examines these questions and explores how various kinds of people involved in studying and/or practicing intelligence, view texts and issues from different perspectives.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

List of Contributors

Introduction: Enquiries into the 'Secret State'

'Knowledge is never too dear': Exploring Intelligence Archives

British Sigint decrypts on London Naval Conference, 1930

French Military Intelligence responds to the German Remilitarisation of the Rhineland, 1936- 54

The Creation of XX Committee, 1940

The Creation of a Vietnamese Intelligence Service, 1946-50

The Interrogation of Klaus Fuchs, 1950

The CIA and Oleg Penkovsky, 1961-62

American and British intelligence on South Vietnam, 1963

British Intelligence on the Arab-Israeli Military Balance, 1965

A KGB View of CIA Activity against the Soviet Bloc, 1983

A Conversation with Former DCI William E. Colby: Spymaster during the 'Year of the Intelligence Wars'

The Butler Report, 2006

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