Intelligence and the War against Japan: Britain, America and the Politics of Secret Service

by Richard J. Aldrich

• ISBN13: 9780521066198
• ISBN10: 0521066190
• Edition: 1st
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-06-19
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Intelligence and the War against Japan offers a comprehensive scholarly history of the development of the British secret service and its relations with its American intelligence counterparts during the war against Japan. Richard J. Aldrich makes extensive use of recently declassified files in order to examine the politics of secret service during the Far Eastern War, analysing the development of organizations such as Bletchley Park, the Special Operations Executive and the Office of Strategic Services in Asia. He argues that, from the Battle of Midway in June 1942, the Allies focused increasingly on each other's future ambitions, rather than the common enemy. Central to this theme are Churchill, Roosevelt and their rivalry over the future of empire in Asia. Richard J. Aldrich's cogent, fluent analysis of the role of intelligence in Far Eastern developments is a thorough and penetrating account of this latter-day 'Great Game'.

Table of Contents

Introduction: intelligence and empire

Before Pearl Harbor, 1937ndash;1941

Wing Commander Wigglesworth flies east: the lamentable state of intelligence, 1937- ndash;1939

Insecurity and the fall of Singapore

Surprise despite warning: intelligence and the fall of Singapore

Conspiracy or confusion? Churchill, Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor

`Imperial Security Services': the emergence of OSS and SOE

India and spheres of influence, 1941ndash;1944

`Do-gooders' and `bad men': Churchill, Roosevelt and rivalry over empire

American intelligence and the British Raj: OSS and OWI in India, 1941ndash;1944

Strange allies: British intelligence and security in India, 1941ndash;1944

Mountbatten's South East Asia Command, 1943ndash;1945

Secret service and Mountbatten's South East Asia Command

Special operations in South East Asia

The British Secret Intelligence Service (M16) in the Far East

Centre and region: the politics of signals intelligence

Rivalry or rivalries? China, 1942ndash;1945

American struggles in China: OSS and Naval Group

Britain and her allies in China

The end of the war in Asia, 1945ndash;1946

Anti-colonialism, anti-communism and plans for post-war Asia

Resisting the resistance: Thailand, Malaya and Burma

Special operations in liberated areas: Indochina and the Netherlands East Indies, 1944ndash;1946

Hong Kong and the future of China

Conclusion: the hidden hand and the fancy foot

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