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

by Richard J. Aldrich

• ISBN13: 9780521641869
• ISBN10: 0521641861
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2000-04-13
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Summary

Intelligence and the War against Japan offers the first 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 war against Japan, analyzing the development of organizations such as 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 the role of Asia. Richard J. Aldrich's cogent, fluent analysis of the role of intelligence in Far Eastern developments is the most thorough and penetrating account of this latterday "Great Game" yet produced. Richard J. Aldrich is Senior Lecturer, Department of Politics at the University of Nottingham. He has edited several books, as well as the journal Intelligence and National Security.

Author Biography

Richard J. Aldrich is director of The Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies.

Table of Contents

List of plates	xi
List of maps	xiii
Preface	xiv
Acknowledgements	xvii
List of abbreviations	xix
Introduction: intelligence and empire	1	(18)
Part 1: Before Pearl Harbor, 1937--1941
Wing Commander Wigglesworth flies east: the lamentable state of intelligence, 1937--1939	19	(16)
Insecurity and the fall of Singapore	35	(15)
Surprise despite warning: intelligence and the fall of Singapore	50	(18)
Conspiracy or confusion? Churchill, Roosevelt and Pearl Harbor	68	(24)
`Imperial Security Services': the emergence of OSS and SOE	92	(23)
Part 2: India and spheres of influence, 1941--1944
`Do-gooders' and `bad men': Churchill, Roosevelt and rivalry over empire	115	(18)
American intelligence and the British Raj: OSS and OWI in India, 1941--1944	133	(23)
Strange allies: British intelligence and security in India, 1941--1944	156	(15)
Part 3: Mountbatten's South East Asia Command, 1943--1945
Secret service and Mountbatten's South East Asia Command	171	(17)
Special operations in South East Asia	188	(26)
The British Secret Intelligence Service (M16) in the Far East	214	(20)
Centre and region: the politics of signals intelligence	234	(27)
Part 4: Rivalry or rivalries? China, 1942--1945
American struggles in China: OSS and Naval Group	261	(18)
Britain and her allies in China	279	(22)
Part 5: The end of the war in Asia, 1945--1946
Anti-colonialism, anti-communism and plans for post-war Asia	301	(18)
Resisting the resistance: Thailand, Malaya and Burma	319	(21)
Special operations in liberated areas: Indochina and the Netherlands East Indies, 1944--1946	340	(18)
Hong Kong and the future of China	358	(17)
Conclusion: the hidden hand and the fancy foot	375	(13)
Archives and bonfires: a note on methodology	385	(3)
Notes	388	(71)
Select bibliography	459	(25)
Index	484