Military Intelligence Blunders and Cover-Ups

by Hughes-Wilson, John

• ISBN13: 9780786713738
• ISBN10: 0786713739
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-14
• Publisher: Perseus Books Group

Summary

The events of 9/11 and the war on terrorism and the daily crises in the Israeli-Palestinian conflictbehind them lie some of the most shocking failures and misuse of military intelligence in history. In this updated edition of Colonel Hughes-Wilson's controversial book, the long-serving professional military intelligence officer explores and exposes the often disastrous misunderstanding and mishandling of crucial intelligence by politicians and seasoned generals in recent times. Modern military history records major catastrophes in the air, at sea, and on the battlefield that originate in lapses of military judgmentfrom the crushing defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo to Stalin's Operation Barbarossa to Yom Kippur. The reason frequently lies in the failure of the decision makers in power to understand and appreciate fully intelligence information. So it was that American bureaucratic bungling and interservice rivalries collaborated with the Japanese in their devastating attack on Pearl Harbordespite the fact that the U.S. was monitoring Japan's top-secret radio traffic. So, too, the Viet Cong's Tet Offensive of 1968 took the world's most technologically advanced army completely by surprise. This book discloses the lapses, errors, miscalculations, and underestimations of military intelligence that have shaped our wars and defined our times.

Table of Contents

Preface
On intelligence	p. 1
The misinterpreters - D-day, 1944	p. 16
"Comrade Stalin knows best" - Barbarossa, 1941	p. 38
"The finest intelligence in our history" - Pearl Harbor, 1941	p. 60
"The greatest disaster ever to befall British arms" - Singapore, 1942	p. 102
Uncombined operations - Dieppe, 1942	p. 133
"I thought we were supposed to be winning?" - The Tet Offensive, 1968	p. 165
"Prime Minister, the war's begun" - Yom Kippur, 1973	p. 218
"Nothing we don't already know" - The Falkland Islands, 1982	p. 260
"If Kuwait grew carrots, we wouldn't give a damn" - The Gulf, 1991	p. 308
The biggest blunder? : the attack on the World Trade Center and the globalization of terror	p. 353
Will it ever get any better?	p. 401
Sources, notes and further reading	p. 421
Glossary of terms	p. 429
Index	p. 431
Table of Contents provided by Blackwell. All Rights Reserved.