Military Intelligence Blunders

John Hughes-Wilson

• Publisher: John Blake
• Year: 2023
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789466768
• Subtopic: Military & Maritime History
• Index: History

'A cracking good read... I will recommend this book to anyone' - Professor Richard Holmes, CBE 'The Falklands, Yom Kippur, Tet and Pearl Harbor? Avoidable intelligence blunders or much worse? Altogether a compelling read from someone who knows the business' - Nigel West This book is a professional military-intelligence officer's - and controversial insider's - view of some of the greatest intelligence blunders of recent history. It includes the serious developments in government misuse of intelligence in the US-led coalition's 2003 war with Iraq, as well as failures of intelligence in Ukraine following Russia's invasion in February 2022. Colonel John Hughes-Wilson analyses not just the events that conspire to cause disaster, but why crucial intelligence is so often ignored, misunderstood or spun by politicians and seasoned generals alike. This book analyses: how Hitler's intelligence staff misled him in a bid to outfox their Nazi Party rivals; the bureaucratic bungling behind Pearl Harbor; how in-fighting within American intelligence ensured they were taken off guard by the Viet Cong's 1968 Tet Offensive; how overconfidence, political interference and deception facilitated Egypt and Syria's 1973 surprise attack on Israel; why a handful of marines and a London taxicab were all Britain had to defend the Falklands; the mistaken intelligence that allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power until the second Iraq War of 2003; the truth behind the US failure to run a terrorist warning system before the 9/11 WTC bombing; and how governments are increasingly pressurising intelligence agencies to 'spin' a party-political line.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• About the Author
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Dedication
• Contents
• Maps
• Preface
• 1. On Intelligence
• 2. The Misinterpreters – D-Day, 1944
• 3. ‘Comrade Stalin Knows Best’ – Barbarossa, 1941
• 4. ‘The Finest Intelligence in Our History’ – Pearl Harbor, 1941
• 5. ‘The Greatest Disaster Ever to Befall British Arms’ – Singapore, 1942
• 6. Midway – America’s Triumph of Signals Intelligence
• 7. Uncombined Operations – Dieppe, 1942
• 8. Korea – Ignored Intelligence and Massive Egos
• 9. ‘I Thought We Were Supposed to be Winning?’ – The Tet Offensive, 1968
• 10. ‘Prime Minister, the War’s Begun’ – Yom Kippur, 1973
• 11. ‘Nothing We Don’t Already Know’ – The Falkland Islands, 1982
• 12. ‘If Kuwait Grew Carrots, We Wouldn’t Give a Damn’ – The Gulf, 1991
• 13. The Globalization of Terror
• 14. The Biggest Blunder? – The Attack on the World Trade Center
• 15. Afghanistan – Getting the Aim Wrong
• 16. The Russian Invasion of Ukraine, 2022
• 17. ‘How Do We Deal with Fanaticism Armed with Power?’ – Will It Ever Get Any Better?
• Acknowledgements
• Sources and Further Reading
• Glossary of Terms
• Index