A century of spies : intelligence in the twentieth century /

Intelligence, according to Richelson, played a crucial role in defeating Hitler, preventing the Cold War from turning into a nuclear war and keeping the superpower arms race from getting completely out of hand. His comprehensive survey explores the impact of spies and their special technology on world events in this century, showing how intelligence gathering and espionage have become a multibillion-dollar enterprise. The book covers events and developments from WWI to the age of spy satellites. With the end of the Cold War, as he shows, intelligence organizations have begun to focus more on international economic rivalries‘an emphasis that includes economic espionage. Richelson predicts that intelligence technologies in the next century will become even more sophisticated but humans will still be needed for obtaining documents, technical samples and on-site reporting. This decade-by-decade review of key events and breakthroughs in intelligence and espionage is masterly. Richelson is a Senior Fellow at the National Security Archive. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved

In this ambitious book, Richelson (America's Secret Eyes in Space, HarperBusiness, 1990) surveys the growth, development, and transformation of intelligence (a.k.a., "spying") in the 20th century. The work combines elements of popular spy books-great stories, colorful characters, and sad incidents-with more straightforward analysis. For the ardent spy buff, the volume is an interesting array of tales with a broader developmental focus; indeed, the cross-national perspective is a strength here. The book falls short, however, in providing the in-depth analysis one would hope for. For example, a final chapter on "a new world of disorder" falls short of providing a good vision of the current situation, despite a proper emphasis on economic intelligence, proliferation, and technical intelligence means. Ultimately, too many questions are left unanswered here. While Richelson believes that spying has had its beneficial aspects (e.g., breaking Hitler), its impact on domestic life, no matter what country, slips by him. An optional purchase.-H. Steck, SUNY at Cortland (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

A dispassionate reference work on modern intelligence gathering. Rather than a romantic or riveting story about espionage, Richelson (American Espionage and the Soviet Target, 1987), a senior fellow at the National Security Archive, offers an extended encyclopedia entry detailing the progressively more complex methods countries have devised to steal and conceal their secrets from each other. He traces the development of the 20th century's major spy services, describes many of their important players, chronicles key events in the modern history of espionage, and evaluates governments' use and misuse of intelligence gathering. At times, the book is fascinating almost in spite of itself, as when Richelson describes Stalin's scorn for predictions of the 1941 Nazi attack on the Soviet Union. Mostly, however, his technique of presenting the facts with virtually no commentary or color is stupefying to the layperson. It also seems excessively myopic: For example, the author doesn't tell us whether there was any debate over the morality or legality of America's 1945 recruitment of Nazi spy Reinhard Gehlen, eventual head of West Germany's intelligence service, and he discusses only the narrowest part of the 1986 debate about giving Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to anti-Soviet rebels in Afghanistan, describing the CIA's concern that the missiles could be traced to the US but ignoring the broader argument over whether Islamic fundamentalists should be trusted with such lethal weapons at all. Other serious omissions include the lack of a chapter on the CIA's secret wars in Central America during the 1980s and the absence of a discussion of the CIA's failure to anticipate the collapse of the Soviet Union. Of value to researchers but little interest to a general readership.