Review by Choice Review
Alvarez has combined facts, careful history, intriguing and colorful personalities, and organizational detail into a well-written and captivating narrative. The anecdotes are excellent. Central to the story is dapper, bow-tied William Friedman, who became the preeminent American cryptologist and whose leadership provided impressive signals intelligence of the time. Two distressing themes emerge, however. First, much intelligence gathered through code breaking did not reach all who needed to know. Second, the Signal Intelligence Service had little influence on policy making or, in some cases, on military strategy. Some responsibility is properly laid on FDR, whose decision-making style in international affairs is characterized as relying less on system than on intuition. Alvarez uncovers other arresting facts: women played a major role, like Genevieve Grotjan, who cracked the Japanese code purple in the fall of 1940; Eleanor Roosevelt worked to increase African American participation in signals intelligence. Security was quite lax, and the US was lucky that talented and dedicated civilians, some of whose backgrounds gave no clues to their unique talents, were drawn to national service in the midst of world crisis and served with dedication. Alvarez's conclusion cannot be ignored, however: code breakers were marginalized and in the end had little impact on diplomacy. Readable at any level. ; Piedmont Virginia Community College
Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Choice Review
