Senseless Secrets: The Failures of U.S. Military Intelligence from George Washington to the Present

A unique insider's survey of the many failures of U.S. military intelligence spans the course of American history to show how intelligence blunders have cost lives and money, looking at the blunders of Desert Storm, Grenada, Vietnam, and others.

Inspired by intelligence failures he observed as an infantry officer in Vietnam (where he "did not receive a single bit of accurate, useful intelligence"), Lanning, a retired army colonel, has put together an informative and charged review of the shortfall in U.S. military intelligence from the Revolutionary War to the ill-fated 1993 attempt to capture Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Much of his emphasis is on the frequency with which U.S. armed forces have been taken by surprise: in this century, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the German counterstroke in the Ardennes, the North Korean invasion of South Korea, the Communist Tet Offensive in Vietnam. In the section on Operation Desert Storm, Lanning argues that intelligence about the battle zone was sparse and mostly inaccurate. Calling for reevaluation, reorganization and revitalization of the military intelligence community, he advocates a drastic realignment of U.S. armed forces: reuniting the Air Force with the Army, abolishing the Marine Corps and taking specific steps to reduce the gap between the intelligence corps and the troops in the field. Photos.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.