Review by Booklist Review
As Reynolds (Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, 2017) characterizes it, pre-WWII US intelligence work was little more than a "cottage industry," with a few dilettantes collecting information about foreign governments' activities. Japan's surprise attack on Pearl Harbor starkly revealed the decisive value of knowing what an enemy might be up to. Reynolds masterfully synthesizes the contributions of a number of consequential figures to the burgeoning intelligence industry that WWII bequeathed to modern America. Britain's already high-functioning intelligence operation helped bring America up to speed quickly. The rapidly forged U.S. spy network was made up of Ivy League--trained Wall Street lawyers and equally pedigreed academics who were aided in creating a network of spies by their ties to the military and business worlds. By the time Truman assumed the presidency, the spymasters and American traditions of civil liberties began to diverge, and intelligence services quickly butted heads with J. Edgar Hoover. Beyond men like William Donovan and Allen Dulles, Reynolds recognizes the contributions of gifted cryptanalyst Genevieve Grotjan and other women to the triumph of American intelligence.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Former CIA officer Reynolds (Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy) delivers an exhaustively researched critical history of American military intelligence from 1940 to the beginning of the Cold War. Before WWII, Reynolds notes, the U.S. had no permanent spy agency. At the war's outset, President Franklin Roosevelt's "haphazard approach" led to multiple counterintelligence programs: the Army and Navy each had its own systems for tracking and breaking encrypted messages; J. Edgar Hoover's nascent FBI had begun foreign campaigns in Latin America; and William "Wild Bill" Donovan's Office of Strategic Services, an independent department based on the British intelligence services, changed its mission according to the whims of its impulsive founder. Reynolds spends little time recounting far-flung spy missions, choosing instead to focus on the internal conflicts and personality clashes that roiled these intelligence agencies, including the battle for power between Donovan and Hoover. Light is also shed on lesser-known figures including Kenneth A. Knowles, a former gunnery officer who led the Navy's efforts to track German U-boats in the Atlantic. Though the extensive cast of characters can be hard to keep track of, Reynolds's scrupulous and well-rounded approach reveals the good, the bad, and the reckless in the early days of U.S. intelligence. Espionage buffs will be fascinated. (Sept.)
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Historian and former CIA analyst Reynolds (Johns Hopkins Univ.; Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy) tells the story of the U.S. intelligence agencies during World War II. After a series of fact-finding missions and with close cooperation from the British, the adventurous "Wild Bill" Donovan urged President Roosevelt to create a new agency that would collect, consolidate, and analyze enemy messages. The newly created Office of Strategic Services struggled to establish itself and determine its mission, while U.S. Navy and Army codebreakers scored significant victories by breaking and reading the Japanese diplomatic and military used throughout the war, which led to strategic victories such as Midway and the assassination of Admiral Isoroku Yamamoto. This detailed and highly readable account of the beginnings and growth of American intelligence gathering brings together exciting spy stories with a sense of how much ground the Americans needed to make up to create competent and highly effective intelligence agencies. VERDICT Based on extensive primary research, this striking and compelling account should be read by anybody interested in the development of U.S. intelligence agencies and special operations during World War II.--Chad E. Statler
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
An intriguing account about the seeds that would sprout into America's intelligence agencies. Reynolds, a Marine Corps veteran and author of Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, has worked in the field for years, including as the historian for the CIA Museum. He notes that in the years before 1941, there was hardly an intelligence system at all. Certain sections of the Army and Navy were dedicated to codebreaking and surveillance, but there was little cross-agency coordination. Franklin Roosevelt, who was often more concerned with informal connections and centralizing the flow of information, did not help matters. Consequently, in the 1930s, amateurs conducted most of the nonmilitary intelligence work, and many of these mercurial characters could be found among the back corridors of the White House and the State Department. A surprising number of them were spy novelists (Ian Fleming strolls through these pages). One of the central characters is William "Wild Bill" Donovan, who, after studying Britain's intelligence system, managed to convince Roosevelt of the need for an organization that could combine analysis and operations. When war broke out, Donovan established and led the Office of Strategic Services. Despite questions about its overall effectiveness, writes Reynolds, it notched some important successes--even as the political whirlpool of Washington, D.C., caused significant problems. For example, J. Edgar Hoover was constantly seeking to expand the role of the FBI, and military leaders were always suspicious of Donovan. Still, the OSS became "a prototype that would endure--that of an intelligence agency with branches for espionage, analysis, special operations, and counterintelligence"--i.e., the CIA. The author covers this vast, complex, character-rich history with a level of detail that occasionally overwhelms (the list of principal characters offers some help). Nonetheless, for anyone interested in understanding the roots of intelligence agencies in the U.S., Reynolds offers abundant, insightful information. A comprehensive, authoritative examination of the genesis of America's national security apparatus. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
