Phoenix Consulting Group

MILITARY INTELLIGENCE

Wide variations exist between the military intelligence organizations, missions and functions of various countries. However, in most cases, military intelligence activities are designed to satisfy the tactical, as well as the strategic, intelligence needs of military commanders and decision-makers – helping to understand the nature of opposing forces, capabilities and other battlefield factors. Characteristically, military intelligence is only marginally focused on political, economic, and scientific or technology issues unless they relate directly to the battlefield of today or tomorrow.

As technology has changed the face of the battlefield, so too has it affected rather dramatically the impact and availability of intelligence for the tactical commanders: Unmanned aerial vehicles, battlefield sensors, electronically connected Order of Battle/Analytical Centers with interrogation teams and centers, as well as connection to national collection systems have advanced the speed, accuracy and comprehensiveness of tactical intelligence to levels far beyond the infantry or armored scouts of years gone by.

Civil Servants and Military Intelligence – two of the more prominent oxymorons in the hands of bumper sticker humorists. Beneath the attempts at humor are certain inaccuracies born of ignorance and a review of the literature in this section will yield a fuller appreciation of the extent to which military intelligence – no matter which country or service – is one of the best refined, comprehensive and successful of the forms of the art.

For example, the popular understanding - such as it is – of Military Intelligence supposes that it involves weird, paranoid colonels skulking about in MASH units being thwarted by Alan Alda at every turn. The reality is much different, involves virtually every aspect of the intelligence system and is far more comprehensive than most will know. The focus ranges from the rifleman or armored scout passing his observations on to the intelligence analysts located at the battalion level to the sophisticated and specialized operative who is seeking to penetrate the veil of secrecy that surrounds an opposing nation’s strategic weapons developments programs. As a simple case in point of the latter, while it is commonly held that the Rosenbergs and others provided the atomic secrets of the Manhattan Project to the former Soviet Union through their handlers in the KGB’s forerunner (the NKVD), in actuality, it was another fairly typically and professionally run operation by the GRU of the Army’s General Staff.

In this section, you’ll find descriptions of diverse Military Intelligence programs and projects, organizations and functions and issues relating to the acceptance of intelligence by those who are in leadership and decision-making capacities. Just as in the case of their political counterparts, military intelligence consumers range across the spectrum in interest, consumption, and wise use of the systems available to them. The focus of collector and the consumer range from the combat commander who wants and needs to know everything he can about the adversary’s leadership, as well as the strengths, weaknesses, and threats posed by that adversary all the way to the strategic level. Just as the modern battlefield takes fullest advantage of technological developments to improve the warfighter’s capability, so too are the Intelligence, Reconnaissance and Surveillance functions significantly enhanced – from the level of the collection platforms to the All-Source analytical centers.

Whether your interest is in the operation of POW centers and interrogation tools and techniques, Order of Battle collection and analysis, tactical or strategic, purely military or militarily-significant science and technology, counterintelligence and Operational Security, cover and concealment, strategic deception or battlefield collection, reporting and real-time analysis, items in this section will provide the reader a better appreciation of this often misunderstood part of the intelligence community.

• Ambrose, Stephen E. Ike’s Spies: Eisenhower and the Espionage Establishment. Garden City, NJ: Doubleday, 1981.
• Bath, Alan Harris. Tracking the Axis Enemy: The Triumph of Anglo-American Naval Intelligence. Lawrence, Kansas: University Press of Kansas, 1998.
• Beckwith, Col. Charlie A. (Ret.) and Donald Knox. Delta Force: The Army’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit. New York: Avon Books, 1983.
• Bidwell, Bruce W. History of the Military Intelligence Division Department of the Army General Staff: 1775-1941. Frederick, MD: University Publications of America, 1986.
• Bradley, John. Lidice: Sacrificial Village. New York: Ballantine Books, 1972.
• Carney, Col. John T., Jr., and Benjamin F. Schemmer. No Room for Error: The covert Operations of America’s Special Tactics Units from Iran to Afghanistan. New York: The Ballantine Publishing Group, 2002.
• Clayton, Anthony. Forearmed: A History of the Intelligence Corps. London: Brassey’s (UK), 1993.
• Dear, Ian. Sabotage & Subversion: Stories from the Files of the SOE and OSS. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1996.
• Elliot, Stuart Robert. Scarlet to Green: A History of Intelligence in the Canadian Army 1903-1963. Toronto: Canadian Intelligence and Security Association, 1981.
• Fishel, Edwin C. The Secret War for the Union: The Untold Story of Military Intelligence in the Civil War. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1996.
• Gudgin, Peter. Military Intelligence: The British Story. London: Arms and Armour Press, 1989.
• Handel, Michael I. War, Strategy and Intelligence. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1989.
• Handel, Michael I. [ed.] Leaders and Intelligence. London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd., 1989.
• Handel, Michael I. Masters of War: Classical Strategic Thought. London: Frank Cass & Co., Ltd., 1996.
• Haney, Eric L. Inside Delta Force: The Story of America’s Elite Counterterrorist Unit. New York: Delacorte Press, 2002.
• Herrington, Stuart A. Silence Was a Weapon: The Vietnam War in the Villages. New York: Ballantine Books, 1982.
• Heymont, Irving, Lt. Col., U.S. Army. Combat Intelligence in Modern Warfare. Harrisburg, PA: Stackpole, 1960.
• Hopple, Gerald W. and Bruce W. Watson. The Military Intelligence Community. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1986.
• Ivanov, Miroslav. Target: Heydrich. New York: Macmillan Publishing, 1972.
• Jones, Bruce E. War Without Windows: A True Account by a Young Army Officer Trapped In An Intelligence Cover-up In Vietnam New York: The Vanguard Press, 1987.
• Kahn, David. Hitler’s Spies: German Military Intelligence In World War II. NY: Macmillan, 1978.
• Latimer, Jon. Deception in War. Woodstock, NY: The Overlook Press, 2001.
• Layton, Rear Admiral Edwin T. U.S.N. (Ret.) with Captain Roger Pineau, U.S.N.R. (Ret.) and John Costello. “And I Was There: Pearl Harbor and Midway - Breaking The Secrets. New York: William Morrow and Company, 1985.
• Lewis, Jon E. (ed.) The Mammoth Book of True War Stories. New York: Carol and Graf Publishers, 1999.
• Lloyd, Mark. The Art of Military Deception. London: Leo Cooper, 1997.
• Lord, Walter. Lonely Vigil: Coastwatchers of the Solomons. New York: Viking Press, 1977.
• Mountfield, David. The Partisans. England: The Hamlyn Publishing Group Limited, 1979.
• Occleshaw, Michael. Armour Against Fate: British Military Intelligence in the First World War. London: Columbus Books Limited, 1989.
• Piekalkiewicz, Janusz. Secret Agents, Spies, and Saboteurs: Famous Undercover Missions of World War II. New York: William Morrow & Company, Inc., 1973.
• Proctor, Tammy M. Female Intelligence: Women and Espionage in the First World War. New York: New York University Press, 2003.
• Rintelen, Franz von. The Dark Invader: Wartime Reminiscences of a German Naval Intelligence Officer. London: Lovat Dickson, 1933.
• Ryan, Mike. Special Operations In Iraq. Great Britain: Pen & Sword Books Ltd., 2002.
• Schwein, Colonel Edwin E. Combat Intelligence: Its Acquisition and Transmission. Washington, DC: The Infantry Journal Incorporated, 1936.
• Southworth, Samuel A. and Stephen Tanner. U.S. Special Forces: A Guide to America’s Special Operations Units, the World’s Most Elite Fighting Force. Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2002.
• Stein, Jeff. A Murder In Wartime: The Untold Spy Story that Changed the Course of the Vietnam War. NY: St. Martin’s Press, 1992.
• The Secret Wars: Volume II, Intelligence, Propaganda and Psychological Warfare, Covert Operations, 1945-1980. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Press, 1981.
• The Secret Wars: Volume III, International Terrorism, 1968-1980. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-Clio Press, 1980.
• Welchman, Gordon. The Hut Six Story: Breaking the Enigma Codes. Manchester, UK: M&M Baldwin, 1997.
• West, Nigel. GCHQ: The Secret Wireless War 1900-86. Suffolk, UK: Westintel Research Limited, 1987.
• Robbins, Christopher. Air America. New York: Avon Books, 1979.
  
• Gilmore, Allison B. Allied Translator and Interpreter Section: The Role of Intelligence in the Process of Propaganda Creation.
  Unpublished paper, 1996.
• Powe, Marc B. and Edward W. Wilson. Evolution of American Military Intelligence. Fort Huachuca, AZ: USAICS, 1973.
• Mercado, Stephen C. Japanese Army's Nakano School, 1938-1945, The - Creating Covert Warriors. Langley, VA: CIA.
• McChristian, Joseph A. Role of Military Intelligence, 1965-1967. Washington, DC: Department of the Army, 1974.
• Utz, Curtis A. Tactical Intelligence Collection at Inchon: A Combined Effort That Needs A Closer Look. Unpublished manuscript: 1996.
• Jones, Bruce E. War Without Windows. New York: Berkley Books, 1987.