U.S. Navy Codebreakers, Linguists, and Intelligence Officers against Japan, 1910-1941
A Biographical Dictionary
By (author) Steven E. Maffeo
Publication date:
16 December 2015Length of book:
574 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersISBN-13: 9781442255630
This unique reference presents 59 biographies of people who were key to the sea services being reasonably prepared to fight the Japanese Empire when the Second World War broke out, and whose advanced work proved crucial. These intelligence pioneers invented techniques, procedures, and equipment from scratch, not only allowing the United States to hold its own in the Pacific despite the loss of most of its Fleet at Pearl Harbor, but also laying the foundation of today’s intelligence methods and agencies.
One-hundred years ago, in what was clearly an unsophisticated pre-information era, naval intelligence (and foreign intelligence in general) existed in rudimentary forms almost incomprehensible to us today. Founded in 1882, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)—the modern world’s “oldest continuously operating intelligence agency”—functioned for at least its first forty years with low manning, small budgets, low priority, and no prestige. The navy’s early steps into communications intelligence (COMINT), which included activities such as radio interception, radio traffic analysis, and cryptology, came with the 1916 establishment of the Code and Signals Section within the navy’s Division of Communications and with the 1924 creation of the “Research Desk” as part of the Section. Like ONI, this COMINT organization suffered from low budgets, manning, priority, and prestige.
The dictionary focuses on these pioneers, many of whom went on, even after World War II, to important positions in the Navy, the State Department, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. It reveals the work and innovations of well and lesser-known individuals who created the foundations of today’s intelligence apparatus and analysis.
One-hundred years ago, in what was clearly an unsophisticated pre-information era, naval intelligence (and foreign intelligence in general) existed in rudimentary forms almost incomprehensible to us today. Founded in 1882, the U.S. Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI)—the modern world’s “oldest continuously operating intelligence agency”—functioned for at least its first forty years with low manning, small budgets, low priority, and no prestige. The navy’s early steps into communications intelligence (COMINT), which included activities such as radio interception, radio traffic analysis, and cryptology, came with the 1916 establishment of the Code and Signals Section within the navy’s Division of Communications and with the 1924 creation of the “Research Desk” as part of the Section. Like ONI, this COMINT organization suffered from low budgets, manning, priority, and prestige.
The dictionary focuses on these pioneers, many of whom went on, even after World War II, to important positions in the Navy, the State Department, the Armed Forces Security Agency, the National Security Agency, and the Central Intelligence Agency. It reveals the work and innovations of well and lesser-known individuals who created the foundations of today’s intelligence apparatus and analysis.
Though it is well known that US naval intelligence contributed greatly to the Allied victory in the Pacific War, less is known of the dedicated men who worked so long and hard to understand a complicated language and foreign culture. Each of the 59 entries has a photograph of the officer; an excerpt from his entry in The Lucky Bag, the Annapolis yearbook of the Naval Academy; and a discussion of his life and how he contributed to the effort to crack Japan's codes. These interesting details help readers understand the difficult but ultimately successful analytical work and the bitter bureaucratic battles. As expected, the book is extensively documented with excerpts from various sources, footnotes, bibliography, and references at the end of each entry. The author, a retired associate director of the McDermott Library at the US Air Force Academy, has written other books on intelligence topics. This unique tool is a much-needed tribute to these unsung heroes and can be used when researching the pre–WW II era and the attack on Pearl Harbor. Also available in electronic format, it is most suitable for the reference collections of academic or large public libraries. Summing Up: Recommended. Undergraduates through researchers/faculty; general readers.