The Intelligence Intellectuals
“This is both a fascinating history of the people and purposes that shaped the US approach to peacetime strategic intelligence analysis after 1945 and a reminder of the importance of a sound methodology and high integrity to make it work effectively.”
Lawrence Freedman, professor emeritus of war studies, King’s College London
The untold story of how America's brightest academic minds revolutionized intelligence analysis at the CIA
In the early days of the Cold War, the United States faced a crisis in intelligence analysis. A series of intelligence failures in 1949 and 1950, including the failure to warn about the North Korean invasion of South Korea, made it clear that gut instinct and traditional practices were no longer sufficient for intelligence analysis in the nuclear age. The new director of the Central Intelligence Agency, Walter Bedell Smith, had a mandate to reform it.
Based on new archival research in declassified documents and the participants' personal papers, The Intelligence Intellectuals reveals the neglected history of how America's brightest academic minds were recruited by the CIA to revolutionize intelligence analysis during this critical period. Peter C. Grace describes how the scientifically sound analysis methods that they introduced significantly helped the United States gain an advantage in the Cold War, and these new analysts legitimized the role of the recently created CIA in the national security community.
Grace demonstrates how these professors―such as William Langer from Harvard, Sherman Kent from Yale, and Max Millikan from MIT―developed systematic approaches to intelligence analysis that shaped the CIA's methodology for decades to come.
This insightful history about the place of social science in national security is a must-listen.
Praise