Document created: 6 December 01
Published Aerospace Power Journal - Winter  2001

 

 

In this new section of “Net Assessment,” you will find additional reviews of aviation-related books and CD-ROMs but in a considerably briefer format than our usual offerings. We certainly don’t mean to imply that these items are less worthy of your attention. On the contrary, our intention is to give you as many reviews of notable books and electronic publications as possible in a limited amount of space. Unless otherwise indicated, the reviews have been written by an APJ staff member.

 

Intelligence and the War against Japan: Britain, America and the Politics of Secret Service by Richard J. Aldrich. Cambridge University Press (http://www.cup.org), 40 West 20th Street, New York, New York 10011-4221, 2000, 524 pages, $34.95.

Using recently declassified documents from American and British archives, Richard Aldrich looks at Anglo-American secret-service activities against the Japanese during World War II in the Indian and Chinese theaters. He quickly touches on the pre–Pearl Harbor years from the British and American perspectives, refuting the claim that Britain did not warn the United States about the Japanese plans to attack Pearl Harbor. He divides the Far East into four areas: India, whose citizens resented the strong British colonial presence; China, involved in an internal three-way struggle in addition to the war with Japan; the Southwest Pacific, isolated from the secret services by General MacArthur; and Southeast Asia. Aldrich focuses on how the secret services worked in India and China, setting up overlapping divisions and units. Intelligence and the War against Japan is an excellent choice for anyone who wants to understand the byzantine workings of the American and British secret-service elements in India and China.

Defending America: The Case for Limited National Missile Defense by James M. Lindsay and Michael E. O’Hanlon. Brookings Institution Press (http://www.brook.edu/press/press_hp.htm), 1775 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, D.C. 20036-2188, 2001, 200 pages, $24.95.

Few current defense topics spark as much controversy as national missile defense (NMD). Lindsay and O’Hanlon cut through the rhetoric of both the left and the right to give us the unadulterated facts about this important issue. They meticulously analyze current and future ballistic-missile threats at all levels, from the future of the Russian ICBM arsenal down to Iraq’s potential for deploying ICBMs in the next 20 years. This analysis includes discussion of the types of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) practically deployable on missiles likely to be used by so-called rogue states. The authors also eloquently scrutinize the likelihood of alternative methods of WMD employment by these states (e.g., they expose the myth of the “suitcase nuke” as an exaggeration). After concluding that the threat of ICBM proliferation to nations hostile to US interests is limited but real, Lindsay and O’Hanlon proceed to explore the political implications of various strategies for NMD and theater missile defense (TMD), especially with respect to US-Sino-Russian relations. Defending America also examines the status of the technologies required to make TMD and NMD realities, again parting the veil of rhetoric that has surrounded the reporting of missile-defense tests. The book’s appendices contain the full text of the ABM Treaty and pertinent excerpts from the Rumsfeld Commission report and national intelligence estimates. This important book provides the most balanced treatment of this difficult topic to date.

Disclaimer

The conclusions and opinions expressed in this document are those of the author cultivated in the freedom of expression, academic environment of Air University. They do not reflect the official position of the U.S. Government, Department of Defense, the United States Air Force or the Air University.

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