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David Kahn

Essay
Sep/Oct
2006
The Rise of IntelligencePremium Article available to subscribers and site license holders.
David Kahn

Modern militaries' obsession with intelligence gathering and evaluation would have bemused Caesar and Napoleon, since such behavior was rarely engaged in until recently. In the war on terrorism, intelligence is playing its greatest role yet, but even today, espionage and intelligence analysis will not be the decisive factors.

Capsule Review
May/Jun
2004
The Reader of Gentlemen's Mail: Herbert O. Yardley and the Birth of American Codebreaking
Lawrence D. Freedman
Capsule Review
May/Jun
1997
The Codebreakers: The Comprehensive History of Secret Communication from Ancient Times to the Internet, revised ed
Eliot A. Cohen
Essay
Winter
1991
The Intelligence Failure of Pearl HarborPremium Article available to subscribers and site license holders.
David Kahn

The periodic successes enjoyed by US cryptanalysts in breaking the Japanese PURPLE code could have made no contribution to advance warning of the Japanese attack, as PURPLE was used strictly for diplomatic, not military, communications. The attack was a deep shock to US intelligence, and "has taught the United States to gather more information and evaluate it better".

Capsule Review
Spring
1984
Kahn On Codes: Secrets of the New Cryptology; Enigma: How the German Machine Cipher Was Broken, and How It Was Read by the Allies in World War Two; Alan Turing: The Enigma
William P. Bundy