The secret sentry : the untold history of the National Security Agency

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Title:

The secret sentry : the untold history of the National Security Agency

Author:

Aid, Matthew M., 1958-

ISBN:

9781608190966

Edition:

Pbk. ed.

Publication Information:

New York : Bloomsbury Press, 2010.

Physical Description:

vi, 426 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 21cm.

Contents:

Roller-coaster ride : the travails of American communications intelligence : 1945-1950 -- The storm breaks : SIGINT and the Korean War : 1950-1951 -- Fight for survival : the creation of the National Security Agency -- The inventory of ignorance : SIGINT during the Eisenhower administration : 1953-1961 -- The crisis years : SIGINT and the Kennedy administration : 1961-1963 -- Errors of fact and judgment : SIGINT and the Gulf of Tonkin Incidents -- The wilderness of pain : NSA and the Vietnam War : 1964-1969 -- Riding the whirlwind : NSA during the Johnson administration : 1963-1969 -- Tragedy and triumph : NSA during the Nixon, Ford, and Carter administrations -- Dancing on the edge of a volcano : NSA during the Reagan and Bush administrations -- Troubles in paradise : from Desert Storm to the War on Terror -- Snatching defeat from the jaws of victory : 9/11 and the invasion of Afghanistan -- A mountain out of a molehill : NSA and the Iraqi weapons of mass destruction scandal -- The dark victory : NSA and the invasion of Iraq : March-April 2003 -- The good, the bad, and the ugly : SIGINT and combating the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan -- Crisis in the ranks : the current status of the National Security Agency.

Corporate Subject:

United States. National Security Agency -- History.

Subject Term:

Intelligence service -- United States.

Electronic surveillance -- United States.

Geographic Term:

United States -- History -- 1945-

Summary:

Presents a history of the agency, from its inception in 1945, to its role in the Cold War, to its controversial advisory position at the time of the Bush administration's search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, shortly before the invasion of 2003.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	327.1273 AID	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	327.1273 AID	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Peering from space via satellite, tapping phones and networks, monitoring cell phone frequencies around the globe, the NSA watches friends, enemies, and terror suspects alike. Some 60 percent of the president's daily intelligence briefing comes from this one agency. No one knows the NSA better than Matthew M. Aid, who has packed two decades of research in declassified archives into The Secret Sentry , the most complete account ever written of this elusive organization.
From Eastern Europe to Korea to Iraq and Afghanistan, the NSA has played a key role in America's geopolitical successes, and some of its failures. Aid follows the NSA from its tense beginnings in the Cold War to its controversial role in the War on Terror. The Secret Sentry is nothing less than a shadow history of global affairs in the past half century. This meticulous and engrossing narrative gives an unrivaled look at the most powerful spy agency in the world.

Author Notes

Matthew Aid is a leading intelligence historian and expert on the NSA, and a regular commentator on intelligence matters for the New York Times , the Financial Times , the National Journal , the Associated Press , CBS News, National Public Radio (NPR) and many others.

Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

The full history of an ultra-secretive government agency. The National Security Agency was most recently in the news in 2005 when it was revealed that the agency had been eavesdropping on citizens without warrants, an episode that highlighted the NSA's mysterious role as the linchpin of the American intelligence apparatus. Intelligence historian Aid shows how the NSA's briefings to the president have played a part in every major American conflict since World War II. In 1949, the agency began as the Armed Forces Security Agency and was primarily involved in codebreaking and communication interception. During the Korean War, its analysts were able to break virtually all of the codes of the North Korean military in just 30 days. Not long after the NSA became its own agency in 1952, it suffered some major failures. Eisenhower first heard of the death of Stalin in 1953 not from U.S. intelligence but from news-wire services. "Like the rest of the U.S. intelligence community," writes Aid, "NSA had provided no indication whatsoever that Stalin was ill." Most significantly, the NSA did not receive intelligence about Soviet missiles in Cuba in time to help avert the 1962 Cuban missile crisis. The intelligence improved, but Aid emphasizes the important point that intelligence is only as good as the interpretation it receives. He cites as examples Lyndon Johnson's administration, who leaned on sketchy NSA information to push the Gulf of Tonkin resolution in 1964, and George W. Bush's administration, which not only instituted wiretapping programs in an attempt to find al-Qaeda operatives, but twisted NSA intelligence to bolster its reasoning to invade Iraq in 2003. NSA analysis now comprises as much as 60 percent of the president's daily intelligence briefing, and Aid provides a critical history of the agency that has the ear of the leader of the free world. A sprawling but revealing look at a powerful, shadowy agency of the American government. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Library Journal Review

Electronic signals/communications intelligence (SIGINT) is a vital part of the information-gathering efforts of intelligence agencies. The National Security Agency (NSA) is the primary eavesdropping and code-breaking arm of the U.S. government. Aid goes over its operations during the crises of the 1950s and 1960s and the Vietnam War era, much of which was covered by James Bamford's The Puzzle Palace. But what is new and more important here is the evaluation of NSA activities since 2000. Using interviews with those in positions to know, the author discusses NSA's troubled bureaucratic working relations with the CIA and FBI, how its product was used before, during, and after the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the massive domestic spying operation directed by the White House. VERDICT This book provides useful background for the current national security debate, with the author generally siding with the NSA as a misused agency that needs still more resources. With extensive endnotes; index and photos not seen. Suitable for general and advanced readers.-Daniel K. Blewett, Coll. of DuPage Lib., Glen Ellyn, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Reviews (2)

Kirkus Review

Library Journal Review

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