Birch, Frank. The Official History of British Sigint, 1914-1945, Vol. 1 (Part 1). Milton Keynes: Military Press, 2004. Birch, Frank. The Official History of British Sigint, 1914-1945, Vol. 1 (Part 1). Milton Keynes: Military Press, 2004.
Kruh, Cryptologia 29.2 (Apr. 2005), comments that "this fascinating official history ... was written immediately after World War II when Birch was the official 'Sigint' historian in the United Kingdom." This is "the most authoritative account of how the British signals intelligence organization was developed."
[UK/Overviews/00s]
Bird, Kai, and Martin J. Sherwin. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer. New York: Knopf, 2005.
Freedman, FA 84.3 (May-Jun. 2005), calls this work a "stunning blockbuster" based on "a daunting amount of research." The authors "do full justice to the complexity of Oppenheimer's story." To Powers, NYRB 52.14 (22 Sep. 2005), this work "is clear in its purpose, deeply felt, persuasively argued, disciplined in form, and written with a sustained literary power."
[SpyCases/U.S./Bomb/Gen]
Bird, Michael
J. The Secret Battalion. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston,
1964. [Wilcox]
[WWII/Eur/Resistance]
Bird, Nancy E. "Vietnam: Lessons for Intelligence in Wartime." International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence 20, no. 2 (Summer 2007): 317-326.
"Examples from Vietnam ... show how obstacles, then as now, can limit the influence of intelligence in the policymaking process."
[GenPostCW/00s/Gen; Vietnam/Gen]
Birtle, Andrew J. U.S. Army Counterinsurgency and Contingency Operations Doctrine 1942-1976. Washington, DC: U.S. Army Center of Military History, 2006.
Cassidy, Parameters 37.4 (Winter 2007-08), comments that this is a "gem of a book." It has "eight full chapters on the development, propagation, and implementation of counterinsurgency and contingency operations doctrine." In his conclusion, the author assesses "the impact and value of the entire corpus of Vietnam-era counterinsurgency doctrine vis-à-vis the lack of military success in Vietnam."
[MI/SpecOps/Couterinsurgency]
Bishop, Eleanor
C. Prints in the Sand: The US Coast Guard Beach Patrol during World War II. Missoula, MT: Pictorial Histories Publishing, 1989. [Petersen]
[WWII/Services/CG]
Bishop,
Patrick. "'Protocols of Zion' Forger Named." Telegraph (London), 19 Nov. 1999. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
The findings of Russian historian Mikhail Lepekhine, published on 18 November 1999 in the French magazine L'Express, identify "Mathieu Golovinski, opportunistic scion of an aristocratic but rebellious family who drifted into a life of espionage and propaganda work," as the author of the infamous anti-Semitic forgery "Protocols of the Elders of Zion." In his lifetime, Golovinski managed to serve both the Tsar and the Bolsheviks. According to Lepekhine, Golovinski wrote the "Protocols" at the end of 1900 or the beginning of 1901.
[Russia/Historical]
Bishop,
Patrick, and Ambrose Evans-Pritchard. "Cold War Spy System 'Now Snooping
on French Firms.'" Telegraph (London), 24 Feb. 2000. [http://www.telegraph.co.uk]
French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou told the French parliament on 23 February 2000 "that Echelon, the spy satellite network, had ceased to have a military function after the Cold War and was now used for commercial snooping."
[NSA/Echelon]
Bissell, Richard M., Jr. Interview by Brackley Shaw. "Origins of the U-2." Air Power History 36, no. 4 (1989): 15-21.
As the DCI's special assistant for planning and coordination from 1954, Bissell directed the development of the U-2. Clark comment: Bissell's role in his later position as Deputy Director for Plans in organizing and carrying out the Bay of Pigs invasion has tended to obscure his earlier successes in developing the U-2 and portions of the satellite reconnaissance program.
[CIA/60s/U-2; Recon/Aircraft][c]
Bissell, Richard M., Jr., with Jonathan E. Lewis and Frances T. Pudlo. Reflections of a Cold Warrior: From Yalta to the Bay of Pigs. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996. JK468I6B55
Shryock, WIR 15.6, sees Bissell's memoirs as "thoughtful, candid, provocative, and ultimately puzzling." However, at times, the author "conveys his thoughts in a stiff, disorganized, and even excessively lawyerly manner." Falcoff, National Interest, Winter 1996-1997, finds the book "informative and stimulating," despite "its unexciting prose and a tendency to flatten what must have been far more dramatic events."
For Immerman, Choice 34.2, this work is disappointing but "nevertheless has value. It provides a succinct history of some of America's most dramatic Cold War initiatives and insight into the mindsets of their architects." Chambers concludes that "[t]here are no major disclosures. However, Bissell's personal recollections do add a new and useful viewpoint to the history of these operations." Click for a full review by Chambers.
"Methodological problems" with Bissell's memoirs are raised by Westerfield, Studies (Winter 1998-1999). Noting the clear acknowledgement that the "actual writing was done by [Bissell's] two collaborators," Westerfield also is concerned that "the posthumous additions (not clearly delineated ) obscure throughout what words were ever personally approved by Bissell and what ones were not."
[CIA/Memoirs, 50s/Gen, 50s/Guatemala, & 60s/Bay of Pigs; Recon/Aircraft][c]
Bissell, Richard
M., Jr. "Response to Lucien S. Vandenbroucke, The 'Confessions' of
Allen Dulles: New Evidence on the Bay of Pigs." Diplomatic History
8, no. 4 (1984): 377-380. [Petersen]
[CIA/60s/BoP]
Bissell,
Schuyler, and Daniel G. Kniola. "Intelligence for War Fighting."
Signal 41 (Sep. 1986): 48-49. [Petersen]
[MI/Warfighter]
Bitar, Mona K.
"Bombs, Plots and Allies: Cambodia and the Western Powers, 1958-59."
Intelligence and National Security 14, no. 4 (Winter 1999): 149-180.
In 1958 and 1959, Sihanouk learned that he could use neutrality in the struggle against Thai and Vietnamese influence in Cambodia. Henceforth, he assumed that "he could score points against his neighbours by carefully balancing East against West."
[CA/Other/Cambodia; GenPostwar/CW/I&NS]
Bixler,
Margaret T. Winds of Freedom. Darien, CT: Two Bytes Press, 1992.
http://members.aol.com/nbrass/biblio.htm [no longer active]: "More than an account of the World War II codetalkers, this book explores the Navajo culture."
See also, Aaseng, Navajo Code Talkers (1992); Huffman, "The Navajo Code Talkers: A Cryptologic and Linguistic Perspective," Cryptologia 24.4 (Oct. 2000): 289-320; McCullagh, "Clinton Honors Navajo Heroes," Wired News, 18 Apr. 2000; Purdun, "Navajo War Effort No Longer Unheralded," New York Times, 11 Oct. 1999; and Weadon, Origins of the Navajo Code Talkers (2002).
[WWII/FEPac/Navajo]
Return to B Table of Contents
Return to Alphabetical Table of
Contents