Agar, Augustus. Agar, Augustus.
1. Baltic Episode: A Classic of Secret Service in Russian Waters. London: Hodder & Stoughton, 1963.
Constantinides: This is an "absorbing,... incredible and instructive" account by the commander of British naval coastal motor boats in Finnish waters in 1919. His mission was as a communications link for the illegal head of British SIS in Russia, Sir Paul Dukes [see Paul Dukes, The Story of "ST 25" (1938)], but exceeded that brief by sinking a Soviet cruiser and participating in naval attacks against Kronstadt. An earlier version of this story is included in Agar's Footprints in the Sea (see below).
A current retelling of these events is Harry Ferguson, Operation Kronstadt (2008).
2. Footprints in the Sea. London: Evans Bros., 1959.
Chambers calls this book a "great adventure story typical of the period. Some of the art of covert military support is learned as one reads about support of counterrevolutionaries in Leningrad.
Constantinides notes that in terms of Agar's assignment in support of British SIS activities in Russia in 1919, this is a shorter version of Agar's Baltic Episode (see above). The two accounts "differ on what role the British naval commander, Cowan, played in Agar's decision to attack" the Russian cruiser Oleg. Agar also tells of secret naval command activities in World War II.
Alexander, Martin S.,
and William J. Philpott. "The Entente Cordiale and the Next War: Anglo-French
Views on Future Military Co-operation, 1928-1939." Intelligence
and National Security 13, no. 1 (Spring 1998): 53-84.
"Improved Franco-German relations made intelligence co-operation appear unnecessary [during the 1920s].... Only after 1935 did a resurgent Germany spark a revival of Franco-British staff talks. A renewed intelligence effort by Britain endeavored to estimate French armed strength, while France examined Britain's ability to send an expeditionary force to Europe."
Andrew, Christopher.
"The British Secret Service and Anglo-Soviet Relations in the 1920s.
Part I: From the Trade Negotiations to the Zinoviev Letter." The
Historical Journal 20 (Sep. 1977): 673-706.
Bar-Joseph, Uri. Intelligence
Intervention in the Politics of Democratic States: The United States, Israel,
and Britain. University Park, PA: Penn State Press, 1995.\
Clark Comment: Bar-Joseph analyzes four case studies of what he designates "intelligence intervention" in politics: the 1961 Bay of Pigs episode; the 1954 Israeli "Unfortunate Business" or "Lavon Affair"; and the 1920 "Henry Wilson" and 1924 "Zinoviev Letter" affairs in Britain. The author's comparative approach may prove to be heavy going for the casual reader, but the politicization issue is certainly one that deserves serious study. However, as Brody, PSQ 111.3, observes, the intervention in the Lavon and Wilson affairs was at least arguably "as much by the military as by intelligence."
According to Wirtz, APSR 90.1, the "tension created by th[e] effort to offer timely estimates while overcoming incentives to pander to policymakers ... serves as a point of departure for Uri Bar-Joseph's comparative study.... Bar-Joseph is especially interested in situations in which intelligence agencies spiral out of control and undertake unauthorized activities that overstep policy bounds.... The potential contribution made by Intelligence Intervention to developing a theory of civil-intelligence relations, however, is limited by several shortcomings in execution and conception." Nevertheless, this "ambitious book ... does a fine job in identifying several factors which affect the willingness and ability of intelligence officials to place their preferences into the policy arena."
Warren, Surveillant 4.3, declares that "this book is mandatory reading" for serious students of intelligence: "Bar-Joseph sets the stage historically and then fits his argument onto the stage with logic and even wit." Writing in the CIRA Newsletter, Fall 1996, Warren adds that this is "an important contribution to the continuing dialogue on the politicization of intelligence and intelligence organizations."
Stafford, I&NS 11.2, judges the book to be "impressively researched and written." The work "is most likely to provoke discussion through its argument that at the root of the abuses [the author] describes lies insufficient separation between intelligence and politics."
For Clutterbuck, Political Studies 44.4, Bar-Joseph "gives an excellent analysis of how these abuses of power occurred and argues that a high degree of professionalism in the intelligence services is as important as effective political control in preventing them."
Friedman, Parameters, Summer 1997, finds that "Intelligence Intervention is presented in a detailed but often humorous manner that makes for an entertaining as well as an educational experience."
Dukes, Paul [Sir]. The Story of "ST 25": Adventure and Romance in the Secret Intelligence Service in Red Russia. London: Cassell, 1938.
According to Constantinides, "Dukes was the British SIS representative in the Soviet Union in 1918-1919," and this book "is the exciting and hair-raising story of Dukes's life of hide and seek in the USSR."
See also, Augustus Agar, Footprints in the Sea (1959) and Baltic Episode (1963). Agar commanded the British naval unit charged with running couriers in and out of the Soviet Union during the same timeframe.
A current retelling of these events is Harry Ferguson, Operation Kronstadt (2008).
Egerton, George. "Diplomacy,
Scandal, and Military Intelligence: The Craufurd-Stuart Affair and Anglo-American
Relations, 1918-20." Intelligence and National Security 2, no.
4 (Oct. 1987): 110-134.
The author argues that this diplomatic incident played "a major role in the seminal events which transpired in Anglo-American relations and Washington politics in 1919."
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