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Military Intelligence (Army Lineage Series)

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"Military Intelligence" is a 1997 publication in the Army Lineage Series, from the Center for Military History. It has two parts. First is an organizational history of the U.S. Army military intelligence function, from its formal establishment during the First World War to its post-Cold War reshaping in the 1990's. Second is a brief history of the U.S. Army's military intelligence battalions and brigades, including their authorized heraldry.

This is an official history, with all that implies in terms of viewpoint and dry language. More to the point, it is an unclassified publication, which means there are no relevations about intelligence content here. However, it would be a mistake to dismiss this book, authored by John Finnegan and Romana Danysh. Implicit in the narrative is the ongoing struggle to fit the Army's intelligence community, by size and capabilities, to the changing demands of a world power, continuously engaged overseas since the beginning of the Second World War to the present moment. The book traces intelligence activities in the First and Second World Wars, the Korean War, Vietnam, and the endgame of the Cold War. It frankly discusses the effects of frequent reorganization and of controversial domestic intelligence-gathering operations during the Vietnam War. There is plenty of fodder here for an academic examination of the Army's changing attitudes toward its military intelligence operations.

"Military Intelligence" includes a few photographs and color plates of unit crests. It is recommended to students of the U.S. intelligence community as an unclassified resource.