In Spies We Trust

In Spies We Trust reveals the full story of the Anglo-American intelligence relationship - ranging from the deceits of World War I to the mendacities of 9/11 - for the first time. Why did we ever start trusting spies? It all started a hundred years ago. First we put our faith in them to help win wars, then we turned against the bloodshed and expense, and asked our spies instead to deliver peace and security. By the end of World War II, Britain and America were cooperating effectively to that end. At its peak in the 1940s and 1950s, the 'special intelligence relationship' contributed to national and international security in what was an Anglo-American century. But from the 1960s this 'special relationship' went into decline. Britain weakened, American attitudes changed, and the fall of the Soviet Union dissolved the fear that bound London and Washington together. A series of intelligence scandals along the way further eroded public confidence. Yet even in these years, the US offered its old intelligence partner a vital gift: congressional attempts to oversee the CIA in the 1970s encouraged subsequent moves towards more open government in Britain and beyond. So which way do we look now? And what are the alternatives to the British-American intelligence relationship that held sway in the West for so much of the twentieth century? Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones shows that there are a number - the most promising of which, astonishingly, remain largely unknown to the Anglophone world. An informal but well-informed, examination of the up and down relationship between US and UK intelligence ... this is an enjoyable and information-loaded history that entertains the reader as it informs. Frederick P. Hitz, former CIA Inspector GeneralPreface and Acknowledgments ; Prologue: An American in Bruges ; 1. The Separate Beginnings of British and American Intelligence ; 2. Great War Origins of the Anglo-American Intelligence Partnership ; 3. Implications of the Zimmermann Telegram ; 4. The Special Intelligence Relationship in World War II ; 5. CIA: The New Model Agency ; 6. Surviving Mistrust: Cold War Episodes ; 7. Gone with Guyana: Anglo-American Intelligence Trust in Decline ; 8. An American Gift: Government in the Sunshine ; 9. The Distant Cousin: America Goes its Own Way ; 10. Europol ; 11. The Quest for European Intelligence ; 12. The Search for Intelligence ; Notes ; Further Reading ; Index