In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

The full story of the Anglo-American intelligence relationship - now told for the first time
Takes the story from the beginnings of the relationship during World War One, through to the new realities of the post-9/11 world
Based on in-depth interviews with an unrivalled range of intelligence officials from the USA, the UK, France, and other EU countries
Looks not just at the history of the 'special intelligence relationship' between the two countries, but also at the options that face them in the 21st century

In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

Description

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.

In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

Preface 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

In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

Author Information

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Emeritus Professor of American History, University of Edinburgh

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones is Emeritus Professor of American History at the University of Edinburgh and has held postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard, the Free University of Berlin, and Toronto. The founder of the Scottish Association for the Study of America, of which is he the current honorary president, he has also published widely on intelligence history, including The CIA and American Democracy (1989) and The FBI: A History (2007).

In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

Reviews and Awards

"a thoughtful and thought-provoking book, and provides a valuable study of a story that still has a very long way to run." - Gill Bennett, Diplomacy & Statecraft

"[An] authoritative book." - Military History Monthly

"What this book [does well] is examine the complex history of American British intelligence cooperation, which has underpinned the supposed "special relationship" between the two English-speaking powers for the past century or more." - The Sunday Telegraph

"In Spies We Trust is threaded with detail and anecdote... It's a great achievement, and one comes away with fresh perspectives." - Scotland on Sunday

"[E]xtraordinarily detailed ... one of the resounding lessons of Jeffreys-Jones's book is that both the UK and the US have to think long and hard about how their intelligence endeavours will evolve in the future." - The Sunday Herald

"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 General

"Librarians seeking to upgrade their holdings on national security issues will find this book to be a worthy addition to their collections ... Highly recommended." - C.C. Lovett, CHOICE

"Jeffreys-Jones has written a lucid, revealing study of the Anglo-American relationship, using intelligence as his lens into larger political transitions. In the place of myth he has put fine-grained historical analysis." - Michael Kimmage, American Hisorical Review

In Spies We Trust

The Story of Western Intelligence

Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones

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