<p>For historians and many members of the informed public, the Japanese attack on Hawaii provoked “the never-ending story.” Multiple official investigations and private historical inquiries into the attack and its background have generated enormous stocks of information about both the American and Japanese sides. It may well be that we know as much about December 7, 1941, as we do about any event in the last century, the Kennedy assassination possibly excepted. However, even with this virtual mountain chain of data, information gaps still exist, and many important questions remain under discussion or debate. The discussions and debates are not simply the province of conspiracy buffs. Academics and other researchers interested in World War II have a serious stake in settling the issues of the U.S.-Japan conflict; definite answers to many of the controversies would either confirm or refute theories of the war’s origins and its meaning. This assemblage of documents, supplemented by the author’s clear guide to their meaning, places the reader, as it were, right in the middle of the behind-the-scenes events and helps the scholar and researcher to follow them closely.</p>

West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy - A Documentary History

History

Hanyok, Robert J.

Agency, National Security

Mowry, David P.

Military

CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

This is the first of a two-part history of German clandestine activities in South America in World War II. In this first volume, the author, Mr. David Mowry, identifies and presents a thorough account of German intelligence organizations engaged in clandestine work in South America, and a well-researched, detail report of the U.S. response to the perceived threat. This perception was, as Mr. Mowry alludes to in his conclusions, far greater than any actual danger. Mr. Mowry’s conclusions, in general, are somewhat understated. It seems fairly clear from the evidence that the Germans never expected a great deal from their agents in South America or even in the United States in World War II. The lack of German espionage activity in these areas in WWII stands in stark contrast to the bombings and other activities which occurred during WWI. Perhaps these WWI experiences influenced U.S. policy makers to the extent that they overestimated the danger in WWI. In fact, it might be suggested that South America and the United States were not the major threats of German clandestine activity in WWII, but that Europe, England, North Africa, and the Middle East offered far more potential for beneficial results. An examination of clandestine activities in these areas might produce different conclusions. One might also comment on the extraordinary activity that took place between and among U.S. intelligence organizations in the fact of so small and unsuccessful a German effort. In addition to concluding that it had little effect on the outcome of the war, one might also have noted the similarities characterizing the nature of the relationships. Specifically, this includes the relationships in the broader COMINT field during and after the war.

Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during World War II: Series IV, World War II, Volume 11

Did the American Government and President Franklin Delano Roosevelt have advance information about Japan’s attack on Pearl Harbor and was this fact later suppressed, either to conceal incompetence or because the President wanted an act of aggression to force America into war with the Axis Powers? For decades, professional and amateur historians alike have scrutinized the voluminous and sometimes contradictory trail of evidence surrounding this historic and tragic event to find an answer. One of the most written-about pieces of this historical puzzle is the so-called “West Wind Execute” message, Japan’s code phrase to advise its diplomats abroad that an attack on America was imminent. In “West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy – a Documentary History”, the U.S. National Security Agency’s Center for Cryptologic History has tackled the complex history of this message, when it was sent, and why its existence or non-existence has exercised the imaginations of academics, amateur historians, and conspiracy buffs since the 1940s. Crucially, this book includes many key documents, some never before published, dealing with the voluminous Japanese signals traffic leading up to the Pearl Harbor attack and the timing of signals interception and decoding. The authors state that the main source of continuing debate over the “who knew and when” question resulted from a number of contradictory statements by a well-respected American cryptographer, Captain Laurence Safford, USN, whose reliability as a witness was undermined during the hearings of the 1946  Joint Congressional Committee investigation of the Pearl Harbor debacle. Despite these findings, the West Wind controversy has persisted in popular accounts that lent credibility to the stories of Safford and Ralph Briggs, a radio operator who many years after the fact claimed to recollect a West Wind Execute message before the attack. “West Wind Clear” makes a strong and well-documented case against a suppressed warning of war, although perhaps no account of the run-up to the Pearl Harbor debacle may ever lay to rest the many conspiracy theories bruited about since 1941. For anyone interested in the continuing debate, this book is an indispensable research and reference work.

Military Bookshop

Identifies and presents a thorough account of German intelligence organizations engaged in clandestine work in South America, and a well researched, detailed report of the U.S. response to the perceived threat. This perception was, as Mr. Mowry alludes to in his conclusions, far greater than any actual danger.

Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America During World War II

National Security Agency

Center for Cryptologic History

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mowry, David P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Mowry, David P.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Mowry, David P.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy - A Documentary History

Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America during World War II: Series IV, World War II, Volume 11

West Wind Clear: Cryptology and the Winds Message Controversy - A Documentary History

Cryptologic Aspects of German Intelligence Activities in South America During World War II