- Richelson, Jeffrey T.
Spying on the Bomb.
New York: W. W. Norton, [2006] 2007.
ISBN 978-0-393-32982-7.
-
I had some trepidation about picking up this book. Having read the
author's The Wizards of Langley
(May 2002), expecting an account of “Q Branch”
spy gizmology and encountering instead a tedious (albeit well-written
and thorough) bureaucratic history of the CIA's Directorate of Science
and Technology, I was afraid this volume might also reduce one of the
most critical missions of U.S. intelligence in the post World War II
era to another account of interagency squabbling and budget battles.
Not to worry—although such matters are discussed where
appropriate (especially when they led to intelligence failures), the
book not only does not disappoint, it goes well beyond the mission of
its subtitle, “American Nuclear Intelligence from Nazi Germany
to Iran and North Korea” in delivering not just an account of
intelligence activity but also a comprehensive history of the nuclear
programs of each of the countries upon which the U.S. has focused its
intelligence efforts: Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union, China, France,
Israel, South Africa, India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Libya, Iraq, North
Korea, and Iran.
The reader gets an excellent sense of just how difficult it is, even
in an age of high-resolution optical and radar satellite imagery,
communications intelligence, surveillance of commercial and
financial transactions, and active efforts to recruit human
intelligence sources, to determine the intentions of states
intent (or maybe not) on developing nuclear weapons. The
ease with which rogue regimes seem to be able to evade
IAEA
safeguards and inspectors, and manipulate diplomats
loath to provoke a confrontation, is illustrated
on numerous occasions. An entire chapter is devoted to the
enigmatic double
flash incident of September 22nd, 1979 whose interpretation
remains in dispute today. This 2007 paperback edition includes a
new epilogue with information on the October 2006
North Korean “fissile or fizzle”
nuclear
test, and recent twists and turns in the feckless
international effort to restrain Iran's nuclear program.
May 2008 