John Hughes-Wilson analyses why crucial intelligence is so often ignored, misunderstood or spun by politicians and seasoned generals alike. His book discusses: how Hitler's intelligence staff misled him; the bureaucratic bungling behind Pearl Harbor; how US intelligence agencies' infighting blinded them to the Viet Cong's 1968 Tet Offensive; how overconfidence, political interference and deception facilitated Egypt and Syria's 1973 surprise attack on Israel; why forty Royal Marines were all that Britain had to defend the Falkland Islands in 1982; the mistaken intelligence that allowed Saddam Hussein to remain in power until 2003; the US failure to run a terrorist warning system before the 9/11 attacks; and how governments are increasingly pressurising intelligence agencies to 'spin' a party-political line.

With new chapters on the Japanese naval defeat at Midway, the Korean War, the occupation of Afghanistan, and Russia's invasion of Ukraine, this is an expert's frightening study of intelligence failings in warfare from the Second World War to 2022, and their impact on events.