https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLYbocufkwRFB6ggtmAQ3nz2QtW2upiDRh
http://www.millcreekent.com/secrets-of-war-the-complete-65-episode-series-dvd.html
http://www.yidio.com/show/secrets-of-war?utm_source=Bing&utm_medium=Search&t_source=64
This series contains a wealth of information that is not “just history” as the old dismissive cliche goes–when substantive response is lacking. This is very relevant for scholars, teachers and citizens today. The whining we hear from many “Why do they hate us?” fails to define who “they” are and who “us” are; as so much of our own history, never mind Japan or any other nation, is so riddled with self-serving and self-promoting lies, calculated omissions, cover-ups, covert and clandestine operations including rogue ones, blow-backs, screw-ups, infantile turf battles and inter-service rivalries, psychopaths and sociopaths in high positions, nepotism, cronyism, secret societies, eugenics and genocide and on and on.
This series does what we try to do at STTPML. Although we get passionate and use passionate language as do all people at some times, (how do we talk “politely” about genocide especially when we have seen it close up?), yet we are more interested in hard facts, we want diverse ideological points of view if only for triangulation and because we do not think we are always right nor our opponents always wrong, and we want sober analysis with testable theory via measurable predictions and applications, along with facts, reason, law, experience (insiders), original period documents on what we consider to be the critical issues of our times.
Another reason why we appreciate this series on intelligence in war is that it is structured and framed as real world intelligence analysis should be done and has not been mostly, and also how Indigenous Peoples typically see the world and all that is in it. Instead of the linear, reductionistic, ultimate independent and dependent (causes and effects) and linear unidirectional causality (X –> Y –> Z) of Eurocentric “Science” (e.g. Economics) that can be “modeled” with abstract speculation and pure deduction, this series shows the interplay between non-linear political-economic systems/interests/imperatives, human agency, folly, screw-ups and blowbacks, treachery, anti-Communism and Fascism, shifting and opportunistic alliances, etc. For example, the series shows how the development of the U-Boats and wolf packs required coordination at distance, which required new communications technologies, which then required new codes and coding systems that developed the Enigma machine. Not only in this area, but in the 12 years 3 months and 9 days of the Third Reich supposed to last 100 years or more, , the Nazis managed to produce the first cruise missile (V-1), the first rocket to leave the atmosphere and return to a designated area on earth at more than the speed of sound (V-2), the first wire-controlled anti-tank missile, the first remote controlled and camera-equipped anti-ship missile, along with the first television and radio mass propaganda programs and the first jet fighter (ME-262). This was all while being thoroughly infiltrated by Soviet intelligence at the highest levels of the Abwehr from 1933 on.
This series, as we do at STTPML, focuses on original source documents and films, diaries, captured films, and accounts from insiders who were there and involved in the decisions being examined. And they focus on voices from all sides and ideological perspectives. A lot of “mainstream” history books become exposed in this series for what Napolean called history: “A pack of lies agreed upon”. But which “pack of lies” are selected to be “agreed upon”?; and “agreed upon” by whom?; and what does “agreed upon” even mean and how is it measured? These are some of the kinds of questions we pose at STTPML.
Although the series speaks of the “End of the Cold War” and even “We Won” (nobody spells out who “We” are and what does “winning” mean and how is it measured?) The series shows clearly that the “Cold War” is not over; did not start in 1945 but more like 1917 or even before with the proto-fascist, racist, imperialist, anti-Socialist, Teddy Roosevelt; has never been that “Cold”; is not over; but in any case, it has always been a war between systems (or caricatures of systems) and associated supporting institutions and ideologies (and caricatures of them). The really dark sides of Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan and Clinton emerge also.
This series is highly recommended for scholars on national security history, Cold War history, intelligence studies, as well as for teachers, citizens and especially the young. What is very revealing is no matter the period of history, the basic pretexts used for wars that in reality have been planned and are preemptive and unilateral are often the same; the basic operational and analytical tradecraft in intelligence and counter-intelligence is basically the same; the basic weapons of war, offensive and defensive are basically technological improvements on the spear and shield with a continual historical arms race between them; that the intelligence services of the Allies and the Axis powers both, over-hyped their supposed accomplishments, hid their failures and blowbacks and were largely operated by some “pasty-and-proudly” white and titled (who had nothing to do with either their whiteness or titles they inherited) who screwed-up far more than they made better; that the U.S. and British intelligence services, in addition to being riddled with intra-service rivalries and infantile turf battles (MI5 v MI6, OSS v FBI, CIA v FBI, GCHQ v MI5 and MI6), were also infiltrated by Soviets at levels they never attained against the Soviets and that their biggest traitors, in both the U.S. and Britain, were all volunteers and from the most trusted ranks of sources of the intelligence aristocracy; that the real reasons for war and associated tasks of intelligence have not changed that much over history( territory, ideology, alliances, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, critical resources and markets, investment outlets, living space, racism, geopolitics, etc); that the forms of warfare have changed little even as the technologies of warfare have changed dramatically especially in the 20th century (regular, irregular, chemical-biological, conventional, insurgency, counter-insurgency, genocidal, etc) and even as the arenas of warfare have gone from land to land and sea, to land, sea and air, to land, sea, air and space, to land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace. And what is also clear is that the few who rule and spy on the many, are not really interested in “winning over hearts and minds” (through reasoned debate and peaceful competition and relative performance of contending paradigms and systems) but in “capturing” and “controlling” if not “neutralizing” contending systems and ideologies “deemed” to be “existential threats” to be replaced by new ones with the deaths of adherents of the heretical.