Product Description

Much has been said and written about the failure of U.S. intelligence to prevent the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, and its overestimation of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction under Saddam Hussein. This book focuses instead on the central role that intelligence-collection systems play in promoting arms control and disarmament. Ambassador Thomas Graham Jr. and Keith Hansen bring more than fifty combined years of experience to this discussion of the capabilities of technical systems, which are primarily based in space. Their history of the rapid advancement of surveillance technology is a window into a dramatic reconceptualization of Cold War strategies and policy planning. Graham and Hansen focus on the intelligence sucesses against Soviet strategic nuclear forces and the quality of the intelligence that has made possible accurate assessments of WMD programs in North Korea, Iran, and Libya. Their important insights shed a much-needed light on the process of verifying how the world harnesses the proliferation of nuclear arms and the continual drive for advancements in technology.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #361250 in Books
• Published on: 2007-05-15
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 184 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780295986869
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Review
“Based on three decades of their involvement in the front lines of arms control negotiations, Graham and Hansen are superbly qualified to analyze the critical role of satellites in space and other national technical means in monitoring compliance with arms control treaties. They do that very well in this short and authoritative book that takes the reader on an informative tour of the broad repertoire of treaties that were designed to meet requirements for effective verification and that helped stabilize the U.S.-Soviet confrontation during the Cold War.”-Sidney Drell, Hoover Institution and Stanford Linear Accelerator Center

“I could not imagine two authors better experienced to tell this important story, and to continue to tell it in more detail as declassification permits. Likewise, it is hard to come up with a better example of how good intelligence can generate the transparency which defined U.S. and Soviet stability in the latter part of the twentieth century.”-William O. Studeman

“Authors Graham and Hansen have done a superior job of explaining the contributions of intelligence to strategic arms control, the downfall of the Soviet Union, and the continuing contribution to our national security. The book is a tribute to those men and women who toiled long and hard to develop sophisticated collection systems and, likewise, those analysts who turned the collected data into useable intelligence.”-Evan Hineman

From the Inside Flap
This book focuses instead on the central role that intelligence collection systems play in promoting arms control and disarmament. Graham and Hansen discuss the capabilities of technical systems and shed a much-needed light on the process of verifying how the world harnesses the proliferation of nuclear arms and the continual drive for advancements in technology.

About the Author
Thomas Graham Jr. is chairman of the Cypress Fund for Peace and Security in Washington, D.C. He served as general counsel of the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency for fifteen years and was President Clinton's special assistant for arms control, nonproliferation, and disarmament.

Keith Hansen is consulting professor in international relations at Stanford University and has spent thirty-five years in US national security deliberations and strategic nuclear arms control negotiations.

Customer Reviews

A Look Behind the "Green Door"
Spy Satellites and Other Intelligence Technologies That Changed History
Back in the deepest depths of the Cold War and the "bomber gap", and the infamous "missile gap", President Eisenhower proposed to to the Soviet Union after the death of Stalin the "open skies". But since the US is an open society it was easy for USSR attaches and agents to procure all the maps and guides, they wanted, while in the Soviet Union, in which its own citizens are subject to internal passport control of their movements, all foreigners were constantly tailed and subjected to movement restriction.
Afte his proposal was summarily rejected by the paranoid Soviet leaders, Eisenhower authorized the construction of the U2 by the famous "Skunk Works" (c.f.)for the CIA. As a military commander he had made much good use of "all source" materials including the highest security ULTRA sigint. (The Bulge offensive had surprised everyone because the Germans used landlines for communication and the bad weather prevented recon aircraft from flying missions.)
During the early 50s,there were peripheral flights for sigint and some brief penetration missions from the Baltic and weather and atmospheric sampling in the Far East which revealed the soviet atomic bomb tests.
The U2 was successful but when Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union and survived, the world knew the truth. Though the U2 never overflew the USSR again it had a long and useful career, participating in the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The principal agency for foreign mapping in 1963 for US forces was the Army Map Service, a sub-command of the Army Corps of Engineers. A late sixties issue of the National Geographic magazine discussed the Engineer's Discoverer program in detail. This eventually was absorbed into the "Deep Black" (c.f.) program and nothing more was heard of it until the existence of the National Reconnaissance Office and the Corona program were revealed in the 1970s. All that photo based material has long since lost any military value especially the Soviet Union collapsed.
Today after the end of the Cold War, the space programs at Tyuratam, now in Kazakhistan, were opened to the market place, and vast stocks of once classified maps and charts and the imagery as well have been available for many years now on the open market.
Ike though, bided his time, even though the German expatriate group headed by Wernher von Braun (c.f) could have launched a satelite earlier the US Navy program, untainted by any historical allegations, sat poised to launch. Kruschev made the first move and since the Sputnik was an orbital vehicle which passed over most of the globe in each day, Ike now saw the way clear to openly begin launches, and did not protest but stated the obvious, that the free passage of Sputnik was an acceptable fait de accompli.
As it was the first Soviet space vehicles were litle more than stunts, useful pay loads and heavy lifts of reconnaissance and sigint sensors were lacking. Instead one carried an unfortunate monkey who died before he could be retrieved. So with the launch Kruschev had outfoxed himself.
Other nations have since entered the imagery and sensor market, notably France and India (c.f.)Though geographers refer to all this material as remote sensing the public still thinks in terms of spying.
Where the term "Green Door" comes in, is when I first came to work at the Army Map Service in 1963, there were two parts to the building complex where the analysis was done; the "open side" which was open to tours and visitors and was publicized in a routine matter. This work required only a secret clearance for most as most of the analysts (area specialists) were DPs from the WWII era and many had relatives in the soviet controlled portion of Europe and we had a few ex Nationalist Chinese as well.
The Green Door was a Top Secret facility with special accesses needed. At first, the clearances were so severe, that even those with Canadian and other Commonwealth origin spouses were summarily refused just because of the expense involved in investigating them.
One day I came to work and in the lobby was a model of the new building. Coming back it was no longer to be seen. In any case, the whole building was a photographic processing facility where the raw imagery from the U2 and then Corona was processed. It is no longer used for that at all. There in the basement was the famous "slab" a vibration and motion dampened chamber where stellar navigation techniques were used to locate the images' exact geographic position after the film had been processed, the entire upper story was labled on the elevator PH which I thought for many a year meant penthouse, on the other hand it contained huge vats of photographic chemicals for mass processing of the imagery to distribution to our and other agencies.
the whole first floor and basement were clean rooms with the occupants wearing whites and the floors and walls tiled with rounded corners so to facilitate mopping. Remember the sensivitivy of the slab could be thrown off by miles by a spec of dust or soot. The building even had its own generators and central vacuum system. Plus a positive air pressure refrigeration air conditioning and no windows.
The entry the green door at first required one to conceal one's AMS ID an wear a seperate one. By the mid 70s many of the foreign born analysts had retired and it was it was demed time to extend the clearances to all who could be within reason, issue one badge with color coded access flashes, and eliminate the polygraph( A poor system, only the un-guilty get nervous. A pro can suppress thir reactions.)
So a glimpse into the past and fifty years on new innovation in digital remore sensing still to come.