-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
Henry Plater-Zyberk, The intelligence war in Latin America, 1914–1922. By Jamie Bisher, International Affairs, Volume 92, Issue 5, September 2016, Pages 1254–1255, https://doi.org/10.1111/1468-2346.12714
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
International history*
Jamie Bisher is an unusual historian. A graduate of the US Air Force Academy and a Cold War veteran, he is a senior technical writer for an unspecified electronics company in Maryland. Intelligence history is his hobby and passion. This is his second book and apparently the first one ever written in English about intelligence operations in Latin America during the First World War.
The author had to fuse together a bewildering number of stories from many parts of the world. The result is impressive. The book is divided into three main parts: ‘European war in Americas, 1914–1916’; ‘Strategic side show in Latin America, 1917–1918’; and ‘Endgame of the intelligence war in Latin America, 1919–1922’. Bisher's 1922 cut-off date is a good decision, as it allows him to cover the postwar winding down of intelligence operations, which in many cases look like preparations for future conflict.
One of the book's strongest points, and there are many, is the coverage of the German intelligence network in Latin America and Berlin's changing relations with governments in the region. Bisher's depiction of the mostly unstable dictatorial Latin American governments trying to navigate between the main protagonists of the First World War is precise and dispassionate. The German intelligence strategy in Mexico and Argentina is covered particularly well, but the Berlin diplomatic and intelligence campaigns in other Latin American countries are also entertainingly narrated, although many archives in the region have nothing to offer historians researching intelligence during this period. The author admits that his book ‘suffers from a reluctant overreliance on US records’ and this may be the reason why the coverage of the British operations in the Americas and its cooperation with the US is rather modest, although some Royal Navy operations are well described.
