About this item

Surprise Attack explores sixty plus years of military and terror threats against the United States. It examines the intelligence tools and practices that provided warnings of those attacks and evaluates the United States' responses, both in preparedness - and most importantly - the effectiveness of our military and national command authority.Contrary to common claims, the historical record now shows that warnings, often very solid warnings, have preceded almost all such attacks, both domestic and international. Intelligence practices developed early in the Cold War, along with intelligence collection techniques have consistently produced accurate warnings for our national security decision makers. Surprise Attack traces the evolution and application of those practices and explores why such warnings have often failed to either interdict or intercept actual attacks.



About the Author

Larry Hancock

About the author:Larry Hancock brings his formal training in history and cultural anthropology to his research and writing on Cold War history and national security subjects. A graduate of the University of New Mexico, he earned is BA with honors, majoring in history, cultural anthropology and education. Following service in the United States Air Force, he pursued a career in technical education, computer/communications, and technology marketing.Larry then returned to his long term interest in historical research. Known as a "document geek", he researched and published several collections of CIA, FBI and military documents prior to beginning his writing efforts. His document work led to his becoming a board member of the Mary Ferrell Foundation, a major online interactive history archive. With a dozen books in print, his works include an exploration of long term patterns in covert action and deniable warfare ("Shadow Warfare" and "In Denial") , the effectiveness of national command authority and command and control practices ("Surprise Attack") , and the political assassinations of the 1960's ("Someone Would Have Talked", "Killing King" and "The Awful Grace of God") His most recent book is "Tipping Point / The Conspiracy That Murdered President John Kennedy".



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