Success and Failure of Intelligence essay part 2
Success and Failure of Intelligence essay part 1
Furthermore, the allies’ armies and infrastructure remained unharmed and, more important, the allies armies have got better opportunities to track the movement and actions of the enemy securing its position through deciphering the communication between Germans, who used Enigma or its navy encryption. In such a way, the German military faced the problem of information breaches since the allies had got an opportunity to decipher the communication of Germans. As a result, they had got access to the secret information and their interceptions could help them to understand what Germans planned to do and reveal German strategy and key military operations (Stinnett, 2009). In fact, the cracking of Enigma gave the allies the clue to the communication channels of Germans that apparently weakened German army and enhanced the position of the allies in the war.
The cracking of Enigma cause substantial harms to Germans, who became vulnerable to unexpected actions and attacks of the allies, who deciphered German communication due to the successful intelligence operation of cracking Enigma. Germans could not be absolutely safe anymore because the allies could foresee their operations and actions due to the information which they intercepted from the communication between Germans. In such a situation, Germans could not conduct their operations successfully and the risk of their failure increased because they could not encrypt their communication effectively, while their enemy, i.e. the allies, could elaborate effective counter strategies being aware of actions and plans of Germans.
Furthermore, the cracking of Enigma was the successful intelligence operation because it has brought the strategic advantage to the allies, who could track and decipher the communication of Germans, while the communication plays the key and strategically important part in military operations. The party that cannot encrypt and hide its communication from the enemy turns out to be in a disadvantageous position as was the case of Germany (Weinberg & Gerhard 2013). Positive effects of the cracking of Enigma became obvious shortly after the cracking because the allies had got an opportunity to decipher the communication of the enemy. In such a situation, the allies had started to use the full potential of the cracking of Enigma focusing on the interception of German communication to understand their plans, actions and other important issues which could have played an important part in World War II.
Finally, Germans remained unaware of their encryption system being broken down until the late period of the war, when the outcome of the war was almost clear and Germans could not counter attack effectively. In fact, Germans remained confident in the reliability and security of their encryption system because they were certain in its high theoretical security level, although being extremely safe in theory, Enigma had proved to be insecure in practice. However, Germans uncovered this fact too late to prevent the allies from revelation of numerous military operations and plans of Germans. As a result, the late uncover of the intelligence operation by the enemy is another evidence of the overall success of the intelligence operation on cracking Enigma.
On the other hand, the US intelligence had suffered one of the most severe failures, when it had failed to prevent and foresee the upcoming assault on Pearl Harbor. In contrast to the cracking of Enigma, the intelligence operations aiming at the monitoring of the Japanese navy movement and operations in the Pacific Ocean had proved to be the total failure, as the US intelligence had not identified the threat in time and underestimated the potential threat from the part of the Japanese in time (Steinberg, 1995). The attack of Japanese army on Pearl Harbor was a turning point in the history of World War II. In fact, the attack led to the active involvement of the USA in World War II and made the war truly global. In this respect, it is important to emphasize that the USA’s entry into World War II influenced consistently the balance of power in the world and, to a significant extent, predetermined the outcome of the war. At the same time, the involvement of the USA in World War II was provoked by the growing aggression from the part of Japan as well as Germany which threatened to the strategic ally of the USA in Europe, Great Britain. The involvement of the USA in World War II strengthened consistently the allies. In such a context, the role of Pearl Harbor and its outcomes can hardly be underestimated. At the same time, views of specialists on causes, which led to the Japanese attack as well as causes of such unexpected and extremely high casualties among Americans, vary consistently.
First of all, it is important to understand causes of the attack and motives of each party involved in the conflict, in order to understand causes of numerous casualties, success of Japanese and unexpected failure of Americans. Traditionally specialists (Cook, 1955) argue that Japan tended to the domination in the Asia-Pacific region and it attempted to establish its total control over the region. Hence, the attack of Japanese on Pearl Harbor was rather a question of time than a question of international diplomacy or relations. What is meant here is the fact that Japan was not interested in the presence of a powerful state, such as the USA in the region. Instead, Japan’s strategic goal was the domination in the region. Naturally, such domination could not be achieved as long as the USA opposed to Japanese efforts to gain the dominant position. Obviously, the USA was a threat to Japan because Americans would not allow Japanese grew in power since the latter would be a threat to the national interests of the USA. As a result, Japan decided to attack the USA and destroy its main naval base because Japan expected that the USA would not recover after Pearl Harbor (Toland, 2006).
The USA, in its turn, apparently underestimated the threat from the part of Japan and, what is more, Americans failed to foresee the attack. This was not only a tactical failure of the US navy commandment, but it was also a failure of American intelligence. As a result, the US navy was not really prepared for the attack that actually caused numerous casualties. At the same time, the USA could also count for diplomatic resolution of existing conflicts and tension between the USA and Japan.
Unlike the cracking of Enigma, the intelligence operation against the Japanese was conducted by the US intelligence only and the information collected was fragmentary but, if the British and Americans had managed to crack Enigma on the ground of the fragmentary information available to them, they had failed to interpret properly actions of the Japanese navy in the Pacific Ocean before the assault on Pearl Harbor.
Furthermore, the assault on Pearl Harbor had led to disastrous destructions of the infrastructure of the US navy and air forces in the region (Keegan, 2007). In this regard, the results of the cracking of Enigma were absolutely contrary since the US army and its allies had managed to avoid the destructive impact of German attacks as they could foresee their actions due to deciphering of the communication between German military units. As a result, the allies could foresee where Germans could strike and they undertook measures to prevent possible destructions and casualties.
In the course of the attack, about 2,400 American soldiers were killed and over 1,100 American soldiers were wounded (Hakim, 2012). Unlike the intelligence operation leading to the cracking of Enigma, the intelligence failed to prevent numerous casualties. In this regard, the cracking of Enigma had had totally different effects since the allies had managed to decrease casualties due to the interception of the German communication and better forecasting of actions of the enemy.
The US intelligence agents did not suffer during the intelligence operation but the US intelligence agents had failed to perform their functions properly.
In addition, preparation of the operation and its implementation resulted in the failure of the US intelligence to divert the attack and warn the US military about the threat of the attack on Pearl Harbor. As a result, the balance of power in the Asia-Pacific region had changed since the US army had lost its position after the defeat. The loss of a large number of aircrafts, battle ships and other ships resulted in the loss of the military power and required the US to supply new battle ships and aircrafts to defend its western coastline from the potential attack from the part of Japan. Therefore, the overall effect of the attack on Pearl Harbor reveals the failure of the US intelligence because of the loss of the position of the US in the Asia-Pacific region.
In addition, the failure of the US intelligence resulted in the involvement of the US in World War II because, if the US army was informed of the upcoming threat, it could undertake preventive steps to divert the threat, for instance, through increasing of the military presence in Pearl Harbor that could discourage the Japanese from the attack on the US navy base (Miller, 2011).
In this regard, the results of the intelligence operation on the cracking Enigma is quite different since cracking of Enigma had positive effects that is the evidence of the overall success of the operation. The allies became able to operate more successfully because they could decipher the communication of Germans, while, in case of the attack on Pearl Harbor, the US military power in the Asia-Pacific region had been undermined that proved the failure of the intelligence operation.
Finally, it is worth mentioning the fact that the failure of the US intelligence became evident to the enemy as well as the rest of the world immediately after the attack on Pearl Harbor. In such a way, the US intelligence had proved to be unable to uncover the plan of the attack of the Japanese on Pearl Harbor. In this regard, the failure of the US intelligence in case of Pearl Harbor was evident, while the cracking of Enigma was a truly successful intelligence operation which remained unknown to the public as well as Germans for a long time and allowed the allied to take the strategic advantage in their military operations in Europe against Germans.
Thus, two different intelligence operations were absolutely different not only in their tactics, strategy and significance but they were absolutely different in their effects because the intelligence operation aiming at cracking Enigma was apparently the success of the allies’ intelligence, whereas the intelligence operation of the US in regard to Japanese military actions and plans in the Asia-Pacific region was the total failure as the Attack on Pearl Harbor resulted in disastrous effects on the US military power in the region and involved the US into World War II.
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