We learn two things: that USAF and USN were out-fought by North Vietnamese fighters over North Viet-Nam, and that SIGINT made a huge difference when it focused on supporting tactical air combat in near real time.
Phi Beta Iota: Intelligence capabilities are like any capability — they can be used for good, or evil. TEARBALL is an inspiring success story. Less inspiring is the fact that NSA lost several cyrpto machines captured in Viet-Nam, and lied to Congress and the White House by omission — NSA knew for years that the Russians were reading most circuits by being able to combine the cyrpto machines captured in Viet-Nam with the key cards turned over by the Falcon and the Snowman. It is this kind of integrity failure that characterizes virtually every aspect of US “secret” intelligence today.
See Also:
Worth a Look: Book Reviews on Intelligence (Most)
INTELLIGENCE with INTEGRITY: Enabling Hybrid Public Governance with Open-Source Decision-Support
