Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began both a ground and aerial military campaign in the Middle East in order to preemptively rout out terrorists. During the War on Terror, the cause of the United States and its allies was aided by many technical innovations in code breaking and espionage. In fact, increased surveillance went so far as to spy on regular citizens. This book explores the evolution of intelligence technologies and how these new methods controversially shape wars, and the dilemma many militaries and governments face in deciding how to use them in order to avoid political fallout in the global age of terrorism.

Shortly after the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, the U.S. government began both a ground and aerial military campaign in the Middle East in order to preemptively rout out terrorists. During the War on Terror, the cause of the United States and its allies was aided by many technical innovations in code breaking and espionage. In fact, increased surveillance went so far as to spy on regular citizens. This book explores the evolution of intelligence technologies and how these new methods controversially shape wars, and the dilemma many militaries and governments face in deciding how to use them in order to avoid political fallout in the global age of terrorism.

Code breakers and spies are the stuff of legend and intrigue, but in reality, they dramatically impacted wars and influenced society, as well as altered the field of information technology. Technology during the 1940s was primitive by today's standards, but spying and cryptography were cutting edge for the time. Many have heard of the use of Navajo code talkers during World War II, but this text explores the code talkers and beyond to paint a vivid picture of how cryptography and spy technology shaped the conflict.

After being uneasy allies in World War II, the 1950s saw the United States and the Soviet Union entering the Cold War, a thirty-year conflict in which the adversaries never went into physical battle with each other but fought many proxy wars in other nations. This gripping and fast-paced book traces the Cold War through the lens of spying and code breaking by showing how advances in computer technology and mathematics kept the technology race every bit as nerve-racking as the arms race that characterized the conflict.

The world's great economic powers aligned into two opposing forces in World War I. Although still in its infancy by modern standards at the onset of the conflict, intelligence gathering and espionage would ultimately tip the balance. Readers learn how new technology exploded and resulted in developments in cryptography and surveillance as both sides raced to crack the codes and win the war.

Set against the backdrop of the Cold War, the conflict in Vietnam was much more than a battle between Vietnamese and American forces. Although the fighting may have taken place in monsoon-swept cities and booby-trapped jungles, the Vietnam War was fought on a much larger scale. Spies were active on all fronts, including within the United States itself. Readers will explore how technology and tactics not only shaped the Vietnam War, but changed the ethics of American surveillance from then until the present day.

The United States in the 1860s seemed poised to become one of the world's leading powers. Even with the benefits of new innovations such as the railroad and the telegraph, which brought the country together, unresolved issues between the North and the South broke the country in half. This book explores the ways in which the day's new technologies changed the face of warfare and how, in this bloody war for unity, spies from all walks of life, including immigrants, women, and black people, contributed to the struggle.