Need to Know

One of The New Yorker's "Best Books of the Year" * A Gilder Lehrman Military History Prize Finalist

"Authoritative. . . . [Reynolds's] contribution to our understanding of the rise of American intelligence is unparalleled." —Journal of Intelligence History

“The most thorough and detailed history available on the origins of U.S. intelligence.” —Michael Morell, former Deputy Director and Acting Director, CIA

Historian and former CIA officer Nicholas Reynolds, the New York Times bestselling author of Writer, Sailor, Soldier, Spy, uncovers the definitive history of American intelligence during World War II, illuminating its key role in securing victory and its astonishing growth from practically nothing at the start of the war.

The entire vast, modern American intelligence system—the amalgam of three-letter spy services of many stripes—can be traced back to the dire straits the world faced at the dawn of World War II. Prior to 1940, the United States had no organization to recruit spies and steal secrets or launch covert campaigns against enemies overseas and just a few codebreakers, isolated in windowless vaults. It was only through Winston Churchill’s determination to mobilize the US in the fight against Hitler that the first American spy service was born, built from scratch against the background of the Second World War.

In Need to Know, Nicholas Reynolds explores the birth, infancy, and adolescence of modern American intelligence. In this first-ever look across the entirety of the war effort, Reynolds combines little-known history and gripping spy stories to analyze the origins of American codebreakers and spies as well as their contributions to Allied victory, revealing how they laid the foundation for the Cold War—and beyond.

This comprehensive history reveals the untold stories behind the birth of American intelligence:

• William J. Donovan’s OSS: Follow the legendary "Wild Bill" Donovan as he builds the Office of Strategic Services, America's first central intelligence agency, from the ground up at the urging of Winston Churchill.
• Spies and Codebreakers: Discover the secret origins of America's spies and codebreakers and how their clandestine work, from Bletchley Park to the Pacific, was crucial to Allied victory.
• The Birth of Signals Intelligence: Go inside the windowless vaults to uncover the story of MAGIC, the top-secret codebreaking operation that gave American leaders an unprecedented view of Japanese strategy.
• Cold War Origins: Understand how the rivalries and alliances forged in the crucible of WWII—between the OSS, the FBI, and the NKVD—set the stage for the global standoff that would define the next half-century.