By Any Means Necessary: America's Secret Air War in the Cold War

by William Burrows

Release Date: 10 October, 2001

Edition: Hardcover

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Should Be Taught In All History Courses

I find that memories of the Cold War are fast fading, and not even direct experiences of a growing part of our population. This is why it seems now so easy for politicians to "rewrite" history to their own agendas, including phases such as Vietnam specifically and the Cold War generally. Fewer and fewer know how it even came about--how one of our staunchest Allies agains the Third Reich could so quickly become our primary nemesis in the seeming battle for world domination and influence--or as I was taught--hegemony.

Burrows focuses on the brave soldiers who were on the front lines of intelligence gathering. These were the men who "accidentally" flew over Soviet air space, to get a glimpse of weapons systems, troop movements, and the military-industrial complex of the U.S.S.R. This work is well-documented and fascinating. The great human toll of this work is clear with a section before the endnotes, with names of those deceased in this important work.

These silent and shadow missions went on continually, punctuated only by foreign touting of a plane shot down, a flier captured. Such was our fear of "re-education" that the film the Manchurian Candidate could not be shown for decades, fear that our government might be infiltrated by "turned" Americans.

That was not fantasy, however, for there were plenty of "turncoats" to go around, as we now know so well---turncoats purchase with easy money and the desire for conspicuous wealth. HOwever, the silent observers of the aerial intelligence war could not dream of such rewards, only of carrying out their duties in the name of freedom. As such, this book belongs on the bookshelf of anyone who takes the great conflicts of the 20th century seriously, for they are prologue to the murkier conflicts of the 21st. Will these tactics only be frozen in time, abandoned as surely as the Napoleonic tactics of the early 19th century? The short history of the 21st century, thus far, does not provide the answer. However, as is so often said, those who do not learn from history may be condemned to repeat it. To the extent the post-WWII period truly differed from present day, we can and should learn from it. In that effort, this book provides a truly valuable reference of tactics and tenacity.

The Not-so-Cold War

William Burrows' effort here is very successful. The sacrifices made by intelligence gathering personnel, mostly military, in the early stages of the cold war is not well known. The US government went to great pains to insure that being the case. As Burrows recounts, these missions to snoop imperative targeting data, along with the offensive and defensive capabilities of the Soviet Union, China and other potential adversaries, wasn't the cold part of the cold war--it was the dangerous, tedious, frightening and secret part. The bravery and accomplishments of those who served in this manner, living and dying under the prohibitive stress of secrecy, deserves the attention finally coming to light. While Burrows' story is more one of hardware than people, we do get a sense of the personal sacrifice for both those who served and their families. For readers unfamiliar with these operations, Burrows provides an extensive overview. The numbers of aircraft shot down or lost, American captives enslaved and beaten to death without chance of reparation, and the danger in each mission is sobering. These men could reveal none of this to friends or family. We get details of the progression of aircraft and sensor capability that is engaging. Aircraft like the B-50, B-45, B-47, P2V and so on aren't nearly as well known as those types made famous by open combat. As in his This New Ocean, a very good portrayal of the US/Soviet space programs, Burrows makes use of declassified and Russian information. I wonder, however, about the description of the Powers U-2 shoot down. It varies greatly from other accounts. Rather than SAMs launched like bottle rockets and scores of MiGs flailing desperately, we're told this brand-new weapon system fires just three missiles in salvo. Two misfire but the other scores the hit. In addition, only three MiGs scramble. One, an unarmed MiG-19 with a pilot ordered to ram the target, easily climbs to the U-2's altitude, but fails to make visual contact. After Powers is down, two other interceptors reach the area. One turns back low on fuel. Thinking the lone remaining fighter is the U-2, a different SAM site launches a single SA-2 and brings it down. I don't know how a reader can simply accept this account. As thoroughly footnoted as is this book, no footnotes address this episode. To borrow a line from Dr. Strangelove, it sounds like a bunch of Commie bull. (I've always felt, by the way, that the overflight by Powers on May 1, crossing central Russia from Turkey to Norway, was an overt attempt by the CIA to humiliate the Russians that backfired.) The continuing cover up of the fate of American prisoners at the hands of their captors is troubling. A cover up, Burrows states, that is an ongoing joint arrangement for the sake of diplomacy. Burrows confuses the reader from time to time but jumbling the chronology of events (we get the Cuban Missile Crisis before the Powers story, for example). But still its a good, detailed book that I recommend and will probably re-read again some day. For a more first-hand, although less detailed account of cold war air operations, see Paul Lashmar's Spy Flights of the Cold War. Its quite good, too.