Across the Pacific

“Across the Pacific is a valuable addition to the literature on the war in the Pacific and especially its intelligence aspects. The U.S. campaigns and the Japanese reactions have been well covered by past books, both individually and jointly–but never with the role of their respective intelligence efforts as the centerpiece. The chapters on submarine warfare and the China-Burma-India (CBI) front are especially useful, as these are often given short shrift by U.S. historians. Overall, we have a better and more detailed understanding of the roles played by various types of intelligence and the extent to which commanders used this–or not.”–Mark Lowenthal, former Assistant Director of Central Intelligence for Analysis; Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Intelligence and Research; and Staff Director, House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence

Peter C. Oleson is an historian, professor, and former senior intelligence officer. He began his career in the State Department in 1967 before serving as an intelligence officer in the Air Force. He was the intelligence briefer for the Chief of Staff and then served in Southeast Asia as the intelligence analyst for northern Laos and assisted CIA’s covert operations. He worked in industry before being recruited in 1977 onto the staff of the Secretary of Defense where he was the director for intelligence and space policy. He served as the assistant director of the Defense Intelligence Agency for four years and was a charter member of the new Senior Executive Service in 1982. He developed the worldwide Theater Intelligence Architectures Program and managed the defense intelligence portion of the national continuity of government program. Concurrently, he was the “black programs” advisor for the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. After leaving government he consulted for elements of the Intelligence Community, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, and private laboratories. He was part of the CIA R&D team that laid the basis for digital mammography and other medical imaging. He ran the 1993 DoD-wide study that established today’s unmanned aerial vehicles.

He has taught as an adjunct professor at the National Intelligence University, CIA University, the University of Maryland, the Institute of World Politics, and now teaches at the University of Hawaii’s life-long learning institute. He is on the executive committee of the International Maritime Security Exchange in Hawaii and has focused on illegal fishing as an intelligence problem. He was on the national board of the Association of Former Intelligence Officers and is the editor of its Guide to the Study of Intelligence.

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