Vince Houghton is Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum. He taught courses in Cold War history and intelligence history at the University of Maryland and is the host and creative director of Spycast, the Spy Museum's popular podcast. His work has been published widely in such media as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, Vanity Fair, and many others.

• Introduction: The Principal Uncertainty1. A Reasonable Fear: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the German Nuclear Program2. Making Something out of Nothing: The Creation of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence3. Alsos: The Mission to Solve the Mystery of the German Bomb4. Transitions: From the German Threat to the Soviet Menace5. Regression: The Postwar Devolution of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence6. Whistling in the Dark: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the Soviet Nuclear ProgramConclusion: Credit Where Credit Is DueNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

In this neat, enthralling study, Houghton wonders why this successful intelligence operation was followed by the failure to anticipate the first Soviet nuclear test in August 1949.(Foreign Affairs) A great read: Concise, fact-packed, laden with fascinating anecdotes, and chock full of insights... This book is for everyone, intelligence expert and layperson alike. A page turner.(The Cipher Brief) As Vince Houghton reports in this beautifully written and well-researched history, the American scientific and strategic community believed they were in a race with Nazi physics, and they had a nagging fear that they might not win that race. The Nuclear Spies explores the administrative, scientific, logistical, and intelligence aspects of the effort to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about a weapon that at the time was neither fully understood nor developed.(International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence) Vince Houghton has written an engaging and well-researched book focusing on the U.S. effort to gather scientific intelligence on the German atomic bomb program during World War II. Houghton expands his scope beyond the war to demonstrate that the scientific and atomic intelligence bureaucracy designed during the war withered in the immediate postwar era.(The Journal of American History) [A] useful introduction to the field of scientific intelligence.(Choice)

Vince Houghton is Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum. He taught courses in Cold War history and intelligence history at the University of Maryland and is the host and creative director of Spycast, the Spy Museum's popular podcast. His work has been published widely in such media as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, Vanity Fair, and many others.

• Introduction: The Principal Uncertainty1. A Reasonable Fear: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the German Nuclear Program2. Making Something out of Nothing: The Creation of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence3. Alsos: The Mission to Solve the Mystery of the German Bomb4. Transitions: From the German Threat to the Soviet Menace5. Regression: The Postwar Devolution of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence6. Whistling in the Dark: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the Soviet Nuclear ProgramConclusion: Credit Where Credit Is DueNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

In this neat, enthralling study, Houghton wonders why this successful intelligence operation was followed by the failure to anticipate the first Soviet nuclear test in August 1949.(Foreign Affairs) A great read: Concise, fact-packed, laden with fascinating anecdotes, and chock full of insights... This book is for everyone, intelligence expert and layperson alike. A page turner.(The Cipher Brief) As Vince Houghton reports in this beautifully written and well-researched history, the American scientific and strategic community believed they were in a race with Nazi physics, and they had a nagging fear that they might not win that race. The Nuclear Spies explores the administrative, scientific, logistical, and intelligence aspects of the effort to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about a weapon that at the time was neither fully understood nor developed.(International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence) Vince Houghton has written an engaging and well-researched book focusing on the U.S. effort to gather scientific intelligence on the German atomic bomb program during World War II. Houghton expands his scope beyond the war to demonstrate that the scientific and atomic intelligence bureaucracy designed during the war withered in the immediate postwar era.(The Journal of American History) [A] useful introduction to the field of scientific intelligence.(Choice)

Vince Houghton is Historian and Curator at the International Spy Museum. He taught courses in Cold War history and intelligence history at the University of Maryland and is the host and creative director of Spycast, the Spy Museum's popular podcast. His work has been published widely in such media as Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, Vanity Fair, and many others.

• Introduction: The Principal Uncertainty1. A Reasonable Fear: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the German Nuclear Program2. Making Something out of Nothing: The Creation of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence3. Alsos: The Mission to Solve the Mystery of the German Bomb4. Transitions: From the German Threat to the Soviet Menace5. Regression: The Postwar Devolution of U.S. Nuclear Intelligence6. Whistling in the Dark: The U.S. (Mis)Perception of the Soviet Nuclear ProgramConclusion: Credit Where Credit Is DueNotesSelected BibliographyIndex

In this neat, enthralling study, Houghton wonders why this successful intelligence operation was followed by the failure to anticipate the first Soviet nuclear test in August 1949.(Foreign Affairs) A great read: Concise, fact-packed, laden with fascinating anecdotes, and chock full of insights... This book is for everyone, intelligence expert and layperson alike. A page turner.(The Cipher Brief) As Vince Houghton reports in this beautifully written and well-researched history, the American scientific and strategic community believed they were in a race with Nazi physics, and they had a nagging fear that they might not win that race. The Nuclear Spies explores the administrative, scientific, logistical, and intelligence aspects of the effort to collect, analyze, and disseminate information about a weapon that at the time was neither fully understood nor developed.(International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence) Vince Houghton has written an engaging and well-researched book focusing on the U.S. effort to gather scientific intelligence on the German atomic bomb program during World War II. Houghton expands his scope beyond the war to demonstrate that the scientific and atomic intelligence bureaucracy designed during the war withered in the immediate postwar era.(The Journal of American History) [A] useful introduction to the field of scientific intelligence.(Choice)