America's Strategic Blunders ― Intelligence Analysis and National Security Policy, 1936-1991

The US intelligence estimating process worked pretty well during the Cold War, says Matthias, but political and military leaders generally ignored the estimates given them, sometimes with disastrous results. He began his intelligence career during World War II with the military, moved to the Central Intelligence Agency in 1950, and retired from it in 1973. The laundry he hangs out ranges from Pearl Harbor to Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Willard C. Matthias began his career in intelligence during World War II deciphering "ultra" codes for the Military Intelligence Division of the War Department General Staff. He joined the CIA's Office of the National Estimates when it opened in 1950 at the start of the Korean War and rose to become a member of the Board of National Estimates in 1961. He retired in 1973 not long after Richard Helms resigned as CIA Director rather than cooperate in President Nixon's scheme to have the CIA help cover up the Watergate break-in.