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Partners at Creation: The Men Behind Postwar Germany's Defense and Intelligence Establishments. By James II. Critchfield. Annapolis, Md.: Naval Institute Press, 2003. ISBN 1-59114-136-2. Photographs. Appendix. Glossary. Bibliography. Index. Pp. x, 243. $32.95.
This insignificant memoir tells how its author attended the birth of West Germany's intelligence service-the so-called Gehlen Organization, which evolved into the Hundesnachrichtendienst. It will not achieve what I believe to be its goal: to help historians.
It is too slight. The disjointed narrative does not clarify the evolution. The author does not anchor his statements with dates and documents. His sketches of personalities-the point of the book-are superficial. Historians will always have to go to the written record for the story. But this book will not flesh it out, as memoirs are intended to do.
I blame the editors as much as the author. Why didn't they tell him-he died in 2003 but was...