Military Intelligence: Behind the Scenes (Experiencing War: Military Intel: The Inside Story, Stories from the Veterans History Project, Library of Congress)

Experiencing War: Military Intel: The Inside Story (Stories from the Veterans History Project, Library of Congress)

Home front intelligence workers may not have played the dashing roles of their overseas counterparts, but their ability to interrogate, interpret, and decode made them more than ordinary office workers. There were undercover assignments as well as long hours at a desk, trying to make sense of intercepted, coded enemy messages. And for some a taste of wartime intelligence work led to a career in the field as a civilian.

"You were learning things about people that they didn't think their neighbors knew about them." (Video Interview, 17:04)

A 29-year-old lawyer with an established practice when he entered the Army, Louis L. Weinstein found his niche working as a plainclothes investigator. His first assignments were in Chicago (where recruiting was taking place for the Manhattan Project) and his native Detroit (where there was strong sympathy for the Nazi cause). By war's end, he was in San Francisco, interviewing released prisoners of the Japanese in preparation for war crimes trials.

Go and experience
Louis L. Weinstein's story

Experience more stories of Behind the Scenes

"You weren't supposed to talk about it, not even to your family, not even to your husband if you had a husband. Nobody was to know." --Ann Caracristi

	"It made a big difference in winning the war in the Pacific ... we were aware of that." Ann Caracristi's story		"I would take [the German generals] in my car and show them the Pentagon." John W. Kluge's story
	"Even before Pearl Harbor, the Navy knew they needed more cryptographers." Ann Ellicott Madeira's story		"If you were ever seen reading a Russian magazine, you would have been reported." Judy Reed Russell's story
	"It's the best job in the Army by far." James C. Shildmyer's story

Military Intel: Behind the Scenes

The Library of Congress Legal | External Link Disclaimer
May 2, 2006

Veterans History Project Home
Contact Us