Do you think that declassified American Clandestine Operations ought to be analyzed by military historians, spy masters, clandestine practitioners and theorists to distill the bare minimum essentials for proper human and electronic intelligence collection, bribery, technology theft, regime destabilization, strategic/tactical sabotage? In an age of weapons of mass destruction and supersonic aircraft, can we afford to be the goofy footed and unsubtle apes we were in 1942? In my lifetime we crippled our intelligence collection capability by eliminating spy networks and HUMINT, only to have it kick us in the butt on 9/11. When do we "Get SMART"?

I was just reading your post and thought, but what about the original movie.

I look forward to reading your blog (and your more scholarly works) in the future.

Cheers

Matt

You led me to add a little appendix to my post. Thanks for the inspiration!

–Rob

Excellent point! Frank and the boys had enough cynicism about everything (including crime) to make a movie where the heist fails.

Best line:
"Tell me, Doc. Is it the big casino?"

Interesting opint: Frank's crew had all been veterans of the war. Maybe they learned about SNAFU there.

–Rob C

Also, your last point is why one should watch the original Ocean's 11 with Frank Sinatra, where everthing does not go right and the gangs nefarious profits literally go up in smoke.