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Dr Michael S Goodman

Dr Michael S Goodman is a senior lecturer in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London. He has published widely in the field of intelligence history and scientific intelligence, including Spying on the Nuclear Bear: Anglo-American Intelligence and the Soviet Bomb (Stanford University Press, 2008), and more recently Learning from the Secret Past: Cases in British Intelligence History (Georgetown University Press, 2011).

He is a member of the editorial boards for Intelligence and National Security; International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence; Inteligencia y Seguridad: Revista de análisis y prospective; and Contemporary British History. He is the Official Historian of the Joint Intelligence Committee.

Margaret Thatcher and the Joint Intelligence Committee

Soon after taking office a new Prime Minister receives special briefings from the Cabinet Secretary. One is on the ‘letters of last resort’, which give instructions to the commander of the British submarine on patrol with the nuclear deterrent, in the …