William Matchetts Secret Victory provides a vital case study in counterterrorism at a time the West needs every lesson it can get. It may deal with Ireland, but it provides vital insights into both the value of human intelligence and the limits of force. Anthony H. Cordesman Burke Chair in Strategy Center for Strategic and International Studies Washington DC Intelligent, captivating and disturbing in equal measure. William Matchetts ȘSecret Victoryș reveals how the IRA was infiltrated, degraded and strategically defeated ȓ at times with violent and deadly consequences. To read this book is to understand how intelligence drives irregular conflicts. Doug Beattie MC Author of, An Ordinary Soldier This book poses a simple, but hitherto under examined subject regarding the effectiveness of the RUC Special Branch in combating violent subversion during the Northern Ireland crisis: a challenging topic, surrounded as it is by historical contention, political dispute and the innate secrecy of the Branchșs work. This has conspired to produce a lack of informed commentary on the topic, which this work successfully redresses. The structure is well thought out and the writing itself is presented with great fluency, enabling many original and telling insights into this understudied area. The book presents the notion of Șpush and pullș, examining the extent to which the Provisional IRA was pulled into the peace process via the activities of the Special Branch. Alongside the push versus pull analysis the other lens through which the book derives much of its insight is the assessment of whether the Special Branch could be said to have constituted an Șeffective and impartialș force in helping to bring the conflict to a resolution or whether it was a Șpartial and destructiveș player in a so-called dirty war. The author trenchantly, and effectively deconstructs the dirty war thesis, illustrating that much of the narrative is partial, factually flawed or often simply incoherent and contradictory. The systematic critique of this popular orthodoxy through evidence and argumentation, along with the more detailed illumination of the Special Branchșs evolution as a vital arm in the security effort, constitutes a highly original contribution to knowledge and understanding of the Northern Ireland conflict. Professor Michael Rainsborough Head of War Studies Kingșs College London