Learning from history can be bad

Using history for contemporary purposes as I just described below is central when considering intelligence failures and how to eliminate them.

Brady paraphrases Tocqueville when he says:

'Misapplied lessons from history may be more dangerous than ignorance of the past'

Brady, C., ?Intelligence Failures: Plus Ca Change?? in Intelligence and National Security, Vol. 8, No. 4 (1993)