John Prados, Wargame Designer, Author, National Security Analyst

John Prados is an analyst of national security, author, and game designer based in Washington, DC. He is the designer of the best-selling, award-winning game Third Reich, which has appeared in six different editions, five other games that have appeared in multiple editions, and more than thirty published games overall. His most recent design is Beyond Waterloo: Napoleon’s Last Gamble (ATO Magazine/LPS Simulations). Currently in development is a game on the European Resistance to the German Occupation in the West from 1940 to 1944. On Normandy specifically he has published Bradley’s D-Day (ATO Magazine) and its earlier companion design Monty’s D-Day. Third Reich holds the Charles R. Roberts Award for board wargaming and several other industry awards. Prados’s games Khe Sanh, Fortress Berlin, and Spies have all earned other industry awards. Third Reich remains in print thirty-eight years after its original publication. Prados has lectured on game design topics at the National Defense University and the Air Force Command and Staff College and on a wide variety of other topics in many venues. He holds a Ph.D. from Columbia University in Political Science (International Relations) and focuses on presidential power, international relations, intelligence and military affairs. He is a senior fellow and project director with the National Security Archive at George Washington University. His current book is Islands of Destiny: The Solomons Campaign and the Eclipse of the Rising Sun (NAL/Caliber), and he is also the author of twenty-one other books including Normandy Crucible: The Decisive Battle That Shaped World War II in Europe (NAL/Caliber). Recent works include Vietnam: The History of an Unwinnable War, 1945-1975 (University Presses of Kansas), winner of the Henry Adams Prize in American History; How the Cold War Ended: Debating and Doing History (Potomac), and In Country (Rowman & Littlefield), an anthology of combat writing from the Vietnam War. In addition Prados has titles on national security, the American presidency, intelligence, diplomatic and military history, including Iraq, Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and World War II. Pathbreaking at the time were his history of the National Security Council Keepers of the Keys, and The Soviet Estimate: U.S. Intelligence and Soviet Strategic Forces (a key resource for understanding Soviet military power at the time). The books Vietnam: History of an Unwinnable War, Keepers of the Keys, and Combined Fleet Decoded: The Secret History of American Intelligence and the Japanese Navy in World War II, were all nominated for the Pulitzer Prize. Several of his books have won other distinguished awards.

(Last Updated 14 July 2012.)

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