How could British delegates exploit knowledge that American officials had bugged their Washington conference rooms?
Short answerThey could stage discussions around inflated but credible red lines, making the Americans concede more to preserve an agreement.
NotesOne way to exploit the surveillance would be to stage internal arguments around carefully chosen British minimums. Delegates could repeatedly present retention of Hood, completion of the G3s, a minimum capital-ship total, and adequate carrier numbers as instructions from London. Other team members would call those demands dangerously low, encouraging listeners to believe they were genuine last concessions. The method would use an opponent's intelligence channel to shape its estimate of what agreement was still possible.