Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency

This is an excellent, factual, and comprehensive review of covert action CA through the presidency of Bill Clinton. While a bit dated, the facts and background explanations in this book have not been equaled by any other book to my knowledge. The author is highly knowledgeable about CA and writes with an insider's understanding, but without any insider distortion. I hope the author is busy at work on an update, but this is still a book that should be read by any serious student of intelligence operations. I used the contents, over a few years on my essays which were required in the courses, i was taking.

I had to purchase the book, for my own library after picking it apart. The contents and subject matter is explained very well, to include the relationships between the actors as decisions are made. It is definitely one of the better books on the subject matter, to read and digest. This is truly an informative and eye opening book. This book sheds light on a number of US Presidents during their individual administrations and how they, integrated the nation's intelligence community to protect its citizens and interests throughout the world. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how the Executive branch used covert action to shape the world.

I ordered this item over a month ago and have no confirmation of shipment to date. I am beginning to wonder if the item will ever arrive.

I would not recommend this seller unless you do not care when your item arrives. One person found this helpful. The author is a former ranking official of the CIA and the context of this book is apologetic and defensive.

It repetitively makes these points: Iran-Contra, in which cases it is wrong and 2 the ability to reflect honestly and deeply by an experienced intelligent career professional is compromised significantly by assimilation into the agendas of a complex organizational structure and the bureaucratic distinctions that become highly relevant inside, but not to the outside observer or citizen. Because these two themes are the subtext of this book and the emotional energy of Daugherty's polemic, what is revealed is the impact of a lifelong career of assimilation to "insider" thinking and the blind spots and hubris that engenders.

I once asked why a proposal was languishing inside one of the agencies and was told that it was being moved from desk to desk because no one wanted to go on record denying it. Thus has it always been; thus will it always be.

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That matters, of course, but it is subordinate to the larger issues which are ignored in this book. To the citizen, what the nation is doing is critical, not simply the chain of command which exonerates intelligence agencies of responsibility by denying deniability to the executive branch. So focused is the author on pressing accountability back to the White House from Truman forward that he does not seem to notice that he is undermining the "plausible deniability" it is his sworn obligation to uphold.


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Therefore, the righteous indignation which suffuses so many pages is undercut by exactly the kind of CYA activities in Washington that cause citizens to become cynical and dismissive. Actions and speech acts take place everywhere in the world at once, not just "here" or "there. As far back as the fifties, when the CIA appointed itself a Ministry of Culture and supported writers, artists, publishers, etc.

Writers favored by the agency because their works supported a covert political agenda prospered while those who wrote, for example, about the poor, like John Steinbeck, did not, or they made their way on their own without hidden financial and organizational support.

Daugherty says of this and other efforts, "it is hard to imagine any American being upset over these actions of the CIA. Those who matured during that era were victims as were all other unwitting people in the world of a false belief that a free market for art and literature and music as for other things evolved in an organic way, according to its own internal dynamics. This is, in fact, the essence of a principled conservatism, this respect for and love of the organic processes of society. But what was happening in fact was the emergence of a manipulated, leveraged, hidden structure of power - what Eisenhower called "the military industrial complex" in a warning that went unheeded and which now includes media, entertainment, academia, and all of the key components of a "free market" society - and thus the simple accepted truths of a generation of Americans were fundamentally betrayed by this radical inauthenticity at the core of our American enterprise.

That Daugherty and other apologists like him can not entertain this, can not understand why this betrayal of the marketplace of ideas in the body politic is key to the cynicism of many Americans is the real problem with this work. Insiders become so imbued with the righteousness of their cause and the territorial distinctions of bureaucracy that this wholesale shift is unseen or, if seen, ignored or, if not ignored, celebrated with what feels like a smirk of innate superiority.

That the entire establishment in Washington, including the intelligence community, was not elected or authorized to do this except by its own secret and self-justifying machinations is exactly the point.

Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency by William J. Daugherty

Titles like this may smack of conspiracy theory, but very rarely do authors choose their own titles. A marketing team's title should not be confused with the authors' intent. In this case, a slightly flashy title fits the content--intelligence work is often duller and at the same time more exciting than its glamorous reputation. This point is made clear by the authors of this excellent book, developed by a fine writer and made infinitely credible by an author of unquestioned expertise. Secrets are revealed, of course, but nothing that couldn't be garnered from rigorous research.

There are some interesting and carefully drawn vignettes of covert operations here that demonstrate a skillful blending of declassified documents, investigative reports, and secondary sources. It is these case studies that make this one of those essential works for specialists in intelligence policy. If you are a keen observer of the agency, this one will interest and instruct you.

Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency

Offers a richly textured book that clears up some common misconceptions of the CIA, as well as an insider's perspective on how covert action really works, or fails. Readers of this timely and occasionally revelatory account may be surprised to learn that President Carter approved a covert action program to attack the internal legitimacy of the Soviet system, and that he repeatedly relied on covert action to achieve his foreign policy aims.

This is not an easy task, for the CIA has been the subject of many books, movies, and certain mindsets in the population. Covert Action and the Presidency" Skip to main content UKnowledge.

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Access Type Online access to this book is restricted to the University of Kentucky community. Files Download Download Full Text 1. Description A frank and refreshing evaluation of several Chief Executives, their Directors of Central Intelligence, and even some lower in the hierarchy, Executive Secrets shines light on the development and execution of foreign policy through the understanding of the tools available, of which covert action may be least known and understood.