Houston, Lawrence R. "Executive Privilege in the Field of Intelligence." Studies in Intelligence 2, no. 4 (Fall 1958): 61-74.
Houston, Lawrence R. "Executive Privilege in the Field of Intelligence." Studies in Intelligence 2, no. 4 (Fall 1958): 61-74.
"Former CIA General Counsel reviews legal precedents for protecting sensitive information from disclosure in the courts and Congress, with particular references to Central Intelligence privileges. Citations stretch back to Continental Congress proceedings."
Jeffers, H. Paul. The CIA: A Close Look at the CIA. New York: Lion Press, 1970. [Petersen]
Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. The CIA and American Democracy. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1989. 2d ed., rev. 1998. [pb] 3d ed., 2003.
Clark comment: This work covers the first 40 years of the CIA's history, ending with the Tower Commission and Inouye Committee reports on Iran-Contra. The second revised edition has a brief update that brings the overall material to 1997. The author's inability to understand the noncommunist left and, especially, liberal anticommunism is a serious weakness in his history of the years covered here.
According to Surveillant 1.5, the author "finds that the Agency has been manipulated by the White House, the Congress, and even the public. This politicization has damaged the CIA's standing, and as a result, its effectiveness in terms of intelligence collection and analysis as well as operations. The CIA has also become something of a scapegoat, being doubted, even when proven correct. A concise history for all audiences."
The reviewer in JAH 77.1 comments that this book "is a highly successful synthesis of what has been discovered about the CIA's activities.... Jeffreys-Jones' central contribution is ... to our knowledge of what other public officials thought and did about the results of the CIA's actions.... The treatment of the Truman administration's tentative attitude toward the CIA is the best in print.... The story of the mid-1970s investigations of CIA activities by [congressional] committees ... receives less detailed consideration than it deserves."
Rosati, APSR 84.4, sees this as "one of the most comprehensive and valuable treatments of the history of the CIA and its place within U.S. democracy." The book goes beyond description and "provides a very balanced and analytical account of the evolution of the CIA." Jeffreys-Jones "makes it clear that the CIA is a large and complex bureaucratic organization with multiple intelligence functions that have become increasingly professionalized over time."
For West, PSQ 106.2, Jeffreys-Jones "spends too much time on covert action and not enough time on the other elements of intelligence.... This is an enjoyable volume that will inform the general or novice reader but does not offer any fundamental insights about the Central Intelligence Agency or its operations." Smith, Presidential Studies Quarterly 21.1, notes that while Jeffreys-Jones ends his work with a call for reform, he "neglects to present any effective, long-term alternatives."
To Johnson, I&NS 5.3, this book "offers little new information," but "is well-written, balanced in its appraisals, and offers a provocative theme." He adds, however, that Jeffreys-Jones "seems to place excessive emphasis" on the relationship between the CIA's image and its effectiveness. Certainly, "standing can be important ... but it is just one of several variables that shape the opportunities ... for having influence in high circles."
Commenting on the second edition, Shryock, IJI&C 13.3, finds this "a fairly straightforward and prodigiously researched" work. It is, however, "by no means definitive, and in a number of respects is more than mildly disappointing." Because the author "relies too heavily on secondary sources and on his own ... political instincts and prejudices, he wanders off track from time to time, arriving at dubious, sometimes even strange, judgments." In addition, there is a "surprising neglect of one whole area of Agency activity, the acquisition of information"; that is, "he tends to play down the significance of espionage, advanced technical means of collection, and the exploitation of open sources."
Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri. "The Historiography of the CIA." Historical Journal 23 (Jun. 1980): 489-496. [Petersen]
Johnson, Loch K. America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 1991. [pb]
Clark comment: Much has happened in the world of intelligence since Loch Johnson brought out America's Secret Power. However, the book remains solid for the period it covers (from the CIA's creation in 1947 through the 1987 Iran-Contra hearings). It can still give excellent service as the text for an introductory political science course on national security policy. Johnson's balanced approach may not please those who would prefer more pointed (sensational?) criticism, but his judgments rarely exceed the reach of his research.
Surveillant 1.6 sees Johnson providing a "study of the balance between the genuine needs of national security and the protection of individual liberties." America's Secret Power "examines the CIA and its relations with other American institutions including Congress and the White House." Johnson is "critical of the CIA's use of journalists and academics to gather intelligence"; and he "reveals how the best intelligence reports can be distorted or ignored, and how covert action can spin out of control."
According to the FA 68.5 reviewer, the book "is imbued throughout with good sense about how secret intelligence and democratic society can be made to coexist." Jackson, I&NS 5.3, refers to Johnson's "thoroughness and grasp of detail" and his "scholarly and straightforward approach." Nevertheless, the author "could dig deeper" in looking at the relationships within the intelligence world.
Mulcahy, IJI&C 4.1 calls America's Secret Power a "magisterial study" with "wide appeal to both practitioners and students." Johnson exercises "balanced judgment" and provides "meticulous documentation." The book is "definitive in its intellectual rigor and informed judgment." Johnson is the "rightful heir to the mantle of Harry Howe Ransom as the premier scholar of American intelligence policy."
Theoharis, PSQ 105.1, writes that the book is a "fairly comprehensive survey" of the CIA's history but "offers little new information." Only with regard to the Iran-Contra hearings does Johnson go beyond the documentary record of the congressional committees of 1975-1976. On the other hand, Goodman, APSR 84.4, asserts that Johnson has broken "new theoretical ground for students of both national security and the ethics of foreign policy.... The chapters on covert action operations and executive and legislative oversight are particularly good and well documented."
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