Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency

by William J. Daugherty, Mark Bowden (Foreword)

In Executive Secrets, Covert Action and the Presidency, William J. Daugherty, a seventeen-year veteran operations officer with the C.I.A., explains the nature of the intelligence discipline of covert action and presidential decision making processes since World War II. By examining the agency's history in this way, he establishes and clarifies the role of covert action as a necessary tool of presidential statecraft.
Citing congressional investigations, recently declassified documents, and his own experiences in covert action policy and oversight, Daugherty demonstrates that the C.I.A.'s covert programs were initiated by the president. In addition to explaining how covert programs transform presidential foreign policy into reality, he details how each president conducted the approval, oversight, and review processes for covert action and examines specific instances in which U.S. presidents have expressly directed C.I.A. covert action programs to suit their broader policy objectives.
Daugherty's first tour with the C.I.A. was in Iran, where he was one of fifty-two Americans held hostage for 444 days during the Carter administration. Combining inside perspectives with objectivity in judging the true nature and scope of C.I.A. covert actions during the last half century, Daugherty reveals an agency whose essential functions are necessary in a complex and dangerous modern world.

Genres: History, Cia, Espionage

298 pages, Hardcover

First published December 12, 1996

Reviews

[Anthony]

A historic look at the CIA from its beginning in 1947 and the importance and use to maintaining national security. Since after World War II, this agency has been using covert action based on only presidential decisions, or at least this is what the author, a seventeen year veteran operations office with the CIA, has revealed in this work. Informative, and revealing, yet you can feel which way the author leans in his writing, but what else is a "company" man to do?

[Daniel]

A fascinating study of Presidential use of covert action programs, and all the legislative oversight involved, in said use, and the role of the President. overall a very informative book.

[L J]

Reads like a text book. I really don't want a masters degree in the subject.