The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War—A Tragedy in Three Acts

by Scott Anderson

amid the seventeen pages of dreary bureaucratese that comprised the National Security Act, there appeared a curious subclause. It was tucked away in Subsection D of Section 102, and it noted that, in addition to its more clearly defined responsibilities, the CIA might be tasked “to perform such other functions and duties related to intelligence gathering affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct [emphasis added].” With no further explication of what either “other functions and duties” or “from time to time” meant, it could be construed that the new intelligence agency had the prerogative to conduct any action the NSC deemed necessary, and at any time. As history was to show, this was precisely the interpretation that the architects of Truman’s emerging Cold War policy would adopt.