America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society. By Loch K. Johnson. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989. 344p. $24.95.

Abstract

In 1975, after The New York Times published devastating critique of the CIA, three government panels--the Rockefeller, Church, and Pike Committees--were formed to examine these allegations in depth. What they uncovered--assassination plots, opened mail, drug experiments against unsuspecting subjects (two of whom died from side effects)--shocked the American people and moved Senator Frank Church to call the CIA a rogue elephant rampaging out of control. Clearly, America needs strong, effective intelligence effort, but just as clearly, this effort must operate within the bounds of an open, democratic society. Based on hundreds of interviews with CIA officials, national security experts, and legislators, as well as thorough culling of the archival record, America's Secret Power offers an illuminating and up-to-date picture of the Central Intelligence Agency, stressing the difficult balance between the genuine needs of national security and the protection of individual liberties. Loch Johnson, who has studied the workings of the CIA at first hand as legislative overseer, presents comprehensive examination of the Agency and its relations with other American institutions, including Congress and the White House (he offers particularly astute analyses of the CIA's use of journalists and academics to gather intelligence) and he illuminates the CIA's three major missions--intelligence analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action--providing vivid descriptions of their purpose and their pathologies. For example, he offers fascinating analysis of the Seven Sins of intelligence work, revealing how the best intelligence reports can be distorted or ignored (in the mid-1960s, the evidence against quick American victory in Vietnam was dismissed); how covert actions can spin out of control despite extensive safeguards, as in the Iran-Contra scandal; and how the CIA has spied on American citizens in clear violation of its charter. Further, he provides thorough review of legislative efforts to curb these abuses, suggesting several important ways to achieve the delicate balance between national security and democratic ideals. Vividly written and meticulously documented, America's Secret Power draws the strands of vast amount of research into balanced critique of our intelligence networks. It is work that stands alone in its thoroughness and objectivity, thoughtful and sobering portrait of the contemporary CIA.