America's Secret Power: The CIA in a Democratic Society (Paperback)

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Key Phrases: budget subcommittee, covert action staff, political covert action, United States, White House, Soviet Union (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...a fine overview....a refreshing approach."--James J. Wirtz, Defense Analysis

"[Johnson] writes in clean, easy prose about the covert actions that grab the headlines but, happily, his book ranges across the agency's functions. It is imbued throughout with good sense about how secret intelligence and democratic society can be made to coexist."--Foreign Affairs

"Breaks new theoretical ground...and adds important data about many contemporary intelligence activities....the importance of Johnson's contribution to the debate about he future of U.S. intelligence agencies cannot be stressed enough."--American Political Science Review

"Johnson's experience as a staffer on various Congressional intelligence oversight committees is evident throughout, both in his impressive command of detail and in his general 'Capitol Hill' orientation."--American Politics Review

"A meticulous study of increasing congressional assertiveness and distrust....The book is also prescriptive and, as such, written for a wider audience in Washington....The book then is aimed at two audiences: those interested in the role of the CIA; and those interested in congressional oversight. Both audiences will find this book excellent."--Political Studies

"A magiserial study....A fair-minded and balanced critique of the CIA and intelligence policy....Must now be considered the standard work on the Central Intelligence Agency."--International Journal of Intelligence and Counterintelligence

"Solid work. Readable."--Dan Struble, Occidental College

Product Description

Based on hundreds of interviews with CIA officials, national security experts, and legislators, as well as a thorough culling of the archival record, America's Secret Power offers an illuminating and up-to-date picture of the CIA, 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 a legislative overseer, presents a comprehensive examination of the Agency and its relations with other American institutions, including Congress and the White House, and looks closely at how it pursues its three major missions--intelligence analysis, counterintelligence, and covert action.

At once fascinating and sobering, Johnson's book reveals how the best intelligence reports can be distorted or ignored; 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 a thorough review of legislative efforts to curb these abuses, and suggests several important ways to achieve the delicate balance between national security and democratic ideals.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 368 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA (March 14, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195069447
• ISBN-13: 978-0195069440
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #734,586 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars The Shadow of the CIA..., October 1, 2007

By	D. S. Thurlow (Alaska) - See all my reviews (TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

"America's Secret Power" is Loch Johnson's 1989 study of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the premier U.S. intelligence agency. Johnson, an academic by trade, had extensive experience working as a staffer in Congress, most notably on the 1974-75 Church Committee investigations of CIA excesses.

The good news is that Johnson has compiled extensive unclassified research on the CIA, based on a variety of sources, and made a meaningful effort to analyze, for the general public, the attributes of an agency which by necessity conducts most of its business out of public view. Johnson discusses the many functions of the CIA, including its controversial responsibility for covert action and its contentious relationships with academia and the media. Johnson is to be commended for having gone the extra mile in trying to provide constructive criticism for the many faults he finds.

The bad news is that Johnson tends to undercut the value of his own work:
First, he is sometimes careless in his fact-checking, ranging from the merely annoying (Pearl Harbor was bombed by Japanese naval aviation, not the Japanese Air Force) to the fairly significant (confusing "counterinsurgency"-a method-with "paramilitary"-a tool).

Second, Johnson places too much credibility in the media accounts he relies upon in his study of CIA actions. An author who implies, for example, that the New York Times is "an organ of unfettered expression of fact" has made a remarkable assertion given the longstanding political activism of that paper.

Third, Johnson is challenged to maintain his objectivity throughout the book. He is prone to characterize various CIA activities as illegal, without actually documenting that any competent authority has found a particular activity to be illegal (as opposed to merely objectionable). Sometimes, he indulges in hyperventilating prose. The Iran-Contra Scandal, an admittedly botched attempt to ransom American hostages out of Lebanon coupled with an illegal diversion of funds to support anti-communist rebels in Nicaragua, is characterized as somehow threatening the very existance of American democracy, instead of merely the careers of the individual officials involved. Johnson seems blind to the highly partisan nature of some Congressional criticism of the CIA, rooted as much in policy differences with a President as in real or alleged wrong-doing.

"America's Secret Power" has much value as a textbook on the Central Intelligence Agency for the student who has the background and skepticism to weed through Johnson's occasional failures of objectivity and the limitations of his sources. Johnson has posed many very useful questions about the value of secret intelligence organizations in a democracy. It is to Johnson's credit that he acknowledges that many of these questions have no useful permanent answer.