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William J. Daugherty

Executive Secrets: Covert Action and the Presidency Hardcover – September 15, 2004

by William J. Daugherty (Author), Mark Bowden (Foreword)

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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.

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"A hard-hitting, balanced and highly successful effort to deal with the issue of presidential responsibility for covert action." -- John Stempel

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Foreword by Mark Bowden, author of Black Hawk Down: A Story of Modern War

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Product details

Hardcover: 298 pages
Publisher: Univ Pr of Kentucky; First Edition edition (September 15, 2004)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0813123348
ISBN-13: 978-0813123349
Product Dimensions: 6.2 x 1.2 x 9 inches
Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
Customer Reviews: 10 customer reviews
Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,739,949 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #3107 in United States National Government
- #2805 in Political Intelligence
- #3163 in United States Executive Government

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D. Edger

Excellent, Factual Review of Covert Action

May 24, 2013

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

This is an excellent, factual, and comprehensive review of covert action (CA) through the presidency of Bill Clinton. While a bit dated, the facts and background explanations in this book have not been equaled by any other book to my knowledge. The author is highly knowledgeable about CA and writes with an insider's understanding, but without any insider distortion.

I hope the author is busy at work on an update, but this is still a book that should be read by any serious student of intelligence operations.

2 people found this helpful

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Danny L. Thoms Jr.

definitely one of the better books on the subject matter

August 2, 2014

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

I used the contents, over a few years on my essays which were required in the courses, i was taking. I had to purchase the book, for my own library after picking it apart. The contents and subject matter is explained very well, to include the relationships between the actors as decisions are made. It is definitely one of the better books on the subject matter, to read and digest.

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Amazon Customer

Eye opening and exhilarating

June 24, 2017

Format: PaperbackVerified Purchase

This is truly an informative and eye opening book. This book sheds light on a number of US Presidents during their individual administrations and how they, integrated the nation's intelligence community to protect its citizens and interests throughout the world. I recommend it to anyone interested in learning more about how the Executive branch used covert action to shape the world.

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Agent

Four Stars

February 20, 2015

Format: Kindle EditionVerified Purchase

Thought provoking.

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Richard Thieme

Insider Hubris and the Blinders of Denial

May 22, 2008

Format: Paperback

"Executive Secrets" reviews the history of covert action since WW2 and provides information the general reader might not have had (contrary to other reviews, there are no "secret" secrets in this book, since the author limits his examples to declassified data approved by the CIA, which eliminates much information in the public domain that the agency can not or will not acknowledge, One good recent example of the impact of this policy is the an attempt by former CIA officer Melissa Mahle to deliver a speech at the 2007 conference of the International Ethics and Intelligence Association on rendition, prevented when the agency "gutted" her talk by removing information in the public domain which it did not want to give an imprimatur of official acknowledgement).

The author is a former ranking official of the CIA and the context of this book is apologetic and defensive. It repetitively makes these points: (1) the CIA acts only when ordered to do so by the President, which orders since 1974 have been reviewed by relevant Senators and Representatives - except when it does not, e.g. Iran-Contra, in which cases it is wrong and (2) the ability to reflect honestly and deeply by an experienced intelligent career professional is compromised significantly by assimilation into the agendas of a complex organizational structure and the bureaucratic distinctions that become highly relevant inside, but not to the outside observer or citizen.

Because these two themes are the subtext of this book and the emotional energy of Daugherty's polemic, what is revealed is the impact of a lifelong career of assimilation to "insider" thinking and the blind spots and hubris that engenders.

Examples:

(1) The department or executive who did or did not approve particular actions is not, to the citizen, what is most important. Inside, it is. "Not on my desk" is a frequent defense, often heard. I once asked why a proposal was languishing inside one of the agencies and was told that it was being moved from desk to desk because no one wanted to go on record denying it. Thus has it always been; thus will it always be.

(2) The entire enterprise of how and why covert action is executed is the primary concern of the citizen, not the oft-repeated mantra that nothing is done without approval of the President. That matters, of course, but it is subordinate to the larger issues which are ignored in this book. To the citizen, what the nation is doing is critical, not simply the chain of command which exonerates intelligence agencies of responsibility by denying deniability to the executive branch. So focused is the author on pressing accountability back to the White House from Truman forward that he does not seem to notice that he is undermining the "plausible deniability" it is his sworn obligation to uphold. Therefore, the righteous indignation which suffuses so many pages is undercut by exactly the kind of CYA activities in Washington that cause citizens to become cynical and dismissive.

(3) The author fails to take fully into account, despite lip service to the fact of it, that the erosion of boundaries between foreign/domestic and our nation/other nation thanks to technological transformation of geopolitical realities (of which I have written extensively) means that "blowback" is not an incidental event but a chronic state of being for all of us. Actions and speech acts take place everywhere in the world at once, not just "here" or "there." Actions prohibited by the Constitution are now undertaken (the author would say - by order of the President! not independently by the agency! - and he would be absolutely right, but he would miss the point) from our ground and on our ground, obscuring former legal distinctions. As far back as the fifties, when the CIA appointed itself a Ministry of Culture and supported writers, artists, publishers, etc. to oppose Soviet "socialist realism" and propaganda, the hidden effect on America was immense. Writers favored by the agency because their works supported a covert political agenda prospered while those who wrote, for example, about the poor, like John Steinbeck, did not, or they made their way on their own without hidden financial and organizational support. Daugherty says of this and other efforts, "it is hard to imagine any American being upset over these actions of the CIA."

There perhaps is the essence of his blind spot. Those who matured during that era were victims as were all other unwitting people in the world of a false belief that a free market for art and literature and music as for other things evolved in an organic way, according to its own internal dynamics. This is, in fact, the essence of a principled conservatism, this respect for and love of the organic processes of society. But what was happening in fact was the emergence of a manipulated, leveraged, hidden structure of power - what Eisenhower called "the military industrial complex" in a warning that went unheeded and which now includes media, entertainment, academia, and all of the key components of a "free market" society - and thus the simple accepted truths of a generation of Americans were fundamentally betrayed by this radical inauthenticity at the core of our American enterprise.

That Daugherty and other apologists like him can not entertain this, can not understand why this betrayal of the marketplace of ideas in the body politic is key to the cynicism of many Americans is the real problem with this work. Insiders become so imbued with the righteousness of their cause and the territorial distinctions of bureaucracy that this wholesale shift is unseen or, if seen, ignored or, if not ignored, celebrated with what feels like a smirk of innate superiority. That the entire establishment in Washington, including the intelligence community, was not elected or authorized to do this except by its own secret and self-justifying machinations is exactly the point. Oversight by a few Congressional representatives who are assimilated into the process as insiders, the elusive quality of executives orders like EO12333 which can be changed without public notice on the fly, the hot potato game of who gave the orders (it is always mutual and collusive) - all this suggests why, when George Bush outlined at Camp David his intended responses to 9/11 and some advisors objected that at least some of them violated the Constitution, and the President replied, "The Constitution is nothing but a piece of paper" ... all of this suggests why we find ourselves, these days, with a cynical electorate, impatient with precisely the kinds of insider distinctions that for Daugherty are the end of the game.

9 people found this helpful

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Simon Mall

Rigorous and Sound

February 17, 2005

Format: Hardcover

Titles like this may smack of conspiracy theory, but very rarely do authors choose their own titles. A marketing team's title should not be confused with the authors' intent. In this case, a slightly flashy title fits the content--intelligence work is often duller and at the same time more exciting than its glamorous reputation.

This point is made clear by the authors of this excellent book, developed by a fine writer and made infinitely credible by an author of unquestioned expertise. Secrets are revealed, of course, but nothing that couldn't be garnered from rigorous research. It is the meticulous attention to detail, delivered in an exciting, provocative tone, that separates this book from the miasma of contenders. The tone is sharp and compelling. The style is filled with facts and support but never burdened by them.

For fans of solid U.S. history and those who want to know the true nature of intelligence work in America, this book is highly recommended.

20 people found this helpful

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R. Robinson

Poor storytelling even poorer scholarship.

July 18, 2009

Format: Paperback

We learn nothing new in this book (everything in this book is public record) nor do we get an interesting POV from the author. I hoped that at least the author would somehow have more info regarding clandestine operations/covert ops policy using NSC or personal the notes of the president's. But nope, just easily compiled research with weak supposition; makes me think if the publisher was duped by the author that the text would be either a comprehensive text or a critical study. Instead they received about 200 pages of recycled poo.

Abridged literature review: The author wishes to convince the reader and the general public that the CIA acts only when the President orders it to do so; and intelligence work is becoming more and more politicized, which compromises integrity from the DCI, down.

6 people found this helpful

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Should've been interesting. . .

September 3, 2008

Format: Paperback

This book had a lot of promise. Covert action? Very cool. The problem is, it's horribly written. There's an awful lot of sloppy mistakes and repetition. It's loaded with sentence fragments and poor grammer. (Or, "the sentences are fragments and bad, bad written with.") It doesn't interfere with the substance, and maybe I'm being too particular that I couldn't focus on the subject--but I couldn't. It was obnoxious, distracting, and I finally put the book down about three chapters from the end. I'm even a history major--I'll read anything.

10 people found this helpful

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5 star		43%
4 star		19%
3 star		15%
2 star		23%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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