DOC For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush by Christopher Andrew in History

Review

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating Account of Our Presidents and Their Use of IntelligenceBy John Whiteside-Author; FOOL'S MATEThis work is clearly a five star account of the manner in which our past presidents valued and used intelligence and counter-intelligence operations to further U.S. interests at home and abroad. Most interesting to me was the fact that so few presidents up to Franklin Roosevelt and World War II used any intelligence organizations or operations at all. Only a handful of presidents engaged the use of an intelligence service during their administrations; and then only during a time of war. While stories about our earlier presidents are somewhat limited; they were still of great interest. The latter day presidents are explained in detail in an easy to read and hard to put down fashion. Great read for history and spy buffs!17 of 17 people found the following review helpful. Fascinating history of the American intelligence communityBy Kevin P. SchultzThis book is extremely well written and very informative. I picked it up as a reference for a term paper; and initially I read just the section pertaining to the term paper. Whenever I opened it to read a passage for the term paper though; I found that I just couldn't put the book down because it was so interesting. While on Christmas vacation; I went back and read the rest of the book. I rank this book right up there with Clay Blair's "Silent Victory;" and I highly recommend it for anyone interested in learning more about the development of the American intelligence community at the highest levels of government.6 of 6 people found the following review helpful. Presidential IntelligenceBy Retired ReaderThis is an altogether fascinating book on how American Presidents have used; misused; or ignored secret intelligence in the 20th Century. Although Andrew provides a brief introductory chapter on how U.S. presidents from Washington onward have used secret intelligence; the balk of the book concerns 20th Century presidents from Woodrow Wilson to George W Bush (senior). From the beginning of the Cold War (1947-1992) CIA was the principal means by which successive presidents received secret intelligence. Therefore much of this book chronicles the dynamic relationships that developed between CIA directors and their most important individual customer; the President.As this book makes clear; not all presidents understood the value and uses of the secret intelligence provided through CIA. Also the role of CIA as a purveyor of intelligence was muddied by its ability to conduct covert operations. More than one president was far more interested in the ability of CIA to engage in secret operations to achieve presidential national security objectives than the intelligence that it provided. According to Andrew; excluding John Kennedy; only two modern Presidents really understood the value;use; and limitations of intelligence. President Dwight Eisenhower; thanks to his WWII role as Supreme Allied Commander; came to the presidency with a clear understanding and appreciation of intelligence and established a good working relationship with CIA and the IC. President George W. Bush (Senior) actually served a year as CIA Director under Gerald Ford. This experience gave him an unprecedented understanding (for a U.S. President) of intelligence processes and capabilities as well as a clear understanding of the uses and abuses of covert action. Bush was a very well liked CIA and more importantly trusted. As a result; even if Bush disliked the then CIA Director William Webster; he had a fine sense of the importance of the intelligence that CIA produced. He even added Robert Gates; a career CIA officer; to his National Security Council (NSC). Almost unique among U.S. Presidents; Bush understood the vital differences between predictive and warning intelligence and never expected CIA to produce prophetic warnings on specific events.In sum this is a well written and well researched book that shows yet again that any intelligence is only as good as the system or; in this case; individual it serves.