Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition

by Stansfield Turner

Book Overview

Admiral Turner, appointed by Carter to take over the CIA in 1977 exposes the dark side of espionage; ethics of covert acts. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0395355737
• ISBN13: 9780395355732
• Release Date: January 1985
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.45 lbs.

Customer Reviews

An outsider considers the challanges of CIA mgt.

2 years removed from the DCI Turner reflects on what intelligence means in a democracy and the issues of the DCI as manager. This is not a history book nor is it a memoir. It is something closer to first person journalism. For me, the book's greatest appeal is looking at the CIA through the eyes of an outsider. Turner is so much an outsiders that this book suffered more censorship that perhaps the total of all other books written by CIA directors combined. One part that sticks with me is when Turner has a moment of enlightenment; he realizes that the CIA is actually 3 separate autonomous organizations under one roof. Heis not sure how to effectively manage them and comes to the conclusion what the 3 want is someone just to fight the political battles for them on Capitol Hill against the President and Congress, as well as dealing with the media. Turner despite all the obstacles does mange to implement some of his policies and manage to keep his job during his president's tenure (1 of 2 DCI to accomplish this). At the end of the text are his 11 action agendas to reform the U.S. intelligence. Personally I don't agree with most of them. Like a typical bureaucrat his solution is to add more government to the already overextended yet underperforming, bulky, byzantine and inefficient government design; interesting enough 2 of the actions have occurred since his writing this text. How much he had to do with them, that I do not know. I would recommend this book to anyone new in national security studies rather than someone actually practicing national security (it would kind of dated for them). He book provides a candid glimpse into the challenges of intelligence management.

WE AIN'T IDIOTS-WE'RE THE CIA!

Just like Sheehan's book on Viet Nam, this is just another example of our amazing self-defeating government in action! Everything the CIA does overseas seems to backfire on itself-Like Bin Laden and 9/11! This book gives the whole thing away with terms just like "Caseworker" and "Spy Station" and Compartmentaliziton and "predictive science"! We hear that are old profs in college might be spies or even the pastor of our local church or the evangelist on TV or radio! I had read this very good book in the summer of 1985-just after the year where paranoia began about government intrusion on our lives-George Orwell's 1984!BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING! Turner had also stated that the college professors who tend to work with alot of foreign students may be recruiting them for the CIA to be spies when they return home! He introduces the book discussing the legitimacy of intelligance gathering comparing it to Joshua and the 12 spies scouting out Canaan for Israel. Yet to me, it looks like it is God himself that causes so many things to backfire for the sinister evil CIA! I guess the Hostage Crisis in Teheran in 1979 was just another fine example. "Egg on their face" was the expression Turner had used to describe iot when things backfired on them and humiliated the CIA! I would also say that these confused self-righteous people think they are the embodiment of moral righteousness of Christianity! But I think that from the Bible, Ezekiel the Prophet condemns America and its foreign imperialism when he condemned historical great empires like the Assyrian Empire for spreading terror around the world with the sword-and how God condemned them to the Pit forever! I deduced that many foreign immiagrants may work for the CIA because they are exiles who want to overthrow the government of their homelands! So many bad people come to America hoping to hide behind Washington's skirts! This is a real eye-opening book! I had read in this book and on the CIA's website that the CIA has no actual legal authority or jurisdiction in the US. Maybe this is why I get so many helpless threats, insults and attempts at persuasion from enemies. Because they really can't do a damn thing to me in America! But the CIA has kinks in its armor as the 1993 massacre of MaCleans, Virginia CIA headquarters pointed out to me. They had to enlist the aid of Maryland State Troopers to protect them from further terrorist attasks!

Strategic and Sensible Reference for Intelligence Reform

Stansfield Turner was a Rhodes scholar and naval officer who rose to command of a carrier task group, a fleet, NATO's southern flank, and the Navy's most prestigious intellectual institution, the Naval War College. He served from 1977-1981 as Director of Central Intelligence under President Jimmy Carter, and his book in my mind was the first serious contribution-perhaps even a catalyst-to the growing debate over whether and how much reform is required if the U.S. Intelligence Community is to be effective in the 21st Century. His eleven-point agenda for reform is of lasting value, as are his ideas for intelligence support to those responsible for natural disaster relief and other non-military challenges.