Central Intelligence Agency, The

Central Intelligence Agency, The | Covert Action Is Sometimes Justified

Thomas H. Henriksen is associate director and senior fellow at the Hoover Institute on War, Revolution and Peace.

Summary: Covert action, such as espionage and assassination, is justified when diplomatic means fail and military intervention exacts too high a price. Unfortunately, in the aftermath of CIA intelligence failures during the Cold War, the United States has come to disapprove of covert action and now relies on air strikes to achieve policy goals. Air strikes seem to avoid the costs associated with allout war, but they have largely failed to...

[The entire page is 4255 words long]

Join eNotes

The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the: