War and the Rogue Presidency by Eland Ivan;

Author:Eland, Ivan;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Independent Institute
Published: 2019-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

Covert Actions During the Cold War

The CIA, created after World War II, was supposed to be an agency gathering intelligence on foreign threats to the United States. It quickly evolved into an agency whose main function was instead the conduct of covert military and political operations—and not all of these “dirty tricks” were confined to foreign shores. Harry Ransom, a leading scholar on intelligence matters, concluded that nothing in the public record “nor in such archives as are accessible (for example, in the Truman Library) suggests that Congress ever intended to create or knew that it was creating an agency for para military operations and a wide range of foreign political interventions.” Similarly, in 1974, Sen. John Stennis, who was elected to the Senate shortly after the original CIA bill was enacted, said, “There was nothing clearer around here, not anything that sounded louder, than the fact the CIA act was passed for the purpose of foreign intelligence.” He added that he was “shocked and disappointed and considerably aroused” when he got wind of the agency’s involvement in Watergate.11

Furthermore, the Central Intelligence Act of 1949, governing the new agency created by the National Security Act of 1947, authorized the CIA to hide its budget by receiving money from other federal agencies, such as the Department of Defense. After the chairpersons of the congressional appropriations committees inform the White House’s Office of Management and Budget what the CIA budget is for the year, the money is transferred from the Defense Department to the CIA. This process upends the Constitution’s requirement that “a regular Statement and Account of Receipts and Expenditures of all [author’s emphasis] public Money shall be published from time to time” because not only is the CIA budget a secret, but therefore the public does not know the amount of the real budget of the Department of Defense either. In addition, following the early, but questionable, accounting practice allowed by Congress for the use of hidden funds in the 1790s, the CIA director is allowed to simply certify, with no documentation or congressional audit, that public funds have been spent properly.

Eisenhower decried Truman’s bald attempt at usurping power in the steel case as reminiscent of that by the fascists he fought against in World War II. Yet Ike found his own way to abuse his power as commander in chief. Instead of starting small or large conventional wars to foil communist expansion around the world, which could have led to escalation to nuclear war, Eisenhower began to use covert action by the CIA (created during the Truman administration) to blunt Soviet momentum. He successfully overthrew governments in Iran, Guatemala, and Laos. Another of Ike’s purposes in using covert action was to avoid the constitutional conflicts with Congress and the courts that Truman’s publicly blunt unilateral war making abroad and at home, as commander in chief, had provoked.12 Eisenhower may have avoided conflict with Congress, but undeclared secret mini-wars, initiated on executive authority alone, were hardly constitutional either. (Congress did

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