For the President's Eyes Only: Secret Intelligence and the American Presidency from Washington to Bush.

• Author: Cobane, Craig T.

Christopher Andrew's book examines in critical detail the use and abuse of the intelligence community throughout the history of the American presidency. Andrew provides a lucid narrative surveying how presidential ignorance and misconceptions concerning intelligence matters led directly to a number of perceived "intelligence failures." Overall the book is tough but fair regarding presidential performance. Andrew concludes that "only four American presidents--Washington, Eisenhower, Kennedy (briefly), and Bush--have shown a real flair for intelligence" (p. 537).

Andrew adroitly demonstrates that "intelligence gathering" was not taken seriously for most of the early history of the United States. The interest of one future president, General Zachary Taylor, is described as "barely [going] beyond peering at the enemy through binoculars" (p. 14). Interest alone seldom produces successful use of intelligence by presidents. For example, President Abraham Lincoln, while exhibiting a strong interest in intelligence, demonstrated little acumen. Lincoln personally recruited William Alvin Lloyd, a publisher of railroad and steamboat guides in the southern states, as a spy. Lloyd's activities can be described as truly farcical, and the value of the information he provided was minimal. After Lincoln's assassination, Lloyd returned to Washington to find that Congress refused to pay him. His promised remuneration was not secured until a Supreme Court decision, which ironically upheld an important presidential prerogative--the right to employ secret agents. Even with Lincoln's interest and personal involvement, he did not take intelligence gathering seriously enough to work toward a centralized intelligence service.

According to Andrew, time and experience had little impact on the lack of seriousness placed on gathering intelligence. Although President Woodrow Wilson supervised the creation of the first professional intelligence staff in U.S. history, Wilson "paid scant attention to it" (p. 60). Instead, he devoted his energies to creating the higher moral plane of open diplomacy, where intelligence collection would be "obsolete" (p. 61).

Franklin D. Roosevelt's stint as assistant secretary for the Office of Naval Intelligence during Wilson's presidency made him one of the first presidents to have hands-on experience with intelligence prior to taking office. Yet, even with FDR's background, he made few improvements in the professionalism or efficient use of...