A Look Over My Shoulder Analysis

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Pages: 7

Intelligence:
In his article, The Correct Definition of Intelligence, Thomas F. Troy traced the history of the definition of Intelligence from its Latin roots, to the present. At the heart of it, Troy defines Intelligence as information on a country’s real or potential enemies. This doesn’t include all information (as implied by Sherman Kent’s definition that any sort of information that helps complete a task qualifies as intelligence), but specifically the type that is sensitive in nature and that the enemy is trying to conceal. This information tends to have critical implications for the rise and fall of nations. This is point is clearly made by Richard Helms in A Look Over My Shoulder, when he details the damage that Redl, an Austro-Hungarian
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the ideal relationship between the U.S. Intelligence Community and U.S. presidents?

The relationship between the U.S. intelligence community and the president is the most important association between two parties in all the U.S. government, if not the world. Since its rise during and after WWII, the intelligence community has had varying relationships with sitting U.S. presidents. Some relationships closer to the ideal and some were not. This paper will seek to define the real and ideal relationship between the president and Intelligence by discussing the most common challenges it faces and the solutions that can address
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The most famous example is president Johnson’s quote from lecture, comparing the Intelligence Community to a feces-stained cow tail soiling in an otherwise clean pale of milk. The mistrust and animosity this quote conveys is explained by the role the intelligence community plays, as outlined in Chapters 13 and 14 in Intelligence: The Secret World of Spies. The intelligence community serves the President by providing him with data which has been processed into intelligence through objective analysis. The intelligence community prides itself on being able to objectively speak truth to power. The problem with this function is that it can often lead tensions with the President because the truth may at times be inconvenient to his or her national security policy objectives. As a result, the more the intelligence community does its job, the more mistrust a President can for for them. In an ideal situation, the president would not only understand the intelligence community’s responsibility to speak truth to power, he would also listen objectively and take into consideration its recommendations. The President is by no means obliged to accept the intelligence community’s recommendations; he or she can pass their own judgments on the intelligence community. But as soon as the President