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The CIA under Reagan, Bush & Casey: The Evolution of the Agency from Roosevelt to Reagan By Ray S. Cline Acropolis, 351 pp., $12.50 It is hard to believe that the Central Intelligence Agency, probably the most controversial political institution in American history, is barely 35 years old. (It came into formal existence on September 18, 1947.) Other political institutions—the Presidency, the Supreme Court—are controversial, but at least they are written into the Constitution, and there are almost two centuries of tradition behind their controversiality; there are touchstones, benchmarks, tests, criteria, observations—history itself—by which to judge the performance of these branches of government.

Not so the CIA, which started out as a servant of the President but which, since 1974, has become far more a creature of Congress than of the White House. The problem of the CIA cannot be merely that it tries to operate in secrecy. After all, despite the Woodward book, Supreme Court proceedings are still off limits to Congress, the press, and the public, nor do these proceedings come under the Freedom of Information or Privacy Act. The meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are equally off limits. Nobody pries into the affairs of the Secret Service.

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Arnold Beichman

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The CIA under Reagan, Bush & Casey: The Evolution of the Agency from Roosevelt to Reagan By Ray S. Cline Acropolis, 351 pp., $12.50 It is hard to believe that the Central Intelligence Agency, probably the most controversial political institution in American history, is barely 35 years old. (It came into formal existence on September 18, 1947.) Other political institutions—the Presidency, the Supreme Court—are controversial, but at least they are written into the Constitution, and there are almost two centuries of tradition behind their controversiality; there are touchstones, benchmarks, tests, criteria, observations—history itself—by which to judge the performance of these branches of government.

Not so the CIA, which started out as a servant of the President but which, since 1974, has become far more a creature of Congress than of the White House. The problem of the CIA cannot be merely that it tries to operate in secrecy. After all, despite the Woodward book, Supreme Court proceedings are still off limits to Congress, the press, and the public, nor do these proceedings come under the Freedom of Information or Privacy Act. The meetings of the Joint Chiefs of Staff are equally off limits. Nobody pries into the affairs of the Secret Service.