This was an eye opening book that takes a look at the assignation plots by the CIA & FBI of foreign leaders as well as the abuse of powers by these agencies and the man behind the Committee investigating such abuses.
Many of the names involved in this book resurfaced in my life time and became more involved in the U.S. political culture. Many of the issues from this time period have become cyclical and it is almost dejavu as to what is occuring in the U.S. and around the world now.

While most (but not all) of the information presented here I had heard of before, this book gives an excellent, methodical, and clearly written account of the transgressions of the CIA, FBI and presidents which threatened our democracy. ( )

In the fall of 1975, The Church Committee began an investigation into why the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) held a lethal toxin. Since its inception, there had been no oversight of the CIA, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), or the National Security Agency (NSA). Senator Frank Church was leading a righteous crusade to unearth abuses by intelligence agencies.

Church had been in intelligence during WWII, a part of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the first spy agency. That group evolved into the CIA. Had Church not decided to go into politics, he would have been on a career path in the CIA. Instead, decades later he was holding the CIA accountable for covert actions involving assassinations and spying on Americans.

The Watergate scandal was an alert to investigate other government misdeeds. The Church Committee’s research took them into all the intelligence agencies. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, and Ford all found these agencies to be useful. Eisenhower fought the Cold War through the CIA. The CIA’s knowing Kennedy’s secrets muzzled any complaints.

Frank Church was a complex man. He was considered a radical, driven by high ideals. He ran clean campaigns, unwilling to sling dirt. He loved media attention and enjoyed cocktail parties with Hollywood celebrities and counted John F. Kennedy as a friend. He never paled around with the other senators. He was against gun control, a nod to his Idaho constituents, and against the Viet Nam War. He supported the protection of wilderness lands.

The Church Committee findings were acted upon by President Carter in 1978 with the first oversight reforms, including banning the assassination of foreign leaders. The intelligence community were spitting mad, and so were conservatives like future president Ronald Reagan. George H. Bush had lead the CIA before becoming president, and his son George W. Bush supported Dick Cheney’s working to weaken the reforms.

Walter Mondale told the author that what he was most proud of in his career was his work with the Church Committee. If oversight had not been enacted, who knows what America could have evolved into.

Most of the abuses described I had heard about as breaking news stories, but seeing them all together in one narrative was sobering, and frankly, terrifying.

Thank you to the publisher for a free book through NetGalley. ( )