Landscapes of Secrecy: The Central Intelligence Agency and the contested record of US foreign policy, 1947-2001.

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Since 1947, American espionage and covert operations have enjoyed a uniquely high profile. This is partly because of a taste for 'covert' interventions that were often impossible to keep hidden from public view (for example the Bay of Pigs fiasco). Frequent revelations also reflected a written constitution that guaranteed investigative journalists relative immunity. Throughout this period, the US government sought to cope with the appearance of unauthorised accounts of intelligence operations. It developed a forward strategy of 'information management' intended to limit the release of damaging material and to place positive historical information in the public domain. Academics, journalists and many CIA retirees then developed counter-strategies of resistance. Our project seeks, not only to provide a detailed account this struggle, but also to embed it within the broader history of American foreign policy. It will demonstrate the way in which CIA activity has often been redolent of wider issues. These include a long-standing oscillation between interventionism and isolationism, between presidential leadership and democratic foreign policy, and also between exceptionalism and univeralist approaches to human rights. Public moves by both the President and Congress after 1975 to restrict - and then unleash - the CIA underline its symbolic importance.The project is organised into three main 'strands'. The first focuses on the struggle over the appearance of the CIA in the State Department's respected series of published historical documents. A high profile battle between academics, the State Department and the CIA prompted legislative intervention by Congress in 1991. Thereafter, the CIA developed its own 'forward strategy' in the field of history, including a large on-site museum. The second stream constitutes an analysis of the production and role of CIA memoirs by retired CIA officers. More than ninety CIA memoirs have been published. Because of the uneven nature of primary historical documentation concerning the intelligence, memoirs have exercised a disproportionate influence upon the construction of CIA history. Controversially, some retirees published 'renegade' memoirs that were uncensored. The third stream explores the realm of 'spy-faction', or lightly fictionalized accounts of real events. This popular form of CIA 'history' has achieved a wide reception as the result of transfer to the cinema screen. The CIA now co-operates with film companies to enhance their 'reality' and recently assisted with the film 'The Good Shepherd'. These three strands have been selected for their importance within the overall construction of American foreign policy. They have also been chosen because pilot projects have identified excellent, and hitherto unused, archival material at the US National Archives as well at other repositories at Texas and Stanford. The chosen subjects also lend themselves well to interview. The project team represents a multi-disciplinary collaboration between the Universities of Warwick and Nottingham. It comprises academics experienced in the fields of the American studies, diplomatic history and the history of intelligence, together with Cold War literature and film. A balance of senior scholars and younger researchers will combine strong direction with excellent progression opportunities for new entrants.This is a subject that will interest not only scholars of American foreign policy, but also policy-makers and the general public. Accordingly, the findings will be widely disseminated. There will be four books, seven journal articles and a conference. Public understanding is important for this project. A web-site will host online documents, articles and advertise the end of project conference. Engagement with the serious press and pod-casting will be a key aspect of dissemination. Three valued American partners and an expert advisory board will ensure balanced output.