2026/03/31 by Bradley A. Mortin · 2 voices
Arts and Humanities · Social Sciences · #Global Security and Public Health #Historical and Contemporary Political Dynamics #Intelligence, Security, War Strategy
paper · pdf · doi:10.1080/02684527.2026.2650524
openalex publication_date 2026/03/31 · openalex created_date 2026/04/01 · openalex updated_date 2026/06/14
Covert action emerged as a controversial instrument of U.S. foreign policy between 1947 and 1962 as the Central Intelligence Agency expanded under Cold War pressures. Early operations were widely perceived in Washington as low-cost successes, encouraging the institutionalization of covert political warfare. Yet these outcomes rested on contingent political and bureaucratic conditions rather than a stable model of secret statecraft. As covert action expanded, it strained oversight mechanisms, blurring boundaries between intelligence and policy execution, producing institutional drift in U.S. intelligence governance. The Bay of Pigs exposed these tensions, revealing the limits of embedding secret power within a democratic system.