Military Review English Edition May-June 2016 | Page 128

REVIEW ESSAY

Disciples

The World War II Missions of
the CIA Directors Who
Fought for Wild Bill Donovan
Douglas Waller, Simon & Schuster, New York, 2015,
592 pages

John G. Breen, PhD

T

he CIA is said to have three primary missions: the clandestine recruitment and handling of human assets, the analysis and production of finished intelligence, and the conduct of
presidentially directed covert action. The last mission
set appears to be the most problematic; it has resulted in embarrassing disclosures and ever-increasing
congressional oversight. Reportedly, presidents used
to be able to wield the authority to order covert
action by simply picking up a phone and calling the
CIA director; today it takes a signed presidential
finding with congressional notification.
While truly successful covert action will perhaps
never be acknowledged or revealed, the litany of
failed or ethically questionable covert actions is well
known: the disastrous Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba
in 1961, the effort to influence the Chilean presidential elections in 1970, the CIA involvement in the
Vietnam-era Phoenix Program, the clandestine and
illegal sale of arms to fund Nicaraguan fighters in
the Iran-Contra affair, and most recently, the use of
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“enhanced interrogation techniques” such as waterboarding against prisoners in CIA custody. Though
morally dubious as they may sometimes be, presidents rely on covert action. It is an important tool to
support identifiable foreign policy objectives vital to
national security, certainly, when overt action tied to
the United States would run the risk of conflagration.
In Disciples, author Douglas Waller provides a
detailed accounting of the early careers of CIA luminaries Allen Dulles, Richard Helms, William Colby,
and William Casey. Each began his career immersed
in World War II espionage, and each ended his career after covert action programs following the war
went wrong, with details spilling into the press or
into congressional hearings. These four began their
service under “Wild Bill” Donovan, the legendary
director of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS),
in a largely paramilitary covert-action-based “good
fight” against the Nazis. Each eventually rose within the ranks of the newly created CIA, successor to
the OSS after the war, to become director of central
May-June 2016  MILITARY REVIEW