Hughes-Ryan Amendment Limits CIA Covert Actions – But Not Effectively
The Hughes-Ryan Act, an amendment to the Foreign Assistance Act (originally passed in 1961), stated that no funds could be expended for Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) covert actions unless and until the President certified the operation was essential to national security.
The Amendment, which became effective on this day, also required that relevant committees in Congress receive a description of the operation in a “timely fashion.” The amendment reflected deep Congressional and public disgust with the Vietnam War and a concern that covert actions might embroil the U.S. in another mistaken war.
In the decades that followed, the notification requirement and the related process of oversight by Congressional intelligence committees became essentially ineffective. The CIA learned how to manipulate the process, often by failing to provide full information about planned covert actions, and intelligence committee members were reluctant to probe and question the CIA or presidents.
Learn more about the history of the Hughes-Ryan Act and its implementation: http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/intel/RL33715.pdf
Read about how the CIA “played” America: Hugh Wilford, The Mighty Wurlitzer: How the CIA Played America (2008)
Read: Tim Wiener, Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA (2007)
Read about the CIA’s secret funding of the National Student Association: Karen Paget, Patriotic Betrayal: The Inside Story of the CIA’s Secret Campaign to Enroll American Students in the Crusade Against Communism (2015)
Read the biography of the CIA’s notorious spymaster, James Jesus Angleton: Jefferson Morley, The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton (2017)
Watch a documentary on CIA covert actions: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJZ8THm_0Jo