A dry, informative, authoritative review of the history and current responsibilities of the major American intelligence agencies (CIA, FBI, the lesser known Defense Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the coordinating United States Intelligence Board) by a former CIA official and author of the generally exonerative The Real CIA (1968), now a professor of political science at Brown University. In addition Kirkpatrick discusses the various problems engendered by government spy organizations in a democracy -- accountability and control, the (fine) line between information gathering and policy making, the blur between internal and external security, clandestine operations vs. civil liberties. Essentially he believes that such agencies are necessary (""Americans have been most reluctant or slow to adopt measures that to older nations seemed self-evident or inevitable""), that they are more effective and less opprobrious than most citizens realize (""the criticism of the intelligence community is wide, while its support is limited""), and that we have adequate review control at the present time (""The intelligence community is sufficiently visible in our free society to demonstrate its effectiveness and integrity""). With all those bum bags and E. Howard Hunts (see above) around today, one wonders -- not about Mr. Kirkpatrick's facts but his in. souciance.