The Pros And Cons Of Covert Action

have more validity. Even if the president has choosing power to some extent Congress can keep any major decsions in check.5 Covert action, in other words, is a necessary evil for the United States now and during the Cold War. The ethical dilemma of covert action has been pointed out, but the problems that arise with the loss of covert action are worse in the grand scheme of things. In the book

Regulating Covert Action: Practices, Contexts, and Policies of Covert Coercion Abroad in International and American Law Michael Reisman states “The United States may, as a moral matter, simply decide to eschew all covert action of certain kinds. But this would not, we believe, lead all other actors, whether from weakness, desperation, or rational calculations, to refrain similarly from such actions. On the

But now that most important covert actions have been declassified. The judgement of most operations in hind-sight forgets one key factor, that This type of covert action during the Cold War served as a developmental stage in the future of clandestine activity. The media will look at this activity and criminalize it because it may cause problems some other places. Furthermore, the media will always attack the government for not acting when they had a hunch that something bad was going to happen. It is a lose-lose battle so the decision makers have hard decisions to make every time something important comes up because whatever choice they make is the wrong one in someone’s eyes so just make the best choice for United State interests.6(139) The future of clandestine activity comes down to a decision of not whether covert action is should be used, but how it should be used. In Espionage and Covert Action Melvin Goodman writes “’If the United States is to survive, longstanding American concepts of “fair play” must be reconsidered. We