Intel policy

Intelligence Planks for a Sturdy National Security Platform

No U.S. presidential race has ever turned on the appeal of the candidate’s promises on intelligence policy. Indeed, many recent party platforms have either ignored altogether or addressed with vague generalities how an aspiring commander in chief would manage the world’s most sophisticated information gathering enterprise. Such inattention was not always the norm.

In 1976, a pious Georgia farmer promised to keep our security agencies out of domestic politics, and also to respect the choices made by voters in foreign elections. Four years later, a California film actor committed to rebuild and unleash U.S. intelligence on the Soviet Union, which at the time appeared ominously ascendant. While few ballots were likely impacted, as candidates both Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan clearly signaled their approach to secret intelligence activities.

Recent declarations proved less reliable. For example, the Democratic Party’s 2008 platform promised to “depoliticize” intelligence by appointing a Director of National Intelligence for a fixed term. Of course, President Obama ended up firing his DNI after only 16 months for reported political missteps.