Covert Action The President of the United States is responsible for the protection of the American people and in order to accomplish this objective the President, in his official capacity, is both the leading diplomat as well as the Commander in Chief of the armed forces. With this power he has the obligation to create a foreign policy that protects the interests of the nation and defends the people of the United States. Presidents therefore possess a number of tools which can be utilized in order to accomplish these goals including political, economic, and even military ones. Within the list of potential actions that a president can take to accomplish an effective foreign policy lies one which everyone recognizes as necessary, and therefore uses, but nobody likes to admit they are doing so: Covert Action. But while presidential use of covert action in defense of the United States can become a dangerous proposition in regard to international relations, it can also one of the most effective means of furthering American foreign policy and interests around the world.

While most people think of spying as the most obvious means of covert action the term actually applies to any activity performed by members of the government on foreign soil in which the role of the American government is secret. And while the president has historically used covert action as a means of promoting national interests the first official law that specifically defined covert action was the National Security Act of 1947. This legislation defined covert action as "activity or activities of the United States Government to influence political, economic, or military conditions abroad, where it is intended that the role of the United States Government will not be apparent of acknowledged publicly…" (NSA 1947 Sec. 503(e), pp. 58-59) This definition governed presidential use of covert action for three decades until a change was implemented during the administration of Ronald Reagan. While maintaining the insistence that the action, now called "special activities,"...

The order stated that the activities "are not intended to influence United States political processes, public opinion, policies, or media…," meaning that the president cannot order covert action intended to influence American politics or public opinion. ("Executive order 12333")
However, the majority of the president's powers lay in his political and diplomatic interactions which can include, but are not limited to, "economic initiatives, discussions with foreign heads of state, and involvement in international negotiations." (Redfield, 2008, p.2) When those options fail the president can turn to the use of military force, or if the situation calls for it, covert action. This type of action has its roots in the founding of the American nation when George Washington created the first intelligence gathering organization. In a letter written in 1777 to one of his operatives, Washington commented on "the necessity of procuring good intelligence… [and] that you keep the whole matter as secret as possible." ("Washington to Dayton") He also listed three main rules regarding covert actions stating they were important and worth pursuing, that secrecy was vital, and the "logical role of the president as the ultimate head of intelligence operations." (Redfield, 2008, p.4)

Since that time American presidents have used covert action to one degree or another and "Indeed, the story of territorial growth of the United States is rife with examples of official complicity in private plots of one sort or another. The construction of the Panama Canal was a notorious case." (Godson, 2004, p. 27) But the use of covert actions by presidents seems to be always associated with the mood of the nation as presidents are not anxious to be exposed ordering covert actions when the public may not approve.

It is no secret that covert actions are controversial but those who support such actions argue that they…