Intelligence Briefing

The CIA is chomping at the bit to share all the really cool national secrets with the candidates we, the American people, have chosen as potential representatives of our nation to the world.

Not really.

The CIA won’t be giving any detailed intelligence briefings to the presidential candidates this year. While the cynical might imagine that has something to do with the character of our winners, it really has nothing to do with e-mail servers or inconsistency and unpredictability of one or the other candidate. Intelligence briefings started with Eisenhower. But the practice of giving candidates much beyond general security broad brush strokes ended with the bitter Kennedy-Nixon race long ago. JFK inadvertently or intentionally let slip plans to topple the Castro government. Nixon believed the CIA had essentially handed the close race to Kennedy, and Nixon’s bitterness toward the agency would shape the agency when Nixon finally found his way to the White House.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF . . . BRIEFINGS

It took two weeks for anyone to tell Truman we were ginning up an atomic bomb once he took office. Since then, candidates have received some sort of briefing. According to USA Today’s Ray Locker, “President Harry Truman started the briefings to make sure the two nominees didn’t inadvertently veer into topics that interfered with ongoing policy” during debates. But after the Kennedy-Nixon run, intelligence briefings were less national secrets and more watered-down security generalities.

Over the decades, snapshots of these intelligence briefings to candidates reflected the character of the candidates themselves. Eisenhower got the full monty, though he pretty much knew everything already because he’d just won World War II. Nixon rebuffed the CIA after he won the election, evidence of the rift between the CIA and Nixon that started with the 1960 election. Carter, Reagan, and W. Bush received their briefings in country homes—Carter in Plains, Georgia; Reagan in Middleburg, Virginia; and W. at his ranch in Crawford, Texas. Clinton quickly came to terms with the complexity of the world’s security situation, and President Obama had to swallow the bitter pill that secret briefings were only for people with, you know, secret clearances.

This year is an Eisenhower kind of year. Hillary Clinton (and maybe many others) already knows pretty much all the secrets there are to know after her stint as SecState, and the intelligence community seems reluctant to go too deep with Donald Trump, though a few have imagined what that might be like.

I’d love to hear discussions around the table as the agency prepares this year’s briefings.

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Ed Ledford enjoys the most challenging, complex, and high stakes communications requirements. His portfolio includes everything from policy and strategy to poetry. A native of Asheville, N.C., and retired Army Aviator, Ed’s currently writing speeches in D.C. and working other writing projects from his office in Rockville, MD. He loves baseball and enjoys hiking, camping, and exploring anything. Follow Ed on Twitter @ECLedford.