Truth to Power

The National Intelligence Council is a storied but little-understood intelligence agency, responsible for providing both strategic assessments and current intelligence support to senior policymakers in the government. The Council, and this book, trace its lineage back to the Office (and Board) of National Estimates in the 1940s. This history is told through the reflections of the last eight Chairs of the Council, from 1993 to 2017. Each chapter places its particular period of the NIC's history in context (the global situation, the administration, the intelligence community) and assesses the most important issues with which the NIC grappled during the period, acknowledging failures as well as claiming successes.