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Secrets, spies and editors in Cold War America : Ben Bradlee and the Washington Post
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Aldrich, Richard J. (2021) Secrets, spies and editors in Cold War America : Ben Bradlee and the Washington Post. Cambridge Review of International Affairs, 34 (5). pp. 65-672. doi:10.1080/09557571.2021.1944982 ISSN 0955-7571.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2021.1944982
Abstract
This essay considers secrets, spies and newspaper editors in the context of the Washington Post’s relationship with the CIA. The associated relationships and thoughts of Ben Bradlee, long-serving editor of the Washington Post and one of America’s most iconic journalists, are examined in detail. Bradlee spent much time reflecting on what the appropriate relationship between spies and the media should be and this is captured in his correspondence. This article argues that because the tensions between national security secrets and a free press were often negotiated informally though personal networks, this terrain is best analysed using ideas borrowed from social history. Editors were often wily mediators between Washington’s twin worlds of secrecy and publicity. It also suggests that in considering the CIA and the press, we need to give a little less attention to intrepid reporters and more attention to editors and owners who exercised more power. Overall, this realm is one of human relationships, best viewed not through the prism of policy documents, but through private papers or interviews.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | J Political Science > JF Political institutions (General) | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Espionage, Government and the press -- United States, Spies in mass media, Bradlee, Benjamin C., Journalists -- United States, Newspaper editors -- United States, Freedom of the press -- United States | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | Cambridge Review of International Affairs | ||||||
| Publisher: | Routledge | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0955-7571 | ||||||
| Official Date: | 6 July 2021 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Volume: | 34 | ||||||
| Number: | 5 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 65-672 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1080/09557571.2021.1944982 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Reuse Statement (publisher, data, author rights): | This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Cambridge Review of International Affairs on 06/07/2021, available online: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/09557571.2021.1944982 | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||
| Date of first compliant deposit: | 31 March 2021 | ||||||
| Date of first compliant Open Access: | 6 January 2023 | ||||||
| Related URLs: |
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