麻豆社

The CIA has just released 2,500 top secret presidential briefings from the 1960s. The President鈥檚 Daily Brief 鈥� or PDB 鈥� is the US intelligence agencies鈥� best assessment of global threats, delivered directly to the president every morning. The CIA鈥檚 director, John Brennan, has described the PDB as 鈥渁mong the most sensitive and classified documents in all of our government鈥�.

The decision to release some PDBs, even documents relating to events many decades ago, was not taken lightly. And, the briefings highlight an almost impossible dilemma 鈥� one still faced today by every Director of National Intelligence - what should, and should not, be said? The president cannot absorb everything - there has to be a choice. We explore the relationship between the intelligence, the advisers and the president. What does the president need to know?

(Photo: President Lyndon B. Johnson (seated, foreground) working with (background L-R): Marvin Watson, J. Edgar Hoover, Sec. Robert McNamara, Gen. Harold Johnson, Joe Califano, Sec. of the Army Stanley Resor. Credit: LBJ Library)