In literature and film the spy chief is an all-knowing, all-powerful figure who masterfully moves spies into action like pieces on a chessboard. How close to reality is that depiction, and what does it really take to be an effective leader in the world of intelligence?

This first volume of Spy Chiefs broadens and deepens our understanding of the role of intelligence leaders in foreign affairs and national security in the United States and United Kingdom from the early 1940s to the present. The figures profiled range from famous spy chiefs such as William Donovan, Richard Helms, and Stewart Menzies to little-known figures such as John Grombach, who ran an intelligence organization so secret that not even President Truman knew of it. The volume tries to answer six questions arising from the spy-chief profiles: how do intelligence leaders operate in different national, institutional, and historical contexts? What role have they played in the conduct of international relations and the making of national security policy? How much power do they possess? What qualities make an effective intelligence leader? How secretive and accountable to the public have they been? Finally, does popular culture (including the media) distort or improve our understanding of them? Many of those profiled in the book served at times of turbulent change, were faced with foreign penetrations of their intelligence service, and wrestled with matters of transparency, accountability to democratically elected overseers, and adherence to the rule of law. This book will appeal to both intelligence specialists and general readers with an interest in the intelligence history of the United States and United Kingdom.

Christopher Moran is associate professor of US national security at the University of Warwick. 

Mark Stout is program director of the MA in Global Security Studies Program at Johns Hopkins University and the former historian of the International Spy Museum.

Ioanna Iordanou is a senior lecturer specializing in organizational and business history at the Oxford Brookes University School of Business.

Paul Maddrell is a lecturer in Modern German History at Loughborough University.

Foreword by Lt. Gen. Patrick M. Hughes, USA (Ret.)Acknowledgments Abbreviations

Introduction: Spy Chiefs: Power, Secrecy, and Leadership Christopher Moran, Ioanna Iordanou, and Mark Stout

Part I: American Spy Chiefs1. Studying Religion with William Donovan and the Office of Strategic ServicesMichael Graziano2. The Alternate Central Intelligence Agency: John Grombach and the PondMark Stout3. The Atomic General’s “One-Way Street”: Leslie R. Groves and the Manhattan Engineer District Foreign Intelligence Section, 1945–47Matthew H. Fay4. The Dulles Supremacy: Allen Dulles, the Clandestine Service, and PBFortuneJames Lockhart5. CIA Director Richard Helms: Secrecy, Stonewalling, and SpinChristopher Moran6. “A Jesuit in Reagan’s Papacy”: Bill Casey, the Central Intelligence Agency, and America’s Cold War Struggle for FreedomAndrew Hammond7. To Command or Direct? DIRNSAs and the Historical Challenges of Leading the National Security Agency, 1952–2014Betsy Rohaly Smoot and David Hatch8. The Intellectual Redneck: William E. Odom and the NSARichard J. Aldrich

Part II: British Spy Chiefs9. Eric Welsh, the Secret Intelligence Service, and the Birth of Atomic IntelligenceMichael Goodman10. “C” and Covert Action: The Impact and Agency of Stewart Menzies in Britain’s Secret Foreign PolicyRory Cormac11. What Chance for Leadership? Patrick Dean, Chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, and the Suez CrisisDanny Steed12. Who is “M”?Michael L. VanBlaricum13. The Man behind the Desk and Other Bureaucracies: Portrayals of Intelligence Leadership in British Television Spy SeriesJoseph Oldham

Conclusion: Intelligence Leadership in the Twenty-First CenturyChristopher Moran, Ioanna Iordanou, and Mark StoutList of ContributorsIndex