Barrett (political science, Villanova U.) frames relations between the US Congress and the Central Intelligence Agency in terms of the tensions between wishing to prevent any more Pearl Harbors and dreading the rise of an American Gestapo. Tracing these relations from the creation of the national security state under Truman to the 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion, his narrative examines how Congress has attempted to monitor, finance, and control the agency. He finds that conventional wisdom regarding the relationship was correct in that legislative oversight was not comprehensive, CIA involvement in domestic affairs was kept hidden from Congress, and Congress tended to defer to presidents and CIA officials on crucial intelligence issues. However he argues that the conventional wisdom was wrong or incomplete in other ways, contending that congressional oversight was not passive or static and that Congress was often hawkish about covert action. Annotation ©2005 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)