| Abstract: | The common task of all historians is to endeavour to present history as accurately and objectively as possible despite gaps in the record or a paucity of evidence. Intelligence historians face particular challenges in making sense of what too often is history deliberately shrouded. Staff historians of the Central Intelligence Agency operate mostly in the secret world and yet rely on the fine work of ‘outside’ historians. There is in effect a largely unstated, certainly informal, but absolutely crucial partnership between CIA historians on the ‘inside’ and dedicated scholars on the ‘outside’. It is not too much to say, in fact, that accurate and objective history about the CIA is possible only through this informal partnership. |
