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Secrets, spies and editors in Cold War America: Ben Bradlee and the Washington Post

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.