Getting To Know The President

Intelligence Briefings Of Presidential

Candidates And Presidents Elect 1952
2016 4th Edition John Helgerson
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This book has been prepared primarily for the use of US government
officials. The format, coverage, and content are designed to meet
their requirements. Publications are not generally available to the
public directly from the Central Intelligence Agency, however, this
book is available on the Internet at: https://cia.gov/resources/csi/
books-and-monographs/
All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed are those of the
author and do not reflect the official positions or views of the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency (CIA) or any other US government agency.
Nothing in the contents should be construed as asserting or imply-
ing US government authentication of information or CIA endorse-
ment of the author’s views. This material has been reviewed by CIA
solely for classification.
Originally published in 1996; reprinted in 2001; Second edition pub-
lished in 2012; Third edition published in 2016.
ISBN 978-1-929667-34-5
 Getting to Know the President
Fourth Edition

Intelligence Briefings of
Presidential Candidates and Presidents-Elect,
1952–2016

John L. Helgerson

Center for the Study of Intelligence

Central Intelligence Agency
October 2021

i


The Center for the Study of Intelligence: CSI’s core mission is to en-
hance the operational, analytical, and administrative effectiveness of
the CIA and the Intelligence Community by creating knowledge and
understanding of the lessons of the past, by assessing current prac-
tices, and by preparing intelligence officers and their organizations
for future challenges. To support its work, CSI publishes Studies in
Intelligence, books, monographs, documentary films, and web-based
content addressing historical, operational, doctrinal, and theoretical
aspects of the intelligence profession.
Past unclassified publications produced by CSI include:
A Middle East Primed for New Thinking: Insights and Policy Options
from the Ancient World, by Andrew Skitt Gilmour (2019)
The History of CIA’s Office of Strategic Research, 1967–1981, by Rob-
ert Vickers (2019)
ARCHANGEL: CIA’s Supersonic A-12 Reconnaissance Aircraft (Sec-
ond Edition, 2011), by David Robarge, CIA Historian
The Agency and the Hill: CIA’s Relationship with Congress, 1946–2004,
by L. Britt Snider (2008)
Directors of Central Intelligence as Leaders of the U.S. Intelligence
Community, by Douglas F. Garthoff (2005)
Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, by Richards J. Heuer, Jr. (1999)
These and other publications may be found at https://cia.gov/re-
sources/csi/books-and-monographs/
Questions and comments may be addressed to:
Director
The Center for the Study of Intelligence
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, DC, 20505

ii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 

To
Claire, Ian, and Anna

iii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016



John Helgerson reviewing materials for his briefing of Governor Bill

Clinton at the Arkansas governor’s mansion. Helgerson was CIA’s deputy
director for intelligence (analysis) at the time.

iv

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 

JOHN L. HELGERSON
Mr. Helgerson was the Central Intelligence Agency’s inspector gen-
eral from 2002 until his retirement in 2009. Previously, he served as
chairman of the Intelligence Community’s National Intelligence Coun-
cil and deputy director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency.
Mr. Helgerson began his career in government as an analyst of Af-
rican politics at the CIA. At varying ponts he headed units responsi-
ble for coverage of Africa, Latin America, and Europe. He served in
a number of senior management posts, including deputy director for
intelligence and director of congressional affairs.
Prior to his government service, Mr. Helgerson was an assistant
professor of political science at the University of Cincinnati and a re-
search affiliate of the University of Zambia in Lusaka. He specialized in
international relations and African politics.
A native of South Dakota, Mr Helgerson graduated from Saint Olaf
College in Northfield, Minnesota, and received M.A. and Ph.D degrees
from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina.
He is the author of all four editions of Getting To Know the Presi-
dents.
Mr. Helgerson has received a number of awards and commenda-
tions, including the National Intelligence Distinguished Service Med-
al, CIA’s Distinguished Career Intelligence Medal, and NIMA’s Distin-
guished Civilian Service Award.

v v v

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Contents

Foreword����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� xi
Foreword to the First Edition of
Getting to Know the President............................................................... xiii
Preface������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ xvii
Introduction������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������ 1
Chapter 1: Truman and Eisenhower - Launching the Process.............. 5
Strained Relations Complicate the Arrangements������������������������� 9
Preelection Briefings������������������������������������������������������������������������� 12
Support to the President-Elect�������������������������������������������������������� 15
The New President as an Intelligence Consumer������������������������� 20
Briefing Governor Stevenson in 1952�������������������������������������������� 24
The Challenger Briefed Again in 1956������������������������������������������� 25
Chapter 2: Into Politics with Kennedy and Johnson............................. 29
The Presidential Debates������������������������������������������������������������������ 29
Preelection Briefings: What Really Was Discussed?�������������������� 34
The Missile Gap��������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 37
Postelection Briefing on Cuba��������������������������������������������������������� 42
Other Covert Programs������������������������������������������������������������������� 44
The Mystery Briefing of Late November���������������������������������������� 47
Kennedy Visits the CIA�������������������������������������������������������������������� 49
Origins of the President’s Intelligence Checklist����������������������������� 50
The Transition to President Johnson���������������������������������������������� 54
Vietnam���������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������� 57
Evolution to the President’s Daily Brief������������������������������������������ 61

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Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Contents

Chapter 3: Nixon and Ford - Uneven Access......................................... 65

Supporting Nixon’s Team in New York City���������������������������������� 69
The Key Player: Henry Kissinger���������������������������������������������������� 72
Nixon Remains Aloof����������������������������������������������������������������������� 78
A Closer Relationship With Ford��������������������������������������������������� 82
Discussing Operations and Intelligence���������������������������������������� 86
Political Problems Undermine the Briefing Process�������������������� 89
Chapter 4: In-Depth Discussions with Carter....................................... 93
Extended Preelection Briefings������������������������������������������������������� 95
Operational and Political Issues Arise����������������������������������������� 104
Carter’s Use of the President’s Daily Brief������������������������������������� 112
Chapter 5: Reagan and Bush - A Study in Contrasts.......................... 121
Postelection Briefings��������������������������������������������������������������������� 125
A Higher Level of Daily Support�������������������������������������������������� 129
After the Inauguration������������������������������������������������������������������� 134
The Transition to President Bush������������������������������������������������� 136
Chapter 6: Briefing Governor Clinton in Little Rock......................... 143
The DCI Visits Little Rock������������������������������������������������������������� 143
Establishing a “Permanent” Presence������������������������������������������� 145
Substance of Discussions��������������������������������������������������������������� 149
Other Opportunities To Help�������������������������������������������������������� 155
Great Support Made It Work��������������������������������������������������������� 159
What Was Accomplished��������������������������������������������������������������� 162
Chapter 7: George W. Bush - Demanding Consumer........................ 165
The Presidential Debates���������������������������������������������������������������� 170
Postelection Briefings��������������������������������������������������������������������� 171
Vice President-Elect Cheney��������������������������������������������������������� 175
Covert Action Briefing������������������������������������������������������������������� 177
Strong Supporting Cast������������������������������������������������������������������ 178
Impact of Austin����������������������������������������������������������������������������� 183
President Bush as a Customer������������������������������������������������������� 185
Intelligence and Politics����������������������������������������������������������������� 187
Kerry and Edwards Briefed in 2004��������������������������������������������� 189
Chapter 8: Barack Obama - A Careful Reader.................................... 195
Preelection Briefings����������������������������������������������������������������������� 197
Presidential Debates����������������������������������������������������������������������� 200
Transition Briefings with the PDB������������������������������������������������ 201

viii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 Contents

Briefing the Vice President-Elect�������������������������������������������������� 207

Other Briefings of the President-Elect and his Team����������������� 208
Support of the Briefing Effort ������������������������������������������������������� 216
Politics of the Transition���������������������������������������������������������������� 219
President Obama in Office������������������������������������������������������������ 221
Romney and Ryan Briefed in 2012����������������������������������������������� 224
Chapter 9: Donald J. Trump—A Unique Challenge........................... 231
Preelection Briefings ���������������������������������������������������������������������� 236
Briefings during the Transition����������������������������������������������������� 241
President Trump in Office������������������������������������������������������������� 260
Afterword - Concluding Observations................................................. 269
Patterns of Support������������������������������������������������������������������������� 270
What the Presidents Recommend������������������������������������������������ 273
Keeping Out of Politics������������������������������������������������������������������ 278
The Arrangements Make a Difference����������������������������������������� 280
Material That Was Welcome���������������������������������������������������������� 284
Index......................................................................................................... 289

v v v

ix

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Foreword
The Central Intelligence Agency is more of a presidential service or-
ganization than perhaps any other component of the US government.
Since 1952, CIA and now the Intelligence Community have provided
presidential candidates and presidents-elect with intelligence briefings
during their campaigns and transitions. These briefings have helped
presidents be as well informed as possible on international develop-
ments from the day they take office.
In addition to their central, substantive purpose, these briefings
usually have also served as the IC’s introduction to the “First Custom-
er,” the individual who, more than any other, determines what place in-
telligence will have in the national security hierarchy. They have been
crucial in giving an early sense of the personalities of the candidates
and presidents-elect, their knowledge of world affairs, and their views
of how intelligence and the IC can best support national security de-
cisionmaking.
Getting to Know the President by John Helgerson makes a singular
contribution to the literature of intelligence by describing this import-
ant process of information sharing between the IC and the chief ex-
ecutive. First published in 1996 and now revised and updated for the
third time to include accounts of intelligence support to candidates
and presidents-elect in the six elections between then and 2016, Hel-
gerson’s study provides unique insights into the mechanics and content
of the briefings, the interaction of the participants, and the briefings’
effect on the relationships presidents have had with their intelligence
services. His observations on how and what to brief during the cam-
paign and transition periods are essential reading for members of the

xi

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Foreword

community charged with that responsibility in the future and seeking

to learn from the best practices of their predecessors.
In his 1996 foreword to the first edition of this book, Christopher
Andrew took note of the “simple but important fact that each president
is different.” From that point flows another explanation for the second,
third, and now this fourth edition. Prepared under the sponsorship of
the Center for the Study of Intelligence, this continuing work reflects
CSI’s and the CIA’s commitment to the examination, and reexamina-
tion, of the profession of intelligence in the United States. This effort
has been manifest in products of many kinds, unclassified and classi-
fied, with many of the latter eventually released wholly or in part to
the public.
As with other dimensions of the IC’s and CIA’s work, service to pol-
icymakers and presidents demands both the scrutiny of today’s prac-
titioners of intelligence and the perspective of historians to follow.
While this book is primarily intended to serve those who must con-
sider the IC’s role in a presidential election year, it is also hoped that it
will help illuminate as much as possible for others the nature of CIA
and IC service to past presidents, while at the same time keeping
faith with the essential confidentiality to which sitting presidents
are entitled.
David Robarge
Chief Historian
Central Intelligence Agency

xii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 Foreword
to the First Edition of
Getting to Know the President
This is an important and original book. How world leaders under-
stand or misunderstand, use or fail to use, the intelligence available to
them is an essential but still under-researched aspect both of modern
government and of international relations. The making of the Amer-
ican intelligence community has transformed the presidency of the
United States. Before the First World War, the idea that the United
States might need a foreign intelligence service simply did not occur to
most Americans or to their presidents. After the war, Woodrow Wil-
son publicly poked fun at his own pre-war innocence: “Let me testify
to this, my fellow citizens, I not only did not know it until we got into
this war, but I did not believe it when I was told that it was true, that
Germany was not the only country that maintained a secret service!”
Wilson could scarcely have imagined that, less than half a century
later, the United States would be an intelligence superpower. Though
the intelligence nowadays available to the president is, like all human
knowledge, incomplete and fallible, it probably exceeds—at least in
quantity—that available to any other world leader past or present.
The starting points for the study of relations between presidents and
their intelligence communities since the Second World War are the
briefings they receive from the CIA before their inauguration. John L.
Helgerson is well equipped to write this path-breaking study of these
briefings. A political scientist before joining the CIA, he served as the
Agency’s deputy director for intelligence during the Bush administra-
tion and was head of the team that briefed Bill Clinton in Little Rock
after the 1992 election. In addition to having access to classified files,

xiii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

First Edition Foreword

Mr. Helgerson has interviewed previous Agency briefers and all sur-
viving former presidents.
Both briefers and former presidents are agreed on the simple but
important fact that each president is different. Presidents differ more
widely in their previous knowledge and experience of intelligence
than in their grasp of most other areas of government. Harry Truman
entered the Oval Office in April 1945 almost wholly ignorant of in-
telligence matters. His determination that no future president should
take office as uninformed as he had been is partly responsible for the
intelligence briefing offered to all presidential candidates since 1952.
Unlike Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower did not need to be persuad-
ed of the importance of intelligence. Ike was the first president since
George Washington already experienced in the use of intelligence
when he took the oath of office. He wrote after the Second World War
that ‘intelligence had been of priceless value to me…and, in no small
way, contributed to the speed with which the enemy was routed and
eventually forced to surrender.”
Recent presidents have varied almost as greatly in their experience
of intelligence as Truman and Eisenhower. Agency briefers found
Presidents Reagan and Bush, in Mr. Helgerson’s words, “virtual polar
opposites.” Despite Ronald Reagan’s membership in 1975 of the Rocke-
feller Commission on CIA activities within the United States, he had
no previous experience as an intelligence consumer and felt the need
for generality. Bush, by contrast, was the first former director of central
intelligence, with the arguable exception of George Washington, to be
elected president. He had a closer working relationship than any pre-
vious president with the CIA. Like Reagan, President Clinton had no
previous experience as an intelligence consumer.
Mr. Helgerson provides the first detailed account of the way in
which Agency briefers have attempted, with varying success, to adapt
briefings to the differing experience, priorities, and working patterns
of successive presidents. One of the earliest changes in the new admin-
istration is usually the format of the President’s Daily Brief, probably
the world’s smallest circulation, most highly classified, and—in some
respects—best informed daily newspaper. Some presidents, it appears,
like it to include more humor than others. On average, about 60 per-

xiv

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 First Edition Foreword

cent of the items covered in the President’s Daily Brief do not appear in
the press at all, even in unclassified form.
The most important lesson of this book is that, if the CIA is to pro-
vide effective intelligence support to policymakers, there is no substi-
tute for direct access to the president. There is the implied lesson also
that, if presidents are to make the best use of the CIA, they need to
make clear to the Agency at regular intervals what intelligence they do
and do not want. As a result of his own experience as DCI, Bush plain-
ly took this lesson to heart. Some presidents, however, have provided
little feedback.
Most good books leave the reader wanting more. Getting to Know
the President is no exception. As well as holding the interest of his
readers, Mr. Helgerson will also increase their curiosity. What, for ex-
ample, were the exotic and closely-held methods or the sensitive hu-
man-source and technical collection programs on which DCI George
Bush briefed President-elect Jimmy Carter? Just as it is reasonable for
readers to ask questions such as these, so it is also reasonable on some
occasions for intelligence agencies to avoid precise replies in order to
protect their sources and methods.
There is an inevitable tension between the curiosity of readers and
scholars on the one hand and the security-consciousness of intelli-
gence agencies on the other. Historians and intelligence officers are
unlikely ever to reach complete agreement on how much of the past
record can be declassified without compromising current operations.
In recent years, however, the CIA has gone further than most of the
world’s major intelligence agencies in opening up some of its records
to historical research, publishing important volumes of documents on
subjects such as intelligence provided to the Truman administration,
the Cuban missile crisis, Soviet estimates, and spy satellites. All histo-
rians will hope that these documents will be followed by many more.1
It is also to be hoped that Getting to Know the President will set a
precedent for intelligence agencies in other countries. Until similar
volumes are available on the briefing of, among others, British prime
1. Editor’s note: And indeed many more collections of documents have been released since
Professor Andrew penned this foreword. These include declassified Daily Summaries and
President’s Daily Briefs prepared for the Truman, Kennedy, Johnson, and Nixon adminis-
trations. All are available on CIA’s Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room at
www.cia.gov.

xv

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

First Edition Foreword

ministers, German chancellors, French and Russian presidents, and

leading Asian statesmen, the use made of intelligence by world leaders
will continue to be a major gap in our understanding of both modern
government and international relations.
Christopher Andrew
Corpus Christi College
Cambridge

xvi

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Preface
This, the fourth edition of Getting to Know the President, now captures
the history through 2016 of CIA and Intelligence Community efforts
begun during the last year of the Truman presidency in 1952 to inform
presidential candidates of world and intelligence affairs. Each edition
was researched and written while I served with the CIA’s Center for the
Study of Intelligence. I am grateful for the opportunities CSI and its lead-
ership, most recently under Director Peter Usowski, have given me to
start and then expand this important element of intelligence history.
The IC protects carefully the confidentiality of comments made to
its officers by serving presidents, and I have continued that tradition
in this account. Readers will find neither exposés of the private mo-
ments of our presidents nor specific descriptions of what they said
during briefing sessions, especially regarding sensitive policy issues of
continuing relevance and importance. Similarly, it would not be ap-
propriate to use this volume to offer judgments about how well the
12 presidents discussed here used the intelligence they were provided.
Nevertheless, I have been able to recount in unclassified form the cir-
cumstances under which the Community established its relationships
with successive presidents and to discuss, in general terms, the subjects
about which they were briefed.
All four editions represent my own research and perspectives; the
opinions I offer herein are not those of CIA, the Office of the Director
of National Intelligence (ODNI), or the US government.
To the maximum extent feasible, I have used contemporaneous writ-
ten records to construct the account of developments over the 17 presi-
dential election cycles since 1952. Study of the earliest of these benefited
greatly from declassification of many relevant documents. (Correspon-

xvii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Preface

dence cited in the following pages can be presumed, unless otherwise

noted, to reside in presidential libraries or declassified CIA holdings.)
Among the many people who helped search for source materials, a few
were especially helpful and deserve special thanks: ODNI’s John Mose-
man and Richard Fravel; CIA’s Peter Clement, Janet Platt, Becky Rant,
Emma Sullivan, and Michael Warner; Andrea Mehrer at the Library of
Congress; and Dwight D. Eisenhower Library archivist David Haight.
Of special note in CSI were the support of CIA Chief Historian David
Robarge and his staff ’s research assistant, Mark Ellcessor, who have been
most important to my hunt for information and understanding.
Interviews with former presidents, CIA directors, and numerous
others involved in presidential transitions provided invaluable addi-
tional material with which to flesh out the sometimes sparse written
record. I deeply appreciate the honor and time granted me by Presi-
dents George H. W. Bush, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, and Gerald
Ford in agreeing to be interviewed.
Similarly, I am grateful to the leaders of the Intelligence Community
who shared their recollections with me. These included Directors of
Central Intelligence Richard Helms, William Colby, Stansfield Turn-
er, and Robert Gates; CIA Director Michael Hayden; and Directors of
National Intelligence Michael McConnell and James Clapper. Former
CIA officer Meredith Davidson provided invaluable assistance in re-
constructing the events of the early 1950s.
CSI’s editorial support has been indispensable in bringing my man-
uscripts to publication. Included in the effort on the last three editions
were Rebecca L. Fisher, Anne Bullock, Bruce Wells, and Andres Vaart.
Similarly, I remain grateful for the work on the original manuscript by
David Peterson, Richard Kovar, Judith Van Roy, and Harriet Malone.
They helped build a very solid foundation on which the subsequent
editions easily rest.
Finally, I am most grateful to CSI officer Dawn Eilenberger for her
assistance in completing chapter 9. I drafted that chapter in the months
after Trump was inaugurated and, shortly thereafter, retired from my
work at CSI. In 2021, Dawn added important additional information
to bring the draft up to date and to clarify certain key points.
John L. Helgerson, 2021

xviii

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Getting to Know the President,
1952–2016
Fourth Edition
Introduction
It was President Harry Truman, in whose administration the Cen-
tral Intelligence Agency and the postwar Intelligence Community (IC)
were created, who instituted the custom of providing candidates for
the presidency classified briefings on foreign developments. In 1952
he authorized the CIA to brief Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and Gover-
nor Adlai Stevenson so that the successful candidate would be as well
informed as possible on the world situation when he took office. The
briefings would also position the CIA to develop a close working rela-
tionship with the new president and his advisers. These two objectives
have guided the efforts of the Agency and the IC during presidential
transition periods ever since.
Thus it was, after Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton won the 1992 elec-
tion, that CIA moved quickly to establish a presence in Little Rock to
provide intelligence support to the new president-elect. As CIA’s dep-
uty director for intelligence, I was sent to meet with the governor and
his staff to describe the materials the Agency proposed to make avail-
able and to elicit the governor’s agreement to receive regular briefings
from the CIA. Events unfolded in such a way that I became the head
of a team that spent most of the period from November 1992 through
January 1993 in Little Rock providing daily intelligence updates to the
president-elect.
In keeping with President Truman’s initiative, the Agency wanted
to help the new president-elect prepare for his foreign policy respon-
sibilities and acquaint him and his staff with the IC’s capabilities for
collecting, analyzing, and delivering intelligence that would be vital
to them when they took office. As we made arrangements for briefing
Governor Clinton, we attempted to learn as much as possible from the

Getting to Know the President , 1952–2016

Introduction

Agency’s experience in previous transition periods. What we discov-

ered was that the CIA had provided pre-inaugural intelligence support
to all eight presidents elected since the Agency was founded, but had
no systematic records of those efforts. There was no body of organized
information to indicate what had worked before and what had not.
Such records and memories as we did have, however, made clear that
we needed to make decisions quickly on how to proceed in a number
of areas that would have an important bearing on whether we met our
two primary goals.
The key variables that seem to determine whether the IC is success-
ful in serving a new president fall into four general categories. The first
of these relates to the level and type of person or persons the Com-
munity puts forward to represent it. In some transitions the director
of central intelligence (DCI), and now the director of national intelli-
gence (DNI), has been personally and extensively involved; in others
the DCI took no active role. Sometimes the IC has fielded very senior
officers as its briefers but in other instances relied on much more ju-
nior representatives. When senior officers do the briefings they gen-
erally give the Community’s product and approach greater credibility
and access, but their selection also increases the likelihood that the
exercise will be seen as political.
A second category of key variables concerns other political consid-
erations to which the Intelligence Community must be sensitive to en-
sure that it and a new president come to work together well. Foremost
among these is the background of the president-elect himself, partic-
ularly as it relates to his familiarity with the IC and its products. It is
quite a different matter, for example, to establish a relationship with an
individual who has moved up from the vice presidency in the way that
Presidents Gerald Ford and George H. W. Bush did, as contrasted with
individuals who have come to the position with no Washington expe-
rience in the manner of Presidents Ronald Reagan, Bill Clinton, and
George W. Bush. Similarly, the IC’s experience has varied significantly
depending on whether or not the new president has come from the
same political party as his predecessor.
The DCI’s or DNI’s own political or career ambitions have some-
times raised delicate political problems. It is not unlikely, for example,
that during a transition period the interests of the leader of the IC as

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 Introduction

an individual would not correspond with those of the IC itself. A most

important political variable is the attitudes of the outgoing president
and the national security advisor. Their support for the Community’s
efforts to establish an early and effective relationship with a new ad-
ministration facilitates matters immensely.
The third group of key variables concerns logistic arrangements for
the briefings. Should briefings be given prior to the election to both, or
even multiple, candidates? Alternatively, should they be postponed un-
til after the vote and provided exclusively to the single president-elect
during the transition? How many briefings should be given and with
what frequency? Experience shows that it matters, too, where the brief-
ings are given and whether only the candidate is briefed or staff assis-
tants are included as well.
Finally, concerning the substance of the information provided, there
have been considerable variations in the amount and the type of ma-
terial made available. All presidents-elect in recent years have valued
receiving the President’s Daily Brief (PDB), the intelligence summary
created exclusively for the president. Some have wanted to receive ad-
ditional, supplementary intelligence publications during the transition
period. A few have wanted oral briefings by a number of substantive
experts as opposed to hearing from a single Agency briefer each day;
others have found multiple briefers confusing or overwhelming.1
An important issue to be faced by the IC during each transition con-
cerns how much information derived from sensitive human sources
and technical collection efforts and regarding covert action programs
should be included in the material given a president-elect, and when.
Presidents in office are always informed of such programs, and care-
ful attention is given to the timing, level of detail, and content of the
presentation. And finally, concerning the substance of the support pro-
vided, there have been dramatic variations in the amount of tailored
assistance the IC has provided presidents-elect and their national se-
curity teams to prepare them for pre-inaugural planning and policy

1. Over the past several years, CIA has publicly released redacted intelligence reports di-
rected to the presidents, including daily Current Intelligence Briefs and President’s Daily
Briefs. They can be found in CIA’s FOIA historical collections in https:/cia.gov/readingroom/.
Released material was published in all presidential administrations from the Truman admin-
stration through the Nixon/Ford years.

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Introduction

deliberations, speeches and press conferences, and, in particular, their

meetings and communications with foreign statesmen.
Given the importance of these variables in determining whether
the IC will come to work well with a new president during the transi-
tion period and beyond, it seemed desirable for the Community’s own
purposes to create a record of what we have done in the past, noting
what has worked and what has not. Even a cursory examination of
the IC’s experience over the past half century reveals that it is often
not intuitively obvious or self-evident what approaches will translate
into success. In preparing this study I have been pleased to discover, or
confirm, that certain of the intelligence briefings provided to incom-
ing presidents have turned out to be of genuine and lasting historical
importance in their own right. To use one example, the DCI and the
CIA’s deputy director for plans (operations) provided President-elect
Kennedy information on the Agency’s plans for what would become
the Bay of Pigs operation in Cuba. This occurred at a meeting with
only the three of them present. A great deal of what has subsequently
been written by others about what Kennedy was told, when he was
told it, and what he said in response, is substantially wrong. I hope
this account can clarify the circumstances of this and other important
briefings provided to presidents over the years.
Finally, because the IC’s role during transitions is unique, the Com-
munity seems to me to have an obligation to record what it has done
and to make its account as widely available as possible. Perhaps this
material will be of use not only to intelligence officers charged with
meeting the Community’s briefing responsibilities in the future, but
also to others interested in IC contributions during these important
chapters of our national history.
John L. Helgerson

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Chapter 1
Truman and Eisenhower - Launching the Process
On 22 November 1952, newspapers reported that President Harry
Truman, shortly after noon the previous day, had stolen away from
the White House to give an “impromptu” speech at the Central Intelli-
gence Agency. Truman had come to CIA at the invitation of the fourth
director of central intelligence, Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, to address a
training course of government officials. In that speech—delivered on
a Friday afternoon almost two weeks after the national election—Tru-
man revealed a great deal about his motives in founding the CIA and
his aims in having the Agency provide intelligence briefings to the new
president-elect, Gen. Dwight Eisenhower.
The president reminisced with his audience about how there had
been no CIA when he had succeeded to the presidency in 1945. At that
time, by many accounts, he had been surprised to discover how much
information relating to intelligence and national security matters had
been withheld from him. The most dramatic evidence of how ill-in-
formed he was came on his 12th day in office when Secretary of War
Henry Stimson briefed him for the first time on the Manhattan (atom-
ic bomb) Project, about which Truman had heard only hints while
serving as vice president and on key Senate committees.1
Truman also recalled how difficult it had been for him to obtain
information from the various government departments, each of which
seemed “walled off ” from the others. On various occasions Truman
had lamented to Smith that he “used to do all this myself.” The presi-
dent noted that this situation had been corrected over the intervening
1. David McCullough, Truman (Simon and Shuster, 1992), 376–78.

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Chapter 1

Gen. Walter Bedell Smith (left) relieves RAdm. Roscoe H. Hillenkoetter

as Director of Central Intelligence in 1950.

years, saying that the CIA’s global intelligence operations and proce-
dures for forwarding information had made it possible to “keep the
President informed better than ever before.” In a rather backhanded
compliment, Truman said he believed that “we have an intelligence in-
formation service now that I think is not inferior to any in the world.”2
Truman was responsible for the very existence of that intelligence
service. Within a year of his becoming president, in January 1946, he
formed the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). In the president’s mind,
its key responsibility was to ensure that he personally received intelli-
gence reports on a timely basis. On 15 February 1946 the CIG launched
the Daily Summary, and in June a counterpart Weekly Summary was
produced for the first time. Both these publications were sent to the
White House for the president. Both the daily and weekly publications

2. New York Times, 22 November 1952, 1, 10

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

 Truman and Eisenhower - Launching the Process

continued to be published after CIG became the Central Intelligence

Agency in September 1947.
There was much bureaucratic wrangling throughout the early years
of the CIG and CIA about their proper role in the production of cur-
rent intelligence. Virtually all key players involved with intelligence—
in the military services, the War (later Defense) Department, and the
State Department—had serious reservations about the new intelli-
gence agency duplicating their work in current intelligence. The presi-
dent was virtually alone in expecting to receive a daily, comprehensive
current intelligence product, whatever the formal charters of the CIG
and CIA might say. Needless to say, his expectations carried the day.3
To consolidate the production of current intelligence, CIA in Janu-
ary 1951 formed the Office of Current Intelligence (OCI), which exist-
ed until the late 1970s when its functions were assumed by other offic-
es. The CIA officers who formed OCI were already preparing a closely
held, all-source weekly intelligence publication, the first of its kind,
called the Situation Summary. This was a global review, built around
the Korean situation and its worldwide implications that formed the
basis for General Smith’s weekly briefings of the president. Shortly after
the establishment of OCI, two new publications were inaugurated for
wider distribution. The daily publication became the Current Intelli-
gence Bulletin, first issued on 28 February 1951; in August a companion
weekly publication, the Current Intelligence Weekly Review, was begun.
Managers of OCI felt their early efforts had been rewarded when
Truman, vacationing in Key West, Florida, wrote of the new publica-
tion, “Dear Bedel [sic], I have been reading the intelligence bulletin
and I am highly impressed with it. I believe you have hit the jackpot
with this one. Sincerely, Harry Truman.”4 The Current Intelligence Bul-
letin continued largely unchanged for the next 25 years.
While Truman received, read, and expressed his appreciation for
the Agency’s daily and weekly publications, it had become clear over
the years that he especially valued the oral briefings delivered by the
directors of CIA. The president experimented with various procedures
for these briefings, and in the early years there were periods when he

3. In early 2019, CIA’s public release of issues of Truman’s Daily Summary totalled more
than 3,000 pages. See Freedom of Information Act Electronic Reading Room in www.cia.gov
4. Harry Truman, letter to Bedell Smith, 8 March 1951.

Getting to Know the President, 1952–2016

Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
their faces, she is in a great fright, and they themselves are as afraid
to see her with it, as if they had committed some great sin.

Whenever they begin to look sanguine and healthy, she calls in

the assistance of the doctor; and if physic and issues will keep the
complexion from inclining to coarse or ruddy, she thinks them well
employed.

By this means they are pale, sickly, infirm creatures, vapoured

through want of spirits, crying at the smallest accidents, swooning
away at any thing that frightens them, and hardly able to bear the
weight of their best cloaths.

The eldest daughter lived as long as she could under this

discipline, and died in the twentieth year of her age. When she was
opened, it appeared, that her ribs had grown into her liver, and that
her other entrails were much hurt, by being crushed together with
her stays, which her mother had ordered to be twitched so strait, that
it often brought tears into her eyes, whilst the maid was dressing her.

Her youngest daughter is run away with a gamester, a man of

great beauty, and who, in dressing and dancing, has no superior.

Matilda says, she should die with grief at this accident, but that
her conscience tells her, she has contributed nothing to it herself.
She appeals to their closets and their books of devotion, to testify
what care she has taken to establish her children in a life of solid
piety and devotion.

Now, though I do not intend to say, that no daughters are brought

up in a better way than this (for I hope many are) yet thus much, I
believe, may be said, that the much greater part of them are not
brought up so well, or accustomed to so much religion, as in the
present instance.

Their minds are turned as much to the care of beauty and dress,
and the indulgence of vain desires, as in the present case, without
having such rules of devotion to stand against it. So that if solid piety
is much wanted in that sex, it is the plain and natural consequence of
a vain and corrupt education. If they are often too ready to receive
the first fops, beaux, and fine dancers for their husbands; it is no
wonder they should like that in men, which they have been taught to
admire in themselves. And if they are often seen to lose that little
regard to religion, that they were taught in their youth, it is no more to
be wondered at, than to see a little flower choaked and killed
amongst rank weeds.

Personal pride, affectation, a delight in beauty, and fondness of

finery, are tempers that must kill all religion in the soul, or be killed by
it; they can no more thrive together than health and sickness.

But how possible it is to bring up daughters in a more excellent

way, let the following character declare.

Eusebia is a pious widow, well born, and well bred, and has a
good estate for five daughters, whom she loves not only as her
natural, but also as her spiritual children; and they reverence her as
their spiritual mother, with an affection equal to that of the fondest
friends.

“My children, (says she) your dear father was an humble,

watchful, truly devout man. Whilst his sickness would suffer him to
talk with me, his discourse was chiefly about your education. He
knew the ruins that a wrong education made in our sex; and
therefore conjured me with the tenderest expressions, to renounce
the fashionable ways of educating daughters, and to bring you all up
in the most unaffected instances of a truly christian and devout life.

When your father died, I was much pitied by my friends, as

having all the care of a family, and the management of an estate
fallen upon me. But my own grief was founded on another principle; I
was grieved to see myself deprived of so faithful a friend, and that
such an eminent example of real devotion, should be taken from the
eyes of his children, before they were of an age to love and follow it.
But as to worldly cares, which my friends thought lay so heavy upon
me, they are most of them of our own making, and fall away as soon
as we begin to know ourselves.

For this reason, all my discourse with you, has been to acquaint
you with yourselves, and to accustom you to such books of devotion,
as may best instruct you in this greatest of all knowledge.

You would think it hard, not to know the family into which you was
born, what ancestors you were descended from, and what estate
was to come to you. But, my children, you may know all this with
exactness, and yet be as ignorant of yourselves, as a man that
should take himself to be wax, and therefore dared not to let the sun
shine upon him.

In order to know yourselves aright, you must consider yourselves

as so many fallen embodied spirits, conceived and born in sin, and
that your lives began in a state of corruption and disorder, full of
tempers and passions, that blind and darken the reason of your
minds, and incline you to that which is hurtful.

Your bodies are not only poor and perishing like your cloaths, but
they are as infected cloaths, that fill you with ill distempers, which
oppress the soul with sickly appetites, and vain envyings.

Hence all of us are like two beings, that have as it were two
hearts within us: with the one, we see, taste, and admire reason,
purity, and holiness; with the other we incline to pride, vanity, and
sensual delights.

This internal war we always feel within us more or less; and if you
would know the one thing necessary to you and all the world, it is
this, to preserve, strengthen, and perfect all that is rational, holy, and
divine in our nature, and by the assistance of the blessed Spirit of
God, to mortify and subdue all that vanity, pride, and sensuality,
which springs from the corruption of our state.

Whilst you live thus, you live like yourselves, and what is more,
like christians; but whenever you are more intent upon adorning your
persons, than upon perfecting your souls, you are much more beside
yourselves, than he, that had rather have a laced coat, than an
healthful body.

Never consider yourselves, therefore, as persons that are to be

seen, admired, and courted by men; but as poor sinners, that are to
be washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, and accepted through
his all-sufficient righteousness, received by faith, and to be saved
from the follies of a miserable world, and made meet for heaven by
the powerful operations of his blessed Spirit.

These considerations have made me think it my duty to teach

you nothing that was dangerous for you to learn. I have kept you
from every thing that might betray you into weakness and folly, or
make you think any thing fine, but a fine mind; any thing happy, but
an interest in the favour of God, through Jesus Christ; or any thing
desirable, but his love shed abroad in the heart, and to do all the
good you possibly can to your fellow-creatures.

Instead of the vain, immodest entertainment of plays and operas,

I have taught you to delight in pious reading and religious
conversation. What music, dancing, and diversions are to the people
of the world, that holy meditation, fervent prayers, and other acts of
devotion, have been to you. Instead of forced shapes, patched
faces, and affected motions, I have taught you to conceal your
bodies with modest garments, and to let the world have nothing to
view of you, but the plainness and sincerity, the humility and
unaffectedness of all your behaviour.

You know, my children, that a single state frees from worldly

cares and troubles, and gives a woman an opportunity of caring only
how she may please the Lord; but as I look upon you all to be so
many great blessings of a married state; so I leave it to your choice,
either to do as I have done, or to continue in a virgin state. Only let
me remind you, if you intend to marry, let the time never come till you
find a man that has those graces, which you are aspiring after
yourselves; who is likely to be a friend to all your virtues, and with
whom it is better to live, than to want the benefit of his example.
 Avoid therefore the conversation of what the world calls fine-bred
fops, and beaux; for they are the shame of their own sex, and ought
to be the abhorrence of yours.

If evil speaking, scandal, or backbiting, be the conversation

where you happen to be, keep your hearts to yourselves; and if you
have no opportunity to reprove or turn the stream of such
conversation into a proper channel, retire as soon as you can.

Love and reverence poor people; as for many reasons, so

particularly for this, because our blessed Saviour was one of the
number. Visit and converse with them frequently: you will often find
simplicity, innocence, patience, fortitude, and great piety amongst
them; and where they are not so, your good example may amend
them. For this cause, you know I have divided part of my estate
already amongst you, that you each may be charitable out of your
own stock, and take it in your turns to provide for the poor and sick of
the parish.

Whether married or unmarried, consider yourselves as mothers

and sisters, as friends and relations to all that want your assistance;
and never allow yourselves to be idle, whilst others want any thing
that your hands can make for them.

I have brought you up to all kinds of labour, that are proper for
women, as sowing, knitting, spinning, and all other parts of
housewifery; not merely for your amusement, and that you may
know how to direct your servants; but that you may be serviceable to
yourselves and others, and be saved from those temptations which
attend an idle life. I must therefore repeat to you, my daughters, what
I have often reminded you of before, that I had rather see you
reduced to the necessity of maintaining yourselves by your own
hands, than to have riches to excuse yourselves from labour. Never
therefore consider your labour merely as an amusement to get rid of
your time, and so may be as trifling as you please; but consider it as
something that is to be serviceable to yourselves and others, that is
to serve some sober ends of life, to save and redeem your time, and
make it turn to your account, when the works of all people shall be
tried by fire.

What would you think of the wisdom of him, that should employ
his time in distilling of waters, and making liquors which no body
could use, merely to amuse himself with the variety of their colour
and clearness; when with less labour and expence, he might satisfy
the wants of those who have nothing to drink? And yet he would be
as wisely employed, as those that are amusing themselves with such
tedious works as they neither need, nor hardly know how to use
when they are finished; when with less labour and expence they
might be doing as much good, as he that is cloathing the naked, or
visiting the sick. Be glad therefore to know the wants of the poorest
people, and think it not beneath you, to let your hands be employed
in making such mean and ordinary things for them, as their
necessities require. Thus Dorcas was employed, who is mentioned
with so much honour in holy writ; and by so doing, you will behave
like true disciples of that Lord and Master, ‘who came into the world
not to be ministered unto, but to minister.’

In short, my dear children, strive to do every thing that is praise-

worthy, but do nothing in order to be praised; nor think of any reward
of all your works of faith and labours of love, till Jesus Christ
cometh with all his holy angels. Think, my children, that the soul of
your good father, now with God, speaks to you through my mouth;
and let the double desire of your father who is gone, and of me who
am with you, above all, let the mercies of God in Christ Jesus,
prevail upon you to love God with all your souls, to study your own
perfection, to practise humility, and to do all the good you can to all
your fellow-creatures, especially to those who are of the houshold of
faith, till it shall please God to call you to another life.”

Thus did the pious widow educate her daughters. The spirit of
this education speaks so plainly for itself, that, I hope, I need say
nothing in its justification. If we could see it in life, as well as read of
it in books, the world would soon find the happy effects.
 There is nothing more desirable for the common good of all the
world, than that we might see it. For though women do not carry on
the trade and business of the world, yet as they are mothers and
mistresses of families, they have for some time the care of the
education of their children of both sorts, and are entrusted with that
which is of the greatest consequence to human life. For as the health
and strength, or weakness of our bodies, is very much owing to their
methods of treating us when we are young; so the soundness or folly
of our minds, are not less owing to those first tempers and ways of
thinking, which we eagerly received from the love, tenderness,
authority and constant conversation of our mothers.

Is it not then much to be lamented, that this sex, on whom so

much depends, who have the first forming of our bodies and our
minds, are not only educated in pride, but in the silliest and most
contemptible part of it?

They are not suffered to dispute with us the proud prizes of arts
and sciences, of learning and ♦ eloquence, in which I have much
suspicion they would often prove our superiors; but we turn them
over to the study of beauty and dress, and the whole world conspire
to make them to think of nothing else. Fathers and mothers, friends
and relations, seem to have no other wish towards the little girl, but
that she may have a fair skin, a fine shape, dress well, and dance to
admiration.

♦ “eloqence” replaced with “eloquence”

And what makes this matter the more to be lamented, is this.

That women are not only spoiled by this education, but we spoil that
part of the world, which would otherwise furnish the most instances
of an eminent and exalted piety. The Church has formerly had
eminent saints in that sex; and it may reasonably be thought, that it
is purely owing to their poor and vain education, that this honour of
their sex is for the most part confined to former ages.
 The corruption of the world indulges them in great vanity, and
mankind seem to consider them in no other view, than as so many
painted idols, that are to allure and gratify their passions; so that if
many women are vain, light, gew-gaw creatures, they have this to
say in excuse of themselves, that they are not only such as their
education has made them, but such as the generality of the world
allow them to be.

Some indeed are pleased to say, that women are naturally of little
and vain minds, and consequently their trifling vain behaviour is
owing solely to that; but this I look upon to be as false and
unreasonable, as to say, that butchers are naturally cruel: for as their
cruelty is not owing to their natures, but to their way of life, which has
changed their natures; so whatever littleness and vanity is to be
observed in the minds of women, it is like the cruelty of butchers, a
temper that is wrought into them by that life which they are taught
and accustomed to lead. At least thus much must be said, that we
cannot justly charge any thing upon their nature, till we take care that
it is not perverted by their education.

But supposing it were true, that they were thus naturally vain and
light, then how much more blameable is that education, which seems
contrived to strengthen and increase the folly and weakness of their
minds? For if it were a virtue in women to be proud, and vain, and
indevout, we could hardly take better means to raise these bad
things in them, than those which are now used in their education.

Some people that judge hastily, will perhaps say, I have been
exercising too great a severity against the sex. But more reasonable
persons will easily observe, that I entirely spare the sex, and only
arraign their education; that, I profess, I cannot spare; but the only
reason is, because it is their greatest enemy, because it deprives the
world of so many blessings, and the church of so many saints as
might reasonably be expected from persons, formed by their natural
temper to all goodness and tenderness, and fitted, by the clearness
and brightness of their minds, to contemplate, love and admire every
thing that is holy, virtuous, and divine.
 CHAPTER VII.
Shewing, how true devotion fills our lives the greatest
peace and happiness that can be enjoyed in this world.

S OME people perhaps may object, that by thus living wholly unto
God, and introducing a regard to his glory in all that we do,
too great a restraint will be put upon human nature; and that by thus
depriving ourselves of so many seemingly innocent pleasures, as
such a way of life would hinder us from pursuing, we shall render our
lives dull, uneasy, and melancholy.

But this objection is entirely groundless. For christian devotion

requires us to renounce no ways of life, wherein we can act
reasonably, and offer what we do to the glory of God. All ways of life,
all satisfactions and enjoyments that are within these bounds, are no
ways denied by the strictest rules of real devotion. And will you think
that your life must be uncomfortable, unless you may displease God,
be fools and mad, and act contrary to that reason and wisdom which
He has implanted in you?

As for those satisfactions which we dare not offer to a holy God,

which are only invented by the folly and corruption of the world,
which inflame our passions, and sink our souls into grossness and
sensuality, and thereby render us unmeet for communion with God
here, and the eternal enjoyment of Him hereafter, surely it can be no
uncomfortable state of life, to be rescued by religion from such
murderers both of our souls and bodies.

Let us suppose a person destitute of that knowledge which we

have from our senses, placed somewhere alone by himself, in the
midst of a variety of things which he did not know how to use; that he
has by him bread, wine, gold-dust, iron chains, gravel, garments,
and fire. Let it be supposed, that he had no knowledge of the right
use of these things, nor any direction from his senses how to quench
his thirst, or satisfy his hunger, or make any use of the things about
him. Let it be supposed, that in his drought he puts gold dust into his
eyes; when his eyes smart, he puts wine into his ears; that in his
hunger, he puts gravel in his mouth: that in pain, he loads himself
with the iron chains; that feeling cold, he puts his feet in the water;
that being frighted at the fire, he runs away from it; and that being
weary, he makes a seat of his bread. Let it be supposed, that
through his ignorance of the right use of the things that are about
him, he will vainly torment himself whilst he lives; and at last die,
blinded with dust, choaked with gravel, and loaded with irons. Let it
be supposed, that some good being came to him, and shewed him
the nature and use of all the things that were about him, and gave
him such strict rules of using them, as would certainly, if observed,
make him the happier for all that he had, and deliver him from the
pains of hunger, and thirst, and cold; could you with any reason
affirm, that those strict rules of using the things that were about him,
had rendered that poor man’s life dull and uncomfortable?

Now this is, in some measure, a representation of the strict rules

of religion; they relieve our ignorance, save us from tormenting
ourselves, and teach us to use every thing about us, not only to the
glory of God, but to our own proper advantage.

If religion commands us to live wholly unto God, and to do all to

his glory, it is because every other way of life is living wholly against
ourselves, and will end in our own shame and confusion.

Would you see how happy they are, who live according to their
own wills, and who cannot submit to the dull and melancholy
business of a life devoted unto God, look at Flatus; Flatus is rich and
in health, yet always uneasy, and always searching after happiness.

At his first setting out in life, fine cloaths was his delight; his
enquiry was only after the best taylors and peruke-makers, and he
had no thoughts of excelling in any thing but dress. He spared no
expence, but carried every nicety to its greatest height. But this
happiness not answering his expectation, he left off his brocades,
put on a plain coat, railed at fops and ♦beaux, and gave himself up to
gaming with great eagerness.

♦ “beaus” replaced with “beaux”

This new pleasure satisfied him for some time: he envied no

other way of life. But being by the fate of play drawn into a duel,
where he narrowly escaped his death, he left off the dice, and sought
for happiness no longer amongst the gamesters.

The next thing that seized his wandering imagination, was the
diversions of the town; and for more than a twelvemonth, you heard
him talk of nothing but ladies, drawing-rooms, birth-nights, plays,
balls, and assemblies. But growing sick of these, he had recourse to
hard drinking. Here he had many a merry night, and met with
stronger joys than any he had felt before. Here he had thoughts of
setting up his staff, and looking out no farther; but unluckily falling
into a fever, he grew angry at all strong liquors, and took his leave of
the happiness of being drunk.

The next attempt after happiness, carried him into the field. For
two or three years nothing made him so happy as hunting; he
entered upon it with all his soul, and leaped more hedges and
ditches than had ever been known in so short a time. You never saw
him but in a green coat; he was the envy of all that blew the horn,
and always spoke to his dogs in great propriety of language. If you
met him at home in a bad day, you would hear him blow his horn,
and be entertained with the surprizing accidents of the last noble
chace. No sooner had Flatus outdone all the world in the breed and
education of his dogs, built new kennels, new stables, and bought a
new hunting-seat, but he immediately got sight of another happiness,
hated the senseless noise and hurry of hunting, gave away his dogs,
and was for some time after deep in the pleasures of building.
 Now he invents new kinds of dove-cotes, and has such
contrivances in his barns and stables, as were never seen before: he
wonders at the dulness of the old builders, is wholly bent upon the
improvement of architecture, and will hardly hang a door in the
ordinary way. He tells his friends, that he never was so delighted in
any thing in his life; that he has more happiness amongst his brick
and mortar, than ever he had at court; and that he is contriving how
to have some little matter to do that way as long as he lives.

The next year he leaves his house unfinished, complains to every

body of masons and carpenters, and devotes himself wholly to the
happiness of riding about. After this, you can never see him but on
horseback, and so highly delighted with this new way of life, that he
would tell you, give him but his horse and a clean country to ride in,
and you might take all the rest to yourself. A variety of new saddles
and bridles, and a great change of horses, added much to the
pleasure of this new way of life. But however, after some time having
tired both himself and his horses, the happiest thing he could think of
next, was to go abroad and visit foreign countries; and there, indeed,
the happiness exceeded his imagination, and he was only uneasy
that he had begun so fine a life no sooner. The next month he
returned home, unable to bear any longer the impertinence of
foreigners.

Alter this, he was a great student for one whole year; he was up
early and late at his Italian grammar, that he might have the
happiness of understanding the opera, whenever he should hear
one, and not be like those unreasonable people, that are pleased
with they don’t know what.

Flatus is now at a full stand, and is doing what he never did in

his life before, he is reasoning and reflecting with himself. He loses
several days, in considering which of his cast-off ways of life he
should try again.

But here a new project comes in to his relief. He is now living

upon herbs, and running about the country, to get himself into as
good wind as any running footman in the kingdom.
 I have been thus circumstantial in so many foolish particulars of
this kind of life, because I hope, that every particular folly that you
here see and read of, will naturally turn itself into an argument for the
wisdom and happiness of a religious life.

But you will perhaps say, that the ridiculous, restless life of
Flatus, is not the common state of those, who resign themselves up
to live by their own humour, and neglect the strict rules of religion;
and that therefore it is not so great an argument of the happiness of
a religious life, as I would make it.

I answer, that I am afraid it is one of the most general characters

in life; and that few people can read it, without seeing something in it
which belongs to them. But let it be granted, that the generality of
people are not of such restless, fickle tempers as Flatus; the
difference is only this, Flatus is continually changing and trying
something new, but others are content with some one state; they do
not leave gaming, and then fall to hunting; but they have so much
steadiness in their tempers, that some seek after no other
happiness, but that of heaping up riches; others grow old in the
sports of the field; and others are content to drink themselves to
death, without the least enquiry after any other happiness.

Now is there any thing more happy or reasonable in such a life as

this, than in the life of Flatus? Is it not as great and desirable, as
wise and happy, to be constantly changing from one thing to another,
as to be nothing else but a gatherer of money, a hunter, a gamester,
or a drunkard all your life? Shall religion be looked upon as a burden,
or as a dull and melancholy state, for calling men from such a
happiness as this?

But turn your eyes now another way, and let the glorious joys, the
exquisite happiness of Feliciana, teach you how miserable, and how
dull they must needs be, and what a delusion they are in, whole
hearts are not wholly devoted unto God.

If you was to live with Feliciana but one half year, you would see
all the happiness that she is to have as long as she lives. She has no
more to come, but the poor repetition of that which could never have
pleased once, but through a wrong turn of mind, and want of
thought.

She is to be again dressed fine, and keep her visiting days. She
is again to change the colours of her cloaths, again to have a new
head, and again put patches on her face. She is again to see who
acts best at the play-house, and who sings finest at the opera. She is
again to make ten visits in a day, and be ten times in a day trying to
talk artfully, easily, and politely about nothing.

She is to be again delighted with some new fashion; and again

angry at the change of some old one. She is to be again at cards
and gaming at midnight, and again in bed at noon. She is to be again
pleased with hypocritical compliments, and again disturbed with
imaginary affronts. She is to be again pleased with her good luck at
gaming, and again tormented with the loss of her money.

She is again to prepare herself for a birth night, and again see
the town full of good company. She is again to hear the cabals and
intrigues of the town, again to have secret intelligence of private
amours, and early notice of marriages, quarrels, and partings.

If you see her come out of her chariot more briskly than usual,
converse with more spirit, and seem fuller of joy than she was last
week, it is because there is some surprizing new dress, or new
diversion just come to town.

These are all the substantial and regular parts of Feliciana’s

happiness; and she never knew a pleasant day in her life, but it was
owing to some one or more of these things.

It is for this happiness, that she has been always deaf to the
reasonings of religion; and if you look into the world, and observe the
lives of those women, whom no arguments can prevail on to live
wholly unto God; you will find most of them to be such, as lose all
the comforts of religion, without gaining the tenth part of Feliciana’s
happiness. They are such as spend their time and fortunes only in
mimicking the pleasures of richer people; and rather look and long
after, than enjoy those delusions, which are only to be purchased by
considerable fortunes.

Nor does a life only of such vanity and sensuality as that of Flatus
or Feliciana’s, but even the most regular kind of life, that is not
governed by great devotion, sufficiently shews how dull and
uncomfortable their lives must needs be, who are not wholly devoted
unto God.

Octavius is a learned, ingenious man, well versed in most parts

of literature, and no stranger to any kingdom in Europe. The other
day, being just recovered from a lingering fever, he thus addressed
his friends.

“My glass, says he, is almost run out; and your eyes see how
many marks of age and death I bear about me: But I plainly feel
myself sinking away faster than any standers by do imagine. I fully
believe, that one year more will conclude my reckoning.”

The attention of his friends was much raised by such a

declaration, expecting to hear something truly excellent from so
learned a man, who had but a year longer to live; when Octavius
proceeded in this manner: “For these reasons, my friends, I have left
off all taverns, the wine of those places is not good enough for me in
this decay of nature. I must now be nice in what I drink; I cannot
pretend to do as I have done; and therefore am resolved to furnish
my own cellar with a little of the very best, though it cost me ever so
much.

I must also tell you, my friends, that age forces a man to be wise
in many other respects, and makes us change many of our opinions
and practices.

You know how much I have liked a large acquaintance; I now

condemn it as an error. Three or four chearful, diverting companions,
is all that I now desire; because I find, that in my present infirmities, if
I am left alone, or to grave company, I am not so easy to myself.”
 A few days after Octavius had made this declaration to his
friends, he relapsed into his former illness, and was committed to a
nurse, who closed his eyes before his fresh parcel of wine came in.

Young Eugenius, who was present at this discourse, went home

a new man, with full resolutions of devoting himself to God. “I never,
says Eugenius, was so deeply affected with the wisdom and
importance of religion, as when I saw how poorly and meanly the
learned Octavius was to leave the world, through the want of it.

How often had I envied his great learning, his skill in languages,
his knowledge of antiquity, his address, and fine manner of
expressing himself upon all subjects! But when I saw how poorly it all
ended, what was to be the last year of such a life, and how foolishly
the master of all these accomplishments was then forced to talk, I
was then convinced that there must be nothing so happy and
comfortable as a life of true devotion; nor any thing so poor and
comfortless, as death without it.”

Look now at that condition of life, which draws the envy of all
eyes.

Negotius is a temperate honest man: he served his time under a

master of great trade, but has by his own management made it a
more considerable business than ever it was before. For thirty years
past, he has written fifty or sixty letters in a week, and is busy in
corresponding with all parts of Europe. The general good of trade
seems to Negotius to be the general good of life; whomsoever he
admires, whatever he commends, or condemns, either in church or
state, is admired, commended, or condemned, with some regard to
trade.

As money is continually pouring in upon him, so he often lets it go

in various kinds of expence and generosity, and sometimes in ways
of charity.

Negotius is always ready to join in any public contribution: If a

purse is making at any place where he happens to be, whether it be
to buy a plate for a horse-race, or to redeem a prisoner out of jail,
you are always sure of having something from him.

He has given a fine ring of bells to a church in the country; and

there is much expectation, that he will some time or other make a
more beautiful front to the market-house, than has yet been seen in
any place. For it is the generous spirit of Negotius to do nothing in a
mean way.

The generality of people, when they think of happiness, think

upon Negotius, in whose life every instance of happiness is
supposed to meet; sober, prudent, rich, prosperous, generous, and
as the world thinks, charitable.

Let us now then look at this condition in another, but truer light.

Let it be supposed, that this same Negotius was a painful,

laborious man, every day deep in a variety of affairs; that he neither
drank, nor was debauched; but was sober and regular in his
business. Let it be supposed that he grew old in this course of
trading; and that the end and design of all this labour, care, and
application to business, was only that he might die possessed of
more than a hundred thousand pair of boots and spurs, and as many
great-coats. Now if this was really the case, I believe it would be
readily granted, that a life of such business was as poor and
ridiculous, as any that can be invented. But it would puzzle any one
to shew, that a man that has spent all his time and thoughts in
business and hurry, that he might die, as it is said, worth a hundred
thousand pounds, is any whit wiser than he, who has taken the same
pains to have as many pair of boots and spurs when he leaves the
world.

For if when he has gotten his hundred thousand pounds, or all his
boots, his soul is to go to his own place, as every soul needs must
that has not closed with Jesus Christ, and is not born again of
God; how can we say, that he who has worn out his life in raising an
hundred thousand pounds, has acted a wiser part for himself,
however his money may profit others, than he who has had the
same care to provide a hundred thousand pair of boots and spurs,
and as many great-coats?

It would be endless to multiply examples of this kind, to shew

how little is lost, and how greatly they are mistaken, who imagine
they should render themselves dull and comfortless by introducing a
strict piety into every condition of human life.

Examples of great piety are not now common in the world; but
the misery and folly of worldly men, and vain and trifling women, is
what meets your eyes in every place; and you need not look far to
see, how poorly, how vainly men dream away their lives for want of
real devotion.

This is the reason that I have laid before you so many characters
of the vanity of a worldly life, to teach you to make some benefit of
the corruption of the age, and that you may be made wise, though
not by the sight of what piety is, yet by seeing what misery and folly
reign where piety is not.

To meditate upon the perfection of the divine attributes, to

contemplate the love of God in Christ, the glories of heaven, the
joys of saints and angels, living for ever in the brightness and glory
of the divine presence; these are the meditations of souls advanced
in piety, and not so suited to every capacity.

But to see and consider the emptiness and error of all worldly
happiness; to see the grossness of sensuality, the poorness of pride,
the stupidity of covetousness, the vanity of dress, the delusion of
honour, the blindness of our passions, the uncertainty of our lives,
and the shortness of all worldly projects; these are meditations which
are suited to all capacities, and fitted to strike all minds: This is that
“wisdom that crieth, and putteth forth her voice in the streets,” that
standeth at all our doors, that appealeth to all our senses, teaching
us in every thing, and every where, by all that we see, and all that we
hear, by births and burials, by sickness and health, by life and death,
by pains and poverty, by misery and vanity, and by all the changes
and chances of life; that there is nothing else for man to look after,
no other end in nature for him to drive at, but a happiness, which is
only to be found in a life devoted to God.

CHAPTER VIII.
Shewing the excellency and greatness of a devout spirit, and proving
that a contrary spirit, is an indication of great ignorance and
stupidity.

I HAVE now finished what was intended; I have explained the

nature of christian devotion, and shewn that it belongs to all
orders, and more especially to those whose fortunes set them above
the common level of mankind. I have endeavoured to point out to
you, the chief causes of the general indevotion of the professing
christian world; and have shewn in various characters, how poor,
how miserable they live, who are strangers to a life wholly devoted to
God. I shall only add a word or two by way of conclusion, to prove
that fervent devotion is the noblest temper of the greatest and
noblest souls; and that a want of devotion, wherever it is, either
amongst the learned or unlearned, is founded in gross ignorance,
and in the greatest blindness and insensibility that can happen to a
rational creature.

And here, I suppose it will be granted on all hands, that it is a

sign of a great and noble mind for a man to be full of reverence and
duty to his parents, to have the truest love and honour for his friend,
and to excel in the highest instances of gratitude to his benefactor.
Are not these tempers, in the highest degree, signs of the most
exalted and perfect minds?

And yet what is devotion, but the highest exercise of these

tempers, of duty, reverence, love, honour, and gratitude, to the
amiable, glorious parent, friend and benefactor of all mankind? So
long, therefore, as duty to parents, love to friends, and gratitude to
benefactors, are thought great and honourable tempers; devotion,
which is nothing else but duty, love, and gratitude to God, must have
the chief place amongst our highest virtues.

Again; we know how our blessed Lord acted in a human body; it

was “his meat and drink to do the will of his Father which is in
heaven.” And if any number of heavenly spirits were to leave their
habitations in the light of God, and be for a while united to human
bodies, they would certainly tend towards God in all their actions,
and be as heavenly as they could, in a state of flesh and blood.

They would act in this manner, because they know that God is
the only good of all spirits; and that whether they were in the body or
out of the body, in heaven or on earth, they must have every degree
of their greatness and happiness from God alone. All human spirits
therefore, the more exalted they are, and the more they know their
divine original, and the nearer they come to heavenly spirits, by so
much the more will they live to God in all their actions, and make
their whole life a state of devotion.

A devout man makes a true use of his reason; he sees through

the vanity of the world, discovers the corruption of his nature, and
the blindness of his passions. He lives by a law which is not visible to
vulgar eyes; he enters into the world of spirits, he compares the
greatest things, sets eternity against time; and chuses rather to be
forever great in the presence of God when he dies, than to have the
greatest share of worldly pleasures whilst he lives. There is nothing,
therefore, that shews so great a genius, nothing that so raises us
above vulgar spirits, nothing that so plainly declares an heroic
greatness of mind, as great and fervent devotion.

When you suppose a man to be a saint, or all devotion, you have

raised him as much above all other conditions of life, as a
philosopher is above an animal.