ABSTRACT
This chapter summarizes the basis for the view that secret intelligence operations have doubtful status at international law. The intelligence activities of nations are a part of the foreign policy practice of the major nations of the world. It is clear from the investigations of the Presidential Commission and the US Senate that US intelligence activities are firmly based in US policy and law. The objective of world peace based on an application of codified rules of international conduct has considerable appeal. It is particularly attractive to Americans, imbued as they are with the principle of the rule of law. Unilateral intervention by a great power in the internal affairs of other nations is objectionable to most Americans. Soviet intervention exists in many forms, and its programs of subversion are widespread. The existence of a legal rationale for counterintervention will not reduce the objections of those who challenge congressional action in general, nor will it eliminate criticisms of past instances.
