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Last October the authors and Knopf joined as co-plaintiffs in a suit against the CIA. They charged that most of the deleted material in the manuscript had never been formally classified and was actually in the public domain. By the time the trial began in February, CIA officials had reinstated the numerous segments that will appear in boldface. But the CIA continued to argue that whatever it said was classified had to be considered classified. Judge Bryan objected; he ruled in favor of restoring most of the remaining cuts of material that had not been properly classified. The CIA is appealing his decision, and so are the authors and Knopf, which anticipates that its legal fees will be between $50,000 and $100,000. In the meantime, the book will be published with 168 deletions, which present something of a structural problem for Knopf Editor Charles Elliott. He is puzzling over how to make a page break where there is a blank space. At one point, a footnote refers to a deleted passage. "We don't know where to put the asterisk," he says.
Quiet Offices. To the degree the book is accurate, it illuminates more than any previous expose the fundamental dilemma of using covert activity as a tool in foreign policy, of a secret agency operating in an open society. How are the two to be reconciled? If the CIA is to be held accountable, are the present watchdog functions of congressional committees adequate? In a world of ever-shifting political currents that still present threats to American interests, can the nation conduct its foreign policy in a perfectly open manner without resorting to covert operations? Particularly in a dangerous world where other powers employ covert means to achieve their global aims? The book will sharpen that debate. And it is sure to be must reading in some quiet offices all around the world.