David Barrett, PhD
Professor of Political Science | College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Villanova University
- Villanova PA
David Barrett, PhD, is a presidential historian and leading expert on the CIA's relationship with presidents and Congress.
Media
Social
Areas of Expertise
Biography
Education
University of Notre Dame
PhD
University of Essex (England)
MA
University of Notre Dame
BA
Select Media Appearances
Thanks Anyway, Bobby: Kennedy Family Endorses Biden for 2024 Over One of Their Own
WHYY
2024-04-18
The support from the Kennedys is an apparent effort to blunt the impact of Robert Kennedy Jr.’s third-party candidacy... Dr. David Barrett, professor of political science at Villanova University, says that [Kennedy's] numbers may not last as people pay closer attention to the election.
Adam Schiff Wants "Comity" for the House Intelligence Committee. It Won't Be Easy.
Los Angeles Times
2018-11-14
Democrats and Republicans sit on both panels, but they were envisioned as operating in a nonpartisan fashion. "It seems sort of quaint now,” said David Barrett, a Villanova University professor who studies the relationship between Congress and the intelligence community.
Answers About the Secret Memo on the Trump-Russia Inquiry
The New York Times
2018-01-30
When the Intelligence Committees become political, oversight of the intelligence agencies becomes "just about impossible," said David M. Barrett, a professor of political science at Villanova University who has written a book on the CIA and Congress. "Intelligence becomes just another political football."
Honesty, RIP: Facts Take a Beating Across US
Associated Press
2017-11-05
Is this when it ends for that ancient ideal, the truth? Is this where it has come to die, victim of campaigns and conspiracies, politicians and internet trolls and the masses who swallow their rhetoric? Rest in peace, honesty? "The value of facts in a democracy has taken a beating," said David Barrett, a political science professor at Villanova University.
Unveiled CIA Report Reveals Internal Warfare Over Blame for Bay of Pigs Failure
The Miami Herald
2016-11-09
The long-secret Volume V of the Central Intelligence Agency's documentation of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion contains no bombshells, no earth-shaking details of the 1961 assault on the island by a CIA-trained Cuban exile force. Instead, it delves into "the war at the CIA in the aftermath of the Bay of Pigs over who was to blame" for the invasion's failure, according to the professor who filed suit to shake loose the recently released document. "Essentially, it is a critical history of the [CIA] inspector general's critical report, which mainly blamed CIA incompetence for the failure of the Bay of Pigs," said David Barrett, a political science professor at Villanova University in Pennsylvania.
Opinion: NSA Secrets Revealed—in 1960
The Washington Post
2013-06-21
"The young man was employed by the National Security Agency for only a couple of years before feeling shocked at its intrusions into other countries' affairs and even private mail addressed to U.S. citizens. He was also disgusted at the contrast between the idealistic language of the president, serving his second term, and the behavior of the government he headed."
Select Academic Articles
JFK, FBI and CIA: Playing Hardball Over an Intelligence Leak to The New York Times
Intelligence and National SecurityDavid Barrett
2017
A New Intelligence Director's Diary: President Truman, a Young JFK, Ho Chi Minh's "Beheading" and Other Challenges
Intelligence and National SecurityDavid Barrett
2008
