CURRENT INTELLIGENCE: How the Cia’s Top-Secret Presidential Briefing Shaped History

David Charlwood

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Every day, the President of the United States receives a bespoke, top-secret briefing document from the Central Intelligence Agency. Truman started them, Kennedy came to rely on them and Trump hardly read them.

Current Intelligence charts almost a century of American history and politics, revealing for the first time the day-to-day intelligence that landed on the Oval Office desk in the form of the President’s Daily Brief. Using recently declassified documents, David Charlwood uncovers what successive American presidents knew and when, and what they did in response. The Cold War nuclear arms race, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 might never have happened if Presidents had read their Daily Briefs differently.

By focusing on key moments, from the Cuban Missile Crisis and CIA Cold War covert operations, right up to the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, Charlwood reveals the profound ways intelligence has shaped our past and present.

David’s engaging writing style and colourful research will make Current Intelligence a must-read popular title for readers who enjoy ‘secret histories’.

“Charlwood immerses the reader in the events.” – Matthew Parker, author of Monte Cassino

“History at its best, narrated in gripping style.”  – Peter Caddick-Adams, author of Sand and Steel 

David Charlwood obtained a First Class Honours Degree in History from Royal Holloway, University of London, and has worked as an international journalist and in publishing. His research has been published in the British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies, he has written for BBC History Magazine, and also been a contributing historian for the BBC and Channel 4 television. He is the author of four popular history books, including the acclaimed 1920: A Year of Global Turmoil (Pen & Sword).