Matthew Guariglia and Brian Hochman, "The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation into the National Security State" (W. W. Norton & Co, 2026)
From New Books in National Security by Marshall Poe
March 29, 2026 · 45 min
About this episode
The episode discusses the Church Committee's investigation into the national security state and its implications for modern surveillance and civil rights.
Fifty years ago, a government investigation led by US senator Frank Church uncovered some of the darkest state secrets of the twentieth century. The Church Committee confirmed the nation's worst fears about the unchecked power of its intelligence agencies: at the FBI, surveillance campaigns against civil rights leaders and clandestine attempts to disrupt antiwar protests; at the CIA, assassination plots against foreign heads of state, experiments with toxic substances and illegal drugs, and covert partnerships with the Mafia. The Church Committee's findings were so explosive that key members found themselves on the watch lists of the very government agencies they were investigating. Three witnesses who cooperated with the inquiry were murdered. Amid the creep of digital surveillance and the upheavals of social protest, this accessible volume The Church Committee Report: Revelations from the Bombshell 1970s Investigation into the National Security State (W. W. Norton & Co, 2026), containing the most harrowing revelations of the Church Committee investigation, sheds valuable light on some of today's most urgent concerns. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit…
People in this episode
Host: Marshall Poe
Guests: Matthew Guariglia, Brian Hochman
Topics covered
- national security
- intelligence agencies
- government investigation
- civil rights
- surveillance
- historical revelations
Keywords
- Church Committee
- national security
- FBI
- CIA
- surveillance
- civil rights
- government secrets
- 1970s
- investigation
- intelligence
Mentioned in this episode
Organizations: FBI, CIA, W. W. Norton & Co
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