The President Bans Assassination

In the 1970s, the United States had a bad habit of interfering with other countries’ political processes through tactics like slipping weapons to insurgents and engaging in frequent CIA-led assassinations. This triggered international and domestic protests.

President Gerald Ford responded to this controversy by signing an executive order that restructured the intelligence community to provide oversight and civilian control. He also explicitly banned assassination as a tool of espionage: “No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination.”