director even before you take office, right? that's one way to get kind of paranoid that maybe your intelligence agencies might turn on you or they're after you. that they're a political actor that needs to be managed. that's exactly what happened. in the months before president-elect nixon took office, he was so skeptical of intelligence agencies in the united states government that he refused to accept the intelligence briefings offered by the outgoing administration. he didn't take a single face-to-face meeting with the cia staff that was in place specifically to provide transition support to him. intelligence community sent nixon's transition, they sent them envelopes containing the presidential daily briefs since he wouldn't do a face-to-face briefing. at the end of his transition period, the office returned all the envelopes unopened. convinced they were political players, working behind the scene to get his opponent elected. in 50 years president nixon was the only president-elect to