David M. Barrett (born c. 1951) is a professor of political science at Villanova University[1] and author (along with Max Holland) of "Blind Over Cuba: The Photo Gap and the Missile Crisis" (2012), "The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy" (2005),[2] Lyndon B. Johnson's Vietnam Papers (1997), and Uncertain Warriors: Lyndon Johnson and His Vietnam Advisers (1993).
The CIA and Congress: The Untold Story from Truman to Kennedy won the D. B. Hardeman Prize in 2005.
A former radio and television journalist, Barrett unsuccessfully sought election in Indiana to the U.S. House of Representatives in 1984.
In 2005, Barrett discovered a volume of the CIA's internal history titled "Official History of the Bay of Pigs Operation, Volume III: Evolution of CIA's Anti-Castro Policies, 1951- January 1961".
[3] Among other revelations, Barrett learned via the volume that the head of the CIA had met prior to the Bay of Pigs project with a variety of corporate leaders whose companies had large investments in Cuba.