***NOTE: EXTRACTED FROM THE ACADEMIC AMERICAN
ENCYCLOPEDIA***

TITLE(s):        Central Intelligence Agency  
  The Central Intelligence Agency of the United States (CIA) is one of
 several organizations responsible for gathering and evaluating foreign
 intelligence information vital to the security of the United States.         
   
   It is also charged with coordinating the work of other agencies in the
 intelligence community--including the NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY and the
 Defense Intelligence Agency.  It was established by the National Security Act
 of 1947, replacing the wartime Office of Strategic Services.  Its first
 director was Adm. Roscoe Hillenkoetter.                                      
    
  The CIA's specific tasks include:  advising the president and the NATIONAL
 SECURITY COUNCIL on international developments; conducting research in
 political, economic, scientific, technical, military, and other fields; 
 carrying on counterintelligence activities outside the United States;
 monitoring foreign radio and television broadcasts;  and engaging in more
 direct forms of ESPIONAGE and INTELLIGENCE  OPERATIONS.                      
    
  Throughout its history the CIA has seldom been free from controversy.  In
 the 1950s, at the height of the cold war and under the direction of Allen
 Welsh DULLES, its activities expanded to include many undercover operations. 
 It subsidized political leaders in other countries;  secretly recruited the
 services of trade-union, church, and youth leaders, along with
 businesspeople, journalists, academics, and even underworld  leaders;  set up
 radio stations and news services;  and financed cultural organizations and
 journals.                                                                    
    
  After the failure of the CIA-sponsored BAY OF PIGS INVASION of Cuba in
 1961, the agency was reorganized.  In the mid-1970s a Senate Select Committee
 and a Presidential Commission headed by Nelson Rockefeller investigated
 charges of illegal CIA activities.  Among other things, they found that the
 CIA had tried to assassinate several foreign leaders, including Fidel CASTRO
 of Cuba.  It had tried to prevent Salvador ALLENDE from  winning the 1970
 elections in Chile and afterward had worked to topple him from power.        
    
  Between 1950 and 1973 the CIA had also carried on extensive mind-control
 experiments at universities, prisons, and hospitals.  In 1977, President
 Jimmy Carter directed that tighter restrictions be placed on CIA clandestine
 operations. Controls were later also placed on the use of intrusive
 surveillance methods, such as wiretapping and opening of mail, against U.S.
 citizens and resident aliens.                                                
    
  Late in the 1970s, however, fears arose that restraints on the CIA had
 undermined national security.  The agency's failure to foresee the revolution
 in Iran (1979) gave new impetus to efforts at revitalization.  President
 Ronald Reagan and his CIA director, William J. CASEY, loosened many of the
 restrictions, but such activities as the mining of Nicaraguan harbors in 1984
 as part of the covert campaign in support of the Contra rebels  and the
 still-unclear role of the CIA in the IRAN-CONTRA AFFAIR focused renewed
 public attention on the agency.                                              
    
  Following Casey's death in 1987, Reagan appointed William WEBSTER, then
 director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, to be Director of Central
 Intelligence.  His reputation for integrity helped to restore the agency's
 image, but alleged intelligence failures during the PERSIAN GULF WAR (1991)
 tarnished the record of his tenure.  He was succeeded in 1991 by Robert M.
 GATES.                                                                       

  Bibliography:  Ameringer, C. D., Foreign Intelligence:  The Secret Side of
 American History (1990);  Breckinridge, S. A., The CIA and the U. S.
 Intelligence System (1986);  Colby, William, and Forbath, Peter, Honorable
 Men:  My Life in the CIA (1978);  Jeffreys-Jones, Rhodri, The CIA and
 American Democracy (1989);  Karalekas, Anne, History of the Central
 Intelligence Agency (1977);  Leary, W. M., ed., The Central Intelligence     
  Agency (1984);  Lefever, Ernest W., and Godson, Roy, The CIA and the
 American Ethic:  An Unfinished Debate (1980); McGarvey, Patrick, CIA: The
 Myth and the Madness (1972); Marchetti, Victor, and Marks, John D., The CIA
 and the Cult of Intelligence (1975);  Ranelagh, John, The Agency:  The Rise
 and Decline of the CIA (1986);  Ransom, Harry H., The Intelligence
 Establishment (1970);  Snepp, Frank, Decent Interval (1977);                 
  Turner, Stansfield, Secrecy and Democracy:  The CIA in Transition (1985); 
 Woodward, Bob, Veil:  The Secret Wars of the CIA, 1981-1987 (1988).          

