mirror of
https://github.com/nhammer514/textfiles-politics.git
synced 2024-10-01 01:15:38 -04:00
77 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
77 lines
4.8 KiB
Plaintext
***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).
|
|
|