CIA – the myth lives on

In our last newsletter, we have told you about the beginnings of the CIA up to the naming in 1947. Here now is a little more of the most recent history.

Every-day undercover business and crises The CIA developed quickly after 1947 and also developed a quiet and growing life of its own, which was also a reason to complain for Truman: their activities tended to become more obscure over the years and it was becoming clear that the authority's active role increased more and more.

Truman's term in office, however, came to an end and he was replaced by Dwight Eisenhower, who did not share his view.

The CIA could live on and the later presidents who had their own crises to take care of like to involve the CIA, e.g. Kennedy and the Cuba crisis (the Bay of Pigs invasion on April 17, 1961 and the Cuban missile crisis from October 15 to 28, 1962), and Johnson with the Vietnam war. Eve though Johnson didn't listen to the CIA that predicted that escalating the Vietnam crisis would be a mistake (and they were right).

In the 70s the CIA suddenly found itself involved in some domestic inconsistencies - the Nixon-Watergate Affair. The question was whether they wanted to or could help Nixon to further delay the investigations. As opponents of Nixon, other former CIA agents were helping to prove that Nixon was involved in the break-in into the Democratic headquarters. The CIA at last decided against Nixon and Richard Helms, head of the CIA, had to pay the price for that right away - Nixon fired him. The CIA had become interesting, was in the spotlight in a not very pleasant way and suddenly Congress was interested in the secret maneuvers and operations, among others their role in the Cuba crisis.
The result was the intention of moving away from the James Bond-like special operations, which sometimes had rather bloody consequences. Luckily, there was already a new alternative - they turned toward modern, electronic and un-bloody espionage.

However, the memory of their own strength and experience quickly led to "side jobs." President Carter, at least, remembered the old times, and soon the CIA was in the middle of the Afghanistan crisis and the task of fighting the Soviet Union with their old, reliable methods.

Under the Reagan administration at last, even William Casey, a veteran of the OSS times, was reactivated in 1981. The consequence were an increase in foreign undercover operations, that finally made Reagan himself a subject of negative comments. And when the CIA became involved in illegal weapon sales to Iran to free US hostages in Lebanon, criticism increased and more control was demanded. Further problems with sidelined funds for supporting the Contras in Nicaragua and the exposing of agents such as Edgar Lee Howard and Aldrich Ames weakened the acceptance and the agency's reputation.

New times With the end of the Soviet Union, it was time again to set new priorities - today, the CIA is concerned with dictators around the world, extremists and others - but also the growing sector of industrial espionage, a worldwide phenomenon, just the right thing to use all the knowledge collected over the past decades in an effective way. New technology is also important in the age of internet - it is important to keep pace with modern methods of sabotage and especially to develop methods that allow you to be the best in fighting them...

Mission and self-image The CIA's mission is defined as follows today: ‘We support the President, the National Security Council and all those who plan and execute American security functions by:

- Providing correct, proved, extensive, timely accurate information about foreign intelligence that are connected to national security

And

- leading counter-intelligence and measures that serve national security and are connected to foreign intelligence - according to the President's orders.

Control Both Congress and the executive have a certain controlling power. Part of the executive is the National Security Council and the President, the Vice President, the Secretary of the Interior and the Defense Secretary. They issue directives and decide on the guidelines for the activities. In Congress there are special committees in the Senate and the House of Representatives for intelligence activities, as well as other committees that control the agency's work.

By the way, you will find more about this on the website of our partner magazinUSA on www.magazinusa.com/lv2/inside/i_cia_history.asp