The Central Intelligence Agency: A Short Primer

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 INTELLIGENCE GATHERING.

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 business people, 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. The CIA was prohibited the following year from making secret contracts with universities and other nongovernment institutions. The use of intrusive surveillance methods, such as wiretapping and opening of mail, against U.S. citizens and resident aliens would require presidential authorization and approval by the attorney general on a case-by-case basis.

Late in the 1970s, however, fears began to arise that the restraints had undermined the CIA and compromised U.S. security. The failure to anticipate the fall of the shah of Iran or the capture of the U.S. embassy in that country in 1979 sharpened such fears. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan and CIA director William J. Casey pledged to bolster the CIA's effectiveness, although the new administration assured the public of its opposition to domestic spying by the agency. During the Reagan administration, the CIA has come under increasing fire for its activities in Central America. In 1984 the agency was accused of directing the mining of Nicaragua's harbors without keeping Congress informed; the U.S. Senate and International Court of Justice both condemned the action. Further controversy developed when it was learned that the CIA had produced a handbook for Nicaraguan rebel Contras giving instruction in political assassination and guerrilla warfare.

Bibliography Agee, Philip, Inside the Company: CIA Diary (1976); Colby, William, and Forbath, Peter, Honorable Men: My Life in the CIA (1978); Karalekas, Anne, History of the Central Intelligence Agency (1977); Lefever, Ernest W., and Godson, Roy, The C.I.A. and the American Ethic: An Unfinished Debate (1980); McGarvey, Patrick, C.I.A.: The Myth and the Madness (1972); Marchetti, Victor, The CIA and the Cult of Intelligence(1975); Ransom, Harry H., The Intelligence Establishment (1970); Snepp, Frank, Decent Interval (1977).