The CIA: The Purpose Of The CIA

412 Words1 Page

How much do you know about espionage and spies? Did you know Russian spies stole information about the atomic bomb? Did you know espionage has been used since biblical times? Without the CIA the United States would not have a lot of intelligence on other countries and this would make wars significantly harder to win. The Central Intelligence Agency was created September 18, 1947, with the National Security Act. The authors of the Call to Freedom textbook, Sterling Stuckey, and Linda Salvucci, define the CIA as, “A secretive organization created by the National Security Act in 1947”. The author of “Cold War: Almanac”, Sharon M. Hanes, states clearly what the purpose of the CIA is, “In the United States, responsibility for gathering intelligence and carrying out spy operations, often called covert operations, in foreign countries fell to the CIA”. This makes the CIA and FBI different. The FBI interferes with issues in the United States while the CIA interferes with international issues. …show more content…

This greatly affects several of their operations during the 1950s. In the “UXL Encyclopedia of U.S. History Vol. 2” the author Sonia Benson, tells the reader, “The CIA would gather, evaluate, and share intelligence within the federal government... The CIA would also perform other functions and duties beyond those related to information collection and analysis.” This explains what the CIA does in the federal

Show More
Related

  • Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI

    564 Words  | 2 Pages

    With this over the years the FBI has been given a large amount of authority to serve and protect. Doing so the FBI has been broken into seven areas to follow the U.S. Constitution. Background Investigations, Civil Rights, Domestic Terrorism, National Foreign Intelligence, Organized Crime/Drug Cases, Violent Crimes, and White Collar Crimes. Given this a large amount of authority even today the FBI sees to it that they base all their actions from the U.S. Constitution.

    Read More

  • The 1954 CIA Coup in Guatemala

    4707 Words  | 10 Pages

    ‘The wink and the nod’ that was all somehow acceptable to your primary sponsor caused many a dictator to adopt these methods to take and maintain power. Only recently have internal CIA documents become available, allowing researchers to begin to look inside the CIA itself. Partial as these releases are, they supply valuable insight into the machinations of this secretive organization. These documents outline the beginning of the Terror; let's hope we are seeing the end of it.

    Read More

  • COINTELPRO Was Necessary

    2375 Words  | 5 Pages

    COINTELPRO was founded by the FBI in 1956 as a government program for counterintelligence. The FBI director, J. Edgar Hoover, was instrumental in the program’s creation. After the age of McCarthyism best known as the Second Red Scare, Hoover was concerned about the institution of Communism gaining popularity within the United States. This gave way to the creation of COINTELPRO. The program originally focused on infiltrating the Communist Party within the United States and then instilling disorder and confusion via numerous tactics. The program mainly used espionage to allo...

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of The CIA

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    “President Bush has stated that about a hundred detainees were held under the Central Intelligence Agency secret detention program, about a third of whom were questioned using “enhanced interrogation techniques. The CIA has a way of very publicly blowing their cover seeming to pop up wherever turmoil, and political problems arise. The CIA exists to prevent threats, its operations involve covert actions or spying through various means to gather critical intelligence data. The CIA dates back to 1947. The qualifications and skills are above average. The job of the CIA is to anticipate and quickly assess rapidly evolving international developments and their impact, both positive and negative, on US policy concerns. When researching the career of

    Read More

  • The CIA’s clandestine operation known as Project MKUltra

    1559 Words  | 4 Pages

    The CIA’s clandestine operation known as Project MKUltra, inadvertently transformed the use of LSD from being a highly classified method of mind control into a massively popular drug that, in part, defined the counterculture movement of the 1960’s. While the CIA had no intention to supply the American public with the most potent hallucinogen known at the time , their poorly ran mission to create a foolproof truth-drug created an LSD following and changed it into a prominent entheogen. At that time, issues like the threat of an apocalyptic war with the USSR to the horrifying reports from the Vietnam War to the struggle for civil rights pervaded the minds of many young, disillusioned Americans who then sought an escape from their harsh reality. When they discovered a new and legal (until 1968) psychedelic drug thanks to public advocates like Ken Kesey or Timothy Leary, a massive demand was created, with roughly 2,000,000 individuals admitting to have tried it by the end of 1970 .

    Read More

  • History Of The FBI

    727 Words  | 2 Pages

    At the end of World War II, and the introduction of the Atomic Bomb, the FBI began working on background security investigations for the White House and other government agencies, as well as internal security for the executive branch of the government. In 1945, the FBI raided a magazine company that was particularly interested in the Far East and discovered a multitude of classified state documents. Around this time, Americans feared the invasion of Communism, which triggered the FBI to investigate people within the U.S. whom were suspected of sabotage and undermining Democracy in the name of Communism. The FBI's role in fighting crime grew yet again after the Korean War.

    Read More

  • Legacy of Ashes: The History of the CIA

    798 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...that had helped the United States to be one of the greatest counties that it is today. Within the agency, there was no communications where they kept information from each other. The CIA agency had no idea what they were doing in regards to central intelligence and they were compromised where the enemies knew about the attack before the attack was fully implemented. These examples prove that some leaders had some positive outcomes for the United States, but the agency from within could not stay united as well as keeping communications about what was going on in the world. I agree with Tim Weiner’s thesis that the United States is one of the greatest countries in the world, but we cannot seem to create a great and efficient spy service to benefit the United States.

    Read More

  • Models Of Presidential Power

    2075 Words  | 5 Pages

    ...e community have had conflicting views and opposing agendas. Lack of cooperation and communication between intelligence agencies; such as the FBI and the CIA refusing to share information prior to the terrorist attacks of 2001, resulted in limited information and failure on the part of the intelligence community and policy decisions regarding US safeguards against terrorist.

    Read More

  • The Significance of the Use of Espionage During the Cold War

    384 Words  | 1 Pages

    The Significance of the Use of Espionage During the Cold War During the Cold War there was an increase in the amount of funding and resources devoted to espionage which was helpful to both the USA and USSR. Because there was no fighting, spies became the main use in the battle for the supremacy. The definition of espionage is the act or practice of spying or of using spies to obtain secret information, such as about another government. It is whereby governments gain the systematic use of spies to get military or political secrets. It was used to gain information on the enemy as well as to increase the influence upon areas where conflicts of ideologies being fought over.

    Read More

  • Nasser The Last Arab

    1279 Words  | 3 Pages

    knowledge of the CIA and who would later would be involved in the clash between the

    Read More

  • Analysis of Defense Intelligence Agency

    988 Words  | 2 Pages

    Nedzi (D-Mich.), Luclen N. “Oversight or Overlook: Congress and the US Intelligence Agency.” A Congressman talk to the CIA senior seminar, November 14, 1979, https://www.cia.gov/library/center-for-the-study-of-intelligence/kent-csi/vol18no2/pdf/v18i2a02p.pdf (accessed January 7, 2014).

    Read More

  • The History of the FBI

    1523 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the 21st century, the world as we know it suffers from psychotic, demented, treacherous and, sophisticated crimes. This world would be corrupt without a tunnel of light if it was not for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The Federal Bureau of Investigation, also known as the FBI, is a corporation that seeks fidelity, bravery and, integrity for the United States of America. The FBI researches shocking and concerning crimes the news reports about politics, war and, safety that we hear on the television about issues that are being reported to the people. These cases of transgression are missions the FBI analyzes, such as hacking information from double spies, locating terrorists, seeking pedophiles, cracking down unknown mobsters, gang leaders and serial killers, white-collar crime, public corruption, cyber-crime, counter intelligence and civil rights.

    Read More

  • CIA

    2051 Words  | 5 Pages

                 The Central Intelligence Agency      The CIA is one of the U.S. foreign intelligence agencies, responsible for getting and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, individuals, and reporting such information to the various branches of the U.S. government. The State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research and the Defense Department's Defense Intelligence Agency comprise the other two. Its headquarters is in Langley, Virginia, across the Potomac River from D.C. The Agency, created in 1947 by President Harry S. Trueman, is a descendant of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) of World War 2. The OSS was dissolved in October 1945 but William J. Jonavan, the creator of the OSS, had submitted a proposal to President Roosevelt in 1944.

    Read More

  • Aldrich Ames: Case Study Counterintelligence And Consequences Of American Intelligence

    2045 Words  | 5 Pages

    The case study counterintelligence operation that I will be using is that of Aldrich Ames. During his time with the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) he compromised hundreds of operations and passed top secret and other sensitive information to the KGB and the Russian, SVR. Because of this, it resulted in the deaths of numerous people because he exposed their true identities. The majority of US spies were compromises, and the U.S. essentially had to start over their network because of Ames in the Soviet Union.

    Read More

  • National Security Agency Analysis

    2155 Words  | 5 Pages

    The National Security Agency, better known as the NSA, has always been a vital asset for the United States. Ever since its inception in 1962 by then-President, Harry S. Truman, for the sake of deciphering messages sent between Germany and Japan, the role of the NSA has been to gather information on the United State's adversaries as well as protect information of its citizens such as credit information from theft. However, the NSA also has a third role which makes it a pivotal asset during wartime: carrying the tasks of the operation code-named Network Warfare. Over the past six decades, the NSA has created a reputable reputation for itself from deciphering messages during World War II to finding acts of terrorism beforehand via the Internet.

    Read More

More about The CIA: The Purpose Of The CIA

Open Document