The Vital Role Of The CIA During The Cold War

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Recommended: Intelligence in the cold war

Edward LaRosa
Mr. McMichael
U.S. History IIA
10 September 2018
The Vital Role of the CIA during the Cold War

The Cold War started around 1947 after WWII and was the geopolitical, economic, and ideological struggle between the two world superpowers at the time, the USA and the USSR. The two powers were competing for superiority over the other. After WWII the U.S. adopted the strategy of “containment” to combat the threat of Soviet communism from spreading across the globe. To achieve their goal of “containment” the U.S. needed a central agency to gather and analyze intelligence on opposing governments. The outcome was the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The development of the CIA unified the intelligence community and became a major guide for U.S. policy makers during the complexities of the Cold War Era. …show more content…

This included their intentions and their capabilities. The CIA’s projects in collecting and analyzing information would help prevent the Cold War from becoming a nuclear war. One of the ways the CIA gathered intelligence on the Soviets was by recruiting defectors and Soviet citizens living in western areas. They gave these citizens fictional lives, backgrounds and they were even given the correct documentation to back up their stories if they were questioned by government officials. These defectors were also trained in the required skills that they would need to gather their information, some of which included sending and receiving secret messages, taking photographs with hidden cameras, and even identifying different styles of

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