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Central Intelligence Agency (view source)
Revision as of 16:21, September 28, 2009
, 16:21, September 28, 2009no edit summary
[[Image:CIA HQ.jpg|thumb|right|The CIA Headquarters]]
[[Image:CIA HQ.jpg|thumb|right|The CIA Headquarters]]
The '''Central Intelligence Agency''', or CIA is an intelligence-gathering agency in the [[United States]] government. As the U.S.'s primary [[intelligence agency]], it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, entities, and persons, and reporting such information to the branches of the U.S. government.
The '''Central Intelligence Agency''', or CIA is an intelligence-gathering agency in the [[United States]] government. As the U.S.'s primary [[intelligence agency]], it is responsible for obtaining and analyzing information about foreign governments, corporations, entities, and persons, and reporting such information to the branches of the U.S. government. The head is the "Director of Central Intelligence" (DCI).
It is also involved in covert [[espionage]] and paramilitary operations in support of its mission to protect the national security of the United States.
It is also involved in covert [[espionage]] and paramilitary operations in support of its mission to protect the national security of the United States.
====NSA====
====NSA====
The military intelligence agencies continue to exist and were never merged into the CIA. Another entirely separate agency the [[National Security Agency]] ('''NSA''') was created in 1952 to handle electronic signals intelligency ("Sigint").
The military intelligence agencies continue to exist and were never merged into the CIA. Another entirely separate agency the [[National Security Agency]] ('''NSA''') was created in 1952 to handle electronic signals intelligency ("Sigint").
===Early operations===
The principal problem facing the first generation of covert operators was murky objectives. Was covert action designed merely to "contain" the Soviet Union or to "roll it back?" Covert operations were handled by the CIA's "Office of Policy Coordination" (OPC). There was confusion on its mission OPC --was it merely to stir up trouble behind the Iron Curtain or to "liberate" and [[rollback]] the Kremlin's Eastern European satellites? One early covert operation was a total failure in Albania, where the OPC worked with Britain's [[MI6]] to train and deploy anticommunist commandos committed to overthrowing the Soviet-backed regime of Enver Hoxha. Frank Wisner, the first OPC director, regarded the Albanian operation as "a clinical experiment to see whether larger rollback operations would be feasible elsewhere," but [[Kim Philby]], a Soviet mole inside MI6, leaked the details to the Kremlin, with ghastly results for the anti-Hoxha forces.
===Dulles years 1953-51===
===Dulles years 1953-51===
* McAuliffe, Mary S., ed. ''CIA Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.'' (1992). 376 pp.
* McAuliffe, Mary S., ed. ''CIA Documents on the Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962.'' (1992). 376 pp.
* Murphy, David E.; Kondrashev, Sergei A.; and Bailey, George. ''Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War.'' (1997). 530 pp. brings together personal recollections from CIA and KGB officers, and previously unpublished documents.
* Murphy, David E.; Kondrashev, Sergei A.; and Bailey, George. ''Battleground Berlin: CIA vs. KGB in the Cold War.'' (1997). 530 pp. brings together personal recollections from CIA and KGB officers, and previously unpublished documents.
* Tenet, George. ''At the Center of the Storm: My Years at the CIA'' (2007), DCI 1997 to 2004
* Turner, Stansfield. ''Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition.'' (1985). 304 pp.
* Turner, Stansfield. ''Secrecy and Democracy: The CIA in Transition.'' (1985). 304 pp.
* Westerfield, H. Bradford, ed. ''Inside CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955-1992.'' (1995). 489 pp.
* Westerfield, H. Bradford, ed. ''Inside CIA's Private World: Declassified Articles from the Agency's Internal Journal, 1955-1992.'' (1995). 489 pp.