The Agency: a history of the CIA

(By Hugh Wilford)

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Author	Hugh Wilford

“Book Descriptions: Since the eve of the Cold War, the Central Intelligence Agency has been tasked by the U.S. government with keeping watch on an increasingly dangerous and unstable world. Few organizations are as fascinating, as mysterious—and as controversial.

Also known as “the Agency” or “the Company,” the CIA has a dual mission: to gather critical intelligence and analysis and to conduct covert operations aimed at safeguarding U.S. security interests. To do this, its officers work primarily in the shadows, dealing in spies and secrecy, which has led to questions about the organization's geopolitical role, and the tradeoffs between intelligence work and democratic transparency:

Is the CIA operating as it was intended to, or is it in desperate need of repair?
What lessons has the CIA learned from its greatest successes and its worst failures?
How does intelligence gathering actually work, both for and against U.S. interests?
Has the CIA fulfilled its difficult mission for the world's largest democracy thus far?
According to CIA expert Hugh Wilford, there's a fundamental tension buried within the heart of the CIA's mission to protect the American government and people: a tension between democratic accountability and the inherent need for secret government power. Throughout its epic (and surprisingly recent) history, the CIA has swung back and forth between these principles.

What many don't realize is that it's U.S. citizens who check the CIA's power, and who bear the responsibility of staying informed about what the CIA has done and continues to do at home and abroad in their name. In The Agency: A History of the CIA, Professor Wilford of California State University transforms decades of academic research into an engrossing 24-lecture course that helps you better understand the roles the CIA has played in recent American history, from the eve of the Cold War against communism to the 21st-century War on Terror. With his outsider's objective perspective, Professor Wilford offers an unbiased exploration of the CIA's inner workings, its successful—and disastrous—operations, its innovations in technology and espionage, and its complex relationship with U.S. presidents and popular culture. In this course, you will find all the information you need to be able to make your own conclusions about what the CIA might have done right, what it might have done wrong, and what it should do in the future.

Investigate the CIA's Great Successes…

Prior to the birth of the CIA in 1947, Americans entertained strong suspicions of international involvement and excessive government power. That changed, however, with the onset of World War II and the subsequent Cold War against communism—both of which paved the way for advocates of intelligence and international intervention to overcome the nation's “anti-spy” tradition.

So, what can we make of the CIA's record in espionage and intelligence? Does it all add up to a failure or to a success?

To answer this complicated question, The Agency guides you through decades of espionage and covert operations. After a look at the CIA's origins—including the agency's most obvious predecessor, the Office of Strategic Services, or OSS—and the organization's evolution from a strict intelligence agency to the United States's premier covert-action unit, you'll delve into some of the most remarkable and fascinating successes, including:

The sound intelligence the CIA's U-2 spy plane program provided to President John F. Kennedy during the Cuban Missile Crisis, which highlights the agency's prowess in using technological innovations to fulfill its mission;
The admirable performance of the CIA throughout much of the Vietnam War during the 1960s and 1970s, during which it provided solid battlefield intel and sensible strategic assessments about the negative long-term prospects of U.S. involvement; and
The recent successful disruptions of terrorist plots in the ongoing War on Terror, including the foiling of a June 2018 plot (involving the deadly toxin ricin) by a suspected Islamist extremist in Cologne, Germany.


…and Its Stunning Failures

A balanced exploration of the CIA should also take into account the CIA's many controversial intelligence errors, and Professor Wilford devotes equal time to these historic failures.

You'll learn how these—sometimes catastrophic—moments came about as the result of everything from bureaucratic knots to the Agency's surprising lack of human intelligence about volatile regions around the world, including the former communist bloc in Eastern Europe and the Muslim world.

Throughout The Agency, you'll consider how the CIA often failed or fell short concerning:

The Soviet Union's acquisition of the atomic bomb,
The fall of China to the forces of communism,
North Korea's invasion of South Korea,
The collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, and
How long it took to notice the rise of radical Islamism (including the September 11 attacks).
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