The Central Intelligence Agency: A Documentary History

The Central Intelligence Agencys relative transparency makes it unique among the worlds espionage operations. Over the past few decades it has released over 31 million pages of previously classified documents including most recently the so-called Family Jewels a special collection of records on a series of operations from the 1950s to the 1970s that violated the agencys own legislative charter. Taken together these papers permit a partial glimpse inside the CIAs clandestine world: how it operates; how it views the outside world; how it gets things right; and all too often how it gets them wrong. The documentary selections assembled here carefully analyzed for content consistency and context guide readers through the CIAs shrouded history and allow readers to sift the evidence for themselves.The principal theme of this new documentary history of the Central Intelligence Agency is the dilemma of maintaining a secret organization in an open society. A democracy rests on accountability and accountability requires transparency: the people cannot hold their government to account if they do not know what it is doing in their name. At the same time an intelligence agency lives in a world of shadows. It cannot function if it is not able to keep its sources its methods and many of its operations secret. The resulting tension-and the constant temptation to take advantage of the impunity that secrecy allows-has shaped the CIAs history from its beginnings.Offers narrative chapters introducing the successive periods of CIA historyProvides analytical discussion setting the individual documents in context and drawing connections among themA timeline traces major developments in CIA historyA general bibliography of recommended print and electronic resources for further study