Editing Conspiracy BBS Archive/cia info (section)

===INTRODUCTION===

On January 22, 1946, President Harry S. Truman issued an
executive order setting up a National Intelligence Authority,
and under it, a Central Intelligence Group, which was the
forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency.  Truman
recognized the need for a centralized intelligence apparatus
in peacetime to help ensure that nothing like the Japanese
surprise attack on Pearl Harbor  would ever again happen. 
The organization that was to become the CIA took on a life of
its own and over the past four decades has become the secret
army of the President of the United States.  Presidents from
Truman to Ronald Reagan have used this secret army whenever
they found it impossible to achieve their policy goals
through overt means.
     
Over the years, the CIA has evolved from an agency whose
primary assignment was to gather intelligence into a powerful
entity whose help is enlisted to help attain American foreign
policy goals.  Since 1947, the Agency has been involved in
the internal affairs of over fifty countries on six different
continents.  Although an exact number is impossible to
determine, there are over 20,000 employees affiliated with
the organization.  Of these, more than 6,000 serve in the
clandestine services, the arm of the CIA that is responsible
for covert operations.
     
The purpose of this work will be to survey the covert
operations that have been undertaken by the CIA in the past
forty years and to assess the effectiveness of a number of
these activities.  We shall begin by examining the various
shapes that covert operations may take.  They are propaganda;
political action; economic activities; and paramilitary
operations.  After surveying the various types of covert
operations, we will look at examples of CIA involvement
around the world.  Since there have been eighty-five or so
such operations since 1948, we will not attempt to look at
every one (See Appendix I).  However, we will examine a
number of covert operations to get an idea of what exactly
the CIA does and continues to do.  We will evaluate both the
particular operations examined in this work and covert
operations in general.  Afterwards, we should be able to
establish a number of criteria that separate good covert
operations from  bad ones.  Finally, we will look towards the
future and try to see what it has in store for the Central
Intelligence Agency.