HUSH Term Paper
CIA Foreign Intervention through the Cold War
Evander Jaca
Period 1

Evander Jaca

The perfect government relies not on brute strength or erudite knowledge but in the ability to adapt to conditions of our world. The United States government proved this adaptive mechanism as they transformed the organization to meet the dangers of that era. General Doolittle recommended to the U.S. panel the use of covert action on foreign countries. “We are facing an implacable enemy whose avowed objective is world domination by whatever means and whatever cost, there are no rules to such game,” the statement that ignited the transformation of the CIA into a weapon of foreign policy.
The Cold war, a perfect name for the war that was almost set ablaze. The bipolar war that raged for five decades and through this time period, the United States fought in a secretive way: the use of the CIA. The Central Intelligence Agency was established in 1947 under the Truman administration after the end of the Second World War. Its main function is to gather intelligence both domestically and internationally. The CIA intensified the tension throughout the cold war era because of their use of aggressive tactics of assassinations and government upheavals in third world countries in the name of “democracy” without completely assessing the fact that United States might be dragged on another hellish war. The Agency began from nothing, just a minor organization with an unclear purpose but as the threat of the Cold war loomed, the CIA grew as an independent rapier of the United States.
The CIA started as a mere information collector for the U.S. but it all changed in 1955 when the Congressional Committee concluded that any means is necessary when dealing with U.S. foes. Covert operations were started to be carried out by the CIA as they started to transform into an independent organization through different presidential administrations. Under the Truman presidency the Office of Policy Coordination (OPC) was established in the CIA in 1948. The OPC took direct role of creating and planning covert operations. The Korean conflict made the OPC flourish because of the U.S. wartime spending and secret operations that established an expensive and authoritative part of the CIA. The National Security Council 4A (NSC-4A) was launched at on December 1947 which is a series of peacetime covert action operations. It established secret operations to be restricted as an executive branch function only. Furtive tasks of the CIA included the following: use of propaganda, economic control, direct action, subversion against hostility, support for anti-communists, sabotage, espionage, counter espionage, and assistance to insurgents that will benefit U.S. objectives. On April 1951 the Psychological Strategy Board (PSB) was created to handle government wide psychological strategy warfare. Later on the use of psychological warfare was proved to be ineffective causing the CIA to switch to covert operations because they believed that it is the most effective action. Another factor that affected the CIA conversion is their control of unvouchered funds creating a small danger to be exposed in Washington. Truman’s presidential administration set the CIA to be an independent power in the field of covert operations. (Howland and Patterson)
The Eisenhower administration came with a promise of keeping the United States ahead of everything. President Dwight Eisenhower’s administration was responsible for the assignment of the Secretary of State, Secretary of Defense, and the President to be in charge of the use of covert operations. The use of covert operations disbanded the PSB making the CIA one with the shadows. At the end of the Eisenhower’s term, the NSC 5412/12 also known as the “special group” was created. The special group was am executive body that examines and approbates covert programs proposed by the CIA. Eisenhower’s administration caused