John Downey and Richard Fecteau were young and eager U.S. intelligence neophytes shot down over Communist China in the fall of 1952. As CIA paramilitary operatives, Downey, 22 and Fecteau, 25 were assigned to help halt the spread of communism during the Korean War by training anti-communist Chinese guerillas. But things went horribly awry when [...]

Before the creation of the CIA, the United State government relied on the OSS for their intelligence needs. An acronym for the Office of Strategic Services, the OSS used to coordinate military missions behind enemy lines during World War II. In an effort to succeed in these clandestine missions, the OSS devised and used a [...]

The Central Intelligence agency (CIA) was created in 1947 as a result of the National Security Act signed into law by President Harry Truman. The CIA is a civilian intelligence agency responsible for intelligence on matters of national security. However, the intelligence gathered by this civilian agency is predominately used by our nation?s military. The [...]

The Central Intelligence Agency has been something of an enigma for United States foreign policy for many decades. I’ve previously discussed some of the CIA’s recent efforts to privatize Intelligence work. However, if you really want to know how does the CIA define intelligence, you have to understand the foundation of the organization and the [...]