The Agency: A History of the CIA

Why the United States created a secret foreign intelligence service; examining three periods of U.S. government intelligence before the birth of the CIA; the American Revolution to the late 1930s; World War II; the postwar years from 1945 to 1947.

How the CIA transformed from an intelligence agency to housing the United States' premier covert-action unit in the space of just two years; the role of George F. Kennan, who declared political warfare against the Soviet Union.

The CIA's attention to Asia; how the CIA failed to rein in its emphasis on covert operations and restore its focus on intelligence; a lack of public scrutiny of the CIA's actions; the arrival of future CIA director Allen Dulles.

The 1953 Iran Coup and how it created a culture of covert action that would shape the CIA's future; studying the shifting political attitudes toward Iranian nationalism; analyzing the Iran operation; pondering who was most responsible.

Exploring the CIA's role in the Guatemalan coup; a new era of dictatorship in Guatemala; a surge of anti-American sentiment across Central and South America that has haunted U.S. relations with the region to the current day.

The failure of the Hungarian uprising despite the CIA's attempts to liberate the Eastern Bloc countries; investigating CIA efforts to organize anti-communist Eastern European emigres to liberate their homelands; the creation of Radio Free Europe.