A century ago the United States government shut down the fledgling spy service the Wilson Administration had established to help wage the Great War. And America was out of the espionage business until 1942, when FDR authorized the formation of the OSS. Today, the American intelligence community consists of eighteen separate agencies which boast a total annual budget of more than $100 billion. That’s one million dollars 100,000 times over. But those eighteen agencies are only the tip of the proverbial iceberg.
3,000 organizations most call “the CIA”
As The Washington Post reported in 2010, there were 1,271 government organizations and 1,931 private companies in 10,000 locations in the United States that were working on counterterrorism, homeland security, and intelligence. The intelligence community as a whole, the Post noted, would include 854,000 people holding top-secret clearances. Surely now, fourteen years later, the whole operation is even larger. Thus, what Dwight Eisenhower famously called the military-industrial complex is now often termed the military-industrial-intelligence complex. But for most Americans, it all rolls up into a single, three-letter agency: the CIA. Which is the focus, although not the exclusive territory, explored in Hugh Wilford’s The CIA: An Imperial History.
The CIA: An Imperial History by Hugh Wilford (2024) 384 pages ★★★★☆
Protecting the “American Empire”
Wilford’s central thesis is that the CIA continued the practices of the colonial intelligence services of the British and French (though mostly the British). That the agency simply represented the face of a new empire. And that, despite the fact that many of the men who held key positions in the early years of the American intelligence community considered themselves to be anti-imperialist. Clearly, the thesis holds water. The CIA did inherit a set of attitudes, beliefs, and techniques from the Europeans. Fair enough. But that emphasis misses the point. Because the central question is whether today’s “American Empire”—assuming the term applies—is simply a continuation of the British and French colonial empires of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. There are many who think so. And many who don’t. The point is debatable.
For example, Wilford goes into considerable detail about the CIA’s illegal domestic operations in the 1960s and 70s. During those years, the Agency collaborated closely with the FBI in efforts to undermine the New Left and Black Nationalists. And the author notes that this activity, which was extensive and stretched over several years, resembled that of MI5’s campaign against the Left in Britain during and between the two world wars. But so what? The comparison proves little more than that intelligence agencies in every nation are prone to meddling in domestic affairs even if doing so is illegal. It’s easy to find excuses to do so. Mission creep is common in the world of bureaucracy.
Four iconic figures in the Agency’s history
Wilford draws a straight line from the conduct of British intelligence in the colonies to the later efforts of the Central Intelligence Agency in the Third World after decolonization. In his view, the CIA inherited not just a set of common techniques and practices but the ideology and culture of the British Empire. He may exaggerate for effect. But there’s no denying that Rudyard Kipling’s novels of imperial derring-do, especially his iconic story, Kim, inspired many adventurous young men to enlist in the OSS and, later, the CIA. So did the story of Lawrence of Arabia.
Rudyard Kipling
He won the Nobel Prize for Literature. But for the men who were instrumental in establishing the CIA Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was best known for a single novel, Kim. That book, which is invariably listed among the greatest spy novels, captured the imagination of many in the American intelligence community when they read it as children. Some cited it as a reason they sought out careers in intelligence.
Lawrence of Arabia
T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935) is best known to posterity as “Lawrence of Arabia.” An army colonel who operated among the Bedouin tribes of the Middle East during World War I, he helped the British drive the Ottoman Turks out of the region. Many members of the American intelligence establishment cited Lawrence as an early influence in their lives and careers.
Kim Roosevelt
Kermit “Kim” Roosevelt Jr. (1916-2000) was an adventurer despite his scholarly image. He led the joint US-British operation to overthrow the Iranian government in 1953. The exploit made him an iconic figure in CIA history. And he spoke of what he had learned from the British colonial intelligence community as pivotal in his education.
Edward Lansdale
Edward Lansdale (1908-87) was a pioneer in counterinsurgency and psychological warfare. Working on behalf of the CIA most of the time, Lansdale famously crafted the techniques that defeated the Huk guerrilla rebellion in the Philippines following World War II. Believing he had a magic touch, the Eisenhower Administration assigned him to do the same in South Vietnam for President Ngo Dinh Diem. He failed. But Lansdale is still widely regarded as one of the key figures in the Agency’s history.
About the author
Hugh Wilford has been a professor of History at California State University, Long Beach since 2006. He previously taught at the University of Sheffield in the United Kingdom, where he trained as an intellectual historian. Wilford holds a BA from Bristol University and a PhD from Exeter University. He specializes in the history of the CIA, having published five major books on the subject. He was born in 1965.
For related reading
Be sure to check out How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States by Daniel Immerwahr (A supremely entertaining history of American empire).
For other closely related books, every one of them excellent, see:
- The Quiet Americans: Four CIA Spies at the Dawn of the Cold War by Scott Anderson (How the CIA helped set the course for a half-century of US policy)
- The Ghost: The Secret Life of CIA Spymaster James Jesus Angleton by Jefferson Morley (James Jesus Angleton, the man who nearly destroyed the CIA)
- Wild Bill Donovan: The Spymaster Who Created the OSS and Modern American Espionage by Douglas Waller (The remarkable spymaster who launched the US into espionage)
- Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence by Nicholas Reynolds (The rise of American intelligence in World War II)
- Agents of Influence: A British Campaign, a Canadian Spy, and the Secret Plot to Bring America into World War II by Henry Hemming (British interference in American politics in WWII)
You’ll find other information about related topics at:
- Good nonfiction books about espionage
- 10 top WWII books about espionage
- Top 20 popular books for understanding American history
And you can always find my most popular reviews, and the most recent ones, on the Home Page.
