5 research outputs found
Through a Glass, Darkly:The CIA and Oral History
This article broaches the thorny issue of how we may study the history of the CIA by utilizing oral history interviews. This article argues that while oral history interviews impose particular demands upon the researcher, they are particularly pronounced in relation to studying the history of intelligence services. This article, nevertheless, also argues that while intelligence history and oral history each harbour their own epistemological perils and biases, pitfalls which may in fact be pronounced when they are conjoined, the relationship between them may nevertheless be a productive one. Indeed, each field may enrich the other provided we have thought carefully about the linkages between them: this article's point of departure. The first part of this article outlines some of the problems encountered in studying the CIA by relating them to the author's own work. This involved researching the CIA's role in US foreign policy towards Afghanistan since a landmark year in the history of the late Cold War, 1979 (i.e. the year the Soviet Union invaded that country). The second part of this article then considers some of the issues historians must confront when applying oral history to the study of the CIA. To bring this within the sphere of cognition of the reader the author recounts some of his own experiences interviewing CIA officers in and around Washington DC. The third part then looks at some of the contributions oral history in particular can make towards a better understanding of the history of intelligence services and the CIA
Ian Fleming and the public profile of the CIA
This article represents the first major analysis of the appearance of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in the James Bond novels of British spy fiction writer Ian Fleming. The article shows that Fleming was remarkably influential during the early Cold War in establishing the public profile of the CIA. The novels, which include manifold references to the agency and its staff, were published at a time when the CIA kept out of the public limelight and when other cultural forms, including Hollywood, refrained from making too much fanfare about intelligence matters. Drawing on recently declassified material, including the papers of fabled CIA Director Allen Dulles, the article demonstrates that the agency took a keen interest in Bond, even drawing inspiration from his adventures and the novels' depictions of technology