Cia Covert Operations: Panama And Nicaragua :: essays research papers fc

CIA Covert Operations Panama and NicaraguaIn the 1950s, the repression of domestic political dissent reached nearhysteria. In the process the CIAs covert trading operations, already in progress inEurope, expanded worldwide. By 1953, according to the 1970s Senateinvestigation, on that point were major covert programs under way in 48 countries,consisting of propaganda, paramilitary, and political action operations. In1949, the agencys covert action department had about 300 employees and 47stations. In the same period, the budget for these activities grew from $4.7million to $82 million. In this opus I get out discuss the United States use ofcovert actions using Panama and Nicaragua as examples. I had planned on writingmy paper on Manuel Noriega and his connections with the CIA but the to a greater extent I readinto him I found the major topic outlying him was much more interesting. Sowith that I will continue on with this paper showing my findings on the CIA andthier covert operat ions.Covert operations make up become a way of life and death for millions ofpeople world wide who have lost their lives to these actions. By 1980, covertoperations were costing billions of dollars. CIA Director William Casey wasquoted as saying covert actions were the keystone of U.S. policy in the ThirdWorld.(Agee, 2) Throughout the CIAs 45 years, one president after another hasused covert operations to intervene secretly, and sometimes not so secretly , inthe domestic personal matters of other countries, presuming their affairs were ours.Almost always, money was spent for activities to prop up political forcesconsidered friendly to U.S. interests, or to weaken and destroy those consideredunfriendly or threatening.The friends were flaccid to define, they were those who believed and actedlike us, took orders and cooperated. Until the collapse of communism in EasternEurope, enemies were also readily recognized the Soviet Union and its allies,with China having ambiguous status sin ce the 1970s. But there were othercountries the CIA took actions against who were not associated with the Soviets.Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Indonesia in 1958, Cuba in 1959, Ecuador in1963, Brazil in 1964, Chile in 1970, Nicaragua in 1979 and Grenada in 1983 toname a few.(Agee, 2) These governments, and others attacked by the U.S., wereleft, nationalist, reform-minded, populist or uncooperative and U.S. hostilitydrove some of them to seek arms and other support from the Soviet Union.Usually, the CIA mounted covert operations to weaken and destroy the programssupporting communism by leading and advertising anti-Communist solidarity. Thelocal elites, whose privileged position was also threatened by movements for