this video was sponsored by War Thunder on May 1st 1960 at 70,000 ft above the Earth's surface a United States Lockheed U2 aircraft is a little over halfway through its Journey from peshawa in Pakistan to Bodo in Norway the planes pilot Francis Gary Powers has been tasked with a top secret mission by the American authorities to carry out aerial reconnaissance over the Soviet Union by photographing key military installations including launching sites for intercontinental ballistic missiles one such site was the cheliabinsk 65 plutonium production facility located near ozor which Powers managed to photograph successfully just a
few minutes before suddenly his plane was shot down by a Soviet s75 deina surfac to- a missile near what is now the city of Yekaterinburg remarkably Powers survived the initial blast and was able to bail out and parachute safely to the ground before being captured by Soviet forces the ensuing International controversy and attempted cover up by the American authorities resulted in humiliation for the United States but also Shone a spotlight on the clandestine activities of the governmental agency that had orchestrated the operation the Central Intelligence Agency or CIA had been relatively unheard of before this
event but it soon earned a Sinister and controversial reputation in the wake of Revelations detailing the activities it had carried out including launching coups and assassination attempts against foreign adversaries as well as conducting human experiments and surveillance on American citizens but how did this organization become one of the most feared and Powerful intelligence agencies in the world this is the history of the CIA [Music] Espionage or the act of gathering intelligence against an adversary has been practiced since ancient times with Egyptian Greek Roman Indian and Chinese contemporaries all documenting the use of spying as an
integral part of state and Military Affairs many of the modern methods of Espionage however can be traced to 16th century England where Francis Walsingham served as the Spy Master to Queen Elizabeth the Walsingham pioneered the use of intelligence gathering as an apparatus of the state employing cryptographers to Cipher and decipher coded messages as well as establishing an extensive network of informants and counter agents not only within England but also across Europe the 18th and 19th centuries also saw developments in Espionage particularly in relation to to military intelligence and the creation of the first Counter Intelligence
agencies such as the Okana in Russia it was with the daing of the 20th century however that many of the world's intelligence services that operate today were founded Britain pioneered much of the early work in this field with the creation of the Secret Service Bureau in 1909 from which the domestic MI5 and foreign MI6 intelligence Services Trace their roots during both the first and second world wars Britain utilized the extensive experience of these agencies to gain the upper hand over the enemy especially in the art of codebreaking and deploying spies Behind Enemy Lines to carry
out sabotage missions upon the United States entry into the second world war in 1941 President Franklin Roosevelt realized that America was far behind its peers in terms of gathering intelligence and Espionage on 13th of June 1942 he ordered Ed the creation of the office of strategic services or OSS which was the Forerunner to What Would One Day become the CIA modeled closely on the organizational structure of the British intelligence service the OSS established bases all over the world to acquire intelligence and plan operations against the enemy to carry out these missions however it had to
recruit an army of some 24,000 Personnel most of these were drawn from the American armed forces but some civilians and foreign Nationals were also recruited into the service including actors political scientists former professional baseball players and even a Russian prince despite its success the OSS was quickly dissolved after the war ended in 1945 but the need for a centralized intelligence service remained apparent within America's corridors of power as a new threat emerged from the Communist Soviet Union and the onset of the Cold War consequently on 26th of July 1947 President Harry Truman signed the National
Security Act into law which forly allowed for the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency the legal protections that the agency required to operate outside of federal administration were promptly granted and the organizational infrastructure with separate departments and a director who reports to the president of the United States was set up initially the two areas of responsibility for the CIA were covert actions and covert intelligence with the main aim of countering the threats posed by the Soviet Union and limiting the spread of Communism around the world the first true test for the agency came with the
outbreak of the Korean War in 1950 although its accomplishments fell far short of the expectations it had set for itself almost all its operations ended in Failure exposed by misinformation from enemy double agents and the incompetence of its own officers with none of those based in Soul being able to to speak Korean towards the end of the war the CIA underwent a change in leadership with Alan Dulles being appointed as the new director under Dulles the agency began to involve itself in several military coups around the world aiming to secure pro-western regime changes that would
benefit America's interests throughout the 1950s and early 1960s CIA agents played an active role in coups in Iran Guatemala and Syria as well as incidents in Indonesia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo although these activities were somewhat expected of a covert intelligence agency targeting foreign adversaries something far more Sinister and malicious was being undertaken on America's own soil and used on its own citizens project MK Ultra was a highly secretive CIA program designed to explore the possibilities of mind control on individuals through the administration of drugs sensory deprivation and electroshock therapy the program began
under Dallas's tenure in 1953 and lasted for two decades during which time unwilling and unsuspecting American citizens were subjected to the illegal activities of an organization that was supposed to be there for their protection it would be several years before the cia's controversies would emerge fully into the public eye however a first glimpse of its deceptive and manipulative practices unfolded in the aftermath of the U2 incident after Francis Gary Powers had been shot down in the Soviet Union the Russians initially kept his capture and self-confession to being a CIA agent a secret from the rest
of the world presuming that powers was dead and that the U2 plane had been destroyed on impact the CIA fabricated a fictitious cover story for their mission stating that the plane was part of a NASA weather research operation and even went so far as to paint another U2 plane with NASA markings to corroborate the cover up on display in Moscow the wreckage of pilot Francis power You2 reconnaissance plane for mosites and foreign news men to see as the Soviets soon revealed that they had captured Powers alive as well as having recovered some of the instruments
on board proving that it was a CIA spying mission after all the controversy not only myed the agency and its leadership under Dulles in disrepute but also greatly damaged the political standing of the then president Dwight Eisenhower the Calamity of the U2 incident however would pale in comparison to the C I's misfortunes that followed the island of Cuba had recently undergone a revolution resulting in a communist government under the leadership of Fidel Castro taking charge although the United States initially tried to win Castro over by supplying money and weapons through CIA operatives it soon changed
its mind and pursued a policy to bring about his removal these plans ranged from employing members of the American Mafia to carry out a hit to planting explosive cigars among his favorite sokes and even chemically infecting one of his scuba diving suits so much so that over Castro's lifetime it is estimated there were 638 attempts or plans to assassinate him with the removal of Castro proving more difficult than envisaged the CIA then chose a different strategy to fund arm and train a counterrevolutionary force of Cuban Exiles and have them invade the island on 17th April
1961 one ,500 men landed in the Bay of Pigs and were provided air support from the US Air Force and navy among the planes used were b26 bombers and F4U Corsair Fighters which wrought immense damage on Cuba's airfields and ground forces if you've ever wondered just how powerful and deadly aircrafts such as these were then you can find out for yourself by playing War Thunder the sponsor of this video War Thunder is the most comprehensive vehicle combat game ever made and is available now for free on PC and consoles take command of over 2,500 tanks
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suited for fans of military history one feature that we particularly like is The Game's sophisticated vehicle damage models which intricately show individual comp opponents like engines fuel tanks weapons and crew all of which are susceptible to damage from enemy fire just like their real world counterparts we'd recommend War Thunder to anyone with a fond interest in history as you can get as close as virtually possible to taking command of a genuine historical War vehicle which you can customize with countless camouflages historical markings and decoration options play War Thunder now for free on PC PlayStation or
Xbox by using the link in the video description to sign up new players and those who haven't played in 6 months will also receive a massive bonus pack on PC or consoles that includes multiple premium Vehicles the exclusive vehicle decorator Eagle of Valor 100,000 silver lions and 7 Days of premium account available for a limited time only so don't miss it despite the meticulous planning and effort put in by the CIA the Bay of Pigs invasion was a complete disaster with all the counterrevolutionary forces surrendering within 3 days this added yet another mission to the
growing list of CIA failures and was a factor in provoking the Soviets to move nuclear missiles to Cuba in 1962 thereby bringing much of the United States within striking range the following years of the Cold War would see the CIA operate much more ctly all the while maintaining its commitment to suppressing the spread of Communism it became involved in the Brazil coup of 1964 which installed a pro-american military dictatorship in the country as well as supporting the Tibetan Independence Movement led by the Dalai Lama against the government of communist China much of the cia's resources
during this time however were allocated towards the war in Vietnam with the United States becoming heavily involved from 1965 onwards countless covert CIA missions were launched into the Communist North to destabilize the government of hoochi Min who was receiving indirect support from the Soviet Union China and other Communist States the war effectively became a proxy conflict between the competing World Views of the United States and the USSR however the increasing cost in both American lives and tax dollars resulted in a massive anti-war movement taking hold among the American public suspicious that these movements were being
influenced by the governments of Moscow and Beijing the CIA launched a domestic surveillance Vance program code named chaos which collated the names of over 300,000 American citizens and organizations who had campaigned to end the war in Vietnam nevertheless all of these secret operations and missions over the past several decades would soon come to light in the wake of the Watergate scandal of 1972 although the CIA was not directly involved in the Breakin at the Democratic National Committee headquarters president Richard Nixon attempted to cover up the illegal act ity targeting his political opponents by asking the
CIA to block the FBI's investigation into the matter when the Scandal finally broke with rumors of the cia's involvement the agency's new director James Schlesinger who had been kept in the dark about the matter decided to commission a report to identify what other unsavory activities the agency had been involved with the so-called family jewels report sha a light on the illegal inappropriate and otherwise sensitive operations carried out by the C I since 1959 which included the use of illegal wiretapping and domestic surveillance on American citizens assassination plots directed against foreign leaders as well as the
human experimentation carried out under project MK Ultra a series of congressional and presidential commissions followed these Revelations aimed at restoring checks and balances within the American intelligence community and preventing further abuses of Power with President Gerald Ford issuing an executive order prohibiting in the assassination of foreign leaders the damning findings of these inquiries resulted in severe reputational damage for the CIA accompanied by a swift reduction in its budget and number of Staff it nevertheless continued its operations throughout the 1970s and 1980s although these were much smaller in scale support was organized for the Afghan mujahadin
fighters in combating the invading Soviets in 1979 and similar operations aided National and far-right movements in Nicaragua Italy and turkey to delegitimize their communist and left-wing opposition from this point onwards much of the cia's activity is difficult to ascertain owing to reports remaining highly classified but some glimpses of the agency's operations emerged after a series of critical intelligence leaks in 1986 the CIA assembled a team to identify the source of the highly classified information being leaked to the Soviets which was compromising their own agents behind the Iron Curtain the resulting investigation identified Aldrich Ames a
CIA Counter Intelligence officer as the mole within the agency and he was later convicted of Espionage charges amounting to life in prison with the collapse of the Soviet Union and the fall of Communism by 1991 the cia's focus shifted towards the Middle East to counter the increasing levels of instability within the region the United States committed itself to spearheading the the Gulf War of the early 1990s however the presence of American troops in the region ultimately created another and arguably more serious problem for American Global Security the rise in islamist extremism propagated by Osama Bin
Laden the CIA created a specialist counterterrorism division to track Bin Laden's movements as well as the organizations and individuals associated with him however their failure alongside America's other intell agencies to prevent the September 11th attacks Drew major criticism the resulting war on terror launched by President George Bush would come to redefine and reshape American foreign policy including the operations of the CIA in the years that followed in addition to sending covert agents to hunt down Bin Laden against the backdrop of the invasion of Afghanistan CIA Intelligence Officers also began to assess the plausibility of an
invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein who was suspected of supporting Bin Laden and amassing an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction the validity of this intelligence would ultimately come to haunt the agency as it proved to be false and was used as a major justification for The Invasion and the subsequent 8-year long occupation of the country despite these failures in intelligence the ca did see success with its covert military operations on 1st May 2011 president President Barack Obama announced that a CIA directed Mission had successfully eliminated Osama Bin Laden who had been hiding out
in Pakistan The Raid codenamed Operation Neptune Spear saw several officers of the cia's special activities division alongside US Special Forces launch a hellborn raid on the compound where Bin Laden was residing and neutralize their target this brought an end to the near decade long Manhunt for the perpetrator of September 11th since then the CIA has continued to carry out covert operations in the Middle East with reports indicating a presence in Syria to counteract the forces of President Bashar al-assad as well as those of the Islamic State in the ongoing Civil War the activities of the
agency have also expanded online in recent years especially with the rise of social media and the increasing availability of digital information in 2015 the directorate of digital Innovation was formed to serve as the cia's arm in combating cyber security threats however just 2 years later in March 2017 a major leak of Highly classified documents detailing the cia's electronic surveillance and cyber security capabilities called Vault 7 was released to the public by Wikileaks the individual who had leaked the information was subsequently identified as yet again being one of the agency's own officers a software engineer named
Joshua schulter the files revealed that the CIA was capable of hacking into Cars Smart TVs web browsers smartphones and computer operating systems like Windows and Mac OS demonstrating that the agency is truly capable of watching everyone and everything including [Music] you shout out to War Thunder again for sponsoring this video make sure to check out War Thunder now for free on PC Playstation or Xbox and use the link in the video description to register those of you who are new or haven't played for 6 months will also receive a massive Bonus Pack across all platforms
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