Just curious. As far back as I remember I only hear about them destabilizing countries that aren’t fully in the pocket of American powerplayers. Sometimes they assassinate people, sometimes instigate coups, subvert media… and the #1 way to encounter them seems to be to try and take back control locally of one’s country’s oil and other valuable resources.
So my question is, have they ever done anything good?
Conclusion: Yes they have done maybe as many as 3 somewhat minor things that were not atrocious.
The CIA is a constituent part of the military-propaganda-industrial complex, which works for the capitalist class, not the working class, so whatever “good” it may have done was coincidental.
I think that’s what OP is looking for though.
Depends on whose side you’re on. If you’re a genocidal maniac like Kissinger, sure they did.
A better question is: has any nation’s intelligence service ever done anything “good” in the history of our species? It’s still no, but with less nationalism.
Apparently the mods consider my equating “being pure evil” with there being something wrong with those people as ableism. I disagree, considering they still seem perfectly able to be fucking pure evil and are quite good at it. But if mods view being pure fucking evil as a protected class I rescind my comment.
Just like how mods are perfectly able to be pathetic.
Depends on the context. Covert operations and operators usually means that someone is bound to be negatively affected for the positive outcome of someone else.
There are no good guys or bad guys in geopolitics just interests. Sometimes those interests align with what most people consider good or bad. Read the field manual FM3-24 and learn about shaping and you will see what the CIAs bread and butter of their job entails.
I just read about shaping. It’s everything I knew they were doing but given a name.
Thanks for the tip.
good for whom?
Not really, no. I’m sure someone can cherry pick one individual instance where a CIA agent saved a puppy or something, but the function of the CIA is to serve as the covert arm of the US Empire and do what would even make the US public question the US’s position on the global stage. I recommend everyone listen to Blowback.
Financing art is a pretty good thing imo: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/modern-art-was-cia-weapon-1578808.html
You’re asking this in Lemmy.ml 🤣
Never.
Depends on whose side you’re on. If you’re a genocidal maniac like Kissinger, sure they did.
A better question is: has any nation’s intelligence service ever done anything “good” in the history of our species? It’s still no, but with less nationalism.
People who join such services universally have mental disorders.
