The ultimate puppet masters, conspiracy theorists the world over recognize CIA’s imprint on all aspects of life. Since its founding by Harry Truman in 1947 the agency has been shrouded in myth. But how much can one organization really do? Biographies by Salon editor David Talbot and by Stephen Kinzer on the life of CIA’s first director general, Allen Dulles, claim that all the problems with mass surveillance and unlawfull killings that we see today originate in the early years of the organization.
I have trawled the internet for films, documentaries and lectures on the history of CIA. It seems impossible to separate fact from fiction, but I have done my best by excluding keywords like “ufo”, “area 51” and “mind control”. What remains is a selection of resources on the role of the CIA during the Cold War. I have added a public domain feature movie about a CIA analyst during the fall of Saigon.
Lectures
- C-span “Central Intelligence Agency Museum“
- Scranton University “The Brothers: John Foster Dulles, Allen Dulles and Their Secret World War“
- Youtube.com “David Talbot: The Devil’s Chessboard: Allen Dulles, CIA, & Rise of Am. Secret Govt“
- Wgbh Forum Tim Wiener video lecture “History of the CIA”
- C-span “Office of Strategic Services World War II Veteran“
- C-span “Sex and KGB Spies in the 1970s”
- C-span “CIA and the Press“
- C-span “Cuba and the CIA“
- C-span “Kennedy Assassination and the CIA“
- C-span “The CIA and Regime Change in the Cold War“
- C-span “Cold War Era Spies“
- C-span “Women in the CIA Workforce“
- C-span “Dirty Wars: The World is a Battlefield“
- C-span “In Depth with Ronald Kessler”
- Library of Congress “Ian Fleming, James Bond & the CIA”
- World Affairs Council of Northern California “The CIA: Fact and Fiction? – with Tim Weiner” (1 hour)
Radio shows
- Wnyc.org: “The Hidden History of Women Spies in the CIA” (31 min)
- Wnyc.org “John Rizzo on 30 Years of Controversy in the CIA”
- Talkinghistory.org “The Bay of Pigs Declassified.”
- Talkinghisthory.org “Against the Grain: In the early days of the CIA”
- Soundcloud.com ““Olvidados:” A Bolivian film looks at Operation Condor in South America.“
- BBC The History Hour “First CIA coup in Latin America”
- Talkinghistory.org “The Cultural Cold War: The CIA and the World of Arts and Letters“
Documentaries
- CIA Training film (1967)
- RT.com: “CIA chronicles: Black sites & Allen Dulles’ legacy with David Talbot” (Russian Tv Channel)
- CCTv.com ” Dialogue 12/17/2014 CIA torture report controversy” (Chinese Tv channel)
- The Watchmen: secrets of the CIA
- The Most Secret Place On Earth The CIAs Covert War In Laos” (2008)
- Inside The CIA: On Company Business (1980)
- Topdocumentaryfilms.com: Counter-intelligence (5×50 min)
- Nation Geographics: CIA Hidden Operations
- The CIA and Charlie Wilson’s War – The CIA and Hollywood
- Cold War: Spies (1944-1994)
- The Shadow Play: the CIA’s role in the Indonesian killings in the 60s
Public domain feature movie: Saigon- the Year of the Cat (1983) :
