The Agency 's Post Revolution Influence Over Romanian Society

The United States has involved itself in several missions shrouded in secrecy throughout the nation’s short history. Operations, like the Iran-Contra Affair, and the Central Intelligence Agency’s (CIA) role in Afghanistan are just two examples of these types of secret government missions, which have become public knowledge. Both operations occurred under the helm of President Reagan, who outlined a clear agenda, promising to fight the spread of the Soviet social influence of communism. Moreover, other similarities are observed between the two covert missions, like providing armaments, equipment, and training to foreign rebel forces to assist in combating communist influences (National Security Archive 2006, Johnson 2011). Moreover, various government agencies were used in the operations for distinct purposes. The comparison of the Iran-Contra Affair and the CIA’s role in the Afghanistan war, aid in revealing a picture of how covert operations were used in the 1980s, in combat communism, while achieving other presidential agenda items, like securing American hostages (PBS n.d.).

Congress expects the CIA to take steps to address the Aldrich Ames’ treason fallout or risk budget cuts or agency closure. Ames’ exposed a multitude of secret operations and intelligence officers to the Soviet Union over a period of nine years which caused at least ten deaths and led to his arrest in February 1994. CIA Chief Woolsey commissioned internal review processes to assess the damage, review security procedures, and inquire if Ames’ chain of command failed to follow agency expectations and regulations.

The “Red Scare” is very prevalent in the United States, especially with allegations of Soviet infiltration in the government from Senator McCarthy. As a result, a fear of espionage has risen. Politicians and the general public has internalized the fear of espionage to the extent that propaganda has been released and

The Central Intelligence Agency pursues the effort to enhance the protection of the republic and the democratic ideals of the United States of America when being threatened by foreign nations and the communist Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Hence, the gathering of intelligence through field agents becomes essential and the secretiveness of the operations is indispensable in order to obtain accuracy. Information on the actions in areas such as Poland, have caused field agents to have been entitled to research the current situation at both the levels of the populace and the central government. Apart from this region, operations in Moscow include the infiltration in the government and constant recruitment of agents in order to predict

The following paper will be an analysis of "The Great Terror," that is, the arrest and often execution of millions of Russian and Russian minorities from 1936 to 1938, carried out by the Soviet secret police, known as, and hereafter referred to as the NKVD. The analysis will use Eugenia Semyonovna Ginzburg's, a Russian professor and writer who was arrested early into the purges and experienced, as well as survived, it in its entirety, memoir a Journey Into the Whirlwind as a primary source. More specifically, it will focus on Ginzburg's arrest and

However, one of the biggest turning points in Angleton’s career, and one of the most contentious parts of his legacy, was on the horizon. Anatoliy Golitsyn was a Major in the KGB and, in 1961, defected to the West with his family. Described by Mangold as a somewhat “ordinary” KGB officer, he defected without providing much in the way of viable intelligence and showed a penchant for paranoia and an overblown self-importance. It is highly probably that Golitsyn today would not rank among even the top 100 most interesting spies in Cold War history if it were not for and association that Golitsyn made with Angleton, at the time about the most powerful man at the CIA. Due to this association, Golitsyn has been believed by some to be the most significant defector in CIA history, not so much for the information provided, which Holzman notes is “debate[d] – among people who debate such things,” but for how his defection impacted the paranoia and career of Angleton.

After WWII tension between the East and West would intensify following the defeat of Hitler’s Germany as a new struggle for political influence would begin between the US and U.S.S.R. US concerns over Soviet plans for expansion and global influence, along with Russia’s attitude towards the West had raised concerns over any peaceful co-existence that the US may have envisioned. Similar to US concerns, Russian Kremlin Joseph Stalin had also viewed the Western world as a threat to the long term goals of communist Russia. The initial creation of government agencies such as the CIA, MI5 and 6, and the KGB was formed with the purpose of through secrecy meddle in international affairs with the goal of infiltrating, influencing, or interfere with events

The term “Covert Action” brings with it a connotation of shadowy figures wrapped in secrecy and intrigue. It also brings with it a substantial amount of moral questions as to “what is right.” The use of covert action has been widely publicized since the early seventies, but trying to find out the truth to these events has been difficult to say the least. What is even more difficult, is historically recording these events into categories of successes or failures. These operations are difficult to dissect because of their secrecy and although events have been recorded, some facts simply aren’t apparent. This paper will seek to identify the complex issues associated with covert operations.

Spies: The Rise and Fall of the KGB in America is a book written by John Earl Haynes. the book goes into very specific detail of the activity of the KGB in the United States during the 1930’s and 1940’s. This book which was written with the KGB archives formed the most complete source of soviet espionage in America. Co-author of the book Alexander Vassiliev was given access to stalin era records and material of Soviet espionage activity against the United States. Haynes also presented a webcast for this book through the Library of Congress. In the Webcast Haynes spoke about the background information of his book Spies. Haynes also explained the different sources he used to write the book, and the validity of those sources. Watching the webcast I learned the importance of having multiple primary sources when writing a book about history. Not only are primary sources important, but being able to connect those primary sources to one another proves the information is valid. Haynes did a wonderful job explaining the connections between sources he used to write Spies, which turned out to be most of his presentation.

According to MI5, espionage refers to “a process which involves human sources (agents) or technical means to obtain information which is not normally publically available [and]…seeking to influence decision makers and opinion-formers to benefit the interests of a foreign power.” For many historians, espionage has long been “the missing dimension” of diplomatic, political, and military history. The declassification of documents and greater political transparency over recent decades however has opened up this previously ‘missing dimension’, and has highlighted its role in the conflicts of the twentieth century. As the extent to which agents were used to obtain classified information for the Allies and leak incorrect information to the Axis powers has become more apparent, increasing numbers of World War II historians, such as Professor F. H. Hinsley, have argued that espionage played a major part in the ultimate Allied victory in 1945. Despite this, there is still room for historiographical debate over the extent to which espionage had a significant impact on the course and outcome of World War II. This essay will use five case studies to explore the role of British and Soviet informants and agents in influencing the course and outcome of World War II, and the extent to which they altered the duration of the war, technological developments, battle outcomes and strategies, and assisted in the ultimate Allied victory. Ultimately, this essay will argue that Allied

Very rarely do we hear a name for an organization that strikes as much disdain and fear as the Komitet Gosudarstvennoy Bezopasnosti, abbreviated as the KGB. Formed in 1953, The KGB gained international notoriety during the Cold War as the United States and the USSR engaged in extensive espionage. However, the KGB was much more than that. In addition to external espionage, The KGB was responsible for internal counter-intelligence and internal ‘crimes against the state’. This means that the KGB was responsible for suppressing any possible revolts or rebellious thinking that would jeopardize the status quo. The fact that the KGB can be mentioned in the same breath

Mihai Pacepa was not the sole Romanian to defect to the West and criticize the Ceausescu regime from abroad. There were many such dissidents, a good example of which is the case of Monica Loviinescu who, according to Pacepa, “criticized with bitter sarcasm Ceausescu’s attempts to subordinate Romanian literature to his own ends…infuriated the Romanian leader that it was he himself who gave the orders for her to be silenced” (Deletant, Pgs. 328 & 329). These sorts of operations were carried out by Pacepa’s DIE, a branch of the Romanian intelligence service, which later became the CIE after he defected. The willingness of these intelligence agencies to go after dissidents abroad, not to mention in western states, is a testament to how far they were

Romania is not a very well known country, but is very interesting. It is based makes most of its money on agricultural produce. It also has a pretty high GDP per capita, so the Standard of living is better than a lot of other countries. Romania imports lots of manufactured goods because they don't have all of the correct resources to manufacture as much as the United States.

Cristina Vatulescu’s book, Police Aesthetics: Literature, Film, and the Secret Police in Soviet Times, deals with the aestheticization of politics and the intersection between Soviet secret police practices and artistic production. The documents emerging from the secret police archives of the former Soviet bloc have caused scandal after scandal, compromising esteemed cultural figures and abruptly ending political careers. Taking advantage of the partial opening of secret police archives in Russia and Romania, Vatulescu focuses on their most infamous holdings—the personal files—as well as on movies the police sponsored, scripted, or authored. Through the archives, she gains new insights into the writing of literature and raises new questions about the ethics of reading. She shows how police files and films influenced literature and cinema, from autobiographies to novels, high-culture classics to avant-garde experiments, and popular blockbusters. In so doing, she opens a fresh chapter in the heated debate about the relationship between

To the world outside, the masked country of Romania, although rarely viewed in media, was known as a picturesque country filled with many profitable resources such as its fertile land, petroleum, and mineral deposits, however, behind the Iron Curtain, lay a more secretive nation, deprived of its rights, ignored by its leaders, and suffering under the taxing regime of Communism. Before Communism was administered, Romania had a trivial communist party which was often overlooked in politics. At the turn of World War II, in 1941, Central European ideals influenced Romania, bringing light of a regime that valued civil equity. During the war, to prevent Russia from overthrowing Romania, they sided with Germany, causing Soviets to occupy in