A National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book
Jeffrey T. Richelson, Editor
September 10, 2001
https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB54/index2.html
Mention of the Central Intelligence Agency generally elicits visions of espionage and covert action operations. It may also produce images of the multitude of finished intelligence products the agency turns out – from the tightly controlled President’s Daily Brief, available only to the president and a select circle of advisers, to a number of less restricted intelligence assessments. The CIA’s role in the application of science and technology to the art of intelligence is far less appreciated. Even an 800-page history of the agency, published in 1986, John Ranelagh’s The Agency: The Rise and Decline of the CIA, included only a few references to the CIA’s Directorate of Science and Technology. However, the exploitation of science and technology has been a significant element of the CIA’s activities, almost since its creation. In 1962, it resulted in the creation of the Deputy Directorate of Research, which was succeeded in 1963 by the Deputy Directorate for Science and Technology (renamed the Directorate of Science and Technology in 1965).
The agency’s S&T effort has had a dramatic impact on the collection and analysis of intelligence. The agency designed and operated some of America’s most important spy satellites as well as the U-2 and A-12 (OXCART) spy planes, has been heavily involved in the collection of signals intelligence (SIGINT), and helped pioneer the technical analysis of foreign missile and space systems. Its satellites and SIGINT activities proved vital to intelligence analysts in assessing the capabilities of foreign weapons systems. Several of the most important collection systems the United States operates today are direct descendants of earlier CIA programs. It is also responsible for a number of scientific advances – including a key component of heart pacemaker technology – that have been made available for medical and other purposes.
The CIA’s S&T efforts, of course, have not been completely free from folly. MKULTRA drug experiments resulted in the suicide of an Army scientist. Poison pens and exploding seashells were designed in a futile attempt to assassinate Fidel Castro. In addition, it funded the attempts of alleged psychics to report on activities at Soviet military facilities by “viewing” those activities from California. It also sought to employ cats and birds for intelligence collection – in one case implanting assorted equipment in a cat in order to turn it into a mobile, controllable, bugging device.
The following documents were obtained as part of the research for The Wizards of Langley: Inside the CIA's Directorate of Science and Technology through Freedom of Information Act requests, research in the National Archives, or provided by the CIA. They are grouped into four categories:
Growing Involvement: 1947-1962
Deputy Directorate for Research: 1962-1963
S&T and the Cold War: 1963-1991
After the Cold War: 1991-2001