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The cia noted the neo­co­lo­nial control of the British in Egypt, the French in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, and the Italians in Libya and mentioned burgeoning in­de­pen­dence movements in Indonesia, Madagascar, and Nigeria. It understood that “states like India and Egypt have already brought colonial issues into the un and may be expected increasingly to take the leadership in attempting to hasten in this and other ways the liberation of remaining colonial areas” (cia 1948: 7). Even in 1948, the cia recognized the role that foreign aid and promises of technical assistance and modernization could play in courting would-be in­ de­pen­dent nations.

S. Senate Select Committee to Study Governmental Operations with Re­spect to Intelligence Activities held hearings investigating the cia’s illegal activities. The committee, which came to be known simply as the Church Committee (­after its chair, Senator Frank Church, D-­ID), produced fourteen volumes of reports documenting hundreds of illegal activities ranging from kidnapping, murder, and drugging of unsuspecting civilians to the widespread infiltration and subversion of domestic academic institutions.

S. social scientists of the era to acknowledge that such self-­serving motivations lay at the base of many Cold War American foreign policies and programs linked to American academics. The war’s end brought uncertainty for American intelligence agencies. ­Under President Truman’s Executive Order 9621, the oss disbanded on October 1, 1945, and the agency’s functions w ­ ere reassigned to the Department of State and the War Department. Had President Roo­se­velt lived to the postwar period, the oss may have remained a permanent agency, but oss director William Donovan lacked Truman’s support.