The Agency: Inside the CIA Page #6

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from the Soviet Union,

to build the plane

that's going to spy on them.

After purchasing

some of the materials

necessary to build the A-12

from the Soviet Union, the

plane went on to find

enormous success in discerning

Soviet military intentions.

The plane, uh, started

test flying about '62.

It went... went operational, uh,

couple years after that, uh,

and it flew operational

missions ininhe late '60s.

The A-12 program was cancelled

on December 28th, 1966

to await the arrival

Although visually almost

identical to the A-12,

it was run by the Air Force

with a special mission.

The Air Force had

a unique mission

and it was called... it was called

post strike reconnaissance,

meaning, if there

is a nuclear war,

you have to go fly right away

over the... the damaged territory

and see if you got

all the targets,

do you need to retarget

anything you missed,

the plane had to be

a little sturdier

and more rugged because flying

in a... a post nuclear environment

took a lot of buffeting, maybe.

So they had to be

a little stronger airplane.

Although one difference was

the addition of another

pilot by the Air Force.

They had two... two

people in the airplane,

a systems man and a pilot.

Uh, we always tease

the Air Force about this,

they said, you know,

"CIA planes are single

seaeaea, we can do it all.

Takes two Air Force people

the... that get promoted

to Colonel to fly

theirs," but, uh, it's

friendly... friendly

bantering back and forth.

With tools like the

SR-71, U-2, and A-12,

as well as advanced

cryptology methods,

the US had a decisive

advantage in the Cold War,

and in the late 80s, the

Soviet Union was on the eve

of collapsing. [music plays]

Agents of the KGB and the CIA

fought the battles

of the Cold War,

and Soviet KGB agents

found that infiltrating

American society was

of little difficulty.

They were so successful

because we're such an easy,

naive target. We're

an open society.

It's easy for them to

spy in our country.

We welcome everybody, we're

a nation of immigrants,

they say, spying in Russia,

which is a closed society,

is... is very difficult

because they watch ya. It's

a counter-intelligence

state. Our spies

were far superior

to theirs because they

had the tough job.

When you're being

watched 24 hours a day,

their secrets,

that's called skill.

Despite the KGB's success

at stealing secrets

in the United States,

the world was changing

and the Soviet Union was

on the brink of collapse.

The Berlin wall fell,

marking a symbolic end

to a conflict that had held

the world in the grip of fear

for decades. Families

and neighbors

that had been separated in East

and West Germany were reunited.

German citizens came

out of their homes

and broke off pieces of the

wall that had divided the world

for so long. The

Cold War ended

in uh, in a whimper,

rather than a wail.

If we could just

maintain our strength

long enough, the Soviet Union

had to collapse. As

the, uh, the standoff

continued in this Cold War,

America was changing rapidly,

and the Soviet Union was not. The

Soviet Union had no economy.

The Soviet Union was a

third world country,

but a first class military

system of nuclear weapons.

That's all it was.

President Ronald Reagan

had convinced the Soviet Union

that the US was capable

of defending itself

against nuclear missiles

with a project called SDI.

called it Star Wars. You

know, Star Wars was based

on ability to counter

their Soviet missiles,

in other words, we now,

we have, we've gone

beyond mutually

sure destruction.

Each side can kill the other.

We got one that can keep them

from using their

missiles at all.

Now, Gorbachev is

in real trouble.

He can't get the technology

wanted, it's not working,

and now he's faced

with this new threat

and he made one attempt.

He thought,

"If you'll kill Star Wars,

the Soviet Union will do

almost anything if

you'll do that. "

And they met at

Reykjavk, Iceland

to discuss that treaty.

Reagan said, "No,","

and Gorbachev was

finished righghthere,

he went home with

nothing to show.

And uh, that was,

uh, the beginning

of the actual collapse

of the Soviet Union.

As the Soviet Union collapsed,

the CIA found itself

without an obvious enemy

for the first time

in its history.

But across the Atlantic, a

new danger was growing.

Followers of Islam were

being turned to violence

in certain areas of

the Middle East,

forcing the CIA to

adapt once again.

The intelligence commununy

is changing drastically

because the threats

to our country

During the Cold War, we faced

formidable, powerful enemy,

but they wore uniforms. They

used conventional weapons.

Uh, what we face today is

far more serious threat.

The intelligence community,

as our first line of defense,

has to bat a thousand.

And all the terrorists

have to do is get one over.

And that's a 9/11. I

think intelligence

is always going to

be a mixed success.

There will be failures. It is

the nature of intelligence

in a number of cases to fail.

The basic mission

hasn't changed, but

certainly the focus

and approach, uh, has changed.

And um, at the demise

of the Soviet Union,

uh, one gentleman,

and I believe it

was... it was Bob Gates,

who is now Secretary of Defense,

uh, was saying that, well,

we no longer have

to face the dragon,

uh, but we face a wide

number of venomous snakes.

[music plays]

On a wall in CIA Headquarters,

rows of gold stars

mark the deaths

of CIA operatives fighting

America's enemies

abroad. Many of their names

will never be known,

and their families

will never know the

nature of their sacrifice

because of the secrecy

that must be upheld.

There is a price to pay for

signing up... to do this.

You don't ever talk

about... work at all

with the family.

And... and, and friends.

It"s just not part of

the... the background.

You just don't mention it.

It's like being in the Army

in the wartime,

except the war goes

on all the time for you. You

have to have your background

checked thoroughly. Maybe back

more than one generation. You

have to have your finances

scrutinized, your checkbook,

your investments,

and you're polygraphed

over and over and over.

If the US Congress

was subjected

to the same scrutiny

that the CIA people are,

there wouldn't be many

people left over there.

[music plays]

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