What If There Were No CIA?

American History Hit

History Hit

America, History

4.5 • 1.3K Ratings

🗓️ 16 October 2025

⏱️ 56 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The Agency. The Company. Langley.

Without the Central Intelligence Agency, would we talk about conspiracy theories as much as we do? Who would be in power in Guatemala? What about Iran? Would the Bourne films ever have been made?

Don is joined by Jeffrey Rogg to discuss what would have happened had the CIA never been founded. Jeff is a Senior Research Fellow at the Global and National Security Institute at the University of South Florida. His book is The Spy and the State: The History of American Intelligence.

Edited by Tim Arstall. Produced by Sophie Gee. Senior Producer was Charlotte Long.

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All music from Epidemic Sounds.

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Transcript

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1:07.9	Intelligence is pouring in.
1:13.6	Raw data, intercepted chatter, satellite imagery. The hum of machines merges with the drone of human toil. We're deep inside the nerve center of a shadow entity,
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