The Colonial System after 1945 in the CIA’s Estimates
Abstract
The paper deals with the approaches to estimating the process of colonial system decay after 1945 by the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) of the USA. Having drained Europe, World War II provoked a radical turn in the paradigm of international relations that allowed the national movements in colonies to assert themselves. Moreover, the process of decolonization coincided with the Cold War genesis that exerted significant impact on the worldwide policy proceeding from now on in line with opposition of two superpowers and the related militarypolitical blocks. The research is based on literature sources on the history of CIA, the history of the Cold War and decolonization process. Special attention is paid to the report Disintegration of colonial empires and its value for safety of the USA being the backbone document for the USA in the issue of finding an optimal solution of the problem of colonial system disintegration in the conditions of opposition with the USSR. We’ve made conclusion that the CIA’s estimates were far from the liberal ideals of F. Roosevelt times. The CIA considered the countries of the Third World only as a potential zone of the USSR influence, and held a discussion on strengthening of the USA’s influence among the former colonies, at the same time maintaining the relations with their mother countries. We’ve also laid the foundations for the ethnographic analysis. The condition of the organization itself represents another important factor in the CIA’s estimates of colonial system. It’s been proved that at the early stages of its existence, the CIA had faced a number of problems, such as staff shortage, lack of single-skilled expert, difficulties in ensuring productive interaction of analysts and field investigators, etc. Thus, studying the views of CIA agents on the problem of decolonization is of great interest in the context of history of the Central Intelligence Agency.
Keywords
