Organizing for the ‘Gray Zone’ Fight: Early Cold War Realities and the CIA’s Directorate of Operations
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
4-25-2019
Keywords
‘Gray Zone’, cold war, CIA, COMINFORM, directorate of operations
Abstract
Despite its portrayal as something new, the concept of the ‘gray zone’ is not novel. It was the Cold War battleground in which the USA and the Soviet Union waged rival unconventional campaigns, and it was there that the newly formed Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was given responsibility for operating. This was not the organization’s original purpose, but Cold War exigencies forced Washington to improvise and build an organization with unique capabilities. These early years shaped the CIA’s operations directorate, creating two distinct cultures within the larger agency, one focused on intelligence collection and the other focused on covert action.
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
https://doi.org/10.1080/09592318.2018.1552430
Citation / Publisher Attribution
Small Wars & Insurgencies, v. 30, issue 1, p. 62-80.
Scholar Commons Citation
Oakley, David P., "Organizing for the ‘Gray Zone’ Fight: Early Cold War Realities and the CIA’s Directorate of Operations" (2019). GNSI Faculty and Staff Publications. 6.
https://digitalcommons.usf.edu/gnsi_facpub/6
