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Through a glass, darkly : the CIA and oral history
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Hammond, Andrew (Researcher in politics) (2015) Through a glass, darkly : the CIA and oral history. History : the journal of the Historical Association, Volume 100 (Number 340). pp. 311-326. doi:10.1111/1468-229X.12098
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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/1468-229X.12098
Abstract
This article broaches the thorny issue of how we may study the history of the CIA by utilizing oral history interviews. This article argues that while oral history interviews impose particular demands upon the researcher, they are particularly pronounced in relation to studying the history of intelligence services. This article, nevertheless, also argues that while intelligence history and oral history each harbour their own epistemological perils and biases, pitfalls which may in fact be pronounced when they are conjoined, the relationship between them may nevertheless be a productive one. Indeed, each field may enrich the other provided we have thought carefully about the linkages between them: this article's point of departure. The first part of this article outlines some of the problems encountered in studying the CIA by relating them to the author's own work. This involved researching the CIA's role in US foreign policy towards Afghanistan since a landmark year in the history of the late Cold War, 1979 (i.e. the year the Soviet Union invaded that country). The second part of this article then considers some of the issues historians must confront when applying oral history to the study of the CIA. To bring this within the sphere of cognition of the reader the author recounts some of his own experiences interviewing CIA officers in and around Washington DC. The third part then looks at some of the contributions oral history in particular can make towards a better understanding of the history of intelligence services and the CIA.
| Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Subjects: | E History America > E151 United States (General) | ||||||
| Divisions: | Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies | ||||||
| Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | United States. Central Intelligence Agency, Oral history, Secret service -- United States, United States -- Foreign relations -- 1977-1981 | ||||||
| Journal or Publication Title: | History : the journal of the Historical Association | ||||||
| Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Ltd. | ||||||
| ISSN: | 0018-2648 | ||||||
| Official Date: | April 2015 | ||||||
| Dates: |
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| Date of first compliant deposit: | 29 December 2015 | ||||||
| Volume: | Volume 100 | ||||||
| Number: | Number 340 | ||||||
| Number of Pages: | 16 | ||||||
| Page Range: | pp. 311-326 | ||||||
| DOI: | 10.1111/1468-229X.12098 | ||||||
| Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||
| Publication Status: | Published | ||||||
| Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access |
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