The third in the National Security Archive's unparalleled series of primary source compilations on the CIA's clandestine side, curated by Pulitzer-nominated author John Prados, takes the story from the epic disaster of the Bay of Pigs through a series of little-known or under-explored covert activities in Cuba (including the Mongoose operation, which is documented in rich detail), British Guiana, Bolivia, Indonesia, the Dominican Republic, Iraq (the Kurds) and more. The material spans topics from first-hand reporting on Che Guevara as he uttered his dying words in Bolivia, to the CIA seeking approval for money to bribe African dictator Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic. This set will also provide unprecedented coverage of deliberations of the CIA’s high command, ranging from minutes of the "Special Group" that approved covert operations, to CIA directors' daily staff meetings, to the notes of meetings with presidents Kennedy and Johnson made by CIA Director John McCone.
The CIA Covert Operations project originated with the realization that there exists no single source in which an interested reader or researcher could access the most relevant material with respect to the full spectrum of subjects important to the study of these activities. The reasons for this are varied. Many documents reside in secret government vaults or are scattered among distant repositories; they are of different types and thus held in groupings unrelated to each other; or they are typically treated in isolation by virtue of being seen as pertaining to different geographic areas and not to the functional subject of covert operations.
Origin of Documents
| Central Intelligence Agency | 1128 |
| Department of State | 430 |
| National Security Council Staff | 327 |
| White House | 179 |
| Other U.S. Intelligence Organizations | 130 |
| Department of Defense | 89 |
| Other U.S. Agencies | 64 |
| Non-governmental Organizations | 30 |
| Non-U.S. Origins | 27 |
| U.S. Congress |
13 |
(Some documents have multiple origins.)