CIA Covert Operations: Panama and Nicaragua In the 1950s, the repression of domestic political dissent reached near hysteria. Meanwhile, the CIA's covert operations, already underway in Europe, expanded throughout the world. By 1953, according to the 1970s Senate investigation, major secret programs were underway in 48 countries, consisting of propaganda, paramilitary, and political action operations. By 1949, the agency's covert operations department had approximately 300 employees and 47 stations. Over the same period, the budget for these activities grew from $4.7 million to $82 million. In this article I will discuss the United States' use of covert action, using Panama and Nicaragua as examples. I had planned to write my own article on Manuel Noriega and his connections to the CIA, but the more I read it the more I found that the main topic surrounding him was much more interesting. So I will continue with this article showing my findings about the CIA and its covert operations. Covert operations have become a way of life and death for millions of people around the world who have lost their lives as a result of these actions. In 1980, covert operations cost billions of dollars. CIA Director William Casey was quoted as saying that "covert action was the cornerstone of U.S. policy in the Third World." (Agee, 2) Over the 45 years of the CIA, one president after another has used covert operations to intervene covertly, and sometimes not so covertly. , in the internal affairs of other countries, assuming that their affairs were ours. Almost always, the money was spent on activities designed to support political forces considered friendly to U.S. interests, or to weaken and destroy those considered hostile or threatening. Friends were easy to define, they were those who believed and behaved like us, took orders and collaborated. Until the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the enemies were also easily recognizable: the Soviet Union and its allies, with China having had an ambiguous status since the 1970s. But there were other countries against which the CIA took actions that were not associated with the Soviets: Iran in 1953, Guatemala in 1954, Indonesia in 1958, Cuba in 1959, Ecuador in 1963, Brazil in 1964, Chile in 1970, Nicaragua in 1979 and Grenada. in 1983 to name a few. (Agee, 2) These governments, and others attacked by the United States, were left-wing, nationalist, reformist, populist, or uncooperative, and the hostility of the United States drove some of them to seek weapons and other support from the Soviet Union. Typically, the CIA organized covert operations to undermine and destroy programs that supported communism by driving and publicizing anti-communist solidarity. The local elites, whose privileged position was also threatened by the movements in favor