Philip Agee exposes how U.S. foreign policy, particularly through the CIA, has often prioritized strategic and economic interests over democratic ideals.

 Collective Evolution

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Democracy was never the goal - it was the cover story to get citizen buy in. Philip Agee exposes how U.S. foreign policy, particularly through the CIA, has often prioritized strategic and economic interests over democratic ideals.

He saw a deep hypocrisy within the CIA and, by extension, the U.S. government. The CIA often justified its interventions abroad as efforts to “defend democracy” or “stop communism,” but in practice, Agee says, it didn’t matter whether a country’s government was freely elected or not. What mattered was whether that government aligned with U.S. interests - especially in terms of access to resources, markets, and geopolitical influence.

If a democratically elected leader resisted U.S. influence or adopted other policies (like Salvador Allende in Chile or Jacobo Árbenz in Guatemala), the CIA would often work to destabilize or overthrow them. Conversely, if a dictatorship or authoritarian regime was cooperative (like Pinochet’s Chile or the Shah’s Iran), the U.S. would support it in the name of “stability.”

Of course, this mindset still persists in the U.S. today. Foreign policy continues to use democracy as a slogan rather than a guiding principle.