Declassified CIA maps: The CIA declassified a number of once-secret maps in celebration of its cartography division’s 75th birthday. The Smithsonian says “these days, the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies rely more on digital mapping technologies and satellite images to make its maps, but for decades it relied on geographers and cartographers for planning and executing operations around the world.” While interesting to look at, as Smithsonian argues, it is sobering to remember that these maps had a major role in shaping global politics and include, for example, some of the documents US government officials used to plan the Invasion of the Bay of Pigs in Cuba in the 1960s, predicting global trade in the 1950s, and assessing Middle East oil production in 1951.

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