The United States met the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan with aid to the Afghan mujahidin . Reagan also directed CIA to support the anti-Communist Contras fighting the Sandinista regime in Nicaragua. In December 1981, Reagan issued Executive Order 12333, which gave CIA the exclusive right to conduct covert action unless the President decided that another agency would be more appropriate to attain a specific objective. During Reagan's second term, CIA expanded its headquarters complex in Northern Virginia. Like President Eisenhower did for the original building, President Reagan helped break ground for the addition in 1984.
Thoughtful analysis is vital to sound decisionmaking.
The goal of our intelligence analysts can be nothing short of the truth, even when that truth is unpleasant or unpopular. I have asked for honest, objective analysis, and I shall expect nothing less. When there is disagreement, as there often is, on the difficult questions of our time, I expect those honest differences of view to be fully expressed. You are the trip-wire across which the forces of repression and tyranny must stumble in their quest for global domination. You, the men and women of the CIA, are the eyes and ears of the free world.