Many years ago, around the days of Vietnam, I used to know several of the top guys in the CIA, and heard a bit of talk in the evening. And many years later I heard from one of these guys grandsons, at a beach barbecue, that his grandfather had been on the board of Air America, which among other things did the drug smuggling from the Golden Triangle during the Vietnam War years. Supposedly to help pay for the war and ingratiate allies.
All I’ll say about it is that, back then at least, all the top guys seemed to be Ivy Leaguers. And as you say, they were basically liberals. Liberals of privilege.
Its hard to put any trust into the CIA due to countless assertions of corruption or at the very lest playing fast and loose.
My guess is the poppy fields of Afghanistan are still producing high grade drugs after all these years we have been there. That should tell everyone something.