You think with the Cold War ramping up, the U.S. didn’t eed intelligence?
The cold war largely ramped up because of the CIA mentality. We are still reaping the benefits today. The Ukraine war and Iran as an enemy is a direct descendant of support for the Bandera OUN for a decade after the war and for deposing the elected Iranian government for daring to thing they controlled their own oil. And the border flood of 5 million flooding into America? Read about United Fruit, Dulles and Guatemala in 1954.
The CIA has authored more misery for America than can be believed. And in return, they murder JFK, did LSD tests on unwitting US soldiers, smuggled Cocaine into Mena Arkansas, gave us GHW Bush and Clinton, and possibly Obama. They snaked Trump and riddled his white house with spies out to cut him off at the knees etc.
Best of all, the “intelligence” community missed the fall of the Berlin wall, the USSR, and 9/11.
So much for that “if we only knew what they did for us”.