It was never heroic. It was the importation of British style intelligence into previously moral America. Henry Stimson was more what America was about, “gentlemen do not read other people’s mail”. People mock that, but he grew up in the old west. And when someone betrayed that trust (Japan). He presided over the construction of 50 some odd aircraft carriers and oversaw the Manhattan project and nuked them.
The CIA introduced British deceit, dishonesty and perfidy into the US government as a norm.
They have trashed America’s reputation in the world like nothing else.
J. Edgar Hoover was a dedicated anti-marxist, who was warning about infiltration, and he was right.