After Trump dismantled the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2025, there was a huge outcry by many people who focused on the agency’s stated mission to provide international aid. The fact that USAID was well known as having a dual purpose as a dark budget for CIA covert action programs was (and still is) being ignored or, at best, branded a “conspiracy theory” by its defenders.

It is, in fact, anything but. The dark side of USAID has been known publicly for decades. On 8 June 1970, The New York Times published the following in a thin column on page 2:

Dr. John A. Hannah, director of the Agency for International Development, acknowledged today that the United States aid program was being used as a cover for operations of the Central Intelligence Agency in Laos. He said President Nixon might propose divorcing such intelligence work from over seas economic assistance in the future in proposals on foreign aid reform to be sent to Congress.

“Well, I just have to admit that that is true,” Dr. Hannah said when asked if his agency's economic aid “is being used as a cover for C.I.A. operations in Laos.” He was questioned on the Metromedia radio news program “Profile.” Dr. Hannah made it clear that he disapproved of the Central Intelligence Agency's use of his agency. He said Laos was the only country in which this was being done and that it stemmed from a 1962 decision that such activity was in the national interest.

It is unusual for an executive‐branch official to acknowledge publicly that his organi zation is being used for under cover work abroad.

Unusual as the statement might have been, it is also doubtful that it was entirely truthful. By many accounts published in books by ex-CIA people since, USAID was used for these things worldwide, probably until 2025. What exactly did the CIA due with such funds under the cover of international aid, you ask? Well, in the case of Laos, they waged all-out war. On 3 August 1971, The New York Times published this, buried below the fold on page 1:

The Nixon Administration acknowledged today, through a Senate subcommittee staff report, that the Central Intelligence Agency was maintaining a 30,000‐man “irregular” force now fighting throughout most of Laos. Many news articles in recent years have described C.I.A. sponsorship of an irregular army in Laos. However, the subcommittee report represented the first time that the agency publicly and officially confirmed its military activities in Laos. The report indicated that the use of the irregular units in Laos was more widespread than had been indicated in the news accounts.

You might think this news from the 1970s isn’t relevant. You would be mistaken. The funding might be routed diffently today, but beyond that, nothing much has changed. The CIA is doing the exact same stuff right now. They are waging war in Ukraine and until USAID was demolished by Trump, the CIA was using it to pay journalists in Ukraine to spread pro-Western propaganda. That much was obvious.

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