November 9: Journal Entry #10

My essential question for this month in EMC is, why is the CIA operating in Africa? The sub-question that I decided to pair with my essential question is, was there a specific event that made it so the CIA found it necessary to operate in Africa? I had decided to inquire into this essential question because by knowing the overarching justification behind why the CIA found it's presence necessary in Africa I would be gaining a far rounder, and deeper understanding of future topics I may inquire into. I had decided on inquiring into this specific sub-question because as I look back on certain periods of history, and history as a whole events were almost always spurred on by other events. For example the rise of Islam leading to the fall of the Byzantine empire. Considering that history often repeats itself I want to see if the CIA's presence in Africa is a repetition of the historical pattern of events spurring on other events.

These questions matter to me because I am of the opinion that knowing why something occurred, or why someone did something is just as important, if not more important than the end result. I think that this is important because without knowing why something happened it would be impossible to prevent it from happening again. However these questions don't hold weight only to me. Professors who study the CIA and their operations also find it necessary to understand why the CIA does what it does, but we have differing justifications. Professors find it necessary because they think that knowing why something occurred can help us to understand how it affects the modern day, and more so how it affects our lives. To answer my essential question and sub-question I have chosen several sources which are listed below. I decided on using these sources due their reliability. All of my sources have either .Edu or .Gov TLD which signifies their reliability and trustworthiness, but something else that also shows their trustworthiness is the extensive bibliographies that are provided with each source.

In regards to my next SDA (self designed assignment) after much deliberation I had decided on creating a podcast episode. In this episode I will answer both my essential question and sub-question by using the sources that are listed below. From the Central College I found an article titled "The Cold War in Independent Africa" which details how the Cold War caused both the USA and the USSR to be present in Africa, and how they often interacted with each other by engaging in proxy wars such as the Angolan civil war. Another article that I found by the Digital Commons points to the idea that the CIA's presence in Africa was most likely a result of the Cold War Forcing both the USA and the USSR to spread their respective ideologies around the world as much as possible, and this spread often entailed wars and bloodshed. Both of these sources have information that I will need to mention during my podcast episode in order to answer my essential question of, why is the CIA operating in Africa.

“The Cold War.” National Archives and Records Administration, National Archives and Records Administration, https://www.archives.gov/research/foreign-policy/cold-war/symposium/cleveland.html.

“Writing Anthology.” Central College, https://central.edu/writing-anthology/2019/07/02/the-cold-war-in-independent- africa/#:~:text=The%20effects%20of%20the%20Cold,hindered%3B%20independence%20was%20often%20delayed.

Byers , Mary. “Establishment of the Central Intelligence Agency and Its Vital Role in the Cold War Era .” Digitalcommons, 2010, https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1119&context=honors.