The CIA, renowned for its secrecy, has long kept its maps and cartographic methods under wraps.
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These declassified maps show how the CIA saw the world at the height of the Cold War
Perhaps more so than any other tool used by the clandestine services, an accurate map can mean the difference between success and failure, or life and death.
Suspected sites of missiles in Cuba, 1962.
But, in honor of the agency's Cartography Center's 75th anniversary, the CIA put a number of maps online, depicting how "the company" has viewed the world since its inception in the aftermath of World War II.
President Franklin Roosevelt created the agency that would eventually become the CIA in the early 1940s. The map division produced a bevy of maps vital to strategic planning during the war, according to National Geographic.
The agency's mapmakers had a broad mission, asked to produce maps and data relevant to whatever national security issues the country may have encountered. In the process, "
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Chinese railroad construction in the mid-1950s.
Oil transport and refining facilities in the Middle East in the early 1950s.
A map of French and Viet Minh areas of operations during the 1950s.
International trade flows in the 1950s.
Suspected sites of missiles in Cuba, 1962.
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Transportation routes in and around West and East Berlin in the 1960s.
The China-India border region in 1963.
Bantustans in South Africa in 1973.
Ethnic groups in Afghanistan in 1979.
Southern Lebanon and environs in 1977.
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Central Moscow in 1980.
Population changes due to refugee movement on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, 1982.
Yugoslavia in 1981.
Vatican City, 1984.
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