In CIA’s decision to shutter World Factbook, information becomes collateral damage

How did a reference manual for spies become an invaluable tool for the general public? We explain.

Origins

Even though the manual began publication only in 1962, its roots lie in World War II (1939-45). In 1943, even as the US was waging battles on multiple fronts against the Axis Powers, the then US administration led by President Franklin D Roosevelt was still dwelling upon the intelligence failure that had led to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii on December 7, 1941. The need for a coordinated approach to intelligence gathering and synthesis led to the creation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), the precursor to the CIA, under General William Donovan.

One among many of Donovan’s responsibilities was the collection, collation, and dissemination of basic intelligence: the fundamental and factual information on any given topic. The CIA puts it best: “If we think of intelligence as a pyramid, basic intelligence would be at the bottom, building the foundation of the other forms of intelligence.”

Soon after, the OSS teamed up with other American military intelligence services to establish the Joint Army Navy Intelligence Studies (JANIS), the US’ first interdepartmental basic intelligence programme. During the course of the war, JANIS was crucial in providing timely and accurate reference material to commanders and warfighters alike, allowing for educated planning and execution of mission priorities. Between April 1943 and July 1947, it published 34 studies.

Postwar scenario

Post WWII, George S Pettee, a noted expert on national security, wrote about the need for a more comprehensive basic intelligence framework in his 1946 book, The Future of American Secret Intelligence, stating that world leadership in peace requires even more elaborate intelligence than in war.

In 1947, the CIA was born and upon assuming charge of the JANIS programme, renamed it as the National Intelligence Survey, which continued the same tradition of providing decision-makers with up-to-date data, maps, and other reference materials.

In its original 1962 iteration, the Factbook was a classified publication and titled The National Basic Intelligence Factbook. In 1971, the CIA launched an unclassified version and made it available to the public in 1975. But it was only in 1981 that it was renamed as The World Factbook. Another major milestone was in 1997, when it went online and became a public resource until its shutdown.

Over time, the Factbook was an “essential resource for the U.S. Government, institutions of higher learning, and countless private citizens”  who relied on it for “timely and accurate reference materials about the world in which we live”, as the CIA website noted. Many CIA officers donated some of their personal travel photos to the Factbook, which hosted more than 5,000 photographs that were copyright-free for anyone to access and use.

Why was it shut down?

The CIA did not offer any reason for the manual’s closure in its announcement, but it likely flows from the current CIA chief John Ratcliffe’s pledge to end programmes that did not advance the agency’s core missions.

In May 2025, the Associated Press reported that the Donald Trump administration was planning to reduce the CIA workforce by 1,200 over several years. In response to questions about possible layoffs, the CIA issued a statement saying Ratcliffe was working to align the agency with Trump’s national security priorities.

Writing for The Atlantic, staff writer David A Graham noted: “The demise of the World Factbook is part of a broad war on information being waged by the Trump administration… It’s a series of steps that by design or in effect block access to data, and in doing so erode the concept of a shared frame for all Americans.”

Seen in that context, the biggest casualty of political upheaval in the Information Age appears to be information itself.