I'm not sure which part of that sentence is meant to apply to a CIA agent who retired in about 1990, could you explain?

You're not really saying anything useful here, but IMO the CIA is interesting as as a secret police that also has always had a strong liberal (distinct from leftist, but also distinctly not aligned with any conservative movement) bent in some sense (at least since the 50s), which is not true of most other nations' similar roles. Unfortunately that conversation is difficult to have when any position not to the right of Reagan is now radically leftist or whatever.