The US Central Intelligence Agency will declassify thousands of pages of documents on secret operations from the 1950-70s.
The so-called 'Family Jewels' reveal the agency's overseas assassination attempts, domestic spying, kidnapping and infiltration of leftist groups, according to a summary posted on the National Security Archive website.
The documents also include accounts of break-ins and theft, surveillance of US journalists, the agency's opening of private mail to and from China and the Soviet Union, and 'behavior modification' experiments on 'unwitting' US civilians.
'Much of it has been in the press before, and most of it is unflattering, but it's the CIA's history,' said CIA director Michael Hayden.
He added: 'This is about telling the American people what we have done in their name.'
The revelations also prove that the CIA violated its charter for 25 years before a series of New York Times' articles prompted reforms in the 1970s.
However, recent debates over the CIA's role in the fight against terrorism also question the legality of current agency operations.
The 147 documents - or 11,000 pages - produced between 1953 and 1973 will be available on the CIA's Web site next week.
