CIA training? As in the central intelligence agency? They are an intel agency, not military advisors. And neither can do magic (like makeing soviet era leftover equipment to be anything else)

The phoenix program, what’s that?

Yes, the best book on this is Yasha Levine - Surveillance Valley . You can find the audiobook on torrents.

The purpose the the very first DoD networks, was as an anti-communist counter-insurgency tool, mainly to aid in the collection of data and the fight against communists in SE asia, particularly Vietnam.