Wild-type polio could very well be gone by now if the CIA hadn’t burned Western doctors’ goodwill in Pakistan by using fake polio vaccines to take DNA from children suspected to be related to Osama bin Laden.
This isn’t close to the most evil thing the CIA has done, but it makes me the most unreasonably angry.
The CIA have crafted a wonderful brand: with their actions, they've created a (truthful) universal public image that they'd stoop to the southern tip of Hell to get whatever they want, completely numbing the public to any possible action. If the CIA had a good reputation, hearing something like "They undermined public faith in vaccines, leading to multiple modern-day problems and epidemics" would lead to skepticism, and then riots.
Instead, we all know the substance of the agency's actions, and of the character of its men. As a result, we're mildly surprised when we hear this, and don't feel it's a substantial deviation from the status quo.
This isn’t close to the most evil thing the CIA has done, but it makes me the most unreasonably angry.