JAMES Bond introduced the world to shaken not stirred cocktails, assassination by bowler hat and death by gold body paint.

But according to a new academic analysis, the novels by Ian Fleming also had a serious role in bringing the existence of America's real-life Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to public attention for the first time.

Researchers claim the character of CIA operative Felix Leiter in the novels offered the only glimpse into the world of the US intelligence agency in the 1950s, at a time when the subject of the secretive organisation was not broached by journalists, academics or filmmakers.

Dr Christopher Moran, assistant professor in the department of politics and international studies at the University of Warwick, said while the CIA had been established in 1947, little was publicly known about it in the following years.

"No-one talked about the CIA," he said. "Journalists didn't talk about it. A number of them were hand in glove with the CIA, so they didn't want to annoy the agency. Others were just too afraid to write stories about the CIA in an era of McCarthyite witch hunts.

"Hollywood in the 1950s also wasn't going near the CIA. We found evidence of filmmakers approaching the CIA asking can we do a film about you guys, we will be quite patriotic in our accounts and show you saving the world and all this kind of thing. But the CIA's approach at the time was we want to keep our public profile as low as possible.

"Historians and scholars also weren't really writing about the CIA in the 1950s."

Moran pointed out that the CIA is mentioned in seven of the Bond novels, which had become "incredibly popular" by the late 1950s.

He said: "Who was writing about the CIA in the 50s? The evidence we have really got to the bottom of is that bizarrely it was Ian Fleming.

"It is quite ironic that Fleming in the Bond novels never actually explicitly says that his hero 007 works for MI6 or the Secret Intelligence Service – he is not allowed to, these were not publicly avowed agencies at the time.

"But, of course, nothing could stop him from saying the initials CIA.

"There is such a splendid irony there that it took a Briton to really give the CIA its first public profile."

Last week, it was revealed Moran's research had uncovered evidence the CIA copied gadgets from Bond, including a version of Rosa Klebb's spring-loaded poison knife shoe from in From Russia With Love.

This technological inspiration was a result of the friendship between Fleming and Allen Dulles, who became the first civilian CIA director in 1953.

Fleming's papers held at Indiana University in the US also revealed Dulles may have helped persuade Fleming not to "pension off" 007.

In contrast to its early days, the CIA has had a dedicated entertainment liaison office since 1996.

It offers advice to actors, authors, directors, producers and screenwriters with the goal of an "accurate portrayal of the men and women of the CIA" and even publishes stories on the work of the CIA.

The agency declined to comment on Moran's research.