According to the history professor Hugh Wilford, there is nothing in Copeland's CIA files to suggest he was a professional musician, but "several relatives and friends have testified to his musical ability."

Copeland's books contain "several impressive statements about his days as a jazz musician," including that "he spent a week playing fourth trumpet in the Glenn Miller orchestra," but that claim has been discredited.

[7] At the outbreak of World War II, Copeland joined the National Guard and contacted Representative John Sparkman of Alabama, who arranged a meeting with William J.

[12] After the end of World War II and the creation of the CIA, Copeland was asked to organize the agency’s information-gathering unit in the Middle East.

He was stationed in Damascus, Syria, as a CIA case officer under the cover title "cultural attaché,"[9] beginning a long career in the Middle East.

[5][14] In 1953, Copeland returned to private life at the consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton and remained a non-official cover operative for the CIA.

Copeland requested Burnham's "advice about ways to shore up revolutionary governments" and distilled Burnham's teachings into three key points: The major priority of any government is perpetuating its rule; political leaders must remain cognizant of the irrationality of their subjects; and a successful revolution requires political repression although it is more advantageous if repression is kept to a minimum.

He made regular appearances on British television as an intelligence expert and pursued work in journalism, wrote books on foreign policy and an autobiography, and contributed to the conservative American magazine National Review.

[27][28] Copeland's memoirs have a strong literary quality and contain many embellishments, which make it difficult to gauge the historical accuracy of the covert operations that he describes.