I would back up and start from the proposition that the entire Cold War was staged. I mean, real events and even struggles went on, but it was all managed from a higher level. (Just think of two NFL teams beating the shit out of each other on Sunday, but all managed by a cartel of 32 owners with tax breaks from the government.)

It sounds like a tall, conspiratorial claim, but it's one of those open conspiracies no one seems to be aware of. You can see it stated plainly on the wiki of mainstream academic and researcher Antony C. Sutton:

At the Hoover Institution, he wrote the study Western Technology and Soviet Economic Development (in three volumes), arguing that the West played a major role in developing the Soviet Union from its beginnings until the then-present year of 1970. Sutton argued that the Soviet Union's technological and manufacturing base, which was then engaged in supplying North Vietnam during the Vietnam War, was built by United States corporations and largely funded by US taxpayers.

Wow, some Cold War, huh? I recall one of his findings was that the entire Soviet Union would have collapsed just a few years after inception without Western support.

So fast-forward to Gladio and I would say that what we have is a "wheels within wheels" situation. First, what is Gladio really? A covert network of money, trained men, armaments, and support. Who cares what it's supposed to be for, because the CIA is going to use it for it's own ends. So yeah, they did a lot of (what was on the surface at least) anti-Commie stuff.

But it looks to me like they played the other side too, particularly through an organization called the Red Brigades. But remember that Gladio was essentially a network, and the only thing that made it different than the RB was what it's supposed goals were. So take this article, for instance:

The Italian Job: Operation GLADIO (4/24/2014)

The communist group Red Brigades was originally blamed until, in 1984, Vincenzo Vinciguerra – a fascist terrorist who claimed to have been supported by the GLADIO network – confessed. It is suspected that the Red Brigades’ assassination of Christian Democrat Prime Minister Aldo Moro in 1978 was also a “false flag”....

And remember Steve Pieczenik? He was wrapped up in the Moro Incident, and you can try to unsnarl this: Role of Steve Pieczenik

I mean, it's insane! The Red Brigades (CIA?) also kidnapped US Army Brigadier General James L. Dozier, NATO Deputy Chief of Staff. Even that looks like it might have been staged, because he was miraculously "rescued" without anyone firing a shot, including the kidnapper specifically assigned to kill him: Kidnapping of Brigadier General Dozier.

So I guess this is all a long way of saying that my bias is that if the CIA did something good, it was accidental, unavoidable, or the only cover they could come up with... lol