Yes, it's true that it was created by the NSA (big spyware agency), but it's important to know the history and verify the source code. The whole TOR project was released as open source code and anyone can host a node.
TOR was originally created to provide anonymity for CIA agents, only problem is, had TOR been a proprietary software nobody else than CIA would have trusted it, and hence if you as a site owner saw TOR in the user agent, you'd immediately know it's a CIA agent visiting your site.
This is the reason it was released to the public, so that CIA agents could hide in plain sight. On the down side for the US government, this also provided a anonymity solution for regular people, if used correctly should be mentioned.