The Second half of the twentieth century was a period very serious political and military tension between to two main superpowers, the United States and USSR. This rise of tension was called the Cold War since no major wars occurred during this time, but both nations had the capacity and power to start another World War, had they both declared war on each other. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), was an organization created during the Cold War and had played a major role in counter-espionage and other major duties during the time period. During the time period of Cold War from 1950’s to 1990’s, the rise of the Central Intelligence Agency impacted the american society in a dramatic way. The CIA impacted the society starting from the controversies …show more content…
Donovan, who was the head and director of OSS, believed that the US government should create a new intelligence agency where the intelligence operation should not be controlled by other parties, but by the President currently in the office. He says that this would be a vital part of the national defense, and that the creation should be solely be in discretion for the President. The disbandment of the OSS was only the start of a bigger plan of national defense for the United States, the foundation and creation of the Central Intelligence Agency. After the end of the war and abolition of the OSS, US leaders planned to create a foreign intelligence that was capable of supporting the country’s new role as a superpower in the world. One of the US leaders Donovan, proposed [during a campaign between 1943 and 1945] for an establishment of a postwar peacetime intelligence that would report directly to the president itself. Many people however were opposed to this idea for many reasons, one being that many did not believe that the new organization should not report directly to the president. Others also believed that a foreign intelligence agency was a waste of money and resources. The creation of a new intelligence became a big problem in the US government since many people had diverging opinions about the establishment of a new foreign intelligence. "There is hereby established under the National Security Council a Central Intelligence Agency with a Director of Central Intelligence, who shall be the head thereof. The Director shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, from among the commissioned officers of the armed services or from among individuals in civilian life. The Director shall receive compensation at the rate of $14,000 a year". Section 102 of the National Security Act states
After World War II American intelligence had the need to be transformed. The inexperience along with bureaucracy and poor coordination among American intelligence officers obligated the United States intelligence community to change dramatically in order to confront the new challenges that emerged after the end of WWII. From Early America through WWI the intelligence system of the United States of America was involved in operations in which they had to construct intelligence systems virtually from scratch (Andrew 1995). Human intelligence was already developed, but with certain limitations and other intelligence disciplines were underdeveloped and very seldom sophisticated. After WWI America recessed and settled in a period of peace. The
Since 1947, when the Central Intelligence Agency was created, the United States has had an organization that has the sole purpose of conducting covert operations, collecting information, and providing that same information to the respective personnel. Although, this, by some, has been considered conflictual as the CIA is handling those three actions. It is considered that this may be a conflict of interest in a means of, the same people that are collecting information, creating a bias opinion, are conducting the covert action being carried out. This could create a bias work environment. Due to the professionalism and 60 years of success to show for it, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and National Clandestine Service (NCS) conducting
In reference to the foreign policy, in the mid-20th century after World War II, United States was in Cold War with Soviet Union. The United States referred as the Capitalist West and the Soviet referred as the Communist East. The two power nations clashed in many ways. Thus, Soviet accused America’s atomic bomb as leverage to control the Soviet and the world. These differences made each nation distrust each other. President Truman then, feared that the Soviet will continue its expansion, had the Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947. It gave the President increased power, where to conduct foreign policy. The Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency was created, both agencies collaborated on the monitoring
The 9/11 attacks opened the avenue for a scrutiny of the performance and ability of the intelligence community to detect any threats to the safety of the United States. The media, politicians, reformists and other interested parties would not comprehend how such an attack would happen without the knowledge of the intelligence community. However, it is important to consider the fact that the attack was one of its kind and could not be approached with the resources and expertise used in other initiative such as the cold war. Therefore, the need to restructure the intelligence community arose from the view that it was still operating in the mindset and spirit of the cold war even in the modern era that had seen a revolutionary change of warfare
Providing for the common defense means that the United States government must preserve the rights, freedom, and safety of the nation as a whole. The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) fulfills this goal, as the agency collects, analyzes, and processes information at an international level and utilizes the data to further bolster our nation’s intelligence and security against foreign countries. Without the CIA, we would not be able to be one of the strongest nations on the planet.
The Cold War with the Soviet Union and its allies started almost immediately after the end of WWII, and would be the next step for the U.S intelligence community. The signing of the National Security Act of 1947 by president Truman drastically restructured the military and intelligence community, creating the Department of Defense (DoD) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while establishing a clear chain of command (CIA, 2008). With the establishment of the CIA and director of central intelligence, The National Security Act of 1947 the U.S had a permanent and legitimized intelligence community, one that could start to develop and refine their own methods of operation and traditions (Lowenthal, 2017). The National Security Act of 1947 would go largely unchanged for 57 years, not being severely altered until 2004.
The best way to prevent terrorist attacks in the future is by the gathering of information about terrorist schemes while they are in the planning process. The CIA (Central Intelligence Agency) is the agency responsible for gathering this information. Since the Watergate scandal of the 1970’s, it has been hindered both in the planning of intelligence operations and in tactics used to gather the intelligence. Intelligence operatives can never effectively help in the prevention of future attacks if they do not have the leeway necessary to gather information about such attacks while the terrorists are in the process of planning them.
In “How the NSA’s Domestic Spying Program Works,” the author reveals that many of “aspects of the (NSA) Program were aimed not just at targeted individuals, but perhaps millions of innocent Americans never suspected of a crime.” The author develops his thesis by detailing a few examples of major telecommunication companies that share customer’s call records to the NSA (AT&T, Sprint) and explaining that programs were implemented to monitor the emails of citizens (“amounted to at least 1.7 billion emails a day”). The author uses examples of how NSA decisions were made without a “warrant or any judicial oversight,” in order to increase citizen awareness of how the NSA functions. The author uses a erudite tone to address the audience of Americans
After the end of World War II, the United States entered war, a cold war to be exact. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, or Soviet Union, was a communist nation that was the United States rival. After World War II, the world was left with just two superpowers, the two super rivals. These two countries fought for the control of the world. The Soviet Union wanted a communist world, while the United States fought for a free world. One of the United State’s main tools was the CIA.
When President Franklin D Roosevelt was in office he felt that there was a lack in american intelligence and that there needed to be more of an emphasis on it to help further protect and be prepared on our home soil. Roosevelt looked to William J Donovan who was a Lawyer in New York to come up with some ideas for a service/organization on intelligence. One of Donavan's ideas came to light and in June of 1942 The Office of Strategic Services was established. The purpose of The Office of Strategic Services was collect and analyze information and conduct special operations that other agencies weren’t. “During the war the OSS provided facts and intelligence and they also played a role in aiding military campaigns, but the OSS didn't have full jurisdiction over all foreign intelligence” (Pike. J. CIA, December 1992). With them not being able to obtain all the intelligence that they would like, they were unable to be as effective as the department was sought out to be. The FBI since the 1930s were the only department that was responsible for gaining intel in South America. The OSS only lasted about 3 years, in October of 1945 The Office of Strategic Services was no longer a active
The beginning of our present day Counter Intelligence (CI) began after WWII with the combined efforts of the U.S. X-2 branch of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Special Intelligence Services (SIS). These offices gave way to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) responsible for countering activities of foreign intelligence services in the U.S. and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) responsible for coordinating U.S. counterintelligence activities in foreign countries. Within the framework of the development of the United States of America there was not a devised explanation for the use of intelligence within the armed forces. Spies were present during the Revolutionary war. Washington had a spy ring organized called the Culper Ring organized by Colonel Benjamin Tallmadge, spying on the British in New York City. The Culper spies sent messages back to Washington divulging information on British activities at their headquarters based in New York city, as explained in Alexander Rose’s book “Washington’s Spies: the story of America’s first spy Ring”. The need for a CI mission in the U.S. during the Cold War after WWII was paramount to the protection of the U.S. against enemy treats and ability to gain information that would support the U.S. power to negotiate. During WWII the OSS and the SIS mirrored the British intelligence services structure and in combination developed methods of signals intelligence that helped to break
Roosevelt’s death defines the abyss of political leadership that allowed Hoover and Donovan to push for a peacetime agency that would be used to monitor American citizens and other non-military targets. During the Cold War era, the CIA was primarily supported due to the fear of communist Infiltration into the United States. The issue of communism was a major reason why the CIA was given much broader powers as the international version of the
In 1952, President Harry Truman “invented” the NSA as it is today, but in reality the NSA has existed since the early 1900’s. According to Heiligenstein (2014) “In 1917 a new military branch was formed it was called Cipher Bureau of Military Intelligence”(P.4) . In july of that year a man by the name of Herbert O. Yardley join this newly formed branch. Just 3 months before the Bureau was invented the US had declared war on Germany. According to Heiligenstein (2014) “The US were in high demand for quality military intelligence. After the war the branch shifted it focus on diplomatic issues.”(P.6) This was the beginning of the NSA as it is know today. The Cipher Bureau was shut down in 1929, and Yardley was not to happy about being unemployed.Acording to Heiligenstein (2014) In 1931 Yardley published a book called The American Black Chamber revealing the secrets of the Bureau.”(P.9) Yardley was one of the first whistleblower to expose America history of spying on other nations. In less than one hundred years Edward Snowden would do the same thing.
The modern CIA was created in 1947 with President Truman’s enactment of the National Security Act, with the CIA replacing the CIG (“About CIA” CIA.gov). With this new agency was created a new advisor to the President, the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) with the purpose of “serve as head of the United States intelligence community; act as the principal adviser to the President for intelligence matters related to the national security; and serve as head of the Central Intelligence Agency” (“About CIA” CIA.gov). Initially, the CIA was limited to domestic security, but in 1949 this authority was expanded to international information-gathering and confidentiality of the CIA budget with the advent of the Central Intelligence Agency Act (“History of the CIA” [2] CIA.gov). An important component of these new abilities was the ability to include CIA funds in the budget requests of other agencies, and then secretly transfer the funds from those agencies to the CIA without restriction (“History of the CIA” [2] CIA.gov). The National Security Act, which created the CIA, was then revised in 1953 to include a position of “Deputy Director of Central Intelligence (DDCI)”, a President-appointed position (“History of the CIA” [2] CIA.gov). Throughout the Cold War, the CIA was the cornerstone to providing intelligence about Soviet Russia, its activities, and providing counterintelligence services. In one instance, a passive bug was implemented into a wooden U.S. seal
Today's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is centered on the same basic principles as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in the 1940's but with some significant changes, specifically in its organization and methods. The OSS, the world's first global intelligence organization, was organized and overseen by "Wild Bill Donovan" and expanded at an unprecedented pace throughout World War II. The OSS was the foundation for today's CIA. It was because of the successes and failures of the OSS that the CIA has been able to grow and develop.