Term Paper on "U.S. Intelligence Revolution"

Term Paper 7 pages (2090 words) Sources: 5 Style: Turabian

[EXCERPT] . . . .

U.S. Intelligence Revolution

The transformations that occurred in the intelligence field after the Second World War and during the Cold War brought up what can be called an intelligence revolution because of the nature of these transformations. The United States knew a rapid growth in military technique, but there was also an unprecedented international willingness to share intelligence. Considering these changes, the impact of the intelligence revolution on the evolution of the United States was considerable.

Before the Second World War the American intelligence was at a very low level, at least comparing to what followed. There was little valuable intelligence information related to the Soviet Union, Germany or Japan which was taken directly from the source, through field agents. American intelligence was mostly directed against internal threats represented by communist supporters and later, Nazi agents. However, this was the period when the transformations in the intelligence field began. U.S. agents were making strides in code breaking and the organization of intelligence services began to function a little more complex.

The message encoding represented the first step towards a more elaborate intelligence. This was most noticeable after the Pearl Harbour attacks and was focused especially on the Japanese. U.S. efforts for cracking Japanese military messages intensified after the attacks and the leader in this effort was the Combat Intelligence Unit belonging to the U.S. Navy. Due to the technical evolution, the U.S. military was able to crack the Japanese code and intercept thousands of messages during the World War II. This was also the result of the cooperation between military and private enterprise, as IBM cooperated with the military to gather intelligence.

The efforts to develop new code cracking techniques paid off as U.S. cryptanalysts managed to find out in advance about the Japanese plans to attack Midway Island in June 1942 and so U.S. forces managed to prevent such a tragic attack from happening and turned the cards into their advantage.

Despite the rapid evolution of intelligence methods, U.S. intelligence had one great disadvantage - it was not coordinated into a single department. Several branches of the military conducted intelligence operations and there was little cooperation between these departments. All of them reported to the president, but this was not sufficient for having a competitive intelligence service. This deficiency had to be corrected and so President Roosevelt appointed William J. Donovan to create a plan for an intelligence service. The result of this plan was the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), created in June 1942. The OSS was in charge with "collecting and analyzing information needed by the Joint Chiefs of Staff and to conduct "special operations" or clandestine operations that were not carried out by other federal agencies or the military." The role of the OSS was crucial during the war as the data provided by these services was of the outmost importance for planning military campaigns.

The Cold War was another important chapter in the evolution of intelligence services and methods in the United States. The clear need for a highly developed intelligence was clear, although the services that were supposed to perform these operations were not so clear. President Truman abolished the OSS and transferred its operations to the Departments of War and State. Donovan on the other hand believed that U.S. intelligence would be more efficient if performed by a civilian organization that would gather information. In the end, the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) was created in 1946, which had authority to gather intelligence from the existing services and departments performing such operations. The CIG represented the first U.S. intelligence organization which operated in peacetime.

In 1947, the Congress passed the national Security Act which created the National Security Council (NSC) and the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which was placed under the authority of the NSC. This was a very important step, not only because it represented the beginning of the CIA, one of the world's most well-known intelligence agency, but also because for the first time in U.S. history intelligence gathering was controlled by civilians and not the military.

CIA had a very important role during the Cold War and it represented one of the greatest steps taken by U.S. In the intelligence revolution. CIA was the main agency in U.S. In charge with fighting against the growing influence of the Soviet Union. During the Cuban Missile Crisis, CIA was the one that discovered the existence of Soviet missiles in Cuba. However, not all of the operations conducted by the CIA or in which the agency took part were successful. The failed operations against Fidel Castro, known as the Bay of Pigs, or the not too satisfying activity during the Vietnam War were examples that tainted the reputation of the CIA. Following the 9/11 attacks in 2001, Americans see CIA as their main agency in the fight against terrorism, as intelligence is the most important part in a war against an unseen enemy.

In its beginning, the CIA was an essential instrument of U.S. intelligence in the supremacy competition with the Soviet Union. Considering the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union, the creation of a central intelligence agency was absolutely necessary. The initial focus of CIA was to gather intelligence on the Soviet Union. This was the main concern of the Cold War and although the CIA did gather intelligence on other domains of interest, most of their operations were directed against the Soviet Union and their call for world supremacy.

The creation of the CIG and was extremely important because it gave a sign of the new policy of U.S. regarding intelligence, as the organization was functioning in peacetime. This was a great step in the intelligence revolution known after the World War II. Later, the CIA was just as important because it was a civilian organization primarily focused on gathering information and conducting intelligence operation. The CIA was the first intelligence agency that was entirely under civilian control, namely the president and his NSC staff.

During the Second World War, the way in which U.S. was gathering information was based on captured documents, prisoners' interrogation, espionage, aerial reconnaissance, and signals intelligence (or SIGINT). However, these were all methods used by all governments and using them gave U.S. no advantage over the U.S.S.R.

The beginning of the intelligence revolution was the development of signals intelligence and the use of it on a large scale and as primarily means of intelligence. The use of SIGINT took the Second World War on a different level, in which war was made more in intelligence terms than in battlefield. However, this can best be seen during the Cold War, when intelligence was the main tool of the war and the only one used.

The CIA played a vital part during the Cold War considering the fact that the strategy of the U.S. during the non-violent confrontation with the U.S.S.R. was entirely based on data provided by the CIA with the use of intelligence methods. This is the point when the intelligence revolution truly began in the United States. Considering the post-Cold War period, it is clear that the change in the intelligence operations really paid off, as U.S. managed to come out as a winner. However, the Cold War period also reveals some intelligence mistakes, which could have cost U.S. their world supremacy. In the war of rivalry for world leadership, intelligence made the difference and the creation of the CIA proved to be vital for U.S..

The mission of the CIA is to "provide accurate, comprehensive, and timely foreign intelligence on national security topics" and to support the "chief executive and the national security policy leadership by conducting counterintelligence operations, special activities, and other duties relating to foreign intelligence and national security as directed by the president."

The current structure of the CIA is available since the 60s, which shows that the organizational structure of the agency is just as competitive and actual today as it was in the early stages of the Cold War. The CIA is led by the Director of Central Intelligence, which supervises four major directorates. These four directorates deal with administration, intelligence, intelligence operations, and science and technology. The CIA used these departments during the Cold War at their maximum capability, but perhaps the most important department and the one that made the difference was the Directorate of Science and Technology.

It is questionable whether the American intelligence was far more developed than the Russian, but it is clear that the use of the information gathered trough intelligence made the difference during the Cold War.

The revolution in intelligence meant a change in the mission of U.S.. After the last stages of the Second World War and with the beginning of the Cold War, U.S. changed its mission in the world and began to be very much involved in what was happening. The involvement of U.S. In the Second World War followed a period of neutrality policy of U.S. foreign affairs, but America soon realized that it must… READ MORE

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