History of Formation of the Cia
In September of 1947 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was realised and hatched, the eventuality of the intelligence reformation in the United States occurring after the Second World War. Less than a year before this date a Joint
Congressional Investigation had come to the inevitable conclusion that the Pearl Harbour attack illustrated America’s need for a unified command structure and a more efficient centralised intelligence system. In an attempt to bring these conclusions into realisation, Congress, in September 1947 passed the National Security Act of 1947 (NSA47) that brought into existence an intelligence infrastructure comprising of the National Security Council (NSC), a Secretary of Defense, a statutory Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Central Intelligence Agency.
CIA began its statutory existence in September 1947 with its creation validating, in a sense, a series of decisions taken soon after the end of the Second World War in regard to centralising intelligence services. The conflict surrounding this ended in the summer of 1945 with Washington decision-makers in broad agreement that the United States needed to reform the intelligence establishment that had grown so rapidly and haphazardly during the national emergency that was World War II. When President Truman dispersed the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in September 1945 he had no clear plan for constructing the peacetime intelligence structure that he and his advisers believed they needed in an atomic age. President Truman wanted the reforms to be part and parcel of the “unification” of the armed services, but the overhaul of the military that the President wanted would take time to push through Congress. In the intermediary period, he created a Central Intelligence Group (CIG) to screen his incoming cables and supervise activities left over from the former OSS. The CIG was the direct forerunner of the CIA and provided the CIA a framework for its structure.
In early 1946, the
Congressional Investigation had come to the inevitable conclusion that the Pearl Harbour attack illustrated America’s need for a unified command structure and a more efficient centralised intelligence system. In an attempt to bring these conclusions into realisation, Congress, in September 1947 passed the National Security Act of 1947 (NSA47) that brought into existence an intelligence infrastructure comprising of the National Security Council (NSC), a Secretary of Defense, a statutory Joint Chiefs of Staff and a Central Intelligence Agency.
CIA began its statutory existence in September 1947 with its creation validating, in a sense, a series of decisions taken soon after the end of the Second World War in regard to centralising intelligence services. The conflict surrounding this ended in the summer of 1945 with Washington decision-makers in broad agreement that the United States needed to reform the intelligence establishment that had grown so rapidly and haphazardly during the national emergency that was World War II. When President Truman dispersed the wartime Office of Strategic Services (OSS) in September 1945 he had no clear plan for constructing the peacetime intelligence structure that he and his advisers believed they needed in an atomic age. President Truman wanted the reforms to be part and parcel of the “unification” of the armed services, but the overhaul of the military that the President wanted would take time to push through Congress. In the intermediary period, he created a Central Intelligence Group (CIG) to screen his incoming cables and supervise activities left over from the former OSS. The CIG was the direct forerunner of the CIA and provided the CIA a framework for its structure.
In early 1946, the