The Revolution of U.S. Intelligence

Paper Summary:

The paper discusses how US intelligence gathering underwent a reformation after the end of World War II. Nuclear weapons were available to the U.S. and later the Soviet Union and it was clear communist nations such as North Korea desired world dominance. The paper shows how this led to the need for a more accurate intelligence force in the United States. The paper also shows how technological advances, such as the US spy plane, global satellites, and other intelligence gear enabled the United States to become one of the premier intelligence gathering nations in the world.

From the Paper:

"The modern intelligence gathering agencies as we know them today have their roots at the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War. In 1947, President Harry Truman signed the National Security Act, which "established the National Security Council to advise the president on foreign affairs and defense policy; created the Central Intelligence Agency to gather and analyze foreign intelligence and conduct covert operations; and created a Department of Defense to coordinate the activities of the branches of the US armed forces." In 1952, he created the National Security Agency, which was supposed to engage solely in cryptology, which would seem to separate the agencies even more."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Andres, Christopher. For the President's Eyes Only. (New York: HarperPerennial), 1996.
• Bamford, James. Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency from the Cold War Through the Dawn of a New Century. New York: Doubleday, 2001.
• Painter, David S. The Cold War: An International History. London: Routledge, 1999.
• Powers, Thomas. Intelligence Wars: American Secret History from Hitler to al-Qaeda. New York: New York Review Books, 2002.
• Zegart, Amy B. Flawed by Design: The Evolution of the CIA, JCS, and NSC. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1999.

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