After World War 2 and the abolishment of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), President Truman signed the Neutrality Security Act of 1947 which established the CIA. Given the success of its precursor, the OSS, the CIA was tasked with coordinating the nation’s intelligence activities and collecting and distributing intelligence regarding national security. The goal was to create an agency that would be independent of the political branches of the government, and would thus be solely focused on protecting America.
The Central Intelligence Agency Act was passed in 1949, which expanded the powers of the CIA. The main importance of this legislation was that the CIA’s budget could maintain secrecy for covert operation funding by allowing transfer of money from other departments without restrictions.
Furthermore, in 1953 the National Security Act was passed, which added a Deputy Director of Central Intelligence to the leadership of the CIA to back up the pre-existing Director of Central Intelligence. This new position would be appointed by the President and would assist the Director as second in command.
As the Cold War ramped up, the CIA became an important source of American Intelligence. In 1955, the CIA Headquarters were built in Langley, Virginia (where they still are today) after being given 46 million dollars by President Eisenhower in 1955.
In 1962, the CIA was involved in the infamous Cuban Missile Crisis. After supporting the invasion of Cuba by backing and arming Cuban exiles, the CIA discovered that Cuba was negotiating with the Soviets. After further investigation, they found the Soviet missiles pointed at the US, creating the entire crisis that was a huge development in the Cold War because it represented an actual threat quite close to home that spooked the country. Without the CIA’s intelligence, this discovery could have possibly come after some sort of offensive by the Cubans, thus creating a much bigger event than the reality of what happened.
Great post describing the formation and role of the CIA in the Cold War. I think it is interesting how the KGB, the Soviet counterpart of the CIA, was formed in 1954 which was around the same time period. The formation of the CIA and KGB parallels the creation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact, and both secret agencies are additional outcomes of Cold War tensions during the time.
ReplyDeleteFor more information on the KGB:
http://www.coldwar.org/articles/50s/kgb.asp
Really interesting article. I thought it was very interesting to learn about the formation of the CIA especially the budget and funding that went into the CIA's creation and upkeep. The budget of the CIA today has increased dramatically.
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