Introduction
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), United States government agency created in 1947 to gather information and conduct secret operations to protect the country’s national security. The information that the CIA gathers is known as intelligence. The CIA also coordinates the activities of the United States intelligence community, which includes agencies such as the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) and the National Security Agency (NSA). In addition, the CIA takes overall responsibility for gathering information from other U.S. intelligence agencies, analyzing the separate pieces of information from each source, and providing a recommendation to the president of the United States and the president’s advisers.
History
When World War II broke out in Europe in 1939, the United States had some intelligence expertise but lacked a central coordinating agency (Andrew, 1996). Many Americans were reluctant to see the country enter the war, but others saw war as inevitable and pushed for “preparedness”—a reorganization of government and increased military spending. General William “Wild Bill” Donovan, an advisor to President Franklin D. Roosevelt, favored preparedness and urged the president to create a centralized intelligence agency to coordinate intelligence during the war. On July 11, 1941, the president appointed Donovan to the new position of coordinator of information (Andrew, 1996).
Donovan’s new intelligence organization failed to predict Japan’s surprise attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which brought the United States into the war (see World War II: Pearl Harbor). Despite this failure, Donovan persuaded the president that the country needed a larger intelligence organization. In June 1942, Roosevelt established the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), with Donovan in charge.
During the remainder of the war, the OSS built networks of spies and informants, conducted sabotage, and ran other covert operations in western and southern Europe, North Africa, Burma (now Myanmar), and elsewhere (Andrew, 1996).....................
