IndexIntelligence in the Nation's Early YearsWorld WarsThe Central Intelligence AgencyConclusionExamination of history is essential as it allows us to understand our past, which allows us to understand our present. If we need to know how and why our reality is the way it is today, we must look to history for answers. The role of the intelligence community as part of the US government is often seen as a result of the Cold War. Indeed, today's intelligence community was created and formulated in the midst of the Cold War. However, intelligence has been a component of government since the nation's founding. Although it has had several incarnations for some time, the study of intelligence has generally assumed a key role in offering aid to US military powers and in shaping US approaches towards different nations (Richelson, 2015). This research paper focuses on the history of the Intelligence Community since the early years of this nation and its importance in the study of intelligence along with a series of events that led to the establishment of some groups that were part of the Intelligence community. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Intelligence in the Nation's Early Years During the Revolutionary War, General George Washington was an ardent customer of intelligence and, moreover, a specialist par excellence in created intelligence. (Martino, 2015). Records show that not long after summoning the Continental Army in 1775, President Washington paid an unidentified specialist to live in Boston and report clandestinely, using "mysterious correspondence," on developments in the British powers. (Martino, 2015). To be precise, Washington recruited and managed various specialists, created spy networks, formulated mysterious strategies to reveal, examined the raw information accumulated by its operators, and organized a large-scale battle to deceive the British military. Washington by all accounts was not the only one to perceive the significance of intelligence for the motivation of the colonials. In November 1775, the Continental Congress created the Committee of Secret Correspondence to gather remote intelligence from individuals in England, Ireland, and elsewhere on the European continent to aid in reporting the war. (Martino, 2015). Intelligence groups showed unmistakable importance and quality during the civil war. (Richelson, 2015). Both Union and Confederate authorities valued intelligence data, built their own secret agent systems, and regularly lashed out at the press for providing information to the opposing side. The Confederate Powers established the Bureau of Signals and Intelligence with the essential contract of acquiring Northern newspapers. On the Union side, the Navy, State, and War Departments each maintained an intelligence advantage (Gentry, 2018). In 1863, the first professional intelligence organization was established by Union forces, the Bureau of Military Intelligence. The Bureau of Military Intelligence was disbanded at the end of the war. A byproduct of its dissolution was the Secret Service, established in 1865 to combat counterfeiting. (Gentry, 2018). World Wars At the time of entry into the war, the United States did not have an organized intelligence effort. As an advocate of open discretion, President Woodrow Wilson had detested the use of spies and was suspicious of intelligence. (Martino, 2015).His perspectives on the matter appeared to change, however, due to a close affiliation he created with the head of British intelligence in Washington. In fact, British intelligence played a major role in bringing the United States into World War I. (Gentry, 2018 ). In June 1917, the main U.S. signals intelligence office was established within the Army. Known as the "MI-8" bureau, it was accused of interpreting military correspondence and providing codes for use by the US military. (Martino, 2015). In 1919, near the end of the war, the office was exchanged for the State Department. Known as the "Dark Chamber", it focused on conciliatory rather than military correspondence. In 1921, the Black Chamber praised perhaps his greatest achievement, that of having reordered some Japanese strategic movements. Intelligence gleaned from this finding was used to aid U.S. arbitrators at a Washington meeting on maritime demobilization. (Martino, 2015). The years immediately preceding the United States' entry into World War II saw American enthusiasm for improvements in Europe and the Pacific increase dramatically, inciting attempts to collect and break down data. (Martino, 2015). President Franklin Roosevelt depended greatly on fellow Americans and Britons who went abroad to provide him with information on the objectives of various leaders. One such leader was William Donovan, an intelligence devotee and World War I veteran, whom Roosevelt sent to Europe in the 1940s to gather data on Britain's stability and again in the spring of 1941 to gather data on the dictator Italian, Mussolini, among other issues. (Martino, 2015). Upon his arrival, Donovan campaigned hard for the creation of a unified, nonmilitary, mechanical intelligence assembly to complement the military. Taking a cue from the British intelligence show, Donovan created a crack staff to collate and analyze all the national security data and commissioned an eight-part survey committee from academia to verify the examination and test its decisions. (Martino, 2015). America's involvement in World War II made it necessary for intelligence to aid the fighter. At the end of the war, the administration was left to debate what to do with these intelligence capabilities. (Martin, 2015). The Central Intelligence Agency Ferdinand Eberstadt behind the formation of the Central Intelligence Agency courtesy of his study and report. On July 27, 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law, creating a postwar national security system. A National Security Council was established to organize the national security strategy. The law created the position of Secretary of Defense and brought together the different military divisions (the Army, Navy, and the newly created Air Force) under this position. (O'Toole, 2014). The law also established that the Joint Chiefs of Staff would serve as key military guides to the president and the secretary of defense. Eventually a Central Intelligence Agency was established with the Director of Central Intelligence at its head. At the time of its creation, the CIA was the primary organization charged with a "national" intelligence mission. Likewise, the 1947 law provided an express preclusion to the CIA's granting of "police, lawful authorization, subpoena, or internal security capabilities," reflecting Congress's explicit desire to ensure that they were not creating an American "Gestapo" and protectingthe FBI's power in domestic matters. (O'Toole, 2014). Likewise, the law tasked the DCI with “protecting intelligence sources and techniques from unapproved disclosures.” In January 1948, after the creation of the CIA, the National Security Council, exercising its share of oversight under the leadership of Executive Secretary Sidney Souers,3 requested that three private residents thoroughly examine "the structure, organization, exercises and interagency relations" of the CIA. (O'Toole, 2014). Allen Dulles, William Jackson, and Matthias Correa, three New York lawyers involved in intelligence, submitted their extremely simple report in January 1949. Furthermore, in 1948, Congress established "The Commission on the Organization of the Executive Branch of Government." (O'Toole, 2014). Chaired by former President Herbert Hoover, the Commission held a sub-meeting to discuss an issue Take a look at national security associations, including the CIA. In its November 1948 report, the Hoover Commission called for "spirited efforts" to improve the CIA's internal structure and the nature of its products, particularly in logical and medical intelligence. (O'Toole, 2014). In 1949, Congress further mandated that the CIA provide its director with key management specialists to conduct covert intelligence activities that were largely unavailable to government organizations. (O'Toole, 2014). Specifically, the new law allowed the DCI to use appropriate stores to obtain goods and for businesses to complement the Agency's capabilities without complying with cumbersome acquisition rules applicable to other government organizations. It also allowed the Agency to use allocated reserves solely in light of a voucher marked by the DCI. The intelligence community began to develop intensively in the 1950s until the 1990s. There was an escalation of the Cold War and a further expansion of the size and obligations of US intelligence offices, which adapted to the changes. Following the proposals of a commission of senior authorities led by George Brownell, President Truman, by collective decision, established the National Security Agency (NSA) in October 1952 in recognition of the need for a solitary entity to be responsible for the intelligence mission of the US signals. (O'Toole, 2014). Nestled within the Department of Defense, the NSA accepted the obligations of the former Armed Forces Security Agency and also the intelligence duties of the CIA and other military units. In 1958, the National Security Council issued mandates specifying the NSA's primary focus and expert under the Secretary of Defense. (O'Toole, 2014). In December 1970, President Nixon coordinated Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director James Schlesinger to prescribe how the hierarchical structure of the intelligence community should be modified to achieve greater competence and adequacy. In the fall of 1994, new law was passed to strengthen counterintelligence and security controls over the intelligence community and, in particular, to improve coordination between the FBI and CIA. (O'Toole, 2014). Furthermore, the President created another bureaucratic system to deal with counterintelligence matters, to incorporate the situation of the FBI counterintelligence masters within the CIA. The legislation was passed in October 1994, as part of the Intelligence Authorization Act of 1995. (O'Toole, 2014). Please note: this is just an example. Get a custom paper from our expert writers now. Get a custom essay