The history of the formation of “CIA” (Central Intelligence Agency)

Preamble

Well the precursor to the CIA was the
Office of Strategic Services (OSS). The
OSS was formed during World War
Two at the behest of US President
Franklin D. Roosevelt. Roosevelt
wanted the OSS to be setup because
British advisers to Roosevelt suggested
that the US ought to establish its own
foreign intelligence agency so that
they could gain intelligence useful for
their troops fighting in World War
Two. Roosevelt actually asked British
Prime Minister Winston Churchill to
get MI6 and the Special Operations
Executive (SOE) to train the new OSS
which is what happened.
After World War Two in 1946, the CIA
was established by US President Harry
Truman. The OSS was shut down and
its remaining assets were transferred
over to the newly-formed CIA. So for
all intensive purposes, the reasons for
the CIA being created were the same
for the reasons the OSS was created
i.e. the US’ need for a foreign
intelligence agency. However, the one
difference between the OSS and the
CIA is that the OSS’ main reason for
existence was to gain intel to help win
World War Two which was a war
against Nazis and fascists. By contrast,
the CIA’s main reason for existence
was to gain intel to help win the Cold
War which was a war against
communists.

Meaning of CIA and thier functions

The Central Intelligence Agency ( CIA ) is a
civilian foreign intelligence service of the federal
government of the United States , tasked with
gathering, processing, and analyzing national
security information from around the world,
primarily through the use of human intelligence
(HUMINT). As one of the principal members of
the United States Intelligence Community (IC),
the CIA reports to the Director of National
Intelligence and is primarily focused on
providing intelligence for the President and
Cabinet of the United States .

Major Functions

(1) advise the
National Security
Council (NSC)
on matters
related to
national security;
(2) make recommendations to the NSC regarding
the coordination of intelligence activities of the
Departments; (3) correlate and evaluate intelligence
and provide for its appropriate dissemination and
(4) ” perform such other functions… as the NSC
will from time to time direct…”

Purpose for the creation of CIA

When the CIA was created, its purpose was to
create a clearinghouse for foreign policy
intelligence and analysis. Today its primary
purpose is to collect, analyze, evaluate, and
disseminate foreign intelligence, and to perform
covert actions.
According to its fiscal 2013 budget, the CIA has
five priorities:
Counterterrorism, the top priority
Nonproliferation of nuclear and other weapons
of mass destruction .
Warning/informing American leaders of
important overseas events.
Counterintelligence

Note: the CIA has gone through some numerous name changing before it was later settled to be named cia

1. Coordinator of Information (COI) est. 11,july 1941. Spent only 33 days

2. Office of Strategic Services (OSS)
Established 13 June 1942, Duration: 3 years, 3
months

Strategic Services Unit (SSU)
Established 1 October 1945, Duration: 1 year, 5
months

Central Intelligence Group (CIG)
Established January 1946 , Duration: 1 year, 6
months

Central Intelligence Agency (CIA)
Established 18 September 1947 , Duration: 70 years

Reasons and objective for the establishment of the CIS

During the Second World War, there
were huge demands for intelligence
not met by the only formal services in
existence, the military. Loosely under
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Office of
Strategic Services (OSS) was formed.
There were also various small
intelligence units scattered around the
government.
The OSS had bureaucratic enemies but
many pieces worth preserving. With
the National Security Act of 1947, the
Central Intelligence Agency was
created, originally with only a
coordinating role, and quickly an
independent high-level estimating
function. Ad hoc agencies were
created for human intelligence (Office
of Special Operations) and covert
action (Office of Policy Coordination).
In 1952, both were brought under
control of the Director of Central
Intelligence.
Communications intelligence was
treated as separate, due to its extreme
sensitivity. The Service Cryptologic
Elements of WWII, however, were
perceived as too parochial. An Armed
Forces Security Agency was
unsuccessful. Eventually, the National
Security Agency was created, but
separate from the CIA other than the
loose direction from the Director of
Central Intelligence.

The CIA was founded by Congress and
signed by President Harry Truman in
1947, soon after the end of World War
II. The establishment of the CIA was
viewed as necessary by the
government due to the intelligence
concerns and initiatives of the war.
Intelligence and counter-intelligence
was one of the key machines by
which the Nazis were defeated. The
defeat of the Nazis, however, did not
represent an end to the need for
intelligence; America was rightly
deeply distrustful of the Soviets and
other communist nations. The
government saw a need for
centralized non-military intelligence
operations, and the CIA helped to
consolidate and perpetuate some of
the de-centralized intelligence
gathering programs formulated during
WWII.

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