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Ray HInojosa
After reviewing the history of intelligence, what events have had a profound impact on U.S.
intelligence today?
Throughout the history of the United States there have been several profound impacts
that have played a role in forming the intelligence gathering of the United States. Two key
impacts would include the onset of World War 1 and the Cuban missile crisis. Within the 200
years of the United States existence there has been many impacts on the intelligence community,
however, these two points in time have designed much of today’s intelligence forms and
operations.
During World War 1 (WW1) the United States realized they were slow to respond to
other nation’s intelligence collection activities. There was virtually nothing in place as far as
gathering Intel on other countries. There was no government appointed legislation in place as
well as no appointing of authority to conduct needed intelligence operations (AMU, 2017). The
lack of government over sight and lack of appointed authority led to in fighting between the
agencies attempting to gather information of the nation’s enemies (AMU, 2017). Because of this
it would be fair to say that WW1 was when the United States really began to design its own
intelligence gathering community.
From 1946 to 1964 is when the Intel community of the United States really stated to take
the form we recognize today. Prior to 1946 the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was not a part
of the Intel gathering community and the National Security Agency (NSA) was unheard of
(AMU, 2017). This new formation of agencies as well as the analytical toolsets that were created
resulted in sophisticated intelligence gathering that is still used today. If it was not for the Cuban
missile crisis these intel agencies may not have been formed as sophisticated or as quickly as
they were.
References
Amu, History of U.S. Intelligence 2017 Retrieved from
https://edge.apus.edu/portal/site/346246/page/b0eba2cb-4407-499e-9385-e3a1e9c722d4
The Real Cuban Missile Crisis, 2011 Retrieved from
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2013/01/the-real-cuban-missile-crisis/309190/
Jacob Sipe
The most profound impact in the history of intelligence is the failures. This is always where
the most change in the community happens. The second is the development of technology and
the ability to collect at a distance removing the degree of risk to the entity doing to
collecting. These in my opinion are the two most significant events that have brought some of
the largest changes in intelligence collection.
One of the largest failures was the focusing of intelligence collection inwards during the
1950’s. The intelligence agencies had a great deal of free reign at that time and only has
oversight from The President of the United States. This proved to be very problematic when
these Intelligence Agencies were able to build detailed dossiers on more that 7,000 citizens.
(Moore, 2010, p. 24) This was found to be an extreme violation of citizens rights. Out of this
came several investigative commissions and Presidential directives. Most notable is the Foreign
Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978 that required court orders for electronic
surveillance for intelligence purposes and the Hughes-Ryan Amendment to the Foreign
Assistance Act in December 1974. This Amendment required the president to report all any
covert CIA activities to congressional committees thereby limiting the single source of control
the president was able to exercise. (Moore, 2010, p. 25) These changes were brought on by
massive failures in the intelligence field.
The need to conduct collection has also driven the development of tools and technologies
to enable faster, more reliable, and more accurate capabilities that enable more rapid processing
and dissemination of intelligence. There is big money in supporting the government in this
capability. The surveillance program of the 1950’s that sparked most of those changes in control
also brought with it developments in technology that greatly increased the ability to collect
information. For example the first photo reconnaissance satellite, code-named Corona, was
placed into orbit.(Moore, 2010, p. 24) Satellite Recon is one of the largest technologies used to
date for global intelligence collection.
Citied:
Moore, G. (2010). A history of U.S. intelligence. In K. Logan (Ed.). Homeland security and
intelligence. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger Security International.
Christopher Rees
Modern intelligence departments developed through the era of President Theodore Roosevelt. In
1908 Congress passed a law banning the Department of Justice from borrowing Secret Service
investigators, the Department of Justice responded by hiring a team of private investigators. By
1909, President Roosevelt recommended that the department should remain permanently and
assist the Department of Justice, this unit was named the Bureau of Investigations, which later
became the Federal Bureau of Investigations (Logan, 2010).
During World War I, German spying became regular on the United States, and the Unit States
lacked laws detailing how to deal with spying. There was confusion between local, state, and
federal laws. Because President George Washington urged the country during his farewell
speech to not meddle with European problems - the need for intelligence agencies was
unnecessary. The policy of the U.S. was to focus on exploring and expand the land surrounding
the U.S. (Logan, 2010).
By the end of World War I, it became apparent that the nation needed an agency that oversaw
espionage and the Bureau of Instigations name was changed to the Federal Bureau of
Investigations and gave authority to deal with intelligence threats inside U.S.
borders. Throughout the years, the FBI’s role has given more power to gather information
beyond U.S. borders. By 1940, the role of the FBI was collecting information in Latin America
and disrupting propaganda (Logan, 2010).
As President Theodore Roosevelt understood the need for intelligence gathering, Presidents
Wilson and Truman were more reactionary. It was events in World War I where Germans were
sabotaging domestic production to supply the English, Russians, and French that the British
intelligence had to inform the U.S. that German covert action was happening. Similar
intelligence-gathering failures during World War II allowed for the bombing of Pearl
Harbor. The U.S. learned from those failures and increased its efforts in expanding its
intelligence agencies (Logan, 2010).
The previous failures turned into future successes as roles become defined for the FBI and the
Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The FBI would mainly handle domestic issues while the
CIA would handle foreign intelligence gathering. However eventual failure will occur when
both agencies refuse to share information or work together.
Logan, K. (2010). Homeland security and intelligence (1st ed.). Santa Barbara, Calif.: Praeger
Security International.