The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) is a civilian foreign intelligence service of the United States federal government. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence to support national security, primarily through overseas operations and sources. The agency was established by the National Security Act of 1947, enacted in response to intelligence coordination failures identified during World War II, including the attack on Pearl Harbor.
The CIA succeeded wartime intelligence organizations such as the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) and subsequent transitional bodies that assumed intelligence responsibilities prior to the agency's formal establishment. Since its founding, the CIA has played a central role in U.S. intelligence operations, including strategic analysis, espionage, and covert operations. Its development has been shaped by evolving geopolitical priorities, statutory authorities, and oversight mechanisms.
The lives of 139 CIA officers who died in the line of duty are commemorated by 139 stars engraved on the CIA Memorial Wall in the Original Headquarters Building.
Origins (1941–1945) The Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was formally established on September 18, 1947, when President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947 into law. A principal catalyst for its creation was the attack on Pearl Harbor. In the final stages of World War II, U.S. officials recognized the need for a centralized body to coordinate intelligence activities. Several agencies – including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the State Department, the War Department, and the United States Post Office – contended for this responsibility.
On November 18, 1944, General William Joseph Donovan, head of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), wrote to President Franklin D. Roosevelt proposing the establishment of a peacetime foreign intelligence service. Donovan argued that such an organization should obtain intelligence through both overt and covert means, provide strategic intelligence guidance, determine national intelligence objectives, and coordinate information collected by all government agencies." Donovan's letter was prompted by a query from General Dwight Eisenhower's Chief of Staff regarding the nature of the role of the OSS within the military establishment. Following this, Roosevelt ordered his chief military aide to conduct a secret investigation, and report of the OSS's World War II operations. Around this time, stories about the OSS began circulating in the news media, including claims that the OSS was an "American Gestapo." The report and investigation were extremely critical towards the agency, and determined that "use [of the OSS] as a secret intelligence agency in the post-war world [would be] inconceivable". Before the report was finished, the President had already ordered the Joint Chiefs to shelve their plans for a Central Intelligence Service even before the April release of the report.
On September 20, 1945, the OSS, which once numbered almost 13,000 staff, was set to be dismantled. However, a reprieve was granted six days later by the Assistant Secretary of War, that instead reduced the OSS to roughly 15% of its peak force level. This forced the organization to close many of its foreign offices; at the same time, the name of the service was changed from the OSS to the Strategic Services Unit.
Immediate predecessors, 1946–1947 During World War II, President Roosevelt was concerned about American covert intelligence capabilities, particularly in light of the success of Churchill's Commandos. Following the suggestion of a senior British intelligence officer, Roosevelt asked Colonel William "Wild Bill" Donovan to devise a combined intelligence service modeled on the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6) and Special Operations Executive. This resulted in the creation of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). On September 20, 1945, President Harry S. Truman signed Executive Order 9621, requiring the dissolution of the OSS by October 1, 1945. Soon after, the functions of the OSS were split between the Departments of State and War. New unit Oversight OSS functions absorbed Strategic Services Unit (SSU) War Department Secret Intelligence (SI) (i.e., clandestine intelligence collection) and counter-espionage (X-2) Interim Research and Intelligence Service (IRIS) State Department Research and Analysis Branch (i.e., intelligence analysis) Psychological Warfare Division (PWD) (not uniquely for former OSS) War Department, Army General Staff Staff officers from Operational Groups, Operation Jedburgh, Morale Operations (black propaganda) The three-way division lasted only a few months. The first public mention of the "Central Intelligence Agency" term appeared in 1945, in a U.S. Army and Navy command-restructuring proposal presented by James Forrestal and Arthur Radford to the U.S. Senate Military Affairs Committee.Army & Navy – Merger: Navy Compromise, Time, December 10, 1945 Despite opposition from the military establishment, the Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), President Truman established the National Intelligence Authority (NIA)"The Role of Intelligence" (1965). Congress and the Nation 1945–1964: a review of government and politics in the postwar years. Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly Service. p. 306. on January 22, 1946 by presidential directive. This was the direct predecessor to the CIA. The NIA and its operational extension, the Central Intelligence Group (CIG), were disestablished after twenty months. The assets of the SSU, which now constituted a streamlined "nucleus" of clandestine intelligence, were transferred to the CIG in mid-1946 and reconstituted as the Office of Special Operations (OSO).
Legislative foundation Lawrence Houston, the first General Counsel of the Central Intelligence Agency, John S. Warner, and Walter Pforzheimer were concerned that the agency lacked a clear legal basis approved by Congress. With the support of CIA Director Hoyt Vandenberg, Houston helped draft the National Security Act of 1947. The act, which took effect on 18 September 1947, formally created both the National Security Council and the Central Intelligence Agency.
In 1949, Houston and his two assistant general counsels helped draft the Central Intelligence Agency Act (Public Law 81-110). This law authorized the CIA to use confidential budgetary and administrative procedures and exempted the agency from standard restrictions governing the use of federal funds. It also exempted the CIA from public disclosure requirements related to its internal organization, personnel, and salaries.
The act further established a program commonly known as PL-110, which allowed the CIA to manage defectors, and other individuals considered essential to U.S. intelligence operations, who did not qualify under standard immigration laws. The program provided these individuals with legal status, cover identities, and financial support.
New director In July 1946, Hoyt Vandenberg reorganized the Central Reports Staff into the Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE). The office produced finished intelligence reports based on State Department telegrams, military dispatches, and internal CIG reporting reviewed by specialist analysts.
The ORE's main publications were the Daily Summary and the Weekly Summary. It also produced Intelligence Highlights for internal use and Intelligence Memorandums for the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI), who controlled their distribution. These publications made up most of the ORE's work.
Vandenberg left the CIA on April 30, 1948, to become the commander of the newly established Air Force. He was succeeded by Roscoe Hillenkoetter, who reorganized the ORE into three divisions: Global Survey, Current Intelligence, and Estimates. Current Intelligence remained the office's primary focus.
The ORE expanded its output with the introduction of Situation Reports, used as country reference guides, and the monthly Review of the World Situation. It continued to receive requests from the National Security Council, the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Department of State, and the military services.
A continuing limitation was the ORE's emphasis on short-term reporting. Of its eleven regular publications, only one addressed long-term strategic intelligence, and much of the reporting relied on open sources. Before the North Korean invasion in June 1950, the CIA had only a small number of officers in Korea, none reporting directly to analytical branches.
After the outbreak of the Korean War, these weaknesses drew increased attention. On August 21, 1950, President Truman appointed Walter Bedell Smith as Director of the CIA to strengthen the Agency's intelligence capabilities.
Intelligence vs. action Initially, the CIA was subordinate to other entities in the US Government. However, Truman, who found himself overwhelmed by the sheer number of state, DOD, and FBI reports (the FBI having jurisdiction in Latin America) quickly saw the need for a centralized outlet to organize the information that would reach his desk. The DOD relied on the CIA to gather intelligence on military adversaries, perform sabotage, and support insurgents. The State Department wanted the CIA to support global political change beneficial to the US. Organizationally, this gave the CIA two areas of responsibility: Covert Action and Covert Intelligence.
Office of Special Operations (Covert Intelligence) Sidney Souers, formerly Deputy Chief of Naval Intelligence, served briefly as the first Director of the Central Intelligence Group (CIG). During his tenure, the CIG received little cooperation from other U.S. government agencies, including the Department of Defense, the Department of State, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Souers resigned after leaving a note emphasizing the urgent need to develop high-quality intelligence on the Soviet Union.
He was succeeded by General Hoyt Vandenberg, a former commander of U.S. air operations in Europe, and later an intelligence adviser to President Dwight D. Eisenhower. While awaiting appointment as the first Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Vandenberg became the CIG's second director. He established the Office of Special Operations (OSO) and the Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE).
The OSO was tasked with overseas espionage and subversion, and operated with a reported budget of $15 million. Vandenberg directed intelligence collection on Soviet military forces in Eastern and Central Europe, relying on approximately 228 personnel stationed in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Poland, Czechoslovakia, and Hungary. Later internal reviews found that much of the early reporting from this period was inaccurate.
Office of Policy Coordination (Covert Action)
The New York Times reported on the CIA's first operation. The article noted the arrest of a CIA agent connected to the Romanian National Peasants' Party, along with the arrest of the party's leaders on the charge of treason.