The United States (U.S) Intelligence community has come a long way since the revolutionary war. After winning independence from England, the U.S would not invest much into intelligence or foreign policy until the 20th century. Foreign policy was simply not a priority for our young nation, having an ocean on eastern and Western boarders of the country severely limited potential threats. President Franklin D. Roosevelt would be the first president since Washington to understand the importance of intelligence and lay the groundwork for what we now consider national intelligence. Unfortunately, it has taken two catastrophic failures in intelligence for the U.S to realize the need for good intelligence and take steps to improve itself. The …show more content…
Unfortunately, due to the fractured state of U.S intelligence community, that was never a possibility. This major intelligence failure was a wakeup call, and the goal of the U.S intelligence community was now to prevent another such attack from happening. Cold War Intelligence The Cold War with the Soviet Union and its allies started almost immediately after the end of WWII, and would be the next step for the U.S intelligence community. The signing of the National Security Act of 1947 by president Truman drastically restructured the military and intelligence community, creating the Department of Defense (DoD) and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) while establishing a clear chain of command (CIA, 2008). With the establishment of the CIA and director of central intelligence, The National Security Act of 1947 the U.S had a permanent and legitimized intelligence community, one that could start to develop and refine their own methods of operation and traditions (Lowenthal, 2017). The National Security Act of 1947 would go largely unchanged for 57 years, not being severely altered until 2004. After Pearl Harbor the intelligence communities primary function was to ensure that a catastrophe of that scale would not occur again. During the cold war, the largest threat to the U.S was a nuclear war with the Soviet Union, so an extremely large percentage of intelligence assets were focused on observing the Soviet nuclear program (Bukharin,
After the ending of the Cold War, many world incidents absorbed the focus of the United States such as; Yugoslav Crisis, Bosnia War, Invasion of Kuwait, and China growing influence. Additionally, the United States was in a period of Economic Prosperity and extreme technological growth. All of these factors lead to a decreased focus and importance on members like intelligence, Bin Laden and the growing terror threat. This is shown in the 9/11 report where it is stated, The Presidential Daily Briefing consisted of intelligence reports “without much analyze or context(9/11
The intelligence community has undergone some major changes in the past thirty years. During the cold war this section of defense had massive funding. There needed to be an ability to predict what the Soviet Union was planning to do and what they were actually doing in order to prevent a nuclear war. After this period in time ended there was again large changes. The budget to the intelligence community was cut astronomically because there was perceived to be less of a threat to the United States (“9/11 Intelligence Failures Report”, 2002). This misperception was actually due to a lack of ability to shift to a new changing threat. This mind set allowed many unwelcomed risks to enter into the United States.
In reference to the foreign policy, in the mid-20th century after World War II, United States was in Cold War with Soviet Union. The United States referred as the Capitalist West and the Soviet referred as the Communist East. The two power nations clashed in many ways. Thus, Soviet accused America’s atomic bomb as leverage to control the Soviet and the world. These differences made each nation distrust each other. President Truman then, feared that the Soviet will continue its expansion, had the Congress passed the National Security Act of 1947. It gave the President increased power, where to conduct foreign policy. The Department of Defense and Central Intelligence Agency was created, both agencies collaborated on the monitoring
The terrorist attack that occurred on September 11, 2001 (9/11) is arguably the greatest tragedy the United States has ever faced. This attack was widespread, coordinated and devastating in nature. Many people claim that the government failed to protect us from this event and that it should have been prevented. Over the Course of this paper, we will examine that claim. We will examine how the Intelligence community failed to prevent the 9/11 terror attack. This paper will also examine how the Intelligence community could have used its assets more effectively. The two biggest factors in this attack were the lack of information sharing and lack of action taken on received intelligence. After discussing how those two factors facilitated the 9/11
The advent of high-altitude reconnaissance, to include aerial and satellite platforms, had at least as much impact on US intelligence efforts as the Ultra SIGINT intelligence program had on Allied intelligence efforts during World War II - possibly even greater. The “Iron Curtain” of the Cold War served to not only keep people in, but prevent almost any attempted penetration by Western intelligence agencies. Western powers knew the Soviet Union had ambitions to spread communism to neighboring nations and intended to do what they could to minimize and contain the communist swell. In order to succeed, the United States would have to better understand Soviet intentions and capabilities as well as deter the Soviet threat through military posture.
The intelligence failures at Pearl Harbor influenced the National Security Act of 1947 by showing the need for a new structure within the government. According to O’Toole (2014), as a result, the National Security Act of 1947 led to the creation of the Department of Defense which aligned all military services under the Secretary of Defense, it also created the National Security Council and created the Central Intelligence Agency as an independent agency reporting to no one other than the President. One of the most important parts was the CIA reporting directly to the President. During Pearl Harbor, the failure wasn’t in the lack of information, but the failure was in the one mindedness of the Navy. According to O’Toole (2014), they were stuck on the idea that the Japanese couldn’t attack due to the thought that their base was impenetrable.
Perhaps the most important change in how the federal government was reorganized after September 11th is the creation of both the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) position and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) in 2004 with the passage of the same IRTPA that created TSA. This concept had been first suggested in 1955 after a study by Congress then and was recommended time and again but only became a reality after the September 11th attacks drove the need for major intelligence reform home and the 9/11 Commission continued the push for the creation of such a position (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-5). As one can see from the mission and vision of the ODNI, the importance cannot be overstated. The mission includes leading intelligence integration while having the IC produce the most insightful intelligence products possible and the vision is fully integrating the IC thus making the nation more secure (ODNI, n.d., paras. 1-2).
This stipulation proves that the federal government expected a great need for protection against communism during this time. Another requirement was that one employee, either the Director of Central Intelligence, the deputy Director of Central Intelligence, or the Deputy Director of Central intelligence for Community Management must be a commissioned officer of the armed forces, or have experience with military intelligence. The intertwining of the military and intelligence services was necessary to fight Cold War communism, as it was not a war in the traditional sense, with battles, but the US still needed protection against spies and potential attacks. Also established by the National Security Act was a Counterintelligence Policy Board, which coordinated national intelligence programs to chart protect against foreign threats, designate resources to programs, and provide counterintelligence options to the president. The National Security Act as a whole demonstrates that intelligence services were then considered an integral part of national security. Intelligence centered-programs gained a large say in the safety of American ideals including democracy and capitalism as Soviet espionage became a major danger in the eyes of the federal
By disregarding cues of possible terrorist attacks and constant mistakes within the American Intelligence for not planning ahead, the United States failed to achieve its number one goal as a governing body: not keeping its citizens safe. It is important to dig into the issue of the disaster of 9/11 and completely understand the reason for failed prevention efforts. Moreover adding to these issues was the lack of communication and information shared between the two agencies, the Federal Bureau of Investigations and Central Intelligence Agency.
The United States outlook on foreign policy affairs after World War II was influenced by the fear of communist expansionism rather than establishing foreign relations with each country. The U.S. found itself with a conflict between its profound belief in the constitution and democracy and a need for domestic and national security. In 1947, the National Security Act authorized the creation of the Central Intelligence Agency. Its role was to protect domestic security and oversee national relations. Following World War II the Cold War intensified and the anti communist sentiment consumed our country. The actions of the CIA conflicted with that of the constitution and the morality of
Intelligence was only gathered on foreign military forces up until J Edgar Hoover’s FBI was tasked with watching radical groups who may have something to do with national security as we know it today; only the FBI’s role in IC ended with the outbreak of WWII (Moore
The U.S. government responded to Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 with Congressional commissions to provide full accounts on how these fateful events transpired and used the data to make changes within the Intelligence Community (IC) in hopes to prevent future such attacks. The Roberts authority, which focused on the events of Pearl Harbor, precipitated the creation of the OSS or Office of Strategic Services in 1942, the precursor to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Similarly, the 9/11 Authority appealed to Congress
Intelligence is a dependable instrument of its own to generate information that establishes the base of National Security in the United States. Intelligence has been used since the beginning of history to provide information on enemy threats and how to prevent a mass disasters. It has been used for wars, national security, military tactics, etc. Intelligence has been available since the revolutionary war and our first president George Washington and other leaders of the world have used intelligence to protect their countries. Intelligence is the dominant and the backbone of homeland Security and it is ceaseless learning about it. National Intelligence agents train tirelessly to fight and create
However, U. S Intelligence witnessed tremendous transformation due to events that happens as results of intelligence failures. Chiefly among them was the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The aftermath of this lead to the creation of the National Intelligence Authority, a Central Intelligence Group in 1946; and subsequently enacted into law the National Security Act of 1947 that served as the organizational basis for the US conduct of the Cold War. The 1947 act also established the Central
The Intelligence Community has had successes and failures, many of which have made history. One of the most prominent failures in U.S history was the attacks on September 11, 2011. Now most people would start to read this essay and think they know everything about what happened that day because it has been so publicized. However, for me it was different. Yes, I was alive when it happened, but I was too young to understand. The September 11th attacks have been of particular interest to me due to the fact that they happened right in my backyard. One of them even occurred in the same state in which I live. For this reason I wanted to know why an event of this magnitude occured in the U.S. The safety of Americans has changed since then leaving many people affected. The collection and analysis of intelligence in our nation changed dramtically after the 9/11 attacks.