This would create a reactionary agency which, rather than gathering intelligence to the extension of its security, would approach what would come to be known as the 'containment theory,' using whatever resources and tactics were at its disposal to deflect against the spread of communism.
At its time, the 1947 Act would be seen as projecting considerable vision. As one conservative think-tank reports on this idea, "until fairly recently, CIA considered its appropriate time horizon to be fairly long. It was, I believe, generally longer than the focus of either the Defense Intelligence Agency or the State Department's Bureau of Intelligence and Research (INR). The Directorate of Intelligence made forecasts in some areas that went out 20 years, and collectors and analysts tried to anticipate events 'over the horizon' -- situations policymakers did not then know they were likely to be worrying about in the future. CIA did this because it knew that developing information sources and expertise was and is time consuming, and that it could not wait until policymakers expressed interest in subjects to begin to develop them." (FAS, 1) To be sure, this is an approach that would allow for the compiling of a vast wealth of data and experience in the interaction with other nations, helping to avail the Intelligence Community with the wherewithal to address evolving situations rather than to allow them to first occur. This is, however, a premise which has been largely paid only lip service by the intelligence community, with political pressures such as those which stimulated heightened fear over the threat of communism playing a significant part in the day-to-day operation of the organization. Quite to this idea, the belief that it was capable of establishing a policy horizon while centering its policy approach on Soviet and communist behavior denoted a perception of Soviet nationalism as a force with a defining longevity ahead of it. Naturally, with the decline and collapse of the Soviet Union, it would become increasingly clear that the fitting of intelligence goals to its existence would cause a need for eventual reorganization once again.
To a large part, this type of reorganization would be conceived in earnest in the mid-1970s. It was at this juncture that public hostility over the mishandling of the Vietnam War, the flagging economy and the shattering revelations of the Watergate scandal had produced a widespread popular discontent and a Congress emboldened to improve its own oversight opportunities on these various corrupted appendages of the government. Indeed, with inception of the 1970s, it was apparent that Congress and the public intended to see the Intelligence Community reigned in to both conform with the laws of the United States and to achieve a greater efficiency in achieving its goals than had previously been reached. Among the key initiatives to begin to gain ground at this time was the empowerment of the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) who nominally controlled the intelligence community and who simultaneously sat as head of the CIA. In this dual role, it was generally argued by members of the Nixon administration and of Congress that greater coordination and interagency information sharing was necessary to ensure a more ethically and effectively postured CIA. This is a process which would begin "with the signing of the National Security Decision Memorandum 40, 'Responsibility for the Conduct Supervision and Coordination of Covert Action Operations' on February 17, 1970." (Richelson, 384) According to the new policy, the DCI, was required to 'obtain policy approval for all major and/or politically sensitive covert action operations through the (Nixon-appointed) 40 Committee. The memorandum also called for an annual review of all covert action programs previously approved." (Richelson, 384)
Essentially, this would reflect the drive to create an intelligence community more centrally administered and less isolated from other aspects of government. This would segue into the findings of the Watergate break-in and the markedly increased willingness to scrutinize government behaviors. Therefore, in 1976, such pressures as channeled through Congress has created the Rockefeller Commission for investigation into intelligence community wrongdoings. "In June 1975, the Commission issued its report which, among other things, confirmed the existed of a CIA domestic mail opening operation; found that in the last 1960s and early 1970s the Agency had kept files on 300,000 U.S. citizens and organizations relating to domestic dissident activities; found that President Nixon tried to use CIA for political ends; and concluded that the CIA had no involvement in President Kennedy's assassination." (Johnson, 226) Excepting the last of these findings, the others would indicate massive failures in creating an agency which was beneficial to...
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