Intelligence From 1936-1945: Key Analysis

Intelligence From 1936-1945: Key Analysis and Operations

Between the two World Wars, the state of intelligence in the United States "fell into abeyance" ("United States Intelligence") in terms of international application. While most of the other major world powers had intelligence agencies at work, the U.S. had no such strong community. In fact, most of U.S. operations in the 1920s and even into the 1930s were directed domestically at radicals, anarchists, and other "undesirable" groups. However, by the mid-1930s the danger of the Nazi regime and world war had the U.S. intelligence community at work rooting out Nazi agents who were at work in the United States.

Unfortunately, it took major tragedy to spur the U.S. intelligence community into action. While Army intelligence had cracked the Japanese diplomatic codes, known has the Japanese Purple code, in 1922, the military code was still a mystery in 1941 prior to the attack on Pearl Harbor. After that military action, U.S. intelligence was motivated to improve the state of its intelligence abilities. Shortly after, the Navy successfully cracked the Japanese military code in Operation Magic, which allowed U.S. forces to turn the tide of the war in the Pacific by 1942 ("United States Intelligence").