Evolution and reform of U.S. intelligence agencies since the Cold War

U.S. Intelligence

By seeking an initial $400 million from Congress to help Greece and Turkey in March 1947, President Harry Truman argued for the support of "free peoples resisting attempted subjugation by armed minorities or by outside pressures (Pike 2008)." The argument, which later translated into the Truman Doctrine, extended financial and military assistance to countries threatened by communism, such as Greece and Turkey. The fundamental American policy created the U.S. intelligence, which has undergone changes in various aspects. This year, former President George W. Bush described as "extremely significant" a study's finding that U.S. intelligence agencies knew "disturbingly little" about enemy weapons programs (BBC 2009). He said that U.S. intelligence needed "fundamental change" to meet the challenges of the present century (BBC). Senior leaders, rather than their individual enablers, have been making the changes to avoid risks for themselves (Harris 2002). Countless re-organizations have not produced satisfying results. Reforms are quite needed (Harris).

The U.S. Intelligence

The U.S. intelligence is a federation of executive branch agencies and organizations, which perform distinct but necessary and coordinated activities to protect national security (Intelligence Community 2009). These activities include gathering of information for officials of the executive branch; the production and dissemination of intelligence; and other authorized or specialized activities. These information and activities gathered are those directed against the U.S., about international terrorists and international narcotics groups and other hostile activities aimed at the U.S. By foreign powers, organizations, persons or their agents. Special activities are those authorized within the U.S. Or abroad, which the President may direct from time to time. Executive Order 12333 upholds these functions and directs all departments and agencies to cooperate to fulfill its goals fully. These departments and agencies constitute the U.S. Intelligence Community or IC. The members of the IC are the Director of National Intelligence, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, Air Force Intelligence, Army Intelligence, Central Intelligence Agency, Coast Guard Intelligence, Defense Intelligence Agency, Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, Department of State, Department of the Treasury, Drug Enforcement Administration,

Federal Bureau of Investigation, Marine Corps Intelligence, National Geospatial-

Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, National Security Agency and Navy Intelligence. The intelligence process consists of planning and direction, collection, processing and exploitation, analysis and production, and dissemination. The process converts gathered information into intelligence and provided to policymakers, military commanders and other consumers of the information (Intelligence Community).

The Evolution and Revolution of U.S. Intelligence in the Cold War

The Cold War was between the United States and the Soviet Union and it began after World War II (Pike 2008). The Soviet Union, a communist state, was on top of communist regimes throughout Eastern Europe. It held sway over the freely elected governments in Poland, Czechoslovakia and other Eastern European states. The United States, on the other hand, was dedicated to stop communism in Eastern Europe and prevent it from taking over Western Europe. Harry Truman was the first American president to fight the Cold War, with George Catlett Marshall as chief of staff of the U.S. Army from 1939 to 1945. Marshall realized that no amount of American aid could deliver Chiang Kai Chek from the communists. So he came up with a strategy, named after him. The Marshall Plan of April 1948 was to provide economic assistance to the nations of Western Europe to bring down the popularity and influence of communist parties. The conflict focused on Germany. In June 1948, the Soviets blockaded all entries to West Berlin while President Truman sent planes to bring coal, food and medicine to the city. Britain and France supported the U.S. The three nations together brought in 2.5 million tons of supplies through almost 300,000 flights. The blockade was officially lifted in May 1949. In 1949, the U.S. led the formation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, which aimed at fighting Soviet forces in Europe. The Soviet Union and its European allies formed their own military group, the Warsaw Pact, in 1955 (Pike).

The opponents vied for supremacy by influencing political and economic developments in the world (Pike 2008). The Soviet Union extended military, economic and technical assistance to communist governments in Asia. The United States responded by setting up the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization to fight communism. It sent military advisers to South Vietnam in the mid-50s in resisting communist North Vietnam. American involvement in Vietnam was to expand and last long. For once, the United States and the Soviet Union were in agreement on the Suez Canal crisis in the 50s when they supported the United Nations resolution for an immediate ceasefire. Tensions seemed to ease up in 1959 when leaders of the two nations became very friendly. But the following year, there was a falling out. An American military plane was shot down in Soviet Union skies. President Dwight Eisenhower admitted that American planes were spying on the Soviets for four years. In the early days of President John Kennedy in office, Cuban exiles invaded Cuba to bring down the communist government of Fidel Castro. It was learned that these exiles were trained by the American Central Intelligence Agency. The United States was unable to send military planes to protect the exiles and thus lost its mission. In President Kennedy's second year in office, American intelligence discovered Soviet missiles in Cuba but the Soviet Union denied this. The United States produced photographs to substantiate the claim. This Cuban Missile Crisis could have erupted into a nuclear war but it ceased after a week. Soviet Union's Nikita Khruschchev offered to remove the missiles if the United States agreed to stop interfering in Cuba (Pike).

Cold War tensions eased again in 1963 when the two nations agreed to ban nuclear tests above ground, under water and in space (Pike 2008). They even set up a direct telephone line between the White House and the Kremlin. Relations further improved in the time of President Richard Nixon and Leonid Brezhnev who reached several arms control agreement. One agreement was to reduce the number of missiles to shoot down enemy nuclear weapons. Another was to ban testing and deployment of long-distance missiles for five years. A major event in the Cold War occurred in 1985. The Soviet Union's Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew Soviet forces from Afghanistan. They signed an agreement to destroy all intermediate range nuclear force missiles and short-range missiles. Some consider November 9, 1989 the end of the Cold War with the tearing down of the Berlin Wall between the east and the west. But others say that the Cold War era spanned 45 years from September 2, 2945 to December 26, 1991 and that the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. President Bush presented the Medal of Freedom award to former President Ronal Reagan on January 13, 1993. President Bush paid tribute to President Reagan for helping make the country a "far better world in which to live." He added that, in so doing, President Reagan not only rebuilt the military but also restored its morale (Pike).

Intelligence Reform Needed

Countless reorganizations of the intelligence community since the end of the Cold War have not produced satisfactory results (Harris 2002). U.S. intelligence counterterrorist programs have certainly made record achievements, such as the thwarting of planned attacks on New York's Lincoln and Holland tunnels in 1993 and against airports on the West Coast in the eve of the millennium. But reforms are quite needed. The first is to provide warning. The most difficult task of the intelligence officer is to provide warning. The intelligence community also needs a more risk-taking and failure-tolerant management approach. Safeguarding national security means putting it above saving pennies. Neither should the possibility of failure dampen innovativeness. Three broad standards should be adopted to enhance progress. These are well-established connectivity, diverse and prospering multidisciplinary analysis, and individual initiative (Harris).

The intelligence community should be networked and agile (Harris 2002). Strong ties must be established among community intelligence entities dealing with counter-terrorism issues. They should forge their own collaborations instead of waiting for their senior managers to authorize them and provide the hardware needed. A connected community has immediate knowledge of specialized expertise or fact, which is the central or last point in an analysis or clandestine collection program. Multidisciplinary analysis should be strengthened. The more creative approaches will be diverse and not focused only on current analysis. Outputs would be reports and research-based briefings, and collaboration with agencies and institutions along with improved raw intelligence. There is also needed reform on the aspect of accountability. The right approaches must produce actionable results or products, which can be shared with the community. And counter-terrorism requires high standards of accountability (Harris).

The last needed reform is fostering individual initiative (Harris 2002). The U.S. intelligence community is so immense and its organizational structure is so complex that changing the organizational chart will not accomplish very much. The fact is sharp and clear that the community will be satisfyingly agile if driven largely by individual initiative rather than merely receiving instructions from top management. Senior officers must delegate and promote creative thinking and initiative by the workforce. Furthermore, reducing supervisory ranks will raise efficiency. U.S. intelligence has undergone changes, including countless re-organizations, but has not produced satisfying results. Reforms are quite needed (Harris). #