William J. Donovan had served in World War I, served as Assistant Attorney General, and had also become a millionaire. President Franklin D. Roosevelt asked Donovan to head a new intelligence group for the United States. Donovan was appointed Coordinator of Information (COI) on 11 June 1941, by President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt used the Coordinator of Information in peacetime to collect and analyze information mostly from the European continent.

Donovan gave President Roosevelt detailed reports concerning national security, that were compiled by the brightest minds in America. Later, the COI was changed to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) on 13 June 1942, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, HI.

The COI took on its military role when it was changed to the OSS. Donovan recruited men that would be willing to take chances, yet were capable of handling tough situations where the price for being captured would be death. They had to be able to speak a foreign language, especially French, where many of their operations took place during World War II. The United States was fighting the Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan, and it was necessary to conduct operations against these enemies.

Donovan controlled four departments in the OSS, these departments were called Support, Secretariat, Planning, and Overseas Missions.

After World War II, the OSS was disbanded in October 1, 1945 under President Harry S. Truman’s Executive Order 9621. Prior to President Roosevelt’s death, Donovan asked him to create an organization for the recruitment of intelligence, but it was opposed by the military commanders. On January 22, 1946, President Harry S. Truman established the National Intelligence Authority (NIA), as well as the Central Intelligence Group (CIG) and appointed Navy. Rear Admiral Sidney W. Souers, USNR, as the first Director of Central Intelligence.

In July of 1947, President Truman signed the National Security Act of 1947. “The National Security Act of 1947 entered into force on September 19, 1947, and the Central Intelligence Agency came into being as a statutory body the next day.” The NIA and the CIG no longer existed once the National Security Act of 1947 was signed, as per section 102f of the National Security Act of 1947.

The CIA had five functions according to the National Security Act of 1947:

To advise the National Security Council in matters concerning such intelligence activities of the government departments and agencies as related to national security.

To make recommendations to the National Security Council for the coordination of such intelligence activities of the departments and agencies of the government as related to national security. To correlate and evaluate the intelligence relating to national security, and to provide for the appropriate dissemination of such intelligence within the Government, using, where appropriate, existing intelligence agencies and facilities.

To perform for the benefit of existing intelligence agencies such additional services of common concern as the National Security Council determines can be more effectively accomplished centrally. To perform other such functions and duties related to intelligence affecting the national security as the National Security Council may from time to time direct.

Former President William J. Clinton appointed the current director of the CIA George J. Tenet, and was sworn in on 11 July 1997. The position of the Director of the CIA usually changes with each new incoming presidential administration, but President George W. Bush decided to keep Tenet as director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

References:

“Factbook On Intelligence.” Central Intelligence Agency. http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/facttell/index.html

“The National Security Act of 1947.” Department of State, United States of America. http://www.state.gov/www/about_state/history/intel/intro6.html 1 April 2002.

Jeffrey T. Richelson, The U.S. Intelligence Community (Westerview: Boulder, CO, 1999), 17.

“Directors of Central Intelligence.” Central Intelligence Agency. http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/facttell/index.html 2002.